Num. 20-22
Moses was set up!! Why did God tell him to take the staff if all He wanted Moses to do was to speak to the rock? But God did not tell them, “you did not obey Me”, He said, “you did not believe in Me.” I have to think there was something in the attitude here – notice that Moses says, “shall WE bring water for you out of this rock?”, and doesn’t it seem that striking the rock would have a more dramatic effect than merely speaking to it? One certainly can’t blame Moses for losing patience with the people, but perhaps, in his frustration, he momentarily lost his humility, got a little pompous, and attributed God’s action as his own, at least to some degree.
It has always seemed rather harsh to me, after all that Moses did and put up with, for God to respond to this momentary lapse on Moses’ part the way He did. But perhaps I am not fully understanding Moses’ heart at this moment. Still…ONE moment? Then again, should even one small moment of somebody…anybody…playing God slide by without consequence? Maybe not. But it seems God did give both Moses and Aaron one concession – they did not have a long, languishing, deteriorate-until-you-are-no-more kind of death. Aaron was fit enough to climb to the top of a mountain, where God then simply ended his life. Not a bad way to go, in my estimation.
The story of Balaam – here is another story I don’t quite understand. His “sin” is mentioned in the New Testament, but I feel like I would have done the same thing he did, and I struggle to see where he sinned in such a grievous manner. He asked God before going, and did not go until God said, “okay, go.” And when he went, he spoke only what God told him to speak. So, once again, we have to look beyond the actions to see if we can discern the error of Balaam’s heart in all of this.
I believe the New Testament references mention his greed, so looking at the situation in that light, I see a couple of things. First, when he asked the first time, God told him not to go. When the people returned, he initially said he could not go, but then decided to ask God again. Was it because of the honor and money he stood to gain – a far greater amount the second time, it seems – that he went and asked again? And perhaps his heart was glad when God told him he could go.
Then, through the actions of the donkey, God gave Balaam a chance to turn back, but instead of keeping his eyes fixed on God and his heart open for any word from Him, Balaam had his heart set on the honorable people ahead of him and what he stood to gain by going with them. And so, in his mind, the donkey stood between him and what he wanted and, in his words when asked, “made a fool of me.” He got mad at his faithful donkey, who had never behaved in this way before, because he was concerned about what he stood to lose in the sight of those he saw as ‘honorable’. His heart was clearly not on God.
“Love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength” – keep God First above all. Not an easy command, it seems, as our reckless hearts are constantly chasing after other things.
Mark 15:26-47
How ironic the mocker’s statements were! When they said, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself…” they did not realize that He WAS the temple. He was in the process of doing the very thing they mentioned. And when they said, “He saved others; he cannot save himself” they did not realize that He WOULD not save Himself, though He could, precisely so that He COULD save others. And He clearly had His heart and mind on His mission, giving no thought to Himself, because He said nothing and simply followed through with what was His to do.
One last thought – Mark mentions here that Joseph of Arimathea, who was one of the Jewish religious leaders, “took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.” Given what had just happened, primarily through the actions of the Jewish religious leaders, I rather imagine that this seemingly small act did indeed take a lot of courage. It is encouraging and inspiring to see that somebody – and somebody you would least expect – got something right in this mess.