Iliff and Saltillo UM churches
September 22, 2002
“Fulfilling Your Destiny”
Numbers 20:1-13
INTRODUCTION: Will you fulfill the destiny God has for your life? Perhaps you have never thought about it. God had a perfect plan for Moses to lead the people out of Egypt and into the Promised Land, but he stopped just short of reaching the completion of his God-given destiny. It was in the 40th year, and they were almost there. After wandering in a maze for all these years, they were right back where they started from Back to Square One. They had come full circle. They were trying to get back on track, but these people had always been rebellious, complaining people throughout the entire experience. Moses hoped that they were ready for a fresh start. The Promised Land was just before them. Would they get there? When the next test came, they were as rebellious as ever. Nothing had changed. The problem they faced was almost identical to that of 40 years earlier when they had run out of water. (See Exodus 17:1-7 at Rephadim)
In spite of their complaining, God was always merciful and faithful to provide for their needs. The Lord knew how to take care of His people in spite of the fact that they were in one desperate situation after another. In fact, they were in an inhospitable environment at the time that God entered into the covenant with them. The Lord shielded them with His protection--the cloud and the pillar of fire--He never once left them without His help throughout all these years of wandering and rebellion. Moses and Aaron were usually very quick to obey the leading of the Lord, but this instance shows that they had failings just like we do.
There are several things we can apply to our own lives from this Old Testament account:
1. How Did Moses Mess Up?: The people were once again complaining that they didn’t have any water to drink. It was almost identical to the same problem forty years earlier when God told Moses to take the rod, the symbol of his power through the Lord, and STRIKE the rock. The water gushed out for the complaining and irate people. They knew there was no reasoning with these people. This time, although Moses and Aaron had gone to the tabernacle to seek the Lord about the situation, God was calling Moses to a different direction. Moses was to use his words to speak the miracle. God’s answer was there. He said SPEAK to that rock before their eyes, and it will pour out its water” (Numbers 20:8).
Most and Aaron got part of it right. They went out before the people and spoke to them, but then in frustration and anger Moses took the rod and struck the rock not once but twice. He didn’t wait to see if the water would come out after he struck it one time. He struck it two times out of a provoked spirit. He was fed up with these people.
Maybe there were several reasons for this. Maybe he thought that since this was almost an exact repeat of past history that this would be the beginning of another 40 years of wandering around.
Maybe he felt he couldn’t handle more years of wandering.
Maybe he was just warn out from the entire ordeal with these people. They were always complaining about something.
Maybe he was grieving because his sister, Miriam, had recently died.
Whatever the root cause of it was or if it was just an accumulation of all these things, Moses lashed out at the people and said, “You rebels. Must WE bring you water out of this rock?”
STORY: A young man was learning to be a paratrooper. Before his first jump, he was given these instructions:
Jump when you are told. Count to ten and pull the rip cord. In the unlikely event your parachute doesn’t open, pull the emergency rip cord. When you get down, a truck will be there to take you back to the airport.
The young man memorized these instructions and climbed aboard the plane. The plane climbed to ten thousand feet and the paratroopers began to jump. When the young man was told to jump, he jumped. He then counted to ten and pulled the rip cord. Nothing happened. His chute failed to open. So he pulled the emergency rip cord. Still, nothing happened. No parachute.
"Oh great," said the young man. "And I suppose the truck won’t be there when I get down either!"
Edited from More Hot Illustrations for Youth Talks by Wayne Rice. Copyright 1995 by Youth Specialties, Inc.
Moses had troubles all right. He was fed up with their complaining. He failed to realize that God had the answer already worked out, but he began to take matters into his own hands and began to act on his own.
He said, “Do WE have to bring water out of this rock?”
He was taking credit for doing it. He used the rod to take charge of the situation that God already had control of.
How many times do we get impatient with God because our prayers are not being answered quick enough to suit us, and we just charge in with both feet to FORCE things to happen prematurely and sure enough we mess up.
We try to solve problems in our own strength and ability and make a complete mess of it. All the time God is standing back patiently allowing us to get into one situation after another. He probably shakes His head and says, “I wonder that they are trying to do now?”
This was what happened to Moses. ILLUSTRATION:
There is an old song that says, “Let go and let God have His wonderful way.
Let go and let God have HIS WAY.
Your sorrows will vanish
Your night turn to day.
Let go and let God have His way.”
When Moses STRUCK the rock rather than speak to it he was trying to FORCE the provision. In spite of his disobedience, the water poured forth for the people. God was not going to fail to give them the water they needed.
God was upset with Moses primarily because he showed a lack of trust and unbelief. When we go ahead and take matters into our own hands we show a distrust in God. Maybe he thought that SPEAKING the words wouldn’t work. Wouldn’t do any good. Gotta help God out a little bit.
So he took matters into his own hands. He used human means when he didn’t need to.
God was upset because of his UNBELIEF. Vs 12 says, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.” Numbers 27:14 says, “for when the community rebelled at the waters in the Desert of Zin BOTH of you (Moses AND Aaron) disobeyed my command to honor me as holy before their eyes.” Both Moses and Aaron were denied entrance into the Promised Land as a result.
When we become callused, we can use our skills and abilities to force what we believe should happen, but when we do this we are in danger of failing to enter the Promised Land of blessings from God. We may never fulfill the destiny that God has planned for us.
2. You Need God in Your Fortieth Year as Much as In Your First: How could Moses have avoided striking the rock and losing out at this point in his life?
Maybe part of it was that he wasn’t getting the self care and rest he needed. He was stressed out with these people. He was frustrated with the same old complaints year after year. His sister had died. He could have used a time apart to be refreshed. He sounds as if he were “running on empty.”
Too often we think we have to do this and this FOR God but we fail to spend time WITH God. We run on empty for so long that we don’t know what the refreshing of the Lord even feels like.
We need God’s guidance every bit as much in our fortieth year as in our first year. Many people say, “I don’t need to go to church any more. I went when I was growing up and I read the Bible and went to Sunday school. Don’t need it. I know all of that.”
ILLUSTRATION: Some children’s church workers went to the Fellowship of Christian Magicians conference one year but only attended one or two classes all week.
They said smugly, “Oh, we know all of that.”
Maybe and maybe not. We need the Lord in our Fortieth year just as much as in our first. We never outgrow the need to go to church, to continue learning and growing in the Lord. Once we realize that we have neglected the Lord in our daily life, we can ask His forgiveness and begin again to fulfill His plan for our life.
STORY: This is what happened to a Texas minister who was scheduled to speak at an all-day conference. He was running late because his alarm had failed to ring. In his haste to make up for lost time, he cut himself while shaving. Then he found his shirt was not ironed. To make matters worse, running to his car he noticed a tire was flat. Disgusted, and by this time thoroughly distraught, the minister finally got underway with a sudden burst of speed. Racing through town he failed to notice a stop sign and rushed through it. As fate would have it, there was a policeman nearby, and in just moments he heard the scream of a siren. Jumping out of his car, the agitated minister said sharply, "Well, go ahead and give me a ticket. Everything else has gone wrong today." The policeman walked up and said quietly, "Sir, I used to have days like that before I became a Christian." Needless to say, the embarrassed minister was shamed by the stranger’s rebuke and went his way asking forgiveness and praying for strength to correct his attitude. We all have days when things just don’t seem to go right. Even Christians are not free from the tensions of life that tear at our nerves.
3. Moving Into a New Spiritual Dimension: This week think about ways that you are like Moses, seeking the Lord but only partially doing what He asks you to do. Sometimes going God’s way and sometimes going your own way?
STORY: The will of God never has been and never will be accomplished by those who are not totally obedient to Him. During the Civil War, it is said that there was a man who was sympathetic to both sides. He lived in a border line state. Finally, he decided that he would effect a compromise. He put on a mixed uniform, wearing the Confederate gray coat, and the Union blue trousers. All went well, it seems, until he became engaged in a hard fought battle, when the Federals shot him in the coat, and the Confederates shot him in the seat of the pants!
In order to fulfill our spiritual destiny, we’ve got to be dressed in a matched uniform.
Sometimes we fail to move into a new spiritual dimension because we want our own way along with God’s way. The devil shoots us down at every turn.
Other times we take matters into your own hands out of impatience and frustration because we think God is moving too slowly? Do you often feel that you need to help God out and try to FORCE the provision?
Do you trust more in your own abilities than in God’s ability? Remember, you need God as much in your 40th year as you did in your first.
Think about one thing could you do this week to allow God to work in your current situation without acting in haste and frustration like Moses did. In what ways are you beginning to move into a new spiritual dimension where you are learning to take God at His Word rather than having to always rely on signs?
CONCLUSION: Remember that Moses, a great leader, was not exempt from messing up. He needed God in the fortieth year as much as in the first year. He failed to fulfill his complete destiny because of disobedience to God.
Let us pray:
