Evening 23 May, 1999
INTRODUCTION
Everything he attempted seemed to turn out wrong. He began to fantasize about being rich. He figured he would do the one thing he could do to make the most money in the briefest period of time. He would take up the occupation of bank robbing.
The would-be bank robber began to plan his strategy. He sat up late at night working on detailed plans, drawing sketches and going over steps he would take in robbing the bank. But he could never seem to get around to robbing the bank. He would plan each night, but when morning came, his anxiety paralyzed him, again.
One night he determined that his mind was made up. Regardless of his feelings he would force himself to rob the bank the next morning. The next morning an anxiety attack paralyzed him again. Finally he came through it and forced himself to get into his car and go to the bank.
The reluctant bank robber sat in the car in the parking lot from 10:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. trying to force himself out of the car. Finally, he got out of the car and went into the bank. At the teller’s window he handed the teller his pistol. He stuck his brown paper bag in her face and said, “Don’t stick with me. This is a mess-up.” (Darrell W. Robinson, People Sharing Jesus, [Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995], p. xx)
And then there was a man by the name of Arthur Pedrick. Between 1962 and 1977, Arthur Pedrick patented 162 inventions. Sounds impressive until you realize that none of them were taken up commercially. Among his greatest inventions were:
The grandest scheme of Pedrick, who described himself as the “One-Man-Think-Tank Basic Research Laboratories of Sussex,” was to irrigate deserts of the world by sending a constant supply of snowballs from the polar region through a massive network of giant peashooters. I have a feeling that Arthur Pedrick came to feel like an utter failure.
There is not a single one of us who have not experienced failure to some degree. And we are in good company because there are so many in the pages of Scripture who have experienced failure as well. One of those Biblical characters is Moses. And one of his biggest failures, the one that was probably the most costliest to him is found in Numbers 20:1-13
Background
Here we find Moses and the children of Israel right back where they had begin their wilderness wanderings - at Kadesh. Kadesh was on the northern boundary of the wilderness of Paran and on the Se border of the wilderness of Zin. It is here that Moses' sister Miriam dies and Moses is faced with a new challenge. The narrative tells us that there is no water for the people and so they all gather together against Moses. And it is here that Moses experiences a turning point in his life that was due to a very significant failure.
What were the contributing factors that led Moses to blow it? That is what I want us to see. I think we will see that he was not that much different that you and me because these same factors have probably led to some of our own personal failures. There are so many factors that can lead to a person's blowing it - here we will only deal with 4.
1. Allowing Others To Provoke Us - 20:2-5,10
Humanly speaking, Moses probably had good reason to be angry and provoked by these rebellious people. After all, he had done so much on their behalf. He had gone out on a limb for them when he stood up to Pharoah. He led them through the Red Sea and through the wilderness. In some ways, he had been their savior (with a small "s"). And now, they are once again, complaining and murmuring and blaming him for their situation. Yes, the situation was serious. They did not have any water and from a human stand point, they were staring death in the face but it was not Moses' fault. But yet, they once again take it out on him. And Moses did what so many of us have done - he let them get to him. He let them provoke to the point that he began to make some bad decisions.
Now Moses and Aaron initially did the smart thing - they went and prostrated themselves before the Lord and they cried out to God. But there must have been something still brewing inside of Moses about how the people were reacting. He could not get passed their accusations. They had been so pushy and he was allowing them to get to him. And I believe that this is where Moses first went wrong. He listened to the people rather than listening to God.
You ever been there? Most of us have. We allow others to provoke us and intimidate us to the point that we begin to act irrationally.
Maybe some of us have been pushed by someone else to make a decision that we should have never made and may even still regret.
Now certainly God does speak through others. And there are times when we need to consider the counsel of others. But if that counsel is contrary to the Bible and how God expects us to live and minister, we are just looking for trouble if we allow them to provoke us to a decision.
2. Lack of Self Control - 20:11
God had specifically told Moses to speak to the rock not strike it. But instead, Moses spoke to the people and struck the rock twice. The words of Scripture cannot give us the exact picture of what is going on here but one has to believe that Moses is striking this rock with a certain amount of anger and agitation and it probably showed on his face. In other words, Moses failed to keep his cool - he lost control in the midst of a trying situation and it lead to one of the biggest and costliest failures in his life.
And this is where so many of us blow it too. And it is usually after we have allowed others to provoke us that we lose control.
A lack of self control is usually what causes us to say something that we know we should have never said and cannot take back. And how many times this had led to a damaged relationship. And we realize we have blown it.
There was a little boy with a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, to hammer a nail in the back fence.
The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Then it gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence. Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence.
"You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out, it won't matter how many times you say 'I'm sorry,' the wound is still there. A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one.
A lack of self control will usually lead to a down fall to some degree.
3. Failing to Take God at His Word - 20:12
Look at what God had plainly said in this verse - "Speak to the rock and it will bring forth water." God didn't say it might bring forth water or if you're lucky it will bring forth water. He said it would bring forth water for sure. But somewhere in the midst of this chaotic event between Moses and the people, Moses found it hard to take God at His Word. A lack of faith and trust on Moses part contributed to him blowing it. If he had only did exactly as God has said, believing that things would turn out as God said, it would have turned out as God said it would. If only he had not taken matters into his own hands and taken God at His Word, this whole scenario would have been different.
Well, we are not that much different than Moses was. We are real good at not taking God at His Word. It's easy to take God at His Word when it doesn't involve any kind of risk. But when it comes to believing God for what seems to be the impossible, we have a hard time doing that. And it is usually at that point that, rather than allowing God to work things out like He said He would, we try to take matters into our own hands because we just don't think God will do what He said He would do.
Even when it comes to our Christian walk, we are much more prone to failure when we think we can live this life apart from the power and grace of God. We need to take God at His Word about every matter we face, and maybe we can avoid falling on our face.
4. Assuming the Glory That is God's Alone - 20:10,12
Here in verse 10, it sounds very much like Moses is claiming the ability to work a miracle here or at least to have it regarded as his own work. It sounds very much like Moses is going to take the credit for what is about to happen. And when you compare this with what God said to him when it was all over, it sounds very much like Moses is assuming the glory for this event that it God's alone. They did not sanctify God or hallow Him in the eyes of the children of Israel - in other words, Moses and Aaron did not ascribe to God the glory that was due Him for such a miracle. And even in spite of Moses trying to take all the credit, verse 13 tells us that God was glorified just the same.
We need to be very careful how we take credit for what is God's doing.
Have you ever read the verse that precedes 1 Corinthians 10:13? Let's look at it together.
We can become so confident in what we are doing and what we are accomplishing rather than what God is doing in and through us that we can set ourselves up for failure. Those of us who are active in the ministries of the church need to be careful how we take credit for the way God is working.
When we try to rob God of the glory that is due Him, we are setting ourselves up for a fall.
Conclusion:
Now there is so much more to learn from this scene in the life of Moses other than what led to this particular failure.
a. No one is beyond the point of failure it doesn't matter how tall a person stands. Let me show what the Lord thought of Moses. Look with me at Numbers 12:3,6-7 and then in Deut. 34:10-12. If a man of this caliber could make such a life altering mistake, it can certainly happen to any one of us.
b. Failure can have serious consequences though it does not effect our eternal destiny. Moses would never have the opportunity to lead the children of Israel into the promised land but we know from account of the Mount of Transfiguration that Moses did in fact make it to The Promised Land. (see Matthew 17:1-3 and following) So we should never write off ourselves or anyone else because of some failure - moral or otherwise.
c. Failure in one area or one chapter our lives not does it mean that our life is a failure - Again, when you consider those words in Deut. 34:10, it is obvious that, though Moses was never allowed to go into the promised land, God never considered him a failure. A failure in our life does not mean that we are a failure.
d. God's grace is greater than our failures and He will often work in spite of our failures. After the way that Moses handled this situation, God still kept His promise to bring water from the rock.
e. We must learn from our failures and move on. As we read on in Numbers we see that Moses did not give up and go walking off into the wilderness. And after hearing the words that God spoke to him it would have been real easy to do so. What would be the point of going on if he would never see what he had been so looking forward to see? It would have been real easy for him to throw in the towel. But the narrative tells us that he pressed on with the journey. And even continued to face one obstacle after another.
I came across this story about a pastor who wheeled into the parking lot of the church he was pastoring in a borrowed pickup truck while many others happened to be looking on. Everyone’s eyes were upon him when he backed the truck across the lawn to his study door. Refusing comment or assistance, he began to empty his office onto the truck bed. He was impassive and systematic: first the desk drawers, then the files, and last his library of books, which he tossed carelessly into a heap, many of them flopping askew like slain birds. His task done, the pastor left the church and, as was later learned, drove some miles to the city dump where he committed everything to the waiting garbage. It was his way of putting behind him the overwhelming sense of failure and loss that he had experienced in the ministry. This young, gifted pastor was determined never to return to the ministry. Indeed, he never did. (Liberating Ministry from The Success Syndrome, K Hughes, Tyndale, 1988, p. 9)
What if Moses had done that. What if I had done that? If I gave up every time I had blown it, I would have never made it past the first week of my walk with the Lord.
There is not a one of us that has never failed in some way and there are probably many more to come before we get home. We cannot expect to live life beyond any degree of failure. It may be that this very week, some of us here is going to blow it some way - and we may blow it in a way that will bring about irreversable consequences. But if we can learn from those who have blown it, maybe we can avoid some of the same mistakes they have made.