What Did Moses Do?

Numbers 20 often befuddles us.  After all, the story is pretty straightforward:  Israel needs water, God provides water.  All that Moses does is to strike a rock instead of speak to it, and for that he is told that he will never enter the Promised Land.  I don't know about you, but to me that seems a little out of proportion.

Several things present themselves to help me get my head around the incident.  First off, Moses is Israel's leader, and leaders are always held to a higher standard.  That's the responsibility of leadership.  After all, if a person wants the ability to influence people for good, they need to be aware of how easy it is for them to influence them for ill, too.  Leaders, by the nature of their position, can set good or bad examples, with consequences far beyond their apparent meaning.

Here's an example.  I grew up in the shadow of Nixon's Watergate scandal.  Now, on the surface, it's kind of small potatoes:  a botched break-in and a badly conceived lie.  But the ramifications have been enormous--the hastening of an entire era of lost confidence in institutions and authority.  (I'm not saying Watergate is the only event that undermined our confidence, but it surely helped that loss of confidence get rolling.)  How do a minor crime and a lie have that kind of impact?  When they're perpetuated by the leader of the free world!  If the President does that sort of thing, it sets an example for lesser government officials and for all sorts of people in power that power can be used for personal benefit.

Anyhow,  leaders--in the world and in the church--are held to higher standards, and this is especially true in Moses' case.  If God's favorite can so casually disregard His Word, surely everyone else can, too!  So, parents, bosses, pastors--everyone in authority ought to recognize that they wield that authority to lead on God's behalf, and with that responsibility comes responsibility.

A second thing is this:  throughout the Bible we are taught to pay attention to God's words.  It's literally all over the place.  God speaks; His people listen.  Sure, the Lord does wonders and sometimes He points back at them and says, "Remember what I did."  But just as often, I think even more often, He's likely to say, "Remember what I said."  That's the basis on which Moses often talks God out of things.  He reminds God, "You promised."  To undermine the power and the promise of God's words, well, that undermines the very way that the Lord usually wants people to understand Him, know Him, and trust Him.

So, it may still seem like the Lord is punishing Moses out of proportion to his sin, but if we understand that Moses has undermined both his own position of leadership and the means by which God wants to be known, then perhaps things become a little clearer.