Devotional - March 13, 2004

When a strong person threatens to hurt you and you have nowhere to run and no power to resist, what are you going to do? David found that God was always faithful to protect him when he was in danger, but especially when he was helpless to defend himself. In fact, David was so confident in his assessment of God, he asked rhetorically, "What can mortal man do to me?" (Vs. 4)

Moses knew something about trusting God's word. One day God told him to speak to a rock at Kadesh in front of the people and water would come out of the rock in such quantity that it would quench the thirst of the people and water all their livestock. But today was a bad day for Moses. He had enough of the people's abstinence, griping and complaining. He took matters in his own hands.

Moses knew that God could always be trusted, but on this day he would disobey God and fuss at everyone else for their failure to trust God. Notice that what Moses said of the people was true. However, a person should always do exactly as God instructs them, avoiding improvisation in order to piggyback one's own plan with that of God's.

Unfortunately, Moses lost his privilege to lead the people into the Promised Land. That was a forty year delay of judgment to give Moses a lot of time to regret his impudence. As for the message God wants to give us. When God says to speak with authority to a rock, don't try to beat a response out of it with a stick. (For those who don't do well reading between the lines, try this: when God says what to do, then do it right away, in the correct way and then get out of the way.

1 Developed from Read the Bible Thru ( Nm. 15:17-16:40 Mk. 15:1-47 Ps. 54:1-7 Pr. 11:5-6 )
2. Scripture comes from the Holy Bible, New International Version; (c)1978 by New York International Bible Society