Numbers 20:10

Numbers 20:10 says, And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?  Moses and Aaron gathered those who were rebelling against God before the rock, then asked them if Aaron and he had to bring them water out of the rock.  I believe he should have put the emphasis on what God was going to do instead of on Aaron and himself.  When God provides for our needs as followers of Christ, I believe that we need to give Him the credit.  Verse eleven adds, And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.  Moses took his rod and hit the rock twice, which wasn't what God told  him to do, and it took the emphasis from God and put it on Moses.  Had he simply spoke to the rock as God told him to do, and done so in God's name, then the emphasis would have remained on God's power.  Our actions should never take people's sight away from God if we are acting in His name.  Verse twelve states, And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.  God then told both Moses and Aaron that since their actions showed a lack of belief and did not sanctify God that they would not be allowed to enter the Promised Land. No matter how long we may do things in God's name, if we really don't put our faith in Jesus Christ, we will not get into heaven.  Of course, simply an act of disobedience will not keep us out if we have truly accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord.  Verse thirteen adds, This is the water of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with the LORD, and he was sanctified in them.  The place was to be called Merihah, the water of strife, as a reminder to the people of what had happened there.  We need to remember and learn from the times that we have disobeyed God.  Verse fourteen says, And Moses sent messengers from Kadesh unto the king of Edom, Thus saith thy brother Israel, Thou knowest all the travail that hath befallen us:  Moses then sent word to the king of Edom, their brothers through being decended from Abraham.  The messengers were to ask for safe passage through Edom, which was the shortest way to the Promised Land.  They were to also assure the king of Edom that they meant the people of Edom no harm.  We, as followers of Christ, were never intended to try and bring people into the kingdom of God by force.  Verse fifteen adds, How our fathers went down into Egypt, and we have dwelt in Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians vexed us, and our fathers:  Verse sixteen continues, And when we cried unto the LORD, he heard our voice, and sent an angel, and hath brought us forth out of Egypt: and, behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of thy border:  The messengers were to tell the king of Edom about Israel’s bondage in Egypt and God's deliverance of them from Egypt.  As Christians, we today been to rell people about our bondage to sin and our deliverance from its power by putting our faith in Jesus Christ.  We are not here to take what belongs to the people of the world, because we are simply passing through on our way to the Promised Land, Heaven.  Verse seventeen concludes, Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country: we will not pass through the fields, or through the vineyards, neither will we drink of the water of the wells: we will go by the king’s high way, we will not turn to the right hand nor to the left, until we have passed thy borders.  Moses sent assurance that the people of Isreal would take nothing belonging to the Edomiites, but simply wanted safe passage through their land.  This is what we should want today as followers of Christ as well.  We simply need safe passage through this sinful world.  We are not here to claim what belongs to others as our own just because we are God's people, but are to rely on God to provide for our needs.