{"id":4310,"date":"2022-10-14T02:59:12","date_gmt":"2022-10-14T07:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nazareneblogs.org\/pastorscott\/?p=4310"},"modified":"2022-10-14T02:59:12","modified_gmt":"2022-10-14T07:59:12","slug":"devotional-on-numbers-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-numbers-16\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure style=\"width: 1600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-mpiCHYmWTaw\/XUxK2OHzEKI\/AAAAAAAA-No\/wDGGWDnPJg4h6jLGG5VQKV3GTaCLHumEwCKgBGAs\/s1600\/P6199509.JPG\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" class=\"size-large\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">2018 &#8211; Mt Rainer National Park<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nTalking to rocks<br \/>\nNumbers 20: Speak to the rock\u2026do we have to bring water out of this rock for you\u2026slammed his staff against the rock.<br \/>\nWe\u2019re familiar with most of the big events in the life of Moses. We know about the bulrushes, the burning bush, the plagues, the Red Sea crossing, and Mount Sinai. Sadly, when the story of Moses is told his failure at Meribah has to be included. This is the blot on his life and, later on, this is what disqualifies him from entering the Promised Land. On the surface it seems like a minor infraction. God says to him, &#8220;Speak to the rock&#8221; and, instead, he &#8220;hits the rock.&#8221; As I read this and see the seriousness of God&#8217;s response I immediately think that there has to be more. I think the &#8220;more&#8221; is what Moses says before he strikes the rock. Moses&#8217; leadership has been challenged before and each time he\u2019s responded by pointing the people to the Lord. Moses&#8217; entire case for leadership, his credentials, is that he\u2019s God&#8217;s man. In this case as his leadership is being once again challenged, he takes matters into his own hands. He doesn&#8217;t say, &#8220;Listen, rebels! Watch what the Lord is going to do for you.&#8221; Instead, he says, &#8220;Listen, rebels! Do we have to bring water out of this rock for you?&#8221; The difference is profound. Instead of God getting the credit, Moses and Aaron are taking it. Remember, this is not the mistake of a young person in their first pastoral assignment. This is an intentional shifting of emphasis by a seasoned man of God who\u2019s had many personal encounters with the Lord. God takes this intentional failure seriously. We see here that God expects gifted leaders to remember the source of their authority, to remember that they are stewards of his, and that they\u2019re expected to always serve with that in mind. To do otherwise mars an otherwise exemplary ministry.<\/p>\n<p>Take Away: The longer we walk with the Lord the more he expects of us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Talking to rocks Numbers 20: Speak to the rock\u2026do we have to bring water out of this rock for you\u2026slammed his staff against the rock. We\u2019re familiar with most of the big events in the life of Moses. We know about the bulrushes, the burning bush, the plagues, the Red Sea crossing, and Mount Sinai. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1522,7],"tags":[145,336,668,720,772],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4310"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4310"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13971,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4310\/revisions\/13971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}