Eat honey, my son, for it is good; honey from the comb is sweet to your taste.
Please may I have some dessert now? That was always the question my two hearty eaters would ask when they were finished with their Sunday dinner. Now that I have grandchildren, it is not quite the same! I did not know how fortunate I was when raising these two healthy eaters. Now, there has to be some coaxing, some bribing, some enforcing the rule that ‘at least one half of your plate must be finished before dessert.’ But they always have room for dessert.
Ezekiel 20:6 ESV
Deuteronomy 32:51-52 51This is because both of you broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin and because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites. 52Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance; you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel.”
Just take Moses. He was an amazing leader! After being in training for 40 years in Egypt with Pharaoh, and then the desert another 40 years, he had faced some ‘painful learning experiences!’ That was before he even got started leading Israelite’s! Then he spending another 40 years in the desert with them, he must have been exhausted. Those self-centered wilderness wanderers were constantly complaining and whining about something. No wonder Moses lost his patience with them. Unfortunately for Moses, when he lost his temper, he disobeyed God! When God told him to strike the rock to get water from it the first time, he did. Pure drinking water came gushing from it.
However, when the Israelite’s again asked for water at another time and place, God said ‘speak’ to the rock. Here is what Moses did;
Numbers 20:8-12 8“Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.” 9So Moses took the staff from the LORD’s presence, just as he commanded him. 10He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” 11Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank. 12But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”
In the Old Testament God used a similar tactic with the Israelite’s, over and over. Why would he repeat it? It worked! It still works today. That is probably where we got the idea!
After reading this I said to myself, “just for striking the rock and not speaking to it he does not get to go into the Promised Land?” It did not seem fair to me. Yet, God knows the intent of the heart. I believe that is what God was looking at too. Moses had a huge job to fulfill. Many times he became angry with the Israelite’s. Who wouldn’t? But Moses was held to a higher standard. When he struck the rock twice-it was in anger! God will not tolerate a rebellious heart, and prevented him from entering the land he had been dreaming about for 40 years.
On that day I swore to them that I would bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most glorious of all lands.
What does God say to us about our rebellious heart? The same thing! We are looking forward to a day when we will have no sickness, no sorrow. A land flowing with milk and honey. Remember God uses patterns over and over? I believe this is one of them. And it is so much more serious than finish your dinner before you can have dessert. It is more like get rid of your rebellious heart so you can enter the land Ihave prepared for you.
OK, time to do some introspection. Look deep inside and see if you find any rebellion that needs to be brought to God, and forgiven. Only then will we be able to leave the desert and have our ‘dessert.’
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