In my Liberty online class this week I studied Numbers and Deuteronomy - I know, at first thought this sounds like a very boring week. Yet there are some great stories amidst the lists of people and lists of offerings in these two books. One fascinating story is the great sin of Moses that caused him to not enter the Promised Land of Canaan.
Moses committed his great sin at Meribah, meaning “rebel waters” (Numbers 20:2-13). The Israelites complained to Moses about there being no water. The Lord told Moses to speak to the rock and then it would bring forth water. Instead, Moses struck the rock with his rod. Water still came out, but he disobeyed God’s direction. Because of this, God said that Moses would not enter the Promised Land (Numbers 20:10-12). In an act due partly to unbelief and anger, Moses screamed at the people and disobeyed the Lord by striking the rock twice instead of speaking to it once as God had commanded.
Moses thus, becomes at least one of seven Old and new Testament individuals who failed God, not in their weakest but in their strongest point:
- Abraham’s strongest point was his faith (Gen. 15:6; Heb. 11:8-10), yet he failed God by his unbelief (Gen. 12:10-20; 20:1-5)
- David’s strongest point was his kindness (he spared Saul’s life on two occasions, 1 Sam. 24:1-6; 26:5-13), yet he failed God by his cruelty (he killed Uriah, 2 Sam. 11:14-15)
- Solomon’s strongest point was his wisdom (1 Kings 3:5-12), yet he failed God by his stupidity (he allowed riches, power, and women to ruin him, (1 Kings 4:26; 10:27; 11:1-6. Contrast these verses with Deut. 17:14-17)
- Elijah’s strongest point was his courage (he stood up alone on Mount Carmel against 450 priests of Baal, 1 Kings 18), yet he failed God by his cowardice (he ran from a woman, Jezebel, 1 Kings 19)
- Peter’s strongest point was his loyalty (Matt. 16:16; 26:31-33), yet he failed God by his denials (Matt. 26:69-75)
- Paul’s strongest point was his liberty in Christ (entire book of Galatians), yet he failed God by placing himself back under legalism (Acts 21:18-26) (OTS page 132)
Thinking on all of this, I think a lot of Christians, and even just people in general, believe that there is one area in their lives where they have everything together - whether it is their faith, their integrity, their courage, whatever it may be - but we need to remember that we are not perfect - not in anything - and many times in that one area that we think we have all together - that is where we can fall the hardest because our pride comes into play and we are not closely watching ourselves when we think we have it together. I have tried to get this across to the youth girls that I teach in the area of purity - even if you grow up in church and have heard a million times to stay pure and to not have sex before marriage - and even if you think you would never have sex before marriage or do anything sexually unpure - a boy may come along that will tempt you and if you are not on guard and you allow yourself to be put in situations where you can fail, then you probably will fail - none of us our perfect. We may know the right thing to do, we may have heard it all our life, and we may think we have that area altogether - but failure will happen - and it will happen even more when we are not continually growing and studying God's word. Thank goodness we have a loving and forgiving God that forgives us for our mistakes, whether they are big or small in our eyes. He loves us and cares for us no matter what.
