#DailyDevotion The Lord Jesus Christ Just Wants You To Trust Him
Easter Week 7 Friday
Read Num 20:1–21
Num 20:8 “Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.”…10 Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” (11) And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock. (12) And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.”
Now this is the second time the people rebelled against Moses and the Lord because of water. They were not trusting the Lord to provide water for them. Now Moses goes to the Lord to find out what he should do. The first time this happened the Lord told Moses to strike the rock twice. This time the directions were different. The Lord told Moses only to speak to the rock and it would put forth water for Israel to drink.
Moses in his anger against the Israelites and apparently in a lack of faith in the Lord does not follow instructions. He strikes the rock twice. It seems he wanted the people think that it was he who brought forth water. Had he only spoke to the rock in the Lord’s name and it brought forth water, then the Lord would get all the credit. The Lord Jesus in his ministry also worked as he did with Moses. Sometimes Jesus would use material as a medium for his power. Sometimes he spoke words of command for something to happen like “be healed.” Sometimes Jesus only spoke the words, “be it done to you as you believe.”
Because of the Lord’s great mercy towards Israel, he provided water despite Moses’ lack of faith. He did this because of Moses’ office. But Moses, because of his lack of faith and despising the Lord’s name would not enter into the Promised Land. When we sin against the Lord because of our lack of faith, we too, while we are forgiven, may suffer temporal punishments. All the Lord wants is to be trusted. The degree to which we trust the Lord Jesus Christ and his word is the degree to which we will do what he ask us to do.
Sometimes our lack of faith in Jesus’ word will only carry with it temporal troubles such as when we get anxious about our lives. Then we go and do sinful things because we don’t believe his word of promise. Yet if we do not believe his word of promise that the Father has sent him to be our atoning sacrifice we cannot enter into the eternal Promised Land. If we do not believe the Father sent him to be our Savior we will not posses eternal life. As under the Old Testament so with the New, the Lord Jesus Christ just wants us to trust him. He has kept his promises in both. Will you put your trust in him today?
Heavenly Father, you sent the Lord Jesus Christ to Israel, our Rock and Redeemer, once in the pillar of cloud and once in our flesh to give us your word so that we may trust in him and in you. Give us faith to believe his word and that you sent him that we may have eternal life and enter into the Promised Land on the day of his return. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.