Thursday, August 13, 2009

Called to Choose Life

Lesson 11, for Sunday school this Sunday, August 16, 2009, is entitled, "Disregarding the Directive," a study of the scripture from Numbers 20:1-13. Again, the Israelites were grumbling because there was no water, so they gathered against Moses and Aaron. They refused to blame themselves for their lack of trust in God, after all He had shown and done for them. They accused Moses and Aaron of bringing them and their cattle's to the wilderness to die there. When the crowd gathered around Moses and Aaron shouting with displeasure, Moses and Aaron "ran" from their presence unto the tabernacle, fell upon their faces, and the glory of the Lord appeared before them. God gave Moses a directive in Numbers 20:8. God produced water from the rock, although Moses did not follow His specific directive completely. God was displeased with Moses and Aaron, just as He is with us when we do not follow His commandments and directives. Usually we have no trouble envisioning God as loving and forgiving, yet we struggle with the thought that God gets angry and punishes us. Moses, as other leaders, are models before the people, and should be careful of their actions and speech to remain calm and ask for the help of the Holy Spirit all the time, especially when provoked by the people.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

this is test

searching said...

Our lessons this quarter have shown how much the children of Israel have murmured and complained. Yet God blessed them because he loved them. Phillipians 2:12-15 speaks to constant obedience without murmuring and complaining for the purpose that the children of God may be blameless, harmless, without rebuke, and shining as lights in a crooked and perverse nation. It is to both God's will and good pleasure. Unfortunately, Moses and Aaron, as the leaders, allowed the complaining Israelites change God's directive of speaking to the rock and lost the opportunity to enter the promised land.