How to know when it’s God and when it’s just us hitting rocks.
Have you ever felt like you’re banging your head against the wall over and over with something in your life? Like you need forward movement in something but all you get is just a pounding heading and the same ole results?
As I was reading through the story of the Israelites and their wandering in the wilderness of Sinai, I got to the story where they grumble at Moses about not having water, and Moses strikes the rock to provide water.
The striking part of the story (no pun intended) isn’t that Moses hits the rock and water miraculously comes out––it’s where God is in the process.
Let’s read the passage and break it down. Exodus 17:1-7 (ESV)
All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
The Israelites were thirsty, they felt uncared for, (they were quick to forget that God had rescued them from slavery, safely delivered them out of Pharoah’s army, crossed them over the Red Sea, provided water from a bitter stream and hand delivered meat and bread to them every day!) and decided the best course of action was to grumble. (Hey, no judgement here, I’ve been all too quick to forget God’s faithfulness when life feels tough.)
As Moses takes the complaint to the Lord, God tells Moses something that I find fascinating. “Take the staff you used on the Nile and go strike the rock, I’ll stand in front of you and I’ll make water come out of it.” (My paraphrase of the passage.)
Moses was to go before the people and hit a rock with his staff, okay, not super impressive, until you read it carefully for the details and catch the fact that God said He would stand “before you” (meaning Moses) as Moses struck the rock.
In order for Moses to make water pass from the rock, God had to be in front of Moses. Moses would need to have the staff pass through God before it hit the rock and water gushed out.
Without God between Moses and the rock, all Moses was doing was swinging at air and hitting a rock. But when the Lord stepped between Moses and the rock, God’s power became the method of the miracle.
There’s nothing powerful about a staff or a rock. There’s nothing even powerful about Moses in and of himself. The power came from the presence of the Almighty God between Moses and the rock.
So I sit and ask myself the same question I pose to you today…am I just hitting rocks in my life?
You see, we can go through our lives just hitting rocks. We can swing our own strength and our own staffs at our big problems and then scratch our heads when no water comes from the rock. But it’s because we are doing things in our own strength.
When we bring our problems to the Lord, when we listen to His voice and we obey His directions, then we find ourselves in a position like Moses––swinging a simple staff with power, through the power of God’s presence and into the problem that only He can fix in our lives. Then we can see God work in only ways He can.
Water from a rock doesn’t make a lot of sense. Honestly, neither do unexpected checks in the mail, unrequested phone calls when you need the encouragement most, unplanned visits when you’re lonely and someone stops by, or unforeseen reconciliation of relationships. When we start working in obedience, and through the power of God’s Spirit, we position ourselves in the right place to see God make miracles happen in our lives. God does the unexplainable, and it leads us to bring Him honor and glory.
There are problems in all of our lives. Big and small. We have a choice today to either just keep hitting rocks and have the same ole same ole happen in our lives, or we can bring our problems to God, ask for His wisdom and His will to be done, and then obey as He commands us to move.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve hit enough rocks in my own power only to find my life filled with broken pieces and shattered stones. I’m ready and wanting to see water come from the rock because I’m attacking my problems with God’s Spirit and might between me and the problem.
In His Grace,
