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SPEAK TO THE ROCK


Moses had to deal with difficult people.  Some things never change, because we all find ourselves dealing with difficult people.  In dealing with those people, our own flesh always wants to  rear its ugly head. Let's remind ourselves to speak to the Rock and not the people during these times of difficulty.

Scripture readings: Exodus 3:1-4:17, Acts 7:22, Numbers 12:3, Exodus 17, Numbers 20:1-12, Deuteronomy 3:23-29, 4:21-22


Moses. What a fascinating character. Definitely one of the most amazing men of God. Yet, I'm intrigued by the fact that he didn't get to go into the Promised Land, even though he knew the Lord intimately and the Lord spoke to him “face to face as one does a friend.”

As I was reading in Deuteronomy where Moses is coming to the end and is giving the instructions to the children of Israel, I was struck by his words, “Furthermore the Lord was angry with me for your sakes and swore that I would not cross over the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance”  (Deuteronomy 4: 21 NKJV ). I decided to look up the Hebrew words and made a very interesting discovery. The word for “with me for your sakes” is dabar (pronounced dä·vä' ). The Blue Letter Bible in the Outline of Biblical usage gives the definition 1) speech, word, speaking, thing. a) speech b) saying utterance c) word, words, d) business, occupation, acts, matter, case, something, manner (by extension). I looked this up on blueletterbible.org  and my eye caught an entry from the Gesenius's Lexicon: an eloquent man, Exodus 4:10.

So I looked up Exodus 4:10: Then Moses said to the Lord, “O my Lord, I (am) not eloquent; neither before nor since you have spoken to your servant; but I (am) slow of speech and slow of tongue.”

There was that word again, dabar, used both when Moses was explaining why he wasn't going to get to go into the Promised Land and the excuse he used with the Lord that his speech wasn't good enough to do what He was calling him to do. So let's take a little trip.

We all know the story of Moses and how his mother made an ark of bulrushes to save his life. How Pharoah's daughter found him and how Moses' sister, Miriam was watching and asked Pharoah's daughter if she wanted her to get someone to nurse him, and how she got their mother. Most likely, his mother instilled in him at a very early age his calling. What a beautiful picture of Providence. The Lord had a plan.

Fast forward...Moses has spent some time in the backside of a desert and he encounters the Great I Am in the burning bush. The Lord tells Moses He wants to deliver His people from the Egyptians and He wants to send Moses to do it....

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