Moses, as a representative of the Lord on the earth, had a responsibility to hear the Lord, know His ways, and obey them!
I shared in the last two devotionals that in the course of time, the Lord directed Moses three different ways in providing water for the Israelites in the desert. The first time, the Lord told him to throw a tree in the body of water and it turned sweet. Then the Israelites were able to drink the water. The second recorded time, the Lord directed Moses to strike the rock, and the water came out of the rock for people to drink. The third recorded time, the Lord directed Moses to speak to the rock, but Moses out of his anger and frustration with the Israelites, struck the rock twice. This time water came out of the rock again. However, God was not pleased with Moses.
The above situations remind me of a couple of instances in my life that I have been in need of God’s direction and His intervention. When our finances were in trouble year ago, we didn’t see a way out of them, but we knew all we could do is to continue to be faithful in tithing and paying off the debt. God’s hand touched our finances and brought healing. Thank you Lord! In the last couple of years, I have been dealing with back issues, and I have knocked on many doors. Hitting the rocks, has brought some relief, but they have not resolved the issue completely. Now I believe, the Lord is saying to speak to the rock, declare my healing, and stop knocking on various doors. Praise God who is our healer, our Jehovah Raphe! The Lord has different ways at different times!
The Lord executes righteousness
And justice for all who are oppressed.
7 He made known His ways to Moses,
His acts to the children of Israel. Psalm 103: 6-7
Moses and Israelites were all in it together and when there was lack of water, everyone suffered, but Moses disobeyed God, he lost the privilege enter the Promised Land. There were a couple of major differences between Moses and the people in how the Lord interacted with them. First and foremost, Moses was God’s designated leader who represented the Lord to the Israelites. When Moses walked in the flesh, it reflected negatively of who the Lord was for the Israelites. Secondly, as the above passage tells us, God revealed His ways to Moses, but He showed His acts to the children of Israel.
There is a huge difference between knowing His ways, and knowing His acts! When we know God’s ways, we learn to grow in His character and what is important to Him. We also know His principals of living. We grow in wisdom and understanding. However, when we only know His acts, we may get excited about How He came through for us, but our spiritual growth due to His acts is not guaranteed. We can remain childish and only look for His acts without understanding that we have a responsibility to know His ways and to grow in Him!
As the name of my website reflects, my goal in writing these devotionals has been to teach God’s people to know His ways, so we can all grow in maturity and be able to hear God’s voice and act upon what He shows us!
Are you familiar with His ways? Are you growing in knowing His ways? Are you helping others to know His ways? This is also a legacy that we can all leave with the younger generation. If we can teach them to go to the Lord themselves and seek Him, then when He directs them, they will learn to grow in His ways!
Image by ??????? Julita ??????? from Pixabay