This is a picture of me and Al Colver and John Edson and some other Board members climbing to the top of the hill that John the Chaplain and the other workers in Santiago climb quite a bit. One of three things is happening here – either I am urging others on to the top and inspiring them, or I am going crazy over the view, or, if my memory serves I was begging others to carry me up.
I thought of Moses being able to see the promised land from that high point and not being allowed to cross over. The view must have been amazing but his heart had to be broken. The conviction and the energy he took to get to that point was amazing but one slip in that conviction caused him to miss the point of all the effort.
The incident is told in Numbers 20 and from my perspective what Moses did in his anger was to try and get the people to see his anger and have them believe that he had the power to bring forth the water. Instead of speaking to the Rock as God instructed – he gives it a whack with his staff. This bit of pique was disastrous. The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”
At the same time we see a type of Christ the “smitten rock” with wounded side.
Speaking to the rock probably might also symbolize the word of God (as given to Moses), where striking the rock represented Moses’ effort. The life giving water is the result of God’s word, not man’s effort.
Also, it could be that striking the rock represented John 1:1,14 Christ, who is the word of God who was struck once (the crucifixion ordeal) out of which living water flowed (John 4:10; 7:38; John 19:34).
Do we have the conviction to do God’s will even in times of turmoil and toil and personal frustration?
