Bible Questions Answered
Questions
God Shows Himself Holy
Question 6: In Numbers 20:13, we are told that
God showed Himself holy among the Israelites at Meribah. In what way did He
do this?
A: Numbers 20:1-13 records the second incident
during Israel's wilderness wandering in which water came from a rock for the
people. (The first is recorded in Exodus 17:1-7.) In this incident, Moses
is instructed to speak to the rock (v. 8), but instead he says, "Listen
here rebels, do we have to bring you water out of this rock?" (v. 10).
Then he strikes it twice. God says that Moses and Aaron had not honored him
as holy in the sight of the people. Because of this act, Moses and Aaron are
told they will not lead the Israelites into the promised land. (See also Deuteronomy
1:37, 38; 32:48-52.)
Some commentators believe that there must have been a more serious sin than
the one recorded which the Biblical writer has left out (Interpreter's Bible,
Anchor Bible Dictionary, amongst others). But if the full context is considered,
perhaps we can see the importance of the action that is recorded.
In Numbers 12, Moses is shown dealing with the
opposition of Miriam and Aaron. Rebellion is treated very seriously, as Miriam
is stricken with leprosy for it.
In Numbers 14, the Israelites first rebel by
refusing to enter the land when they were told to, then by trying to enter
when they were told not to.
"Moses said, 'Why are you continuing to disobey what the LORD has said?
This won't work! Don't go up! Your enemies will defeat you because the LORD
is not among you.'" (Numbers 14:41, 42, emphasis mine).
Chapters 16 and 17 record another rebellion,
by Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Two things are emphasized: Obedience to God,
and dependence upon God's power. No one is allowed to overstep the bounds
of the authority God has given them.
Moses and Aaron both disobey God, and claim the power and authority to bring
forth the water for themselves. "Do we have to bring you water out of
this rock?" (v. 10, emphasis mine). Thus Moses and Aaron display the
same sins for which God is punishing the people through the additional time
of wandering in the wilderness.
It is also probably not accidental that the previous chapter discusses the
water of cleansing. The way this part of Numbers is organized emphasizes a
total dependence on God for cleansing and for living an obedient life. The
people could not enter the land in their own strength (Numbers 14:41, 42)
and Moses and Aaron couldn't produce water, or holiness, in their own strength.
Only by obeying and by giving God the glory could Moses and Aaron show His
holy power.
But God also shows His holiness by this action by showing that he is no respecter
of persons. Moses and Aaron were not excused because they were great leaders,
or because they had performed many miracles while leading Israel. By displaying
the same lack of faith and the same disobedience they incurred the same penalty.
They didn't "ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name" so the
God acted.
"I am the LORD. That's my name!
I will not give my glory to another,
Nor my praise to idols." (Isaiah 42:8)
Standing and Listening
This was not really a question, but rather an essay I wrote because of a number of questions I was asked about praying, listening, and receiving answers.
The word of the LORD came to him: 'Why are you here, Elijah?' 10'Because
of my great zeal for the LORD the God of Hosts,' he replied. 'The people of
Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets
to the sword. I alone am left, and they seek to take my life.' 11To this the
answer came: 'Go and stand on the mount before the LORD.' (1 Kings 19:9b-11a,
REB)
There is a time for God's people to seek more power from the Lord and to
build up their prayer lives. There is also a time for us to reflect on what
we have done, to listen to the Lord, to build our faith, and to reach out
to those that the Lord wants us to reach.
I was reflecting recently after a powerful prayer meeting on how we can approach
getting more people involved in prayer. The meeting was great, but my burden
was for the empty seats, for those who were not there. Why are they not there?
Were we doing something wrong?
On reflection, it seems to me that we are seeking half of an Elijah experience.
Elijah
on Mt. Carmel
I think we would all like to be with Elijah on Mt. Carmel, at least after
he succeeded. When the fire came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifice,
altar, water and all, it was a moment of power. We cannot possibly compare
any feeling of excitement or of the spirit of the Lord that we might have
in a meeting to the power of the spirit demonstrated that day. And there was
Elijah, the lone prophet of God, demonstrating the power of God to a large
audience. (1 Kings 18).
I have long taught chapter 18 of 1 Kings as a story of how, even when we
are in the midst of accomplishing great things, we can be overtaken by discouragement.
Elijah came down off the mountain, running in front of Ahab's chariot. He
stood in triumph over the prophets of Baal. He had seen the power of God in
the fire on that altar. Yet, when Jezebel sought his life, he ran. 1 Kings
19:3 records: "In fear, he fled for his life . . ."
I think this passage can certainly teach us about fear even when we are triumphant,
about how one mountaintop experience doesn't necessarily mean we will never
again see the valley. But there is something more here. God had something
special to teach Elijah, the lone prophet, the man of powerful faith. It was
a lesson best taught after running across the desert.
Elijah
on Mt. Horeb
And so Elijah fled from Mt. Carmel where he was triumphant to Mt. Horeb where
he traded his audience for a cave in which to spend the night.
And God came to him, to ask him why he was there. "They're after me
Lord! I'm so zealous for you! I pray in power, and I prove that you are the
true God through miraculous acts. But all the others are dead! I'm all that's
left, and now they want to kill me too." If you have a powerful prayer
life, ask yourself how many times you have been there. Perhaps it is not you
alone, but only my prayer group, only my church, only my denomination, or
only my movement. And the next thought is "They're coming to get us
So Elijah waits for God's answer to his complaint. I suspect he hoped for
something like, "They'll never kill you. You are under my protection."
But God has something else in mind. "Go and stand on the mount before
the LORD." (1 Kings 19:11 REB). I am going to look twice at this incident,
first from the point of view of Elijah.
Elijah is presented with a strong wind, an earthquake, and then a fire. Each
time, we are told that the LORD was not in these powerful events. Then Elijah
hears "a faint murmuring sound." And God again speaks. Elijah repeats
his complaint. He's alone, and they want to kill him.
Often in the Biblical story, God leaves the question that is asked unanswered.
Here Elijah presents his complaint. Humanly we expect some kind of response
to Elijah's perceived need. But nothing like that is about to happen.
God responds to Elijah with a threefold mission:
A
mission to the world
Elijah is sent with a message to Hazael of Syria. God shows his interest in
the world through anointing this specific king of a foreign country.
A mission to God's rebellious people
God also has a new king to anoint over Israel, someone to root out the Baal
worship which Elijah has been fighting. You see Elijah, you aren't God's only
agent after all!
A mission to the faithful
Elijah thought he was alone, but god had 7,000 faithful in Israel who were
not Baal worshippers. Elijah was not alone.
I want to look for a moment at the third point. Why was Elijah unaware of
the faithful in Israel? Why did he feel all alone? I believe it may have been
because he was so busy with his mission--a good mission, but one that could
occupy one's full attention--that he couldn't see what else was going on.
Elijah didn't go out on the mountain to stand before the Lord and listen.
Prayer
Warriors on the Mountain
I believe this is a great danger for those who are very powerful in prayer.
It is easy to be so distracted by our Mt. Carmel experiences that we lose
sight of the bulk of our mission and of God's people. We need to go to Mt.
Horeb with Elijah and receive our mission from God. Preferably, we need to
do this before we have to be driven to it. We need to go, stand on the mountain,
and listen.
While we're on the mountain, we need to recognize the rest of God's church
out there. Perhaps they are not on a major campaign of prayer, but many are
faithful. We are not as alone as we may want to think. It's on the mountain
that we can learn how to listen to God, and learn one of the most important
things to teach others.
Teaching
People to Pray
Often, when someone wants to know how to pray we concentrate on teaching
them what to say. And it is important for people to be able to speak to God.
But there is something more important—listening to what God has to say.
If there is any one thing which will help people's prayer lives to grow, it
is learning to listen.
Recently I requested prayer from a friend in my church who knows how to listen.
I explained the situation to him briefly. My aunt had been diagnosed with
Leukemia and was not expected to live long. She was and is ready to go. I
shared two or three sentences. My friend put his hands on my head and just
stood there. He was listening. When he began to pray, his prayer was so in
tune with what was on my heart that he might as well have been reading my
mind.
Don't feel that you have to kneel and start talking. Start by listening!
We can learn to listen in two steps. First, we need to learn to listen to
one another, and second we need to learn to listen to God.
I'm sure many will question the order of those two statements. Let's look
at 1 John 4:20: "But if someone says, 'I love God,' while at the same
time hating his fellow-Christian, he is a liar. If he does not love a fellow-Christian
whom he has seen, he is incapable of loving God whom he has not seen."
(REB) I would like to extend this text to describe listening. If you cannot
listen to your brother or sister, the person in a prayer group with you, who
is physically present and audible and visible, how can you listen to God whose
presence is much more subtle? I submit that if we have not learned to listen
to one another, we will not learn to listen to God.
Praying alone is important but praying together is also essential. It is
especially essential when someone is trying to learn to pray. Very often a
person who is beginning to pray doesn't know God. By knowing God I don't mean
praying the sinners prayer or reading and affirming the doctrines, but feeling
deep within oneself who God is and knowing that you can relate to God, tell
Him things about yourself, and listen for an answer. In modern society, I
think this also reflects a lack in our knowing one another. We're missing
both sides of 1 John 4:20.
In a small prayer group, you can overcome both of these things. You learn
to express yourself, and your needs, hopes and conflicts to one another. You
also learn to listen as other people in the group express themselves. Slowly
you learn to also express these needs in prayer to God. In the small prayer
group you can even pause as you're sharing and pray about that one little
thing. Just like any conversation, it doesn't have to be long. "Oh by
the way, did I tell you . . . " only it's a prayer that follows, instead
of a story for your neighbor.
If we are to build up the seven thousand in Israel, or the seven million
or a billion--whatever number the Lord sees fit to send, we need them to reach
out to the Lord in prayer. They don't all have to climb Mt. Carmel and face
450 prophets of Baal alone. But they all need to have a prayer relationship
with God. The most constructive thing we can do to start that is to get people
listening. The easiest way to begin listening is to listen to one another.
Listening involves getting onto the other person's program, learning to hear
their language, their symbols, their needs. Just like Elijah on Mt. Horeb
(thought I'd forgotten Elijah, didn't you?) who needed to switch over to God's
program and hear what God had for him to do. None of us are God, so we can't
use the abrupt method used in the conversation with Elijah. One of the best
ways of teaching how to listen is just to do it.
This is why, if you are a pastor or a leader in prayer, you need to get people
into groups to talk to one another, study together and pray together. Learn
to make listening a part of our daily worship and building up our relationship
to God.
Listening also doesn't involve trying to make the other person like you.
Listening is being attentive to that person's interests. If you take the time
to hear what they are saying, you may find that you are more similar than
you thought.
Prayer in this sense can be a non-theological undertaking. We have plenty
of movements to correct peoples' theology, to improve their styles of worship,
to introduce new music (or to get rid of it!), to make them understand doctrines.
How about a program of just plain listening? Listening to one another (whom
we can see physically) and listening to God. Building relationships that will
last.
Who knows what we'll hear to surprise us as we stand on the mount and wait
for the soft murmuring noise . . . that resolves itself into the voice of
God?
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