Cornerstone Or Stumbling Block? Series

Wherever you’re at in life this week, and this Thanksgiving, I hope you’re able to thank the Lord for some blessings He’s given to you.

God must have thought rocks were important, because when He made the world, He made lots of them! Ask any farmer. There’s even a whole range of mountains, called the Rockies, and they’re made of, guess what…rocks! (Set one in front.)

What things can you do with a rock?

[Throw it. Skip it. Millstone. Slingstone. Manger.]

You can do a lot of things with rocks. While they wandered around in the desert, Israel had plenty of rocks. Most rocks are pretty hard. They’ll take a pretty good beating. So, you can build things with them. You can use them as a weapon or a tool. Jacob used one as a pillow, which never made much sense to me.

While they may be useful for several things, most rocks aren’t much use for water. You can squeeze a lemon or a lime; you can put an apple in the juicer. You can turn kale and carrots and other stuff into a smoothie. Somehow, they can even juice a banana, for babies. But a rock…nope. You’re going to have to squeeze a lot of rocks to get much juice!

Numbers, ch 20. Israel was working their way up through the Negev – the dry region just below the Dead Sea. They’d been wandering in the desert for over 40 years and were finally making their approach to the Promised Land. They had no water.

So, they started complaining …again, and suddenly sounded identical to the grumbling generation before them. They were thirsty, and just like Charlie Brown at Halloween, they had nothing but a rock.

Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before the Lord. God told them to go out, to a certain rock, and to speak to it. Water was going to come gushing out of the rock. So Moses and Aaron go out and say to the Israelites, (v10) "Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?" Moses whacked it with his rod, and boom, water came gushing out – enough for the whole nation and their livestock. It saved them once again. Imagine the shouts of joy coming from a whole nation of people, looking like a bunch of kids in front of an opened fire hydrant on a hot summer day in Mississippi.

But there was something about the attitude of Moses and Aaron, some lack of trust in God, some reaction to the peoples’ whining, that caused them both to speak rashly. God was using this scene to prove His holiness to Israel. Moses and Aaron were using it for something else. God was not pleased.

We tend to forget about scenes like that in our lives, where we react rashly and say things we shouldn’t. God didn’t forget. Israel continued traveling to the Promised Land, and on the border of Edom God had them pause. Aaron wouldn’t be going in. In fact, God had Moses, Aaron, and his son Eleazar make a field trip up Mt. Hor. It’s a grim scene. Aaron, old and feeble, climbs up Mt. Hor, still wearing the special uniform of the priests. The whole nation of Israel watches and says goodbye for the last time to Aaron. The 3 make it to the top of the mountain, where Moses strips the priestly robes from his older brother and puts them on Eleazar. There lies Aaron in his underwear, old and shaking in the cool mountain air, and there he dies.

Moses and Eleazar come back down the mountain, without him. It doesn’t sound like a very happy retirement party for someone who served alongside Moses. Aaron wasn’t allowed to enter the Promised Land with Israel – because of an incident with a rock.

Ch 27, God informs Moses he won’t be going in either. He’ll be allowed to climb Mt. Nebo and see across the border.

Num 27:13-14 After you have seen it, you too will be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was, for when the community rebelled at the waters in the Desert of Zin, both of you disobeyed my command to honor me as holy before their eyes.

Israel’s leader for 40+ years, who had patiently stuck with these people, and stood in the gap for them, wouldn’t be allowed to enter the Promised Land – because of an incident with a rock.

Who knew a rock could be so versatile and so volatile?

On one hand, it became a source for lifegiving water that saved the whole nation and their livestock from death. On the other hand, that same rock became the reason that Moses and Aaron wouldn’t enter the Promised Land.