Go Slow, Stay Low, Don't Blow! Series

Thomas Jefferson say, “When angry, count to ten, if very angry, count to 100.”

God instructed Moses privately, patiently and particularly what to do: take the staff, gather the people and instruct the rock. However, Moses took the people’s complain pompously, personally and painfully. His words were strong, rash and combative.

The classic advice “Don’t say anything if you don’t have anything good to say” applied perfectly to Moses. He did not have to oppose, chide or even address the budding grownups. The order Moses received was to order the rock to work, the rock would freely flow water and the Lord’s name would be glorified. However, Moses had other ideas when he saw the gathered assembly. The Hebrew word for the youthful generation’s “gathering” (v 2) was the same word for the only other occasion a group had gathered to confront Moses – the “gathering” of Korah and company of the previous generation (Num 16:3, 19, 42). Further, the only other occurrence of the Hebrew word for “quarrel” (v 3) was when the former generation quarreled with Moses at Marah, also over water (Ex 17:2). Keil and Delitzsch suggested that the present incident occurred in the last of the forty years of wanderings at the same place that the previous generation was judged. It was a worst case of déjà vu and history repeating itself for Moses.

So Moses readied and unleashed his own trigger word on the youthful Israelites: “Rebel” (v 10), which was used for the first time in the Bible. Moses’ label to the Israelites was harsh, unnecessary and childish. Moses unfairly gave the new generation no chance at all, laid the sins of the fathers on them and accused them of what they were not guilty of. He had no sympathy for the Israelites at their first offense, setback and dissent. The spite, the gloom and the ill of the prophet affected and blindsided him in the worst unforeseen way.

Moses and Aaron next used an insolent “we” personal pronoun (v 10). The Israelites quarreled with Moses (v 3), but ultimately their “quarrel” (v 13) was with the Lord and their “rebellion” was against the Spirit of God (Ps 106:33). It was the Lord’s name, character and face to save, if any, but Moses internalized and personalized the attack when he felt he was betrayed, shamed and provoked, resulting in the need to say something, be one up, or have the last word. Psalms 106:33 discloses that “rash words” came from Moses’ lips as a result.

Overcoming Grudging Ways If You are Sick and Tired

11 Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank. (Num 20:11)

A friend (M Wu) remembered the wise words a seminary professor gave to him and other graduates entering into the ministry more than two decades ago. The exhortation was: “Go slow, stay low, don’t blow!”

Someone quipped, “Letting off steam will get you more steamed.” In a pair of experiments at Iowa State University, people who took out their anger on a punching bag during a competitive computer game were twice as likely to lash out at rivals than other angry subjects that did not act out their anger on a punching bag (Los Angeles Times 6/7/99).