Deuteronomy 3:23: “And I besought the LORD at that time, saying,”
Moses is asking God to allow him to enter the Promised Land. But because he demonstrated a lack of faith he was forbidden. If you recall God told Moses to speak to the rock to bring water from the rock. This is the second time he brought water from the rock. Yet this second time came almost 40 years after the first time. The first time he was instructed by God to strike the rock with his rod. He did this and water flowed forth. However, this second time he was told to speak to the rock. Yet he still struck the rock with his rod.
You see the people knew the story of the water from the rock and how Moses struck the rock with his rod. Now they need water again so they were waiting for the magical rod to strike the rock again. Only after forty years of watching Moses perform miracles with that rod they began to believe there was power in that rod. I know it is ridiculous. We know better. I mean we all know that it is our faith that heals us and not some person claiming the gift of healing that touches us. We know we do not need to be touched by him to be healed, that God will heal us through our own faith. We all know that but, you know, people in those days were not as sophisticated as we are today. Nonetheless the people were about to enter the Promised Land and it was time to get rid of 40 year old traditions like Moses’s rod. God told Moses to take the rod with him in Numbers 20:8 “Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.” Note, even though he had the rod, he was not to use the rod like he did 40 years earlier; he was to only speak to the rock. Yet, when the time came and the people began to pressure him he resorted to the old rod and struck the rock with his rod. We learn in verse 12 of the same chapter: Numbers 20:12: “And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.” I am not sure where the Sunday School tale that Moses was forbidden to enter the Promised Land because he got angry and struck the rock came from, it is certainly not Biblical. My Bible in every translations says not only he but his brother Aaron who should have known better were forbidden to enter because they did not believe God. He had not risen to that level of faith to be able to speak to the rock and bring water; he had to depend upon the old crutch, his rod to bring forth water. He knew there was no power in the rod but he didn’t know it. Just as we know wearing a piece of jewelry with a cross around our neck or a tattoo of a cross has no power but yet, the enemy keeps whispering to us that “it won’t hurt, maybe it will keep me away, ha ha.” We cover our walls with pictures of Jesus, crosses; lay a Bible on our coffee table and the enemy whisper: “Good show Bunkie, the Lord will surely bless you now that you have all these relics lying around. Who needs faith when you’ve got a cheap aluminum cross in your pocket?” I am not saying these things are sinful. I like seeing a cross in a church, I like seeing a cross around someone’s neck, it a good conversation started, but when you cross that line that Moses did thinking it will add a little extra oomph to your prayer, then your faith is faltering and you just don’t have the faith to enter to the Promised Land.
So now Moses is forbidden to enter the Promised Land, he blew it, he just didn’t have the faith to do it. That is scary because if Moses with his years of seeing the miraculous of God and still failed, then how much more am I apt to fail. We must always be on guard and never take our faith for granted. Moses did want to enter the Promised Land and he beseeched God. That word beseeched is a curious word in Hebrew. It is the word ‘etchanan from the root word chanan. It means to be gracious, merciful and compassionate. He is not begging God as the English word beseech would suggest, but he is appealing to God for mercy and compassion. This word is in a Hiphal form so he has been caused to appeal to God for mercy and compassion. You know sometimes the Lord just has to withhold some blessing from us to bring us to our knees, to cause us to seek Him realizing how we have faltered in our faith.
I have spent considerable time here at the Abbey thinking on prayer. I have focused on the Hebrew word for prayer palal. But I recall now reading in the Mishnah Rabbah that prayer is called by ten names: cry, howl, groan, song, encounter, criticism or complaining (huh?), prostration, judgment and the word for today beseeching. Prayer is all these things.
I wrote a book entitled: “God’s Love for Us.” In that book I compare our relationship to God like that of a marriage relationship. If you think about the communication between two people who love each other you realize that this communication has many different dynamics. Sometimes it is a quiet tender communication, sometimes it is criticism or even complaining, sometimes it is just singing together, weeping together and sometimes it is just laying down together prostrate, not saying a word but just holding each other and enjoying the warm presences of each other. When the lover is away his mind is on his beloved. He is thinking of all the things he will tell her when he returns. He is passing all the stores thinking of the perfect gift to bring her when he returns that will show her how much he loves her. He is communicating with his beloved without ceasing. Even when they are separated by a distance his mind is stayed on her and that is communication. You know what? I am just romantic enough to think that if two people love each other and are separated by a distance, they can both look at the moon at midnight and know each other are looking at the same moon and in some spiritual way they can feel each other’s presences as they share the moon together. If we can be in constant communication with our physical lover, how much more can we be with our Spiritual Love.
I fear I will leave the Abbey not understanding what prayer really is. I promise myself to spend as much time as possible with my Christian friends and grill them until they tire of me and I drained every ounce of knowledge they have about prayer. As the disciples said to Jesus: “Teach us (me) how to pray.”
I have been taught that one of the things prayer is is that it’s the creative power of God released by our relationship with Him through our lips as we speak (prayer) and share our desires and goals as our hearts become one. As an example the beauty of the earth with all its creatures, the universe with all its laws and magnificence, the stars, galaxies and moons are all a part of Jesus’ prayer history with His Father. As Jesus spoke engaged in prayer with His Father the the earth was created. Truly we have only begun to understand!