Divining the Water
Sahara
I like to think that there is a solution at hand for every problem or trouble, that I just need to look closely, believe and it will appear.
Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and your brother Aaron, and command the rock before their eyes to yield its water. Thus you shall bring water out of the rock for them; thus you shall provide drink for the congregation and their livestock. - Numbers 20:8
In today's reading from Numbers, Moses and Aaron are deeply troubled. The people are rebelling because there is no water. They are angry that they have been led into the desert to die.
They have complained before. And before, Moses went before God for help.
Once again, it is God to the rescue. He tells them to strike the rock and water will flow. Could they have found the water without God's help?
If the message I get from this story is that God provides, I think I miss an important lesson. I might approach all problems with an expectation that somehow God will come to my rescue and solve my problem.
When I think of all the places in the world where water is in short supply, I have a hard time believing that God could intercede on their behalf but chooses not to.
So, maybe it is not a story about God solving our problems for us. Maybe we are being shown that there is a solution in our hands, and all we need to do is have the faith and confidence to use what we are given to solve it ourselves.
What Moses demonstrates here is ownership and leadership. By taking the problem as his own, he shows us what we are lacking in our attempts to address the problems of the world. We may raise our voices and complain that no one is doing anything, just like the people who come to Moses and Aaron, but no one takes the lead and does something.
I guess I could ask myself the question, who am I in this picture?
Am I the one who stands up and complains, or the one who goes out divining the water?
More times than not, I have to admit, I will take the path of least resistance, thanking God for the Moseses and Aarons in the world, rather than be one.
More to come...
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