Page 100 - The Christian Life and the Church Life_Government of God

Living under Authority and Representing God 99

said, “You know what I did, right? You know what I did. You know the result of
what I did; I cannot enter into the good land.” Then he is telling his spiritual
children, “Do not do that!”
Our Needing to Learn the Serious Lesson from the One Time
That Moses Failed to Represent God
We need to learn the serious lesson from the one time that Moses failed
to represent God (20:2-13).
In Striking the Rock Twice and in Calling the People Rebels, Moses Not
Sanctifying God in the Sight of the People of Israel

In striking the rock twice and in calling the people rebels, Moses did not
sanctify God in the sight of the people of Israel (vv. 10-12).

To Sanctify God Being to Make Him Holy, That Is, Separate from All the
False Gods; to Fail to Sanctify God Being to Make Him Common

To sanctify God is to make Him holy, that is, separate from all the false
gods; to fail to sanctify God is to make Him common (v. 12). When Moses
lost control of his spirit, he was angry and called the children of Israel rebels,
and disobeyed God’s word to speak to the rock. He just gave the impression,
“God is angry at you. God is against you. God calls you rebels.” He was a
representative. That is why—just applying this very briefly to family life—it
is no shock to me that children, their view of God at least for a period of time,
is that God is like their dad. We have a weighty responsibility. We represent
God in the family, and the children intuitively sense this, and what do they
see? Some have grown up fearing God and not wanting to believe in God,
“He is a God of anger. God does not like me.” So to not sanctify Him is to
put God in the category of the pagan gods that were full of rage and hatred.
In Being Angry with the People and in Wrongly Striking the Rock Twice,
Moses Failing to Sanctify God
In being angry with the people and in wrongly striking the rock twice,
Moses failed to sanctify God (vv. 10-11).
In Being Angry When God Was Not Angry, Moses Failing to Represent God
Rightly in His Holy Nature, and in Striking the Rock Twice,
His Not Keeping God’s Word in His Economy