I’m sure you, as a parent, have had the experience of "putting your foot down" on a certain subject with your children. They have begged for a toy, they have pressed for a trip, they have wanted a favor, and you have said, "NO!" How they continue to harass you for that certain something that seems to mean more to them than anything in their life! They whine! They cajole! They yearn! But, you as a parent come down hard on them with a negative answer. Finally after minutes–perhaps hours or days of harassment, you look at them in full face and say, "Speak no more unto me of this matter!" You have had it!

You, as a parent, feel it is not wise for your child to have what he wants. Perhaps there is nothing really wrong with what he wants, but it is wrong for him at this time. Perhaps the child is being punished and his punishment is to not be given his desire. His disobedience has brought this denial on your part.

So it was with Moses and God! Moses was so disgusted with the children of Israel in their complaining about having no water, that he "hit" the Rock. God had told him to "speak" to the Rock. We think of Moses as being almost perfect, don’t we? We think of him as meek and obedient in his relationship to the LORD. But here in this passage of Scripture, we see him in the flesh disobeying God. Because of this disobedience, he was not permitted to set a foot on the "Promised Land." (Aaron, too, disobeyed the LORD at the Rock.)

To you and me, it just doesn’t seem fair. It probably didn’t seem fair to Moses either. For here in this verse, we read how Moses had asked God, "Let me go over and see the good land. . ." That is when God emphatically put his foot down and said, "Speak no more unto me of this matter."

I can’t help but remember the Apostle Paul. He had some kind of ailment that he called "a thorn in the flesh." Whatever it was, it disturbed Paul. Satan used it to buffet him. It made life more difficult than what it already was. He wrote in 2 Corinthians 12:8-10: "For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me." We would think that such a man of prayer and such a faithful follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, would have his health problems taken care of by God immediately. We would think that the One who called Paul to suffer so for Him, would answer his prayer, wouldn’t you? But no! God’s answer to Paul was just like his answer to Moses years before, "Speak no more unto me of this matter."

The exact words are found in 2 Corinthians: "My grace is sufficient for thee. . ." So when the time came--Moses climbed that mountain called PISGAH. He looked all around and saw with his own eyes the "Good Land" that he and Joshua fought so hard and faithfully to conquer. Yet, Moses accepted God’s will in that most difficult situation.

So with Paul, he, too, climbed the mountain of "sufficient grace" and looked over to the land of "supernatural strength." In his "weakness," Paul worked for Jesus Christ. All the while, he was"glorying in his infirmities"–-infirmities that God would not remove from his life.

Do you have such infirmities? DO YOU HAVE SUCH WEAKNESSES? Do you have lands and projects that someone else must complete because of your disobedience? I don’t know. I just know about me and my life. God must speak to each of us in His own way for each of our illnesses and disobedient acts. May we use Moses and Paul as our examples. They taught us how to live in spite of our distresses and disappointments. They taught us how to receive the grace of God and let it spill into our lives! (ysw)