The Power of God

The Power of God

God’s power is over everything that He has made.

And the glory of the LORD appeared to them, and the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.” Numbers 20:6-8

Here is the incident which cost Moses entry to the promised land. We can understand why Moses was upset, and how, after forty frustrating years, he might take personally the grumbling of the people. But Moses’ sin is not so much that he put himself in the place of God (“Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?”, v. 10). Rather, Moses’ great sin—and it was a great sin—was that He obscured from the people’s eyes the power of God’s Word.

The Law of God is the Word of God, and it has power to bring blessing and life to those who embrace and obey it through Jesus Christ (Lev. 18:1-5; John 6:63; John 14:6). By His Word, God created the world and set everything in its place. By His Word He brought His people out of Egypt. By His Word He would bless them in the land of promise. For the Word of God is living and powerful, sustaining all that is and blessing those who submit to it.

For Moses to strike the rock was to prevent the people from being reassured of the power of God’s Word at this crucial moment when they were about to embark upon the campaign to subdue the land and gain the promises of God. What they saw, at this moment of great need, was not the power of God’s Word, but the power (magic?) of a charismatic leader who humbled them even as he served them. For this transgression, Moses forfeited the land.

The great unseen power which operates throughout the Law of God, and all the worldview of the Bible, is the Word of God. What God has made by His Word, He sustains by His Word. What He has promised in His Word He will fulfill by His Word. The power of the Biblical worldview is the Word of God. When we lose sight of this, and put our faith in men rather than in God’s Word, we forfeit the blessings He has promised. Know God; hear, trust, and obey His Word. This is the essence of faith, which is the operative power of the Biblical worldview.

For more insight to the nature of God’s Covenant, order a copy of T. M.’s book, I Will Be Your God, from our online store. Visit our website, www.ailbe.org, and sign up to receive our thrice-weekly devotional, Crosfigell, featuring writers from the period of the Celtic Revival and T. M.’s reflections on Scripture and the Celtic Christian tradition.

–

In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T. M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.