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"Take the rod . . . . . speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth
his water. Moses . . . . . said . . . . . hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of
this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice. And
the Lord spake unto Moses, 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" (Numb. 20: 8-12).
Moses, by not obeying God's precise command, not only made the incident less of a
miracle than God intended but also spoilt the picture and its message that God planned
this miracle to convey both to Israel at that time and also to the world who would later
read the record of its occurrence. The miracles of God carry an underlined message and
the very nature of their occurrence is their identification with the Creator. What is man
that he should rob God of His glory because in man's puffed up human wisdom he cannot
reproduce these miracles in his laboratory, or see such happenings in surrounding nature
in his small life span? We should take warning of God's judgment on the unbelief of
Moses.
Before we leave the opening chapters of this Gospel, consider the important place God
accorded to John the Baptist. Indeed, Christ testified of him:
"Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the
Baptist" (Luke 7: 28).
This important witness for God was given special circumstances surrounding his birth
(Luke 1: 5-25), and the date and place can be fixed today by the details given in verse 5.
John the Baptist's witness can be summarized:
1.
I am not the Christ (John 1: 20).
2.
I am not Elias (verse 21. He is referring to Mal. 4: 5 where Elijah, same as
Elias, is prophesied as coming before the dreadful Day of the Lord, an event
still future).
3.
I am not that prophet (verse 21. He is referring to Deut. 18: 18, a prophecy
made by Moses concerning Christ).
4.
Positive testimony:
"The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, behold the Lamb of God,
which taketh away the sin of the world" (1: 29).
"And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it
abode upon Him. And I knew Him not: but He that sent me to baptize with water, the same
said unto me, upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, the
same is He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare record that this is the
Son of God" (1: 32-34).
This almost reads like evidence in a court of law. For many of us, familiar with the
Bible in a superficial way from childhood, some passages have lost their bite and impact.
The above verses underline the importance God considers should be attached to the
Person and words of His Son, and the evidence should be more than sufficient to satisfy
the critical Thomases of today.