February 15, 2019
Numbers 20:8-12
“Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.” So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence, just as he commanded him. He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?”  Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.  But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”
New International Version (NIV)
                 Someone has described our generation as the “age of rage.”  It doesn’t quite have the ring of the “greatest generation.”  Are you angry today?  What is the cause of your anger?  As God asked Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

                Moses’ anger seems to me to be righteous.  He has been herding sheep masquerading as cats in the wilderness.  They are taking laps in the desert because the people didn’t trust God.  Then someone complained about the menu and the water, and Moses, exhausted, fell on his face before God.  God told him to take the rod of God and go talk to a rock.  Moses started that way, but instead of talking he started striking the rock.  Water came out.  All’s well that ends well, right?  Not exactly.  God told Moses he would not get to enter the promised land because his anger got the best of him.

                A tourguide pointed to a volcano in a mountain range and said, “It would have been the tallest, but it blew it’s top.”  Not much of our anger is righteous.  True, we can be angry without sinning, but it is hard to do.  Like so much acid in our soul it corrodes.  So with whom are we angry today?  What is that anger doing to us?  Anger can consume the best of people.  So James wrote in 1:19-20, “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger.  Human anger does not bring about the righteousness that God desires.”
Pray with me:    
Father, search our hearts today and reveal the source of any anger we feel.  Deliver us from the disaster of acting out our anger against others.  We bring our anger to you and ask you to remove it from our souls before it damages us, others, and your Kingdom.  Give us patience with those who disagree.  Let your love for us so permeate our souls that it flows out of us in authentic love for others.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.     
This year our Every Day with Jesus readings will follow The Bible Project Read Scripture Plan.  Copies of this reading plan are available at Tallowood Baptist Church, or download 
the app at readscripture.org.  Read through the Bible with us in 2019!
Joyfully, 
Duane 
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