Numbers 20:1-13 NKJV
20 Then the children of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the Wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh; and Miriam died there and was buried there.
2 Now there was no water for the congregation; so they gathered together against Moses and Aaron. 3 And the people contended with Moses and spoke, saying: “If only we had died when our brethren died before the Lord! 4 Why have you brought up the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our animals should die here? 5 And why have you made us come up out of Egypt, to bring us to this evil place? It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates; nor is there any water to drink.” 6 So Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and they [a]fell on their faces. And the glory of the Lord appeared to them.
7 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 8 “Take the rod; you and your brother Aaron gather the congregation together. Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water; thus you shall bring water for them out of the rock, and give drink to the congregation and their animals.” 9 So Moses took the rod from before the Lord as He commanded him.
10 And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock; and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?” 11 Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank.
12 Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”
13 This was the water of [b]Meribah, because the children of Israel contended with the Lord, and He was hallowed among them.
There are many examples of small faith and great faith throughout God’s Holy Scripture. With all of these examples, how often do they make us stop and truly evaluate our own faith? We are, after all, exhorted to do so within God’s Word. For example, St. Paul was inspired to write this: “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? —unless indeed you are disqualified. (2 Cor. 13:5)
If we ever stopped to pray about our faith — created and sustained by God, of course — the prayers could take into consideration two points. First, we should always pray for genuine faith: if not finished, at least begun, even if it is as small as a mustard seed. And then the prayer should be that this mustard seed not be eaten up by the birds — which would lead to a fledgling faith be taken away from us.
Second, when God has given us faith, we should ask further that He would also multiply and sustain it in us. For we do carry it in weak vessels [2 Cor. 4:7], and the devil is full of wrath, and “prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour “[1 Peter 5:8].
On the nature and characteristics of faith, —namely, how it begins, grows and increases— Johann Spangenberg (a Lutheran theologian from the time of the Reformation) writes: “The children of Israel had such [immature] faith that they even crossed the Red Sea by that faith, though they eventually fell into such unbelief that they murmured against God both for food and for drink, and were punished terribly as a result, so that out of 600,000 no more than two, Joshua and Caleb, entered the promised land.”
“Moses had such faith that God even did many wonders and signs through him in Egypt. Yet when he was supposed to strike water from the rock, his faith fell away completely, and he angered God so greatly that He did not let him enter the Promised Land.” (The Christian Year of Grace, pg. 343, CPH) Let us pray: Lord, keep us steadfast in Your Word. Amen.