I was recently asked to be the guest speaker on the subject of evangelism at a retreat.
As part of my presentation I used a video clip that I thought illustrated my point well. But to my surprise some of the women in the group were visibly upset because the pastor who appeared in the clip had recently been exposed as a hypocrite and abuser in his church and had resigned in disgrace.
I was thankful that they responded frankly to my request for feedback on my presentation material since I always am looking for ways to be clear and on point. They felt that nothing he said could be trusted and in subsequent conversations were emotionally upset and more focussed on his sin than the point I was trying to get across. If I’m ever privileged to speak again on the subject I’ll avoid clouding the subject matter with material I now know gets that kind of emotional response.
However, I’m still troubled by the thought that the message can be perceived to be invalidated by flaws in the messenger. This is a tactic commonly used in politics to distract the hearer or obsfucate the message from resonating. Nothing new there, but Satan has been using the same tactic to great effect for centuries!
And yet if we look at God’s dealings with his creation through time in the scripture, He is repeatedly using flawed individuals to communicate eternal truths. Some of the characters God used would not pass scrutiny on social media today:
Paul was a murderer; Peter was a traitor; James and John were megalomaniacs; Matthew was a thief; Jonah was a coward; David was a rapist; Abraham was a sex trafficker;
…and that’s just the more egregious examples that spring to mind. Does that mean we have to throw out the letters of Paul and the Psalms of David? Hopefully you will agree with me that the message is so much more important than the messenger.
There is a fascinating story in the book of Numbers in the Old Testament when the children of Israel were wandering in the Sainai desert and had run out of water, prompting a rebellion against the leadership of Moses and Aaron.
Once before (in Numbers 17) they had been saved by a miracle where God had instructed Moses to whack a rock with his walking stick, resulting in a flood of water for people and cattle. But the people obviously must have thought that was an unrepeatable fluke because rather than asking Moses to trust in God’s grace again they decided to gripe and moan. So while they were camped at Meribah things came to a head. Here is the whole passage:
Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. They quarreled with Moses and said, “If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the Lord! Why did you bring the Lord’s community into this wilderness, that we and our livestock should die here? Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!” Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the tent of meeting and fell facedown, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. The Lord said to Moses, “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.” Numbers 20:2-12 NIV emphasis mine
I’ve heard and read lots of expositions on Moses’ disobedience and its consequences and you, like me, might have a lot of questions about what God was doing here. After all, the previous time God told Moses to strike the rock with his staff and that worked. This time God told Moses to take the staff, but speak to the rock. I think God didn’t want the people thinking that Moses had a magic wand! But I think the real problem was in what Moses said, “…must we bring you water out of this rock”. Erm, who’s this “we”, Moses? This was supposed to be a demonstration of God’s grace in action, not some magic trick from you and Aaron.
But to my point: the water still gushed out!
The disobedience, pride and faithlessness of Moses and Aaron did not invalidate the grace God wished to bestow on his people! God still held them accountable, but he would not withhold his favor because of the imperfections of his agents.
Many commentators allude to the rock producing life-giving water as a foreshadowing of the unconditional love of Jesus. I think this may have been what the hymn writer Elizabeth McKenzie had in mind when she wrote:
Love divine, from Jesus flowing, Living waters rich and free, Wondrous love without a limit, Flowing from eternity; Boundless ocean, I would cast myself on thee. SASB #468
The older I get, the more aware I have become of the ocean of grace in which my life is immersed.
Please do not let Satan steal your joy by having you focus on the sins and foibles and shortcomings of those God uses to communicate that grace. Rather let us be overwhelmed by the grace pouring out on us from a God who loves us so much! Let us be thankful that God chooses to use imperfect vessels such as we are to participate in his eternal plan of redemption!
This is valid grace indeed!
Blessings on you and yours, Jim Black
P.S. if you’d like to read previous ruminations of mine they can be found at https://www.salvationarmyconcordca.org/chronicle/?category=Bible%20Study