Blocked By Anger

And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink. And Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as he commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, 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 water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also. And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, 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.
(Numbers 20:7-12)

Thought For Today:
One would think that Moses, having seen God face to face and experiencing all the wonders God had performed, would have followed the Lord's commands exactly as instructed.  But Moses was so fed up with the people's complaining and murmuring that he called them a bunch of rebels.  At this point, Moses is angry with them. And so he took matters into his own hands.  Solomon says, "He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly..." (Proverbs 14:17). Notice that Moses was angry, and he dealt foolishly by smiting the rock instead of speaking to it as God had commanded him.  How often would you say you do things against God's commands because you are angry with someone or the people? I often wonder how many times I may have hurt someone or done wrong because someone made me angry.  I have realized that the antidote for anger is to get away or just be quiet.  How would you have handled the situation if you had been Moses?  If you will notice, after this incident, Aaron and Moses lose their leadership roles and are told that they cannot lead the children of Israel into the promised land.  Paul tells us, "Be ye angry, and sin not..."(Ephesians 4:26)  . Are you one that gets angry quickly?  Are you one that holds grudges and bitterness in your heart?  Well, let me encourage you to work on removing it.  It's not worth your peace of mind and your salvation.