The Water of Meribah
By
Shelby G.
Floyd
Someone said, “The Old Testament is the New Testament
concealed and the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed.” Paul declares
twice that the events that happened during the history of Israel were written
as examples for our learning and admonition: “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so
that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have
hope” (Romans 15:4); “These things
happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom
the fulfillment of the ages has come” (1 Corinthians 10:11).
For
example, after much complaining to Moses and Aaron about the lack of water to
drink in the desert, God gave this instruction 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.”...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” (Numbers 20:6-11).
God told
Moses he world not enter the Promised Land because he had taken the credit for
the water instead of giving God the glory (Numbers
We learn
from this principle that in worship today there is a big difference between
“sing” and “play.” The command is to “Speak to one another with psalms,
hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord,
always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5:19-20). The command to Christians is to “speak,”
“sing,” “give thanks to God,” and do this “in the name of Christ.” Singing
a-cappella—in the style of the New
Testament church, is worship authorized by the Lord. Therefore, when we begin
the assembly worship, the leader does not say, “play on Miss. Betsy!” Copyright
© 2010 Shelby Floyd, All Rights Reserved