Looking Into the Heart

Scripture: Numbers 20 & James 4

“Numbers 20:1   And the people 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.

Numbers 20:2 Now there was no water for the congregation. And they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. Numbers 20:3 And the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Would that we had perished when our brothers perished before the LORD! Numbers 20:4 Why have you brought the assembly of the LORD into this wilderness, that we should die here, both we and our cattle? Numbers 20:5 And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink.” Numbers 20:6 Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces. And the glory of the LORD appeared to them, Numbers 20:7 and the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, Numbers 20:8 “Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.” Numbers 20:9 And Moses took the staff from before the LORD, as he commanded him.

Numbers 20:10 Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” Numbers 20:11 And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock. Numbers 20:12 And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.” Numbers 20:13 These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarreled with the LORD, and through them he showed himself holy.

Numbers 20:14 Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom: “Thus says your brother Israel: You know all the hardship that we have met: Numbers 20:15 how our fathers went down to Egypt, and we lived in Egypt a long time. And the Egyptians dealt harshly with us and our fathers. Numbers 20:16 And when we cried to the LORD, he heard our voice and sent an angel and brought us out of Egypt. And here we are in Kadesh, a city on the edge of your territory. Numbers 20:17 Please let us pass through your land. We will not pass through field or vineyard, or drink water from a well. We will go along the King’s Highway. We will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left until we have passed through your territory.” Numbers 20:18 But Edom said to him, “You shall not pass through, lest I come out with the sword against you.” Numbers 20:19 And the people of Israel said to him, “We will go up by the highway, and if we drink of your water, I and my livestock, then I will pay for it. Let me only pass through on foot, nothing more.” Numbers 20:20 But he said, “You shall not pass through.” And Edom came out against them with a large army and with a strong force. Numbers 20:21 Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his territory, so Israel turned away from him.

Numbers 20:22 And they journeyed from Kadesh, and the people of Israel, the whole congregation, came to Mount Hor. Numbers 20:23 And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor, on the border of the land of Edom, Numbers 20:24 “Let Aaron be gathered to his people, for he shall not enter the land that I have given to the people of Israel, because you rebelled against my command at the waters of Meribah. Numbers 20:25 Take Aaron and Eleazar his son and bring them up to Mount Hor. Numbers 20:26 And strip Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son. And Aaron shall be gathered to his people and shall die there.” Numbers 20:27 Moses did as the LORD commanded. And they went up Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation. Numbers 20:28 And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son. And Aaron died there on the top of the mountain. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain. Numbers 20:29 And when all the congregation saw that Aaron had perished, all the house of Israel wept for Aaron thirty days.” (Numbers 20:1–29 ESV)

“James 4:1   What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? James 4:2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. James 4:3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. James 4:4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. James 4:5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? James 4:6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. James 4:8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. James 4:9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. James 4:10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

James 4:11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. James 4:12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

James 4:13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— James 4:14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. James 4:15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” James 4:16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. James 4:17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” (James 4:1–17 ESV)