Reckless Decisions

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. I'm Tom Felton and I titled today's encouragement reckless decisions. As a teen, I was driving way too fast trying to follow my friend to his home after a high school basketball practice. It was raining hard and I was having a hard time keeping up with his car. Suddenly my wipers cleared the watery windshield only to reveal my friend's sedan stopped in front of me. I slammed on the brakes, slid off the street and struck a large tree. My car was destroyed.

Later, I awoke in the comatose ward of a local hospital. While by God's grace I survived, my reckless ways had proved to be very costly. In Numbers chapter 20, Moses made a reckless decision that cost him greatly.

His poor choice, however, involved a lack of water, not too much of it as in my case. The Israelites were without water in the desert of Zin and the people gathered in opposition to Moses. God told the frazzled leader to speak to a rock and it would pour out its water.

Instead, he struck the rock twice. God said, because you did not trust in me, you will not enter the promised land. When we make reckless decisions, we pay the consequences. Proverbs 19 says, desire without knowledge is not good.

How much more will hasty feet miss the way? May we prayerfully, carefully seek God's wisdom and guidance in the choices and decisions we make today. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Numbers chapter 20, verses 1 through 12. In the first month, the whole Israelite community arrived at the desert of Zin and they stayed at Kadesh. There, Miriam died and was buried. 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 is 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 face down 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. Let's pray. Jesus, please help us to follow your wise instruction as your spirit leads us. Thank you, Lord. It's in your name that we pray. Amen. Today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.