One thing we see repeatedly in Scripture is how seriously God takes unbelief, especially among people who have personally witnessed His glory, power, and mighty works in accomplishing His purposes.
There seems to be a greater responsibility placed upon those who have seen what God can do. When difficulties arise, the memory of His past faithfulness should strengthen our present faith.
Consider Zechariah in Luke 1. He was a priest and a man who had served God faithfully. Yet, when the angel Gabriel announced that his wife, Elizabeth, would bear a son, Zechariah asked, “How can I be sure of this?” Because he did not believe the message, he became unable to speak until the promise was fulfilled.
The story of Moses presents an even deeper lesson.
“Is the LORD’s arm too short?” Numbers 11:23.
When we read Numbers 20 and see that Moses was denied entry into the Promised Land after striking the rock instead of speaking to it, we may initially wonder whether the punishment was too severe. After all, Moses had sacrificed so much. He had endured years of complaints, rebellion, and opposition from the very people he was leading.
But Numbers 20 should not be read in isolation.
In Numbers 14, after the spies returned from Canaan, ten of them gave a discouraging report. The people became afraid, rebelled against Moses and Aaron, and even spoke about returning to Egypt. Joshua and Caleb pleaded with them to trust the Lord, but the people refused.
God was angry because these were not people who had never experienced His power. They had witnessed the plagues in Egypt. They had crossed the Red Sea. They had seen the pillar of cloud and fire. They had eaten manna from heaven. Yet, when they faced another difficulty, they behaved as though the God who had brought them that far was incapable of taking them any further.
God said, “Not one of those who saw my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times—not one of them will ever see the land I promised…” (Numbers 14:22–23).
This judgment becomes even more meaningful when we remember what God had revealed about Himself to Moses earlier. In Exodus 34:6–7, the Lord passed before Moses and proclaimed Himself as “the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,” while also declaring that He “does not leave the guilty unpunished.”
Moses later appealed to this very revelation of God’s character when interceding for Israel in Numbers 14. God listened to Moses and did not destroy the nation immediately. Yet forgiveness did not mean there would be no consequences. The rebellious generation would wander in the wilderness and would not enter the Promised Land. Joshua and Caleb, who had trusted God, would enter it.
There is something particularly striking about the reason God gave for His judgement: these people had seen His glory and His signs, yet they still refused to trust Him.
And this brings me to Moses himself.
Before Numbers 20, there is a remarkable episode in Numbers 11 that is easy to overlook. The people complained because they craved meat. Moses became deeply frustrated by the burden of leading them. He poured out his distress before God, and God appointed seventy elders to help him carry the burden of leadership.
Then God made an extraordinary promise: He would give the people meat—not merely for one or two days, but for an entire month, until they became sick of it.
Moses responded, “Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, ‘I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!’ Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?” (Numbers 11:21–22).
God’s response is powerful: “Is the LORD’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true for you” (Numbers 11:23).
Think about that for a moment. This was Moses: the man who had stood before Pharaoh; the man through whom God had turned the Nile to blood; the man who had witnessed the plagues of Egypt; the man who had stretched out his hand and watched the Red Sea divide; the man who had seen God provide manna from heaven and water in the wilderness; and the man who spoke with God in an extraordinary way and encountered His glory on Mount Sinai. Yet, under the pressure of leadership and the weight of frustration, even Moses reached a moment when he questioned how God could possibly accomplish what He had promised.
We should not conclude that Numbers 11 had already disqualified Moses from entering the Promised Land, because Scripture specifically identifies the incident at Meribah in Numbers 20 as the reason he was denied entry. Nevertheless, Numbers 11 reveals something important: even Moses was vulnerable to the same danger that repeatedly trapped Israel—allowing the size of the present problem to overshadow the memory of God’s past power.
Then came Numbers 20. The people again complained because there was no water. God instructed Moses to speak to the rock before the people, and water would come from it. But Moses, overwhelmed by anger and frustration, struck the rock twice. Water still came. God remained faithful even when His servant failed.
But afterward 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 20:12).
Notice God’s words: “You did not trust in me enough.” The issue was deeper than merely hitting a rock instead of speaking to it. At the heart of the incident were trust, obedience and the failure to represent God’s holiness properly before His people.
There is a sobering lesson here. Sometimes the greatest danger to our faith is not that we have never seen God work. It is that we have seen Him work many times and still allow the next difficulty to make us question whether He can do it again.
The Israelites had seen the Red Sea divide, yet they trembled before the inhabitants of Canaan. Moses had seen God perform wonders that few human beings would ever witness, yet for a moment he looked at six hundred thousand hungry men and wondered how God could possibly feed them. And perhaps that is why the question God asked Moses in Numbers 11 remains relevant: “Is the LORD’s arm too short?”
When the problem becomes bigger, has His arm become shorter? When the money runs low, has His arm become shorter? When the medical report is frightening, has His arm become shorter? When the door remains closed, has His arm become shorter? When prayers seem unanswered and the waiting becomes painful, has His arm become shorter? No. The God who was faithful yesterday has not lost His power today.
Our past encounters with God should become evidence for present faith. Every answered prayer, every deliverance, every provision and every impossible situation through which God has carried us should become a testimony we bring into the next battle.
David looked at Goliath and remembered the lion and the bear. Israel looked at the giants and forgot Egypt and the Red Sea. The difference was not what God had done; the difference was what they remembered when the next giant appeared.
So when the next difficulty comes, do not allow the size of the problem to erase the history of God’s faithfulness. Remember what you have seen. Remember where He brought you from. Remember the doors He opened. Remember the battles He fought. Remember the prayers He answered.
And when circumstances whisper, “Can God really do this?” let your testimony answer: “I have seen too much of His faithfulness to doubt Him now.”
Written by Elder Douglas Otoo (Cork District, The CoP-Ireland)