Thursday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
August 5, 2021
Daily Reading from the USCCB: Numbers 20:1-13
Still more complaints–this time over the lack of water. “We should have stayed in Egypt.” God orders Moses to provide water by striking a rock with his staff. Moses rebukes the people for their lack of trust, strikes the rock–twice–and water springs forth.
Somehow striking the rock twice constituted unfaithfulness by Moses and Aaron. Perhaps their fault lay in a lack of confidence in God’s generosity. Perhaps it lay in Moses’ unwillingness to believe that after all God had done for his people, he would do still more.
In any case, this event marked the end of Moses’ leadership. He would not be the one to lead the people into the Promised Land. Do I sometimes wonder about God’s relationship with me?
