The Power of "No!" - PART 2

How can God’s denials of our prayer requests teach us about His sovereignty, creativity, and priorities? Let us look at three examples of those who experienced these Divine refusals. The first one is Moses.

Let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan – that fine hill country and Lebanon.” But because of you the Lord was angry with me and would not listen to me. “That is enough,” the Lord said. “Do not speak to me anymore about this matter.” Deuteronomy 3:25-26 (NIV)

In this section of Deuteronomy, Moses recounted for the Children of Israel a conversation he had with God about not being allowed to enter the Promised Land. Moses was so troubled by God’s decision to exclude him from this opportunity that he begged God to reconsider. However, God was so adamant that His verdict stand, He not only denied Moses’ request, but also insisted the matter never be brought up again. What could have led God to such action against the man He spoke to as a friend (Exodus 33:11)? To understand God’s motivation, we must go back to Numbers 20:1-11. It is here we learn about a crisis the Children of Israel faced while in the Desert of Zin. There was no water in that region, and fearing their death from thirst, the people challenged Moses’ and Aaron’s ability to lead them. God’s solution was for Moses to speak to a large rock, and water would come out of it to meet the needs of the people. However, instead of speaking to the rock, Moses took his staff and hit the rock. Water came out, but Moses’s choice to act in a manner different than what God had commanded him had its consequences. Both he and Aaron were prohibited from entering the Promised Land.

To us, the difference between hitting a rock and speaking to it may be a trivial one. I mean, it was just a rock. We think that way because we were not in God’s position – we were not the One disrespected. God’s swift response to Moses’ action enlightens us to the egregious nature of the offense.

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.” Numbers 20:12 (NIV)

This was bigger than hitting a rock. It was about Moses disobeying God in full view of all the Israelites. Everyone heard what God had said, and everyone saw Moses do something different. What was God supposed to do? Brush it off as if it were not a problem? How many other Israelites who came out from Egypt did God refuse to let into the Promised Land because of their willful disregard of His commands? All of them, except for Joshua and Caleb (Numbers 14:29-30). Why should have Moses been held to a different standard? Because we like him? We may get sentimental about such things, but there is no place for favoritism with God when it comes to His honor. Unfortunately, Moses could not let go of the fact he had been denied entrance into the Promised Land. Even after knowing God’s track record of dealing with disobedience, Moses felt he could ask God for an exemption. God’s response was to deny the request and then prohibit any future discussion. In this case, God’s refusal to give Moses what he wanted reinforced His sovereignty to direct Moses’ life.

Moses was driven by sentiment. He wanted to see “the good land” and “that fine hill country.” He put 40 years into leading the Children of Israel out of Egypt and through their wilderness wanderings. All he could see was what he felt he deserved for all his efforts (Deuteronomy 3:24). In that moment, he could no longer see the grander purpose at work: that the journey was not about him, but about God being glorified through that experience. Moses may have been a great leader, but he was never the one in charge. That was always God’s role. God was not there to help Moses and the Children of Israel fulfill their plans for their lives. Moses and the Children of Israel were there because God had given them His plan for their lives.

As much as we may wish otherwise, God is not here to help us do whatever we want. Even under ideal conditions, we are subject to distraction from our true purpose. We work hard to be good people and help those we love, but the harder we work at these things, the easier it is to believe we deserve them. Sometimes, they have little to do with God and more to do with our emotional involvement because we are so heavily invested. We get caught up with wanting so many good things that we end up losing sight of the greatest thing. At the end of our days, when we stand before God to give an account for our lives, the test will not be how well we accomplished our goals, but to what degree did we fulfill God’s plans for our lives (Matthew 25:14-30; 1 Corinthians 3:13-15). When sentiment distracts us with false hopes that we insist on pursuing, each Divine refusal to fulfill those hopes is God nudging us back in the right direction, keeping us focused on His will. It is God seeing that grander purpose for our lives when we cannot, and choosing to intervene. Each no from God means that His sovereignty is at work in our lives, keeping us on track to complete the journeys He has chosen for all of us. That is the power of “No!”

END OF PART TWO.

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