STRIKE THREE

“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

Watching sports on TV has never really been my thing. Okay, so I do watch football and NASCAR, and do keep my eye on the bracket during March Madness, but watching sports on television is not the same as playing the sport. Baseball is one of those sports; one of those I would rather play as opposed to watch. There is a totally different feeling in holding the bat and making contact with the ball myself as opposed to watching a guy on TV do the same thing. Furthermore, there is a different emotion that comes over me when it is I who strikes out as opposed to the player on my screen. Yet while I do not play the sport of baseball with the kids in the neighborhood anymore, I can say I know both these feelings. And maybe it is safe to say that I know the feeling of striking out more than I do hitting the game winning run. Allow me to explain as we look at the life of Moses.
When I think of Moses and his inability to enter the Promise Land, I think of baseball. Strange relation, I know, but not too far off really. You see, Moses had an anger problem. On three different occasions he allowed his anger to get the best of him and in the end, was struck out. Let’s take a quick look at these three times.
The first strike is found in Exodus 2:11-12. The chapter records that he went out to where his own people were and watched them doing their hard labor. Seeing one of his people, an Israelite, getting beaten by the Egyptian taskmaster, Moses glanced around him. Seeing no one around, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. While the Bible does not say specifically, “…thus Moses was mad and killed a man,” it does point to the fact that his anger flared up when he saw the mistreatment of a fellow Israelite. Instead of handling it in perhaps a better way, Moses took matters into his own hands and allowed himself to swing at this crazy pitch.
The second strike came years later, and is found in Exodus 32:19. After spending forty days on the mountain with God, he begins his trek down and hears a celebration going on. When he gets closer, he sees the camp dancing around a golden calf idol and his anger flares once more. Moses throws down the stone tablets he just got from God with the Ten Commandments written on them, breaking them at the foot of the mountain. Another crazy pitch; another swing.
The final strike, however, happens when he is already upset. Instead of calling for a time out of the umpire, Moses plays on and swings at the third pitch in Numbers 20:8-12. Instead of speaking to the rock as God had told him, he takes his staff in anger and strikes the rock instead. But this action caused Moses to strike out, and to not gain access to the Promise Land (v12).
Did Moses make it to heaven? Yes. Did Moses make it to the Promise Land? No. Why? Because of Moses’ actions taken in anger, God denied him the honor of going into the Promised Land. But why do I share all this with you? The answer is easy. I do not want us to be in the same shoes as Moses concerning our anger. Anger is a natural emotion, but as Psalm 4:4 tells us, “In your anger do not sin…” This thought is so important that Paul even reminds us in Ephesians 4:26 of these same words. I want us all to hit the homeruns, but we must be wise and not swing at the crazy pitches.