To See Life Clearly

Pretty much all of us have seen drones of some sort on a fairly continuous basis. Last week I was driving on an interstate in Florida. There was a body of water off to my right and I could just see something kicking up a lot of water, going at about the highway speed. Once I cleared a little knoll that obscured my vision, I could see it was a remote-controlled speedboat. It was tiny, but it was very fast. Again, a couple of weeks ago I saw a remote-controlled car, and another time recently I saw a drone hovering over the interstate. In each case, I knew there was someone somewhere controlling those vehicles. In other words, there is cause and effect.

In life, we tend to make decisions of attribution. We attribute certain effects to certain causes. We give credit or blame. Someone who is agnostic is defined by what it is he does not know, not by what he does know. What he does not know is if there is a God. Both Psalm 14:1 and Psalm 53:1 say, “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.” Literally, it says, “The fool hath said in his heart, “No, God.’” So, agnosticism is both theological, someone does not believe in God, and practical, someone who says, “No, God.”

Sometimes we are so clever today that we attribute everything to our own knowledge. We don’t wonder about the weather. We can look on our app and see the weather. We tend to think of the ancient pagans as very ignorant because they attributed everything to their gods. Now somewhere in here is where we should be, which is to say we are not pagans who have a god for everything, but there is a God to which we can attribute this universe. The fact is that to see life clearly you must see God clearly. You do not see clearly when you do not see God.

In Numbers 20:1 the children of Israel are heading onward, “Then came the children of Israel, even unto the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first month.” It tells us about the death of Miriam. Then it tells us there was no water there so the people “gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. And the people chode” with them. They chewed them out and asked questions. “Why have ye brought up the congregation of the LORD into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there? And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt.” This was the nation to Moses. They were complaining. What they were doing was attributing their exodus out of Egypt to Moses. They were attributing their troubles to Moses. They totally disregarded God, so they did not see life clearly.

Then it comes to Moses and the people. In verse 10 God had told Moses to take the rod and speak to a rock from which water would come, “And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?” You may recall that he smote the rock twice and water came out abundantly. Moses did not do what God had told him. He smote the rock instead of speaking to it, but God gave mercy and provision. He also judged Moses for this.

When the nation came to Moses, they were attributing the work of God to Moses. When Moses spoke to the people, he called them rebels even as he was rebelling against God. So, he was attributing the miracle of the water to some extent to himself. He said, “Must we fetch you water out of this rock?” Moses did not bring the water; God brought the water.

Once again, there is Moses before the people. God said in verse 12, “Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.” God gave the land; God gave the water; and Moses failed to set God apart as special in the eyes of the people. So, God set the record straight. Moses’ problem was that he believed not and he did not show God to be who God was in the eyes of the people. So, you see life clearly when you see God clearly.

Now you have a couple of problems. First, seeing God clarifies problems. God has good in mind. Problems are oftentimes a setup. God is the one who led the children of Israel into the wilderness and allowed need, but they attributed this to Moses.

Second, seeing God clarifies authority. When the children of Israel complained against him and chewed him out, Moses appealed to God and listened to God. Authority is delegated, stewarded. The people thought they were chiding with Moses, but they were really chiding against God because He was the one who was the authority. So, seeing God clarifies authority. So many times in our lives we think we have trouble with people when the real trouble we have is with the God who has established authorities in our lives.

Third, seeing God clarifies provision. In verse 11 God gave the water. It was God’s power. He provided water abundantly so much so that even the animals had enough to drink, and God gave mercy too. He gave both power and mercy in answering the need these people had. So, they were already in the wilderness and felt somewhat cut off and lonely perhaps, and that is made even worse when you fail to see God in the events of your life.

So, whether it comes to problems or authority or provisions, remember that to see life clearly you must see God clearly. Don’t cut God out of your life. Don’t look at problems you have and forget there is a God. Don’t look at authority in your life and forget there is a God. Don’t see provision in your life and forget there is a God. To not see God is to not see clearly.