Exasperation

Everyone experiences exasperation; how you respond to it depends on your relationship to God. The people of Israel had a real need, but they blamed their human leaders instead of crying out to the Lord. Moses and Aaron initially did the right thing – falling on their faces in prayer – but ultimately they failed to “uphold the Lord as holy” (v. 12). Both leaders and followers fixated on human realities more than the presence and power of God. But those who trust in Christ now have “the spiritual rock that followed them” (1 Corinthians 10:3) through the “living water” of the indwelling Holy Spirit (John 7:38). The more we depend on him, the more we see him generously meeting our real needs, and the more we are able to respond constructively to exasperating situations.