RECIPIENTS OF GOD’S RED CARD
Moses Received The Red Card!
“And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, 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. Aaron shall be gathered unto his people: for HE SHALL NOT enter into the land which I have given unto the children of Israel, because ye rebelled against my word at the water of Meribah” (Num. 20:12, 24 KJV).
“And I besought the Lord at that time, saying, O Lord God, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand: for what God is there in heaven or in earth that can do according to thy works, and according to thy might? I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon. But the Lord was wroth with me for your sakes, and would not hear me: and the Lord said unto me, Let it suffice thee; SPEAK NO MORE UNTO ME OF THIS MATTER. Get thee up into the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and behold it with thine eyes: for THOU SHALT NOT go over this Jordan” (Deut. 3:23-27 KJV).
Thou shall not go over this Jordan…What a matter for sober reflection. Jordan was not the destination but Canaan! No sane man would desire to stop or die half-way when such originally set out for a particular destination. Moses indeed, desired the better land called Canaan but alas! He received the Red Card which put a stop to his vision and ambition. Once the Red Card is shown, it signals the end of play! God plainly announced, “THOU SHALL NOT.” It means hitherto you have come, Moses, you shall proceed no further. That was God’s Red Card to both Moses and Aaron. It was God’s final verdict of end of play for both Aaron and Moses. I could imagine the pain and the tears in the hearts and eyes of Moses as he passionately appealed against the judgment of the Red Card… But alas! Red Card leaves no room at all for appeal!
Come to think of it, Moses had sacrificed virtually everything important to him in life because he had eye on the land of Canaan. Because of his hopes and aspiration in the promised beautiful land of Canaan, “By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible” (Heb. 11:24-27 KJV).
Only a fool of superlative degree would make such a huge sacrifice and not expect to see the end for which such sacrifices were made! Moses had literally suffered the loss of all things that should have made him great in Egypt-the then world empire in order to lay hold on Canaan as an enduring and everlasting possession; but the Red Card of God put a full stop to his journey when he committed what the Righteous Judge considered a major foul. His hopes of reaching Canaan was dashed. His ministry became limited to the wilderness as a result of this… These are the devastating consequences of obtaining the Red Card of the Almighty sequel to a major foul in the Kingdom Field of Service: it places an irreversible limitation on your life, gifts, potentials and ministry.
Hoping he could reverse the judgment of this Red Card, Moses pleaded, prayed and cried but all to no avail. In fact, God had to tell him in strong tone to stop wasting his time crying and praying as no one can appeal against His Red Card! There is no appeal court to hear the case of the Red Card of God! Once you are being shown the Red Card of the Almighty, you just must stop. Every other activities following the showing of the Red Card are but preparations to stop. Red Card means STOP! I am terribly afraid as I write this. I am tempted to ask, is God that wicked? I can’t just imagine Moses of all people receiving God’s Red Card on the field of play; he was said to be the meekest man on the surface of the earth in his own generation… Let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he falls.
I wouldn’t know for how long the long-suffering of God had endured with Aaron and Moses prior to this point in their lives and services; because God is plenteous in mercy and slow to anger; but at the water of Meribah God issued out unto them His Red Card of end of play! This of course was not given arbitrarily. Remember red card is the last punitive measure by the referee in a football match; so this made me believe the Righteous Judge would not have acted un-righteously to both Moses and Aaron by showing them the Red Card…
One thing I know is that God is never angry without a cause. At the water of Meribah, both Moses and Aaron provoked the Great Referee to issue His Red Card. God had told them as His representatives the manner in which He wanted them to represent Him before the multitude of the children of Israel who have always taken and seen them as the symbols of Deity. The action and inaction of Moses and Aaron represented all what God stood for before a people who could not differentiate their left from right in things related to God. But Moses, out of great provocation by the same people, misrepresented God before them. He gave them a wrong definition of God and His ways. God had earlier instructed him to speak to the Rock but instead, Moses struck the Rock! And though there was a miraculous display of the power of God; and the people’s need was supernaturally met, yet it was all in complete disobedience and disregard to the instruction of God. By acting contrary to what God commanded them; they have presented God to people for Who was not. People would have thought and believed that God actually wanted Moses to strike the Rock whereas the contrary was the case.
Note: How to do a thing is sometimes more important than knowing what to do. And God is not just interested in what you do but HOW you do it. Even a single offense can earn a player the Red Card! Uzzah had no second chance.
Beloved, God is not just interested in results. God is not only result-oriented. He is more interested in the how of the result itself. It is men who can do just anything through any means to get their goals achieved. God always expects His works to be done in His own ways. In doing God’s work, His principles and instructions must be strictly followed. In the work of God, it’s not about results, it’s about obedience. It is not about what God can do through you but what God is doing within you. Let’s be careful of the way we handle God’s work. Service to God is not first and foremost about your charisma, it’s about your character. Moses, through the way he handled the work of God committed a major foul which earned him God’s Red Card! He stopped on the way to glory land. He died on the way to the Promised Land. He did not arrived at the destination for which he sacrificed his life for! Let Him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
The Red Card continues in the next edition…
The Red Card continues in the next edition…
