Moses was God’s faithful servant who led the Israelites out of Egypt. He dealt with opposition from Pharaoh, grumbling by the people, and difficulties of the journey.

Yet Moses was not perfect. When God told him to “speak to the rock…that it may yield its water” for the congregation (Numbers 20:8), Moses instead struck the rock with his rod and took credit for providing water for them (Numbers 20:9-11).

Because of this misstep, God told Moses that he would not bring the Israelites into the promised land (Numbers 20:12). We might think this was unfair. Surely we can sympathize with Moses as he had to deal with all of the stress and frustration of leading the Israelites through the wilderness. But none of that changed God’s decision.

We need to be careful about what we do. We could bring irreparable harm by some misdeed. In a moment of weakness, we could do something that has long-reaching negative consequences –for ourselves and others. Because of this, we must always be on the alert.

So guard every step. The devil is always looking for an opportunity to lead us into sin (1 Peter 5:8). We don’t need to give him one. Let us always be careful to do God’s will in all things.