“Moses ... spake unadvisedly with his lips” because the children of Israel “provoked his spirit,” for “the people chode with Moses, and spake, saying ... Why have you brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there?” So, instead of obeying the Lord’s command to “speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water,” Moses took honor unto himself, and Aaron, and said, “Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock? ... And with his rod he smote the rock twice; and the water came out abundantly.” But “it went ill with Moses for their sakes,” and he was not allowed to enter the promised land. Let us never falsely imagine that because some circumstance or some person provokes us, God holds us less responsible for our actions or words. “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city,” and “he that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.” Let us, then, “be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.”
Speak not when in provocation,
Lest you speak wrong things and sore;
Words that come from provoked spirits
Will bring trouble more and more.
Num. 20:3-4,8,10-11; Prov. 16:32; 25:28; James 1:19.