Numbers 20: 1-13
“Then the children of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the Wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh; and Miriam died there and was buried there. 2 Now there was no water for the congregation; so they gathered together against Moses and Aaron. 3 And the people contended with Moses and spoke, saying: ‘If only we had died when our brethren died before the Lord! 4 Why have you brought up the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our animals should die here? 5 And why have you made us come up out of Egypt, to bring us to this evil place? It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates; nor is there any water to drink.’
6 So Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and they fell on their faces. And the glory of the Lord appeared to them. 7 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 8 “Take the rod; you and your brother Aaron gather the congregation together. Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water; thus, you shall bring water for them out of the rock, and give drink to the congregation and their animals.”
9 So Moses took the rod from before the Lord as He commanded him. 10 And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock; and he said to them, ‘Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?’ 11 Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank.
12 Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.” 13 This was the water of Meribah, because the children of Israel contended with the Lord, and He was hallowed among them.”
What we are about to explore today is one of the saddest accounts, in my estimation, in the Bible. As we continue our journey to see that Jesus is the whole story of the Bible, we come to this account. The next generation of Jews are ready to enter the Promised Land. As you will recall, about 40 years prior, God had brought the people, led by Moses to the edge of Canaan. They sent in 12 spies, one from each tribe, and they surveyed the land. They concluded it was beautiful BUT that there were giants in the land and that God had brought them there to kill them.
We see this played out in Numbers 14: 1-4;
“’So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, ‘If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?’ So they said to one another, ‘Let us select a leader and return to Egypt.’”
So, over the next almost 4 decades, the people who refused to enter the Promised Land died off, and now it is their children who are going to inherit the place they refused. The sad part is that the children are more rebellious and defiant than their fathers were. They learned well from their parents how to complain and to rebel against Moses. So here we are in the Wilderness of Zin, and there is no water.
These people form a rebellion against Moses and Aaron; they accuse them and God of bringing them here to kill them of thirst. They want to go back to Egypt. These people have not lived in Egypt for almost 40 years. They do not have a clue what Egypt was like; many were not even born there. But they had heard their parents talk about Egypt, and they had grown to ‘love’ Egypt.
Poor Moses and Aaron were at they’re wits end and cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed up and gave them very clear instructions. In verse 8, God tells Moses to ‘speak to the rock, and give drink to the people.’ Moses, in his anger and frustration derived from dealing with these people, hit the rock, and even though the water did come out, Moses and Aaron paid a great price.
Moses and Aaron were NOT allowed to enter the Promised Land; they both died before entering. They had disobeyed God in this, and God refused to let them enter. At first it sounds like a harsh punishment for these men; though they were sinners like you and I, they had served God faithfully in terrible situations for decades, and now God seems to have no mercy for them. What gives here?
To truly understand this, we need to turn to 1 Corinthians 10: 1-5;
“Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. But with most of them, God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.”
The Rock that ‘followed them’ according to Paul was Christ. It was a picture of Christ, and Jesus was only struck (sacrificed) once for all. From now on, we need only to speak to Jesus for living water. Jesus died once for all; He will never submit to public execution again. Thus, the first time they needed water for the first generation, Moses was told to strike the Rock, see Exodus 17:6;
“’Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.’ And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.”
But after that, all that was needed was for him to speak to the Rock. Jesus is everywhere, and He is the whole story of the Bible. God could not allow Moses, yes, even Moses, to mess with the truth and the picture that was being shown. So, Moses and Aaron were not allowed to enter the Promised Land.
There is a sobering lesson to learn here for Pastors and leaders, and all of us in general; keep your emotions in check. The decisions you make while angry can affect a lot of what God allows in your life. All too often we use anger as an excuse to do sinful things; and these things, while being forgivable by God, leave scars that God cannot overlook, thus the consequences have to be played out. And when it comes to the picture of Jesus and the salvation that He purchased for us, that picture cannot be marred, not even by Moses. God graciously allowed Moses to see the Promised Land before he died (Deuteronomy 32:52), but I am sure that he would have preferred to lead the people over the Jordan.
As under-shepherds, we are to serve the people of the Lord, His flock. Sheep are stubborn, and we should see and appreciate that. If we allow the actions of the people to control our emotions, we will find ourselves coming under God’s judgment over and over again and maybe even losing the privilege to be an under-shepherd. True discipleship is tedious and dirty; it can be frustrating and unscripted. It is often filled with the ‘one step forward and two steps back’ movements.
And then, one last observation: parents, your kids are watching what you do in private. The generation that entered the Promised Land learned to complain and rebel from their parents. They heard their private conversations and overheard that they loved Egypt; they saw how they loved the world system that had killed their children and made them slaves. They preferred to be slaves and have food given to them rather than to be free and trust God.
Sadly, many of us live the same way today. They had passed these traits on to their kids. What are you passing on to your kids?
Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church
70 Victoria Street, Elora, Ontario