Then
Yahweh spoke to Moses at Meribah Kadesh or Kadesh Barnea, saying (bold emphasis
mine),
Num 20:8 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.
Num 20:9 So Moses took the rod from before the LORD as He commanded him.
Num 20:10 And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock; and he said to them,
Hear now, you rebels!
At close to or already at 120 years of age, is Moses having a flashback at Meribah Kadesh (Kadesh Barnea) that took place nearly 40 years ago at the waters of Meribah in Rephidim (Ex 17:1-7)? Not only that, but I wonder if his mind went back even further to nearly 80 years ago in the land of Egypt as a 40-year-old son of the daughter of Pharaoh (Ex 2:10), “Hear now, you Egyptian” (cf. Ex 2:11-12)! A problem with impulsiveness resurfaced from long ago at the age of ~40; anger got the best of him then and again at ~119-120 years of age?
Must we bring water for you out of this rock?
Moses thought he could deliver God’s people in his own timing and strength at 40 (cf. Acts 7:23-28; cf. Ex 3:8-10; Zech 4:6). Now, after almost 80 years passed since killing that Egyptian for beating a Hebrew, the seed of impulsiveness in Moses flared up again when the wandering was coming to an end – Must we bring water for you out of this rock? He was either 119 or already 120 years of age. Of all of the challenges he faced throughout his life, the thing that barred him from entering the Promised Land was that invisible seed that only Yahweh could see that was rapidly germinating by the water at Meribah Kadesh!
Num 20:11 Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod
The rock was smitten twice in anger, and Moses violated a direct command from Yahweh (Num 20:8, speak)!
and water came out abundantly, and the congregation
and their animals drank
Talk about the grace of God in spite of Yahweh’s disapproval of Moses disobeying His command!
Because God always honors His Word, we must not assume that it
automatically equates or translates to the actions of His servant bringing
glory to God as was the case with Moses striking the rock two times and water
burst forth! God did not sanction Moses
to touch the rock. The people were enjoying the water; they had no idea
Moses disobeyed a direct command at the time, but God did. His negative
attitude preceded his actions of disobedience. This would come back to haunt him.
Should this not serve as a warning not only to Joshua, Moses’ replacement but to all the people, as well as us (cf. Rom 15:4)? Thought always precedes behavior. By following God’s instructions, we will be blessed; by disregarding God’s instructions, we will be chastened (which could include a sin unto death). It does not pay to disobey, yes?
Num 20:12 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.
There are the public consequences! Compare Deut 32:51-52. It’s official; Moses disqualified himself as a leader and failed to glorify Yahweh! Joshua would be his replacement (Deut 34:9). God will always do right by us, even if the punishment seems harsh; however, we do not always do right by God.
(Num 20:13) This was the water of Meribah because the children of Israel contended with the LORD, and He was hallowed among them.
Nearly
forty years ago, recall that there was another water crisis in a place in the
desert in Rephidim (Ex 17:1). Moses named the place Massah (proof, test) and Meribah (contention, strife,
quarreling), Ex 17:7. The children of Israel were questioning whether Yahweh
was among them or not (cf. Heb 13:5)? Moses hit the rock at Horeb once as instructed by
Yahweh (Ex 17:6).
Remember Moses killing that Egyptian ~80 years ago? That impulsiveness to do that resurfaced and caused his anger with the people to get the best of him, causing him to sin against Yahweh at the waters of Meribah
at Kadesh or Kadesh Barnea, in the wilderness of Zin (Num 27:14). Moses had disobeyed
a direct command to speak only to the rock at Meribah (Num 20:8), not
physically striking it at all; Moses struck it twice instead. Moses and Aaron also took
credit for the water to satisfy the thirst of the people and animals rather
than attributing it to God. In spiritual leadership, we can ill-afford not to
toe the line from start to finish in our service to God (cf. Lk 12:48)! For all believers, we do not have the luxury to not toe the line to safeguard our testimony for Christ (cf. Prov 4:23), yes? It takes a lifetime to build a reputation; it takes one indiscretion to blow it!
This
sin wasn’t done in secret. Public sins usually carry a public or noticeable
punishment (cf. Num 20:12). Some see Moses’ actions as a typology-breaker that
enhanced his punishment (cf. 1 Cor 10:4); it’s an interesting twist, but that
may be stretching it a bit. Yahweh gave His reasons in Num 20:12 and Deut
32:51-52, but I am not going to rule it out completely. Sure, we can empathize
with Moses for being boned-tired and getting angry with these people constantly
complaining for forty years, but that is never an excuse to disobey God’s
instructions, whether a leader or not (cf. Lk 12:48). We will not find any excuse to sin or to justify our sin in Scripture.
Not
surprisingly, liberal scholarship regards Meribah as referring to only one location;
they believe that the Exodus account (Ex 17:1-7; cf. Ex 17:8) and the Numbers
account (Num 20:1-13; cf. Num 20:14) are one and the same. Also, according to
this school of liberal thought, the two versions given in Scripture are referring
to the same event at the same place based on the German documentary hypothesis
or the JEPD theory (espousing that there were four authors or four groups of
authors who wrote the Pentateuch [Genesis-Deuteronomy], not Moses).
Conservative
scholarship, on the other hand, holds to the view that there are two different
geographical locations of Meribah based on the biblical text as written by Moses
(the Pentateuch). Also, there are two separate events, not two versions of the
same event.
Granted,
a cursory reading of these two passages would yield the idea that they are one
and the same, but it is the dissimilarity of the context of each that is
paramount. I am not liberal by any stretch, but I do think it is very possible
that the traditional location of Mount Sinai, for instance, is inaccurate; such
an idea does not make one liberal nor conservative. We can agree to disagree on
biblical geographical localities. Some scholars on both sides of the fence
agree that biblical Mount Sinai is located elsewhere.
Nonetheless,
regardless of what we think, it is prudent to side with what we know from the
biblical text and not advance theories that obviously conflict with the
Scriptures as does the documentary hypothesis which is not harmless academia
but a subjective, confusing, convoluted mess that is based on a false premise
that Moses did not write the Torah or the first 5 books of the OT because,
according to this left-wing school of thought, people did not write during his time or
earlier. Genesis to Malachi, Matthew to Revelation (the LXVI) are the byproduct
of inspiration (2 Tim 3:16; 2 Pet 1:20-21) which is rather miraculous, to say
the least!
The
natural man, who does not have the Holy Spirit (Jude 19), rejects the Designer
behind the Universe and the Author behind the Bible. In their minds, the theory of evolution is
the explanation of the existence of the Universe, and the Bible is a human byproduct. If we don’t believe
the narrative of the natural man, we are loons without credibility, rejecting “science” and common sense for fairy tales!
The JEDP theory is nothing more than another example of “We can’t figure this out so we will create a narrative that makes sense to us,” says the non-supernatural man (cf. 1 Cor 2:14)!” Human reasoning is their guide, not faith in the Creator God. It happens all the time… The enemies of God are constantly attacking the vehicles of His message to humankind: general revelation (creation) and special revelation (the Word of God).
What message does evolution bring us? The Universe is full of natural causes, not supernatural ones. What message does the Bible bring if is merely a work of man? God is nothing more than a figment of man’s imagination; the stories of the Bible are a work of fiction and not to be taken seriously. Man determines his own fate in life, once it’s over, it is over: no heaven, no hell, no god, no devil! There are no supernatural causes, only natural ones.
What a depressing message from
secular humanists! If the blind leads the blind, they both fall into the ditch
(cf. 2 Cor 4:4), yes? <><
