Commentary - Numbers 20:9-13

Bird's-eye view

In this brief but weighty account, we come to one of the more tragic episodes in the life of Moses. After forty years of faithful, albeit strenuous, leadership, the great prophet falters at the very threshold of the Promised Land. The people grumble, as is their custom, and Moses, exasperated beyond the breaking point, disobeys a clear and simple command from God. The issue is water, but the stakes are far higher. This is about the holiness of God, the nature of faith, and the typological integrity of God’s redemptive plan.

The sin of Moses here is subtle, and many have puzzled over why such a seemingly small infraction would warrant such a severe penalty, that of being barred from Canaan. But as we will see, the sin was not small at all. It struck at the very heart of what it means to represent God before the people. Moses, in a moment of fleshly anger, misrepresented the character of God and, in so doing, marred the beautiful picture of Christ that this miracle was intended to paint. God graciously provides the water, for His grace is greater than our sin, but He does not wink at the sin of His chosen leaders. He is a holy God, and He will be treated as holy by those who stand in His name.

Outline

Context In Numbers

This incident occurs at Kadesh, near the end of the forty years of wilderness wandering. The generation that came out of Egypt has died off, and a new generation is poised to enter the land. But their character is not substantially different from that of their fathers. They complain about the lack of water, just as the previous generation had done at Rephidim, which they also named Meribah (Exodus 17). This repetition is significant. It shows us that the problem is not circumstantial but cardiac. The human heart, left to itself, is a perpetual grumbling machine.

The first Meribah event in Exodus 17 is crucial background. There, God commanded Moses to strike the rock, and water came forth. The apostle Paul tells us plainly that this rock was a type of Christ (1 Cor. 10:4). Christ, our Rock, was struck once for our sins on the cross, and from His wounded side flowed living water. The event here in Numbers 20 presents a second water-from-the-rock miracle, and God's instructions are pointedly different. This context is everything for understanding the gravity of Moses' sin.

Commentary

9 So Moses took the rod from before Yahweh, just as He had commanded him;

The account begins with simple obedience. God had commanded him to take the rod (v. 8), and Moses does exactly that. This is the rod of Aaron that had budded, a symbol of God-given authority and life from death, which was kept "before Yahweh," in the tabernacle. So far, so good. Moses starts down the right path. He is acting under divine orders. This initial act of compliance makes the subsequent deviation all the more stark. It is a reminder that a journey begun in obedience can quickly swerve into the ditch of self-will. We are never more than one step away from rebellion, which is why we must walk in constant dependence.

10 and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. And he said to them, “Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?”

Here is where the unravelling begins. Moses and Aaron do as they were told in gathering the people. But then Moses opens his mouth, and what comes out is not from God. His address to the people is dripping with contempt and sinful anger. "Listen now, you rebels." Now, were they rebels? Objectively, yes. Their grumbling was a manifestation of their rebellious hearts. But Moses was not called to be the prosecuting attorney here; he was called to be God’s representative. The tone is wrong. It is the voice of a man at the end of his rope, a man whose patience has been shredded. But the servants of the Lord must be gentle, even with those who are in opposition.

Then comes the fatal question: "shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?" Notice the pronoun. "We." Moses and Aaron. In his fury, Moses puts himself and his brother in the place of God. Who is the one who performs miracles? Who is the one who makes water gush from a flinty rock? It is God, and God alone. This is a moment of astonishing presumption. Moses, the humblest man on earth (Num. 12:3), for a moment forgets himself entirely and usurps the divine prerogative. He makes the miracle about his power and his provision, not God's.

11 Then Moses raised high his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their beasts drank.

The verbal sin is now compounded by a physical one. God's command had been precise: "speak to the rock" (v. 8). But Moses, in his anger, does not speak. He strikes. And not just once, but twice. He is venting his frustration on the rock. This is a clear act of disobedience. God said speak, and he struck.

This is where the typology becomes so important. The Rock, as we know from Paul, was Christ. In the first incident at Meribah, Moses was commanded to strike the rock, prefiguring the crucifixion. Christ was to be struck once for the sins of the people. But after being smitten, our Rock now gives forth living water freely. We do not need to strike Him again. We need only to speak to Him, to call upon His name in faith. By striking the rock a second time, Moses was, in a typological sense, crucifying Christ afresh. He was marring the picture God was painting of redemption. He was acting as though the first striking was insufficient. It was a profound theological error, acted out in a moment of pique.

And yet, the water came forth abundantly. This is a stunning display of God's grace. He does not let the sin of the leader prevent Him from providing for His thirsty people. God's covenant faithfulness is not contingent on the perfect obedience of His instruments. He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy. The people and their livestock drank. God's purpose to sustain His people was accomplished, but this did not nullify the sin of His servant.

12 But Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”

The provision of water is immediately followed by the divine verdict. God gets right to the heart of the matter. The root sin was unbelief. "Because you did not believe Me." This might seem strange. Didn't Moses believe God could bring water from the rock? Of course he did, in a general sense. But he did not believe God enough to obey His specific word. He did not trust that simply speaking to the rock would be sufficient. He fell back on the old method, the one that involved his own effort and action. True faith is not just believing that God can do something; it is believing God's word and doing what He says, the way He says to do it. Faith obeys.

This unbelief resulted in a failure "to treat Me as holy." The word for holy is kadosh, which means to be set apart, distinct, other. God is not like us. His ways are not our ways. Moses, by acting in a fit of human anger and striking the rock, had made God look like a petulant tribal deity, just as angry and out of control as Moses himself was. He misrepresented God. He did not set God apart in His majestic holiness before the eyes of the people. Leaders in the church have a solemn responsibility here. When we minister, we are to display the character of God, not our own sinful flesh. When we fail to do this, we profane His name.

The sentence is severe. Neither Moses nor Aaron would be the one to lead the people into the Promised Land. The punishment fit the crime. Moses had failed to represent God properly before the people at the climax of the journey. Therefore, he would not be the one to complete that journey. This is a sobering reminder that with great privilege comes great responsibility. Leadership is a dangerous calling.

13 Those were the waters of Meribah because the sons of Israel contended with Yahweh, and He proved Himself holy among them.

The place is named Meribah, which means "contention" or "quarreling." The people contended with Yahweh, and in response, Moses and Aaron sinned. But the final word is about God. In the midst of all this human failure, God "proved Himself holy." How? By judging the sin of the people's leaders. God showed that He is no respecter of persons. He holds His most prominent servants to His own high standard. By disciplining Moses and Aaron so publicly and severely, God vindicated His own holiness. He showed all of Israel, and all of us, that He will not be trifled with. His holiness is a consuming fire, and it is a fire that purifies His church, starting with its leaders. He is holy in His grace that provides water, and He is holy in His justice that punishes sin.

Application

There are several pointed applications for us here. First, we must guard our hearts against the sin of exasperation. Ministry is hard. People are difficult. It is easy to grow weary and bitter, and to let that bitterness spill out in our words and actions. Moses was a great man, but even he stumbled here. We must rely on God's grace to sustain our patience and love, especially when dealing with "rebels."

Second, we must pay close attention to the details of God's commands. Obedience is not a matter of getting the general idea right. It's about doing what God says, as He says it. Moses' sin was in substituting his own method for God's. We are always tempted to think our way is better, more practical, or more satisfying. This is the essence of unbelief. True faith trusts God's wisdom and submits to His word, fully.

Finally, this passage is a glorious, if severe, picture of the gospel. God's holiness must be satisfied. Sin must be judged, even the sins of the greatest saints. Moses, the lawgiver, could not enter the land because of one transgression. This shows us that entry into God's rest can never be on the basis of our own obedience. We need a better leader, a perfect mediator who never once failed to sanctify the Father, who never once spoke presumptuously. That leader is Jesus Christ, our true Joshua. He brings us into the promised inheritance that Moses could not. Our Rock was struck once, and now, because of that one sufficient blow, we may come to Him and simply speak, and receive living water in abundance.