The High Cost of a Low Moment Text: Numbers 20:9-13
Introduction: The Weight of the Rod
There are moments in a man's life, particularly a man in leadership, that carry an extraordinary weight. These are moments when decades of faithfulness can be jeopardized by a single act of unfaithfulness. They are moments when the pressure of the congregation, the heat of the desert, and the weariness of the soul all conspire to produce a spectacular failure. And when that failure occurs in the man God has appointed to represent Him, the consequences are severe, public, and instructive for all generations to follow.
We come today to one of the saddest episodes in the life of Moses. This is the man who spoke with God face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. This is the man whose face shone with the residual glory of the Almighty. This is the meekest man on the face of the earth. And yet, here, at the waters of Meribah, which means "strife," he stumbles. And he stumbles so badly that God bars him from entering the Promised Land. After forty years of leading this stiff-necked people through the wilderness, he is told that he will die on the wrong side of the Jordan.
Now, our modern, sentimental age looks at this and is tempted to see God as harsh, as an overbearing perfectionist. We want to say, "Give the man a break! Look what he had to put up with!" But to say this is to fundamentally misunderstand the nature of holiness, the nature of representation, and the nature of sin. The issue here is not just about a flash of anger or a minor procedural error. The issue is about the public testimony of the holiness of God. Moses' sin was not a private failing; it was a public misrepresentation of the character of God before the entire assembly of Israel. And when you are God's appointed representative, that is the most serious offense you can commit.
This passage is a sobering warning to all who would aspire to leadership in the church. It is a warning about the danger of presumption, the poison of anger, and the subtle pride that can creep into the heart of even the most faithful servant. It teaches us that the greater the responsibility, the greater the accountability. And it shows us, in stark relief, why we need a better mediator than Moses, a perfect high priest who never fails, and a Rock who, once struck, need only be spoken to for living water to flow forever.
The Text
So Moses took the rod from before Yahweh, just as He had commanded him; 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?” 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. 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.” Those were the waters of Meribah because the sons of Israel contended with Yahweh, and He proved Himself holy among them.
(Numbers 20:9-13 LSB)
Partial Obedience is Still Disobedience (v. 9-10)
The scene begins with Moses acting in apparent obedience, but the seeds of rebellion are already sown in his heart.
"So Moses took the rod from before Yahweh, just as He had commanded him; and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock." (Numbers 20:9-10a)
So far, so good. God had commanded him to take the rod and gather the people. Moses does this. This is the deceptive nature of so much of our sin. It often cloaks itself in the outward forms of obedience. We can go through the motions, check the boxes, and appear to be doing exactly what God requires, while inwardly our hearts are a cauldron of resentment and pride. Moses takes the rod. He gathers the people. But the command was not simply to perform these actions; it was to be the instrument through whom God would display His holy power and provision. The attitude of the heart was inseparable from the action itself.
The first sign of the rot appears in his address to the people.
"And he said to them, 'Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?'" (Numbers 20:10b)
Here, the failure begins to surface. First, he berates the people. "Listen now, you rebels." Was it true? Were they rebels? Of course they were. They were grumbling, contentious, and stiff-necked. But God had not commanded Moses to rebuke them at this moment. God's plan was to answer their sinful grumbling with gracious provision. He intended to overcome their evil with His good. But Moses, in his anger, puts himself in the way. He becomes the focus, the angry headmaster, instead of a transparent window to the grace of God.
But the second part of his statement is far worse. "Shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?" Notice the pronoun. We. Shall Moses and Aaron bring forth water? This is a breathtaking moment of presumption. Who is the "we"? Is it Moses and God? No, the context makes it clear he is speaking of himself and his brother Aaron. In his frustration, Moses has forgotten his place. He has moved from being the instrument to being the operator. He takes the credit, along with Aaron, for the miracle that is about to occur. He is acting as though the power resides in him, as though he is the one who can wrench water from a stone. This is the original sin of Adam, the desire to be as God. And it is happening at the very foot of the rock that was to be a picture of Christ.
The Disobedient Blow (v. 11)
Moses' internal rebellion now manifests in an external act of direct disobedience.
"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." (Numbers 20:11 LSB)
God's command in verse 8 had been explicit: "Speak to the rock before their eyes, that it may yield its water." God wanted to demonstrate that His power is located in His Word. A simple command would have been sufficient. But Moses, in his anger and self-importance, resorts to violence. He strikes the rock. And not just once, but twice. This is a petulant, angry act. It is the action of a man who has lost his temper and is trying to force the issue through his own effort and frustration.
Now, we must see the deep theological significance of this. The Apostle Paul tells us plainly that this rock was a type, a prefigurement, of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4). Decades earlier, at the beginning of their wanderings, God had commanded Moses to strike the rock at Horeb to bring forth water (Exodus 17:6). And he did. That first striking was a picture of the crucifixion. Christ, our Rock, was struck once by the rod of God's judgment for our sin. From His wounded side flowed living water. But here, at Kadesh, the picture was meant to be different. The Rock, having been struck once, now needs only to be spoken to. This is the picture of prayer and supplication in the New Covenant. We do not need to crucify Christ again. The sacrifice has been made, once for all. Now we come to Him by faith, through the words of prayer, and He gives us the water of life freely.
By striking the rock a second time, and striking it twice in anger, Moses violently marred this beautiful typology. He, in effect, re-crucified the Son of God before the congregation. He presented God not as a gracious Father who gives freely when asked, but as a reluctant deity who must be violently compelled to act. This was a profound lie about the character of God.
And yet, the water came forth abundantly. God, in His mercy to the people, did not let them die of thirst because of their leader's failure. He honored His promise to provide, even when His instrument was disobedient. This is a terrifying truth. It is possible to have a "successful" ministry in the eyes of men, to see results, to see the water flow, while being in a state of grievous sin before God.
The Sobering Judgment (v. 12)
God's response is immediate and severe. He addresses the root of Moses' sin.
"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.'" (Numbers 20:12 LSB)
God diagnoses the sin with surgical precision. It was twofold. First, it was a sin of unbelief. "Because you did not believe Me." This might seem strange. Didn't Moses believe water would come out? Yes, but he did not believe that God's way was sufficient. He did not trust that a simple word would be enough. He substituted his own angry, works-based method for God's gracious, word-based method. Unbelief is not simply a denial of God's existence; it is a refusal to trust His character and His commands. It is the belief that our way, our anger, our effort, is more effective than His declared Word.
The second part of the sin was the public consequence of this unbelief. You failed "to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel." The word for holy is kadosh, which means "set apart, distinct, other." Moses' job was to show Israel how utterly different God is from the petty, angry, manipulable gods of the nations. He was supposed to display God's majestic, gracious, and powerful character. Instead, by his prideful "we" and his angry striking, Moses made God look like a man. He made God look like Moses. He dragged the name of God down into his own sinful, emotional turmoil. He failed to sanctify God, to set Him apart in His supreme glory. He made God common.
And the judgment fits the crime perfectly. Because you misrepresented me before this generation, you will not lead this generation into their inheritance. Because you failed in this crucial test of leadership, your leadership of this phase of redemptive history is over. This is a hard word, but it is a just word. God will not have His glory given to another, nor His character slandered by His own representatives.
The Holy Place of Strife (v. 13)
The passage concludes with a memorial name, a permanent reminder of both sin and sovereignty.
"Those were the waters of Meribah because the sons of Israel contended with Yahweh, and He proved Himself holy among them." (Numbers 20:13 LSB)
The place is named for the people's sin: Meribah, strife. They contended with Yahweh. But notice the glorious conclusion. In the midst of the people's rebellion and the leader's failure, God still accomplished His purpose. "He proved Himself holy among them." How? He proved Himself holy by mercifully providing water for a rebellious people. He proved Himself holy by justly judging the sin of their leaders, showing that no one, not even Moses, is above His law. And He proved Himself holy by ensuring that His redemptive plan would go forward, even if it meant raising up a new leader, Joshua, to complete the task.
God's holiness is not fragile. It cannot ultimately be thwarted by our sin. He will be sanctified. He can do it through our obedience, or He can do it over our disobedient bodies, but He will be sanctified. Our choice is whether we will be the willing vessel of His glory or the object lesson of His justice.
Conclusion: Speak to the Rock
The story of Moses at Meribah is a tragedy. It is the story of a great and godly man who, in a moment of weakness, misrepresented the God he loved and served. His sin was a cocktail of anger, pride, and unbelief, and it cost him the culmination of his life's work. It stands as a permanent warning to us all, especially those who teach and lead. Do not trifle with the holiness of God. Do not put yourself in the place of God. Do not mar the picture of the gospel that you have been entrusted to proclaim.
But in this tragedy, the glory of the gospel shines even brighter. We see how desperately we need a better mediator than Moses. We need a prophet who not only speaks God's word, but is God's Word. We need a priest who is not barred from the promised land, but who is Himself the promised land. We need a king who never acts in petulant anger, but who rules with perfect justice and grace.
We have such a mediator in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Rock of our salvation. He was struck, once, for our transgressions. The judgment that Moses deserved, and that we all deserve, fell upon Him. And because He was struck, the way is now open. The living water of the Spirit is available to all who will come to Him in faith.
The command to us now is not to strike, not to strive, not to work up our own righteousness. The command is the one Moses failed to obey. It is simply this: "Speak to the Rock." Come to Jesus. Ask Him. Plead His promises. Call upon His name. You do not need to batter down the doors of heaven. You do not need to impress God with your efforts. The Rock has been struck. The work is finished. Now, simply speak to Him, and He will give you water, and it will become in you a spring of water welling up to eternal life.