Last week’s blog emphasized two things about God’s character we need to take seriously. https://www.cosdavis.com/gods-response-to-faith-and-faithlessness/. Trust in God brings His pleasure and blessings, which Joshua and Caleb experienced, while the rebellious older generation of Israelites would never inherit the Promised Land. Numbers 14.
As we resume the story in Numbers 20, the penalty-laden forty years of wandering in the wilderness are nearing a close. Moses, their faithful leader, is 120 years old. They have settled in Kadesh, close to the Promised Land. Moses has led this unruly gaggle of obstinate human beings for forty years, but they have not changed. They are still an unbelieving, ungrateful bunch of complainers.
It is here at Kadesh that the faithful Moses makes a mistake that will bring him one of the same fates as the rebellious Israelites; he will not enter the Promised Land. What the Lord called him to do forty years ago, he will not be allowed to finish; such a sad thing for Moses.
I have often wrestled with the question “How could God do this to someone who had served Him so faithfully for all those years?” On the surface, this does appear to be “too much,” an overreaction on God’s part to punish him like this. But, to say this puts us in a position of questioning God’s fairness, wisdom, and love. This I cannot do because judging God suggests that I am wiser, more just, and more loving than God.
Let’s investigate the circumstances of what took place at Meribah to see if we can make sense of what happened and why Moses lost his role of leading the people into the Promised Land. The text is Numbers 20:1-13.
Numbers 20:1 tells us that Israel came to the wilderness of Zin and stayed at Kadesh. Remember Miriam, the sister who had helped hide Moses in the water and had helped arrange for Pharaoh’s daughter to adopt him? Without any fanfare or explanation of how she died, we are told, “Now Miriam died there and was buried there.” A Google search told me she was 126 years old.
Surely, Moses mourned the loss of his sister, but as we see in Numbers 20:2-5, he had other issues to handle with the cantankerous Israelites. “And there was no water for the congregation; and they assembled themselves against Moses and Aaron. The people contended with Moses and spoke, saying,’ If only we had perished with our brothers before the Lord! Why then have you brought the Lord’s assembly into this wilderness, for us and our beasts to die here? And why have you made us come up from Egypt, to bring us into this wretched place? It is not a place of grain, or figs, or vines, or pomegranates, nor is there any water to drink.'”
Do you remember how these same people responded at Mount Sinai when Moses told them about God’s plan and requirements? “All that the Lord has spoken we will do!” Exodus 19:8. However, the challenges of getting to the Promised Land had transformed their empty, enthusiastic words into bitterness and endless complaints against Moses and God.
“Meribah” means “to quarrel or contend.” The incident above was the second “Meribah.” The first was about a year or so after leaving Egypt, recorded in Exodus 17:1-7, near Mount Horeb. They quarrelled with Moses over the lack of water to drink and accused him of bringing them into the wilderness to kill them and their children. As you will see, this complaint was the same one they used almost 40 years later. At the first Mirabah, God instructed Moses to take the rod he used to open the Red Sea and strike the rock at Horeb. Moses obeyed, struck the rock, water gushed, and he called the place Meribah.
The second Meribah is similar to the first in many ways, but Moses’s handling of the situation was strikingly different. Numbers 20:6 tells us that Moses and Aaron fell before the Lord, seeking guidance, and the Lord spoke to Moses, “Take the rod; and you and your brother Aaron assemble the congregation and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it may yield its water. You shall thus bring forth water for them out of the rock and let the congregation and their beasts drink.” Numbers 20:8. So far, so good!
How do you explain what happened next? Something changes in Moses’ mind, his attitude that defies understanding. Perhaps he is exhausted by this rebellious crowd, maybe he’s angry with God, but what he does is very uncharacteristic of him. I don’t know. He does exactly as God instructed to a point, and then he unleashes his frustration on them, “Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock? ” Numbers 20:10. It is not “shall God bring forth water” but “shall we bring forth water.” Something is about to go terribly wrong. This is no longer about God’s glory; it’s about Moses.
Sinful actions follow sinful attitudes. “Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and the water came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their beasts drank.” Numbers 20:11.
To be continued..