Thursday 14th September
Read Numbers 20:9-13
“So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence, just as he commanded him. 10 He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, ‘Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?’ 11 Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.
12 But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ‘Because you did not trust in me enough to honour me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.’
13 These were the waters of Meribah, where the Israelites quarrelled with the Lord and where he was proved holy among them.’” (NIVUK)
There are lots of questions we are meant to spend time meditating on when we read these stories. How does this story relate to the previous episode where Moses is instructed to strike the rock to bring forth water (Exodus 17:1-7)? How does it relate to the prior episode in Numbers where the people grumble about food and bemoan the leadership of Israel and express the desire to go back to Egypt (Numbers 11:18-23)? What do all these stories tell us about the rebellious hearts of the people and Yahweh’s constant provision?
The key question I suspect we are to meditate on is what Moses did wrong? What does it mean to uphold and represent the ‘holiness’ of Yahweh in the sight of the people and how did Moses’ action fail to do that? Is it simply that striking the rock twice disobeyed what God instructed Moses to do? Or was the anger of Moses at the people’s constant grumbling enough to finally break him and in rebuking them did Moses fail to present the grace of God clearly? We are supposed to meditate on this at length. Moses was forbidden to enter the promised land because of this act, because he failed to trust and honour God as holy in the sight of the people (v12).
Other biblical authors have meditated on it. The psalmist, in recounting the wilderness wanderings and travails of Israel described it in this way:
“By the waters of Meribah they angered the Lord,
and trouble came to Moses because of them;
33 for they rebelled against the Spirit of God,
and rash words came from Moses’ lips.” (Psalm 106:32-33) (NIVUK)
Paul meditated on this episode and saw Jesus! “They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.” (1 Corinthians 10:3-5) (NIVUK)
What do you grasp when you meditate on this story? Have you got the time to ponder it today?
