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Exodus 17; Numbers 20 – Meribah: Lessons Learned From Moses
The two incidents, almost 40 years apart, are vastly different when we look at Moses. It would be interesting to psychoanalyze the differences to see if they are marks of immaturity versus maturity; fresh leadership versus stressed leadership; and maybe other categories.
In the first he immediately responds verbally back to the people – “Why do you quarrel with me? What do you test the Lord?” (Exodus 17:2). They respond back, “Why, now, have you brought us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” (Exodus 17:3). Which prompts Moses to cry out to God, “What shall I do to this people? A little more and they will stone me (Exodus 17:4). Some versions say, “do to this people,” while others say, “do with these people.” Personally I see a great difference.
The second incident, again around 40 years later when Moses is around120 seems to imply spiritual maturity. The people complain,
Numbers 20:3-5 HCSB The people quarreled with Moses and said, “If only we had perished when our brothers perished before the LORD. (4) Why have you brought the LORD’s assembly into this wilderness for us and our livestock to die here? (5) Why have you led us up from Egypt to bring us to this evil place? It’s not a place of grain, figs, vines, and pomegranates, and there is no water to drink!”
Moses is silent. He simply, along with Aaron, came in from the presence of the assembly to the doorway of the tent of meeting, and fell on their faces (Numbers 20:6). Today people would call this, “taking it to the Lord” or “waiting on the Lord.” And yet the rest of the story shows the opposite of patience and maturity. It shows possibly the result of stress, and utter shock.
Numbers 20:7-12 HCSB The LORD spoke to Moses, (8) “Take the staff and assemble the community. You and your brother Aaron are to speak to the rock while they watch, and it will yield its water. You will bring out water for them from the rock and provide drink for the community and their livestock.” (9) So Moses took the staff from the LORD’s presence just as He had commanded him. (10) Moses and Aaron summoned the assembly in front of the rock, and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels! Must we bring water out of this rock for you?” (11) Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff, so that a great amount of water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank. (12) But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust Me to show My holiness in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this assembly into the land I have given them.”
Whatever was going on in Moses’ mind, we see his actions brought about by his attitude. What were the sins of Moses?
First, he spoke rashly which implies either or both speaking angrily or thoughtlessly (Brown-Driver-Higgs Hebrew Dictionary). The implied sin is in found in the words, “we.”
Numbers 20:10 NASB 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?”
Psalms 106:32-33 NASB They also provoked Him to wrath at the waters of Meribah, So that it went hard with Moses on their account; (33) Because they were rebellious against His Spirit, He spoke rashly with his lips.
Psalms 106:32-33 HCSB They angered the LORD at the waters of Meribah, and Moses suffered because of them; (33) for they embittered his spirit, and he spoke rashly with his lips.
Did you notice the difference in those two renderings? “They were rebellious against His (God’s) Spirit, versus, “they embittered his (Moses]) spirit.”
Second, God instructed Moses to speak to the rock and said nothing about striking it. This was different than before. But Moses not only did not speak to the rock, he struck it, and struck it twice. Why twice? I do not know. Maybe once for himself and the other for Aaron. Maybe because God did nothing the first time he hit the rock, so he hit it again. The sin is found in not believing God.
Numbers 20:12 NASB But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you have not believed Me….
Numbers 20:12 HCSB But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust Me
To trust, to believe, is to obey.
Third, and this is a combination of the above two but shows the root of not only Moses’ sin, but all sin is that Moses did not treat God as holy in his disobedience.
Numbers 20:12 HCSB But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust Me to show My holiness in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this assembly into the land I have given them.”
Numbers 20:12 NASB But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you have not believed 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.”
We could add to the lessons such thoughts as no one is perfect, good leaders can make bad decisions, but I shall leave it to you to make them as real in your lives as these lessons were in Moses’ life.
Thank you for this very detailed article. In fact I visited this page in my curiosity to find out whether the incidents mentioned in Exodus 17 and Numbers 20 are the same incident. Now I know they are two separate incident. Here I learnt the disobedience of Moses and Aron by not talking to the rock but striking the rock twice against the Lord’s commands. Thank you so much. God Bless you.