Dd – The Sin of Moses and Aaron 20: 2-13

The Sin of Moses and Aaron
20: 2-13

The sin of Moses and Aaron DIG: Consider the response of the people in this passage to the difficulty they were facing. Compare their reaction to that of Moshe. What is the difference? What was Moses’ sin? Whatever sin Moses committed, why was Aaron also included in the ban from the Promised Land?

REFLECT: How can the account of Moses getting water from a rock encourage you in difficult times? What are you successful at? How might this success cause you to trust in yourself instead of God? He disciplined Moses for disobedience. How can we know if at any certain point we are being disciplined by the Lord?

ADONAI holds spiritual leaders to a greater responsibility;
from everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded (Luke 12:48b).

Because the people had no water, they assembled themselves against Moshe and Aaron (20:2). Why was there no water just as they were about to enter the Promised Land? They were in a second location called Kadesh (to see link click Ge – The Second Stage: Rephidim to Mount Hor 32 They left Etzion Geber and camped at Kadesh, in the wilderness of Tzin), and it was a great oasis! Perhaps they had become too comfortable and needed to move on. When we get too comfortable, too cozy in a certain place and do not want to move on, sometimes ADONAI will help us out a little bit! He did a similar thing to the Messianic community in Jerusalem (see the commentary on Acts Ax – The Stoning of Stephen). Only persecution drove them out so the Word of God could be spread to the nations. Isra’el had no water because they needed to get out of there.

They had encountered having no water before (see the commentary on Exodus Cu – Strike the Rock and Water Will Come Out of It) and should have learned that God would provide for them. The Exodus version presents the request for water by refugee slave people in the desert as a legitimate need. But at this point in the story of Numbers, readers are conditioned to assume that any complaint here by the people is a sign of sinful rebellion – not only against Moshe and Aaron, but especially against YHVH. We are primed to believe the people are deserving of divine judgment whenever they complain.

The disobedience of the people: The cycle of complaints and rebellions in Numbers has been consistent and unrelenting. The people complained about their misfortunes, and the anger of Ha’Shem burned the edges of the camp (see Bp – Complaining at Tav’erah). The Israelites complained about the manna and yearned for meat, and God sent a plague in connection with eating the quail meat (see Bt – ADONAI’s Response). A jealous Aaron and Miryam challenged the authority of their brother Moses, and YHVH struck Miryam with leprosy and banished her from the camp for seven days (see Bu – The Rebellion of Miryam and Aaron). All the people heard the spy report from Canaan and refused to enter the Promised Land, planning instead to choose a new leader and return to Egypt (see Bz – Faith and Obedience). The LORD responded in anger by condemning the Exodus generation to die in the desert (see Cb – God’s Response). Korah, Dathan, Abiram and 250 other lay leaders challenged Moshe and Aaron in their roles as leader and priest, and God caused the earth to swallow some of them, while others were burned alive with divine fire (see Cr – The Response of God). All the people accused Moses and Aaron of killing their leaders, and YHVH sent a plague (see Cs – The Rebellion of the People). Every time we hear the first hint of complaining from the people in Numbers, we automatically assume that the people’s complaint is illegitimate, that the attack on Moshe and Aaron is unjustified, and that the anger and righteous judgment of ADONAI on the people will follow like clockwork. This background information is crucial in understanding the dynamics of the perplexing story about water from the rock.

Numbers 20:2 states that the people had no water, and like their parents, they resorted to complaining. This is a somewhat jarring note because the lack of water in the desert seems to be a very legitimate complaint. Yet we have been conditioned to assume every complaint in Numbers is unreasonable and self-serving (see above). This is the first hint to the reader that something different is going on in this story.³⁹⁴ The people complained against Moshe and said: We wish we had died when our [parents] died before ADONAI. Why did you bring ADONAI’s people into this desert? To die there, we and our livestock? It is striking that they recognized themselves as God’s people, yet did not trust Him to take care of them. Why did you make us leave Egypt? To bring us to this terrible place without seed, figs, grapevines, pomegranates or even water to drink (20:3-5)? The real problem was a hardened heart, their excuse was that they had no water to drink.

Moses and Aaron’s response: The complaint against Moses and Aaron set in motion the same sequence of actions that they had performed in other complaint stories. Moshe and Aaron left the assembly, went to the entrance of the Tabernacle and fell on their faces. Then, as anticipated, YHVH appeared. The Sh’khinah glory of ADONAI appeared to them (see the commentary on Isaiah Ju – The Glory of the LORD Rises Upon You). But amazingly, in this case, there was no fire. Initially, there was no judgment. There was no anger. There was just a gentle word.³⁹⁵ ADONAI said to Moshe, “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the people together.” We notice that the staff is not the staff of Aaron that had budded, but the same staff that Moses had used to do wonders in Egypt and in the wilderness for forty years. Although he was to take his staff, the symbol of his power through the LORD, he was merely to speak to that rock (Hebrew: sela, meaning a cliff rock, which has the definite article in front of it, so God was referring to a specific rock) before their eyes and it will pour out its water. YHVH wanted to make sure that the people saw this miracle. God’s directive seems to suggest that the people’s need for water was legitimate and that He intended to satisfy their need. You will bring them water out of the rock and thus enable the people and their livestock to drink (20:6-8). But the reader cannot be sure; in an earlier request for meat, Ha’Shem had responded with abundant quail, but it was also accompanied with a plague (11:33).³⁹⁶

The disobedience of Moses: Moshe took the staff from the presence of ADONAI, as he had ordered him. But after Moshe and Aaron had assembled the people in front of the rock, he angrily said to them, “Listen here, you rebels! Are we (not God) supposed to bring you water from this rock” (20:9-10)?” By saying we, it seems that Moses and Aaron wanted to take credit for a miracle that ADONAI intended for His own glory. Then Moshe raised his hand and hit the rock twice with his staff. Back in Exodus 17:1-7 he was told to strike the rock once. Here, he was only told to speak to the rock; however he hit the rock twice out of anger. This was clearly a sin of mistrust. Moses was the best man that Israelite society could produce, he even saw God face-to-face. But he fell. Thus, we are taught to trust in Messiah. No one else can help us. He is the Rock of our salvation (Psalm 62:6-8).

The grace of God: Grace is receiving what you don’t deserve, and mercy is not receiving what you do deserve. Here, YHVH demonstrated His grace on the children of Isra’el. In His unmerited favor, water flowed out in abundance, and the people and their livestock drank (20:11). Nehemiah 9:15a says: For their hunger you gave bread from heaven; for their thirst you brought forth for them water from the rock. Psalm 78:15-16 remembers: He broke apart the rocks in the desert and let them drink as if from boundless depths; yes, He brought streams out of the rock, making the water flow down like rivers. And finally, Isaiah 48:21 declares: They weren’t thirsty when He led them through the deserts, He made water flow from the rock for – He split the rock and out gushed the water.

The judgment of God: Whereas Aaron’s sons died on the spot for offering incense that was not commanded (see the commentary on Leviticus Bh – The Death of Nadab and Abihu), Moses and Aaron received a lighter sentence. ADONAI said to Moshe and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in Me enough to demonstrate My holiness to the people of Isra’el, you will not bring this people into the Land I have promised them” (20:12 NLT). This seems to be a rather harsh judgment for such a small act of disobedience. What exactly was the sin of Moses? There are seven reasons for God’s judgment on Moshe. First, Moses clearly displayed anger (Psalm 106:33); second, he took credit for the giving of water (20:10), third, he struck the rock twice (20:11); fourth, he failed to trust God (20:12a); fifth, he failed to trust God enough to demonstrate His holiness to the people of Isra’el (20:12b, 27:14; Deut 32:51); sixth, his action was viewed as an act of rebellion by God (Numbers 27:14; Deuteronomy 32:51). This was also true of Aaron (Numbers 20:24); seventh, Moses suffered vicariously for the people, saying: Ha’Shem was angry with me for your sakes (Deut 1:37). Deuteronomy 4:21 also says: But ADONAI was angry with me on account of you and swore that I would not cross the Jordan and go into the good Land, which ADONAI your God is giving you to inherit. Aaron was also included in the ban. It seems strange that he was punished for this, an obscure sin that he barely participated in. But we must always remember that ADONAI holds spiritual leaders to a greater responsibility.³⁹⁷

The name of judgment: Once again, a name of judgment was given to a place of Isra’el’s journey. This time the name is Meribah, a word that means a place of strife or complaining. This is Meribah Spring (Hebrew: the waters of contention), where the people of Isra’el contended with ADONAI (Deuteronomy 33:38; Psalm 81:7 and 106:32; Ezeki’el 47:19 and 48:28), and He proved Himself holy, set apart, among them (20:13). The same name was used forty years earlier at the first occasion of bringing water from the rock in Exodus 17:7, also called Massah, or testing. Psalm 95:8 laments the rebellion at Meribah and Massah, and Psalm 114:8 celebrates both occasions of God’s grace. For Meribah and Massah serve for both; they are reminders of the rebellion and symbols of the celebration of God’s grace.³⁹⁸

The story of the rock in the wilderness and its life-giving water provided images for the B’rit Chadashah and early reflections on Yeshua; the waters of baptism and new life through the Gospel. In First Corinthians 10:4, Paul allegorizes the rock into an image of Messiah, “And they all drank the same drink from the Spirit – for they drank from a Spirit-sent Rock which accompanied them, and that Rock was the Messiah” (also see Psalm 31:3). The word Paul uses here for Rock is not petros, meaning a small stone or pebble, but petra, meaning a massive immovable cliff, rock or ledge, just like the one at Caesarea Philippi (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Fx – On This Rock I Will Build My Church). Messiah was also the source of supernatural water for the Corinthians. The same image of the rock and its water stands behind Yeshua’s words in John 7:37b-38: Let anyone who is thirsty come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. Messiah’s discussion with the Samaritan woman concerning living water is an echo of the rock in the Torah and its living water (John 4:10).

When Yeshua told His apostles of His impending suffering and death, Peter pledged that it should never happen. Then, the Lord issued a surprisingly stern rebuke to Peter saying: Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on divine things but on human things (Matthew 16:23). The severity of Peter’s rebuke, the leader among the twelve apostles, echoed Ha’Shem’s stern rebuke and judgment against Moses and Aaron, the leaders of the twelve tribes. Both the TaNaKh and the B’rit Chadashah share a healthy realism about the frailty of human leadership and the capacity of even the most trusted leaders to fail to discern God’s will and fall into disobedience.³⁹⁹

Dear Heavenly Father, Praise You for the victory over death, the ultimate penalty for our sin (Romans 6:23). Death that separated mankind from God and broke that relationship, was crushed and destroyed by Your sacrifice on the cross (John 1:29) and resurrection victory (Second Corinthians 5:21). Though You won the ultimate victory over sin, it is so important for me to walk in such a way as to maintain with a pure and loving heart my daily relationship with You our dear Heavenly Father God. As David, a man after your own heart (Acts 13:22) realized after he sinned, that though he had had a wonderful relationship with You, sin hurt that relationship and he needed to repent, confessing his sin and turning back to You. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise (Psalms 51:17).

Thank You for providing the way for the relationship to be mended by confessing my sins (First John 1:9). I want to show You my love and appreciation for all the great shame and pain you willing went thru (Hebrews 12:2) to buy my redemption. I desire to worship and obey You, and when I sin I desire to run quickly back to You with a humble heart asking for Your forgiveness. In Messiah Yeshua’s holy Name and power of His resurrection. Amen