ellauri164.html on line 495: The book of Deuteronomy shows Moses giving several sermon-type speeches to the people, reminding them of God’s saving power and faithfulness. He gives the second reading of the Law (Deuteronomy 5) and prepares this generation of Israelites to receive the promises of God. Moses himself is prohibited from entering the land because of his sin at Meribah (Numbers 20:10-13). At the end of the book of Deuteronomy, Moses’ death is recorded (Deuteronomy 34). He climbed Mount Nebo and is allowed to look upon the Promised Land. Moses was 120 years old when he died, and the Bible records that his “eye was undimmed and his vigor unabated” (Deuteronomy 34:7). The Lord Himself buried Moses (Deuteronomy 34:5–6), and Joshua took over as leader of the people (Deuteronomy 34:9). Deuteronomy 34:10–12 says, " Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, who did all those signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt—to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land. For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel."
ellauri164.html on line 504: The third and final chapter in Moses’ life is the chapter that Scripture spends the most time chronicling, namely, his role in the redemption of Israel. Several lessons can be gleaned from this chapter of Moses’ life as well. First is how to be an effective leader of people. Moses essentially had responsibility over two million Hebrew refugees. When things began to wear on him, his father-in-law, Jethro Tull, suggested that he delegate responsibility to other faithful men, a lesson that many people in authority over others need to learn (Exodus 18). We also see a man who was dependent on the grace of God to help with his task. Moses was continually pleading on behalf of the people before God. If only all people in authority would petition God on behalf of those over whom they are in charge! Moses was keenly aware of the necessity of God’s presence and even requested to see God’s glory (Exodus 33). Moses knew that, apart from God, the exodus would be meaningless. It was God who made the Israelites distinct, and they needed Him most. Moses’ life also teaches us the lesson that there are certain sins that will continue to haunt us throughout our lives. The same hot temper that got Moses into trouble in Egypt also got him into trouble during the wilderness wanderings. In the aforementioned incident at Meribah, Moses struck the rock in anger in order to provide water for the people. However, he didn’t give God the glory, nor did he follow God’s precise commands. Because of this, God forbade him from entering the Promised Land. In a similar manner, we all succumb to certain besetting sins which plague us all our days, sins that require us to be on constant alert.
ellauri164.html on line 534: 3. Moses sinned by speaking harshly and rashly. Psalm 106 seems to favor this interpretation. They angered the Lord at the waters of Meribah, and it went ill with Moses on their account, for they made his spirit bitter, and he spoke rashly with his lips (Psalm 106:32-33).
ellauri164.html on line 586: water from the rock at Meribah. Moses and the sons of Aaron buried him in the mount, that the people might not be tempted to make too great ceremony over his body, and be guilty of the sin of idolatry.
ellauri164.html on line 588: Moses’ Unfaithfulness at Meribah (Numbers 20:2-13)
ellauri164.html on line 597: Honoring God in leadership—as all Christian leaders in every sphere must attempt to do—is a terrifying responsibility. Whether we lead a business, a classroom, a relief organization, a household, or any other organization, we must be careful not to mistake our authority for God’s. What can we do to keep ourselves in obedience to God? Meeting regularly with an accountability (or “peer”) group, praying daily about the tasks of leadership, keeping a weekly Sabbath to rest in God’s presence, and seeking others’ perspective on God’s guidance are methods some leaders employ. Even so, the task of leading firmly while remaining wholly dependent on God is beyond human capability. If the most humble man on the face of the earth (Num. 12:3) could fail in this way, so can we. By God’s grace, even failures as great as Moses’ at Meribah, with disastrous consequences in this life, do not separate us from the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promises. Moses did not enter the Promised Land, yet the New Testament declares him “faithful in all God’s house” and reminds us of the confidence that all in God’s house have in the fulfillment of our redemption in Christ (Heb. 3:2-6).
ellauri164.html on line 694: To answer this question we must examine a pattern that developed in the book of Numbers. Three times prior to the incident at the rock of Meribah the people sinned, God punished them, Moses interceded on the people’s behalf, and God pardoned the people. Please take the time to read these events in Numbers chapters 11, 14, 16 & 20. Notice the pattern in the table below.
ellauri164.html on line 696: | Taberah | Twelve Spies | Korah’s Rebellion | Rock at Meribah |
ellauri164.html on line 705: Based on the pattern established in Numbers, what do you expect will happen at Meribah when the people rebel against Moses? We expect the pattern to repeat and for God to decree punishment, but that doesn’t happen. The pattern breaks down! Instead of decreeing punishment for the people’s sin, God simply tells Moses to give the people water by speaking to the rock. This is a significant departure from the previous pattern. When a Bible author develops a pattern and then breaks it, we should pay attention because this signals that the author wants us to notice something important. Why didn’t God punish the people at Meribah? Why did he go at Moses instead?
ellauri164.html on line 709: He has reached the end of his rope. He has been patient with these complaining and rebellious people, but he couldn’t take it any longer. Their constant ingratitude and rebelliousness caused Moses to lose faith in the people. This is the people that were supposed to be God’s treasured possession, a holy nation of priests who had agreed to be in a covenant relationship with God (Ex 19:5-8). What a disappointment they had turned out to be and Moses was finished interceding for them. God knew Moses was not going to intercede for the people at Meribah, therefore He doesn’t ordain punishment for them.
ellauri164.html on line 715: If there is any doubt this was Moses’s problem, this verse removes it: “because you broke faith with me in the midst of the people of Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, and because you did not treat me as holy in the midst of the people of Israel.” (Deut. 32:51 ESV)
ellauri164.html on line 729: The bottom line is that both he and Aaron disobeyed God. Moreover, the water that rushed out was no longer seen as a gift from God, but was a product of Moses and Aaron. The people were happy; God was not. He said, "You did not trust in me; and you did not honor me as holy" (Num. 20:13). Hence, neither of them would set foot into the Promised Land. Yet, it is important to notice that just as God did not abandon his people when they sinned, he did not abandon Moses and Aaron. But in this one instance, they didn't pass the test. When crunch time came, they didn't trust God. And all of this happened at the waters of Meribah.
ellauri164.html on line 802: In the first month the whole Israelite community arrived at the Desert of Zin, and they stayed at Kadesh. There Miriam died and was buried. (2) Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. (3) They quarreled with Moses and said, "If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the LORD! (4) Why did you bring the LORD's community into this desert, that we and our livestock should die here? (5) Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!" (6) Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and fell facedown, and the glory of the LORD appeared to them. (7) The LORD said to Moses, (8) "Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink." (9) 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 honor 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, [1] where the Israelites quarreled with the LORD and where he showed himself holy among them.
ellauri164.html on line 863: The Sin of Moses: What Happened at Meribah?
ellauri164.html on line 867: There are few characters that play a larger part in the story of the Bible than Moses. He is the human protagonist of four Old Testament books and is consistently held up in both the OT and NT as a shining example of faith in the promises of God. The law that he delivered to the people of Israel serves as the foundation of the nation of Israel, and is lauded by Jesus as a testament that would not pass until “heaven and earth pass away…[and] all is accomplished.” One of the great tragic moments of the Bible is where Moses is denied entrance to the Promised Land for his sin at the Rock of Meribah; after faithfully leading Israel for forty years, Moses strikes a rock instead of speaking to it and is condemned to die before living in the Promised Land. On its surface, this might seem unfair to Moses. One mess-up and God gives him this great punishment? How many times had Israel failed in their journey and at Mt. Sinai, and God had spared their lives and allowed them to keep going? Yet His most faithful servant is barred over this one, seemingly insignificant event? If we take a closer look at the text, however, we see why Moses’ failure was such a stark one. While it doesn’t diminish the tragic nature of the event, it does shed light on why God takes such a drastic step to respond.
ellauri164.html on line 871: This pattern shows itself again in the beginning of Numbers 20 after the death of Miriam. Once more Israel rebels against Moses and Aaron, this time over a lack of water in the desert of Zin. They claim that it would have been better to have died with Korah’s rebellion rather than wander without food and water, and they express regret over leaving Egypt, a land of “grain, figs, vines, and pomegranates.” This might seem a bold claim, since in our reading Korah has just died a few chapters earlier. Careful reading, however, indicates that there’s actually been a quiet time skip; Numbers 33:38 indicates that Aaron died in “the fortieth year after the sons of Israel had come from the land of Egypt, on the first day in the fifth month.” Given that Aaron’s death is recorded in Chapter 20, just a few verses after the episode at Meribah, this would indicate that the episode at Meribah occurred in year 38 of the 40 year wandering in the wilderness (remember that Israel had spent more than a year at Sinai in addition to travel time from Egypt to Sinai and from Sinai to the Promised Land before the wandering). This means that this rebellious generation of Israelites aren’t referencing a recent event, but instead wishing they had died nearly forty years earlier with Korah! Moses and Aaron have been dealing with this wicked and hard group of people for a very long time, and they are now claiming it would have been better to have died with Korah: a fate they were only spared because of Moses and Aaron’s own intercession!
ellauri164.html on line 875: This gets us back to the question of what, exactly, Moses’ sin was. Many commentators focus on the physical actions that Moses took in verses 9-11. Some say Moses sin was striking the rock rather than speaking to it, but Moses was told to take the staff of God. Exodus 17:5-6 had Moses striking the rock to cause water to come out of the rock (in fact, it’s actually the same rock of Meribah!), so it’s possible to read an inference that the staff was to be used to strike the rock. Some commentators see Moses’ harsh words for Israel as the sin, or perhaps that he speaks to the people rather than speaking to the rock. Regardless of which of these views, they don’t account for what the text itself says: Numbers 20:12 makes it clear that the sin of Moses and Aaron was “…you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel.” Indeed, focusing on Moses’ actions of striking the rock or speaking harshly makes it seem doubly unfair to Aaron, who had neither spoken nor struck the rock.
ellauri164.html on line 892: To begin with, we need to know that there were two instances where the children of Israel on their journey to Canaan drank water from the rock. The first was at a place known as Rephidim which would later be called Massah (temptation) and Meribah (strife). The second was at Kadesh. The water here was also called water of Meribah. “This is the water of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with the LORD, and He was sanctified in them.” Numbers 20:13
ellauri164.html on line 935: When God said Moses “failed to sanctify me in the eyes of the people,” He did not specify exactly what this failure was. God had told Moses to “speak to the rock,” but the account stated that “Moses lifted up his hand, and smote the rock with his rod twice.” Clearly, in that act, Moses went beyond what God had commanded him to do. God had told Moses to take the staff, but not use it. He was directly commanded only to speak to the rock. He went beyond what was written when struck that rock. It was similar to Nadab and Abihu who offered “strange fire which He had not commanded them.” At that time Moses saw that such behavior did not “treat God as holy or glorify him among the people” (Lev. 10:1-3). Yet Moses, in anger, failed to hallow God when he struck that rock instead of speaking to it. He had failed to learn “not to go beyond what is written,” (1Cor. 4:6). He was told to speak to the rock (and he did not do that), but struck the rock (which he had no authority to do). God later charged Moses with this sin: “you rebelled against my word at the waters of Meribah” (Num 20:24; 27:13).
ellauri164.html on line 941: “And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in Mount Hor by the border of the land of Edom, saying: 24 "Aaron shall be gathered to his people, for he shall not enter the land which I have given to the children of Israel, because you rebelled against My word at the water of Meribah.” (Num. 20:23-25).
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