ellauri164.html on line 673: Most of us have been taught that Moses’s sin was hitting a rock to obtain water when God told him just to speak to it. Others say Moses’s sin was that he took credit for obtaining water from the rock when it was really God who performed the miracle.
ellauri164.html on line 675: However, God did not say either of these actions was the problem, nor did Moses believe these were the problem. In fact, nowhere does the text say Moses’s sin was striking the rock instead of speaking to it or taking credit for the miracle.
ellauri164.html on line 676: What did God say Moses’s sin was?
ellauri164.html on line 677: God said Moses’s sin was a failure to trust:
ellauri164.html on line 692: How did Moses’s faith falter and what did the people have to do with it?
ellauri164.html on line 711: So, how does this connect back to Moses being barred from entering the Promised Land? Because the people were unfaithful and so difficult to lead, Moses’s own faith suffered. This caused him to lose confidence that God could develop the Israelites into a faithful covenant people who were meant to be a nation of priests and a means of blessing the nations.
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 717: Conclusion: Moses’s sin wasn’t striking the rock as such when he was told to speak to it; his sin was losing faith in God’s ability to use the Israelites for anything positive. This is why God could say that Moses didn’t trust in Him and is also why Moses could say God was angry with him on account of the people.
ellauri164.html on line 719: God expects and requires His people to trust Him. Trust is easy when everything is going well. Our faith matters most when things are going wrong and we don’t understand why. During these bad times will we trust in God or not? Moses’s trust in God temporarily faltered and it cost him the Promised Land.
ellauri164.html on line 967: Another difference is this: in the earlier story, Moses pleaded for help from God; here, Moses does not say a word. God reacts directly to the people’s complaints. Another bit of evidence that this crisis is unlike other crises is that the word test, which is used in other stories of complaint, does not appear here. These differences signal to us that this story is different from the first one—and therefore Moses’s reaction should be different.
ellauri164.html on line 973: In this very short story we see a second framework: the phrase “before the eyes” emphasizes both the importance of what the Israelites witness, and the logical nature of Moses’s punishment. Why is it so important that Moses speak “before the eyes of the Israelites”? To answer that, we need to recall their past.
ellauri164.html on line 979: What God wants the people to see is that Moses speaks in performing the miracle at the rock. It is a potentially powerful transitional moment in which Moses’s publicly perceived action would be speech. What he would say would become part of the people’s religious consciousness—part of the repeated narrative of the people—a way of adducing to God a caring relationship with God’s people, and conveying that care to the people. We can imagine the speech Moses might give, performing the quintessential task of a prophet, in bringing God and the people closer together. Instead, he calls them “rebels,” distancing the people from himself and, by association, from God; disdaining their legitimate needs; and losing the opportunity to attribute the provision of water to God.
12