Numbers 20:1-13--The Waters of Meribah

Numbers 20:1-13
English Standard Version

The Death of Miriam
20 And the people of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh. And Miriam died there and was buried there.

The Waters of Meribah
2 Now there was no water for the congregation. And they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. 3 And the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Would that we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord! 4 Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, that we should die here, both we and our cattle? 5 And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink.” 6 Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces. And the glory of the Lord appeared to them, 7 and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 8 “Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.” 9 And Moses took the staff from before the Lord, as he commanded him.

Moses Strikes the Rock
10 Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” 11 And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock. 12 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.” 13 These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarreled with the Lord, and through them he showed himself holy.

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We'll see in this passage why Miriam and Moses were not told that they would enter the Promised Land back when it was only promised to Joshua and Caleb (we'll have to wait a bit more for why Aaron wasn't included).  Miriam, the sister of Moses who watched over him when he was placed in the basked in the Nile dies.  While there some moments of sibling rivalry, she was a great supporter of Moses and it was Miriam that was a prophetess and played the tambourine and danced as the people sang praises to the LORD when they crossed over the Red Sea--singing "The Song of Moses," a song of salvation that we will even sing in heaven!  The loss of her was very "bitter" to Moses and the people just like the water that they were going to come up against.

Even though they had experienced a similar experience in the beginning of their journey just three days in when they came against the bitter water that was made sweet by throwing a tree into the waters (a picture of the cross of Christ making the bitter sweet).  They failed to learn from this or their other experiences when they grumbled against the LORD and Moses and Aaron.  This time Aaron immediately makes intercession for the people knowing that their grumbling would anger the LORD, and the LORD instructed Moses to take the budding rod of Aaron that had been placed before the Ark of the Covenant and to take Aaron with him and Moses was to use the staff and prophecy to the rock and command it to bring forth water.

This sounds bizarre!  A rock bringing forth clean water?  But this also has been doing before, though in a different way.  The first time, Moses had been commanded to strike the rock so that it would bring forth clean water.  Moses gets angry at the people and strikes the rock out of anger, even though God's instructions were explicitly that he should only speak to the rock.  God's punishment was that Moses would not enter the Promised Land because he had not believed the LORD or counted Him as holy in the eyes of the people (he had committed open rebellion, and as their leader, he was held to a higher standard).  This was also an action consistent with his "old nature" that we saw back in Egypt where he let his emotions control him so that he got angry and lashed out at the Egyptian taskmaster and murdered him.

​So, what's the big deal?  We have to wait for the book of 1 Corinthians (1 Corinthians 10:3-4) to have this explained to us.  The Rock that gave them water in the desert was a picture of Jesus.  He would be smitten one time (He would only die once and once for all of His people) and was never to be struck down again.  Everything after that we needed would be provided simply by speaking to Him.  Moses messed this imagery up when He struck the rock again--Jesus was only ever to be struck down once to give the Living Water to all who believed on Him.  Even something that seems so "minor" to us can have drastic consequences when God intended that thing to be signpost for others in our lives to see and understand Jesus.  When we are controlled by the flesh and not by the Spirt, then we have the potential to mess up the gospel for all those around us and for future generations.  Imagine if Moses had been faithful here and we actually had the perfect imagery here to be explained to us in the New Testament instead of having to be told.   Moses had shown himself to be like the people he led--angry and rebellious and grumbling, this time about the people that God gave him to lead.  As the people were kept from entering the Promised Land, so was he.