Numbers 20:1 - Meaning and Application

After thirty-eight tiring years of marching, or rather of wandering in place, through the wilderness and back toward the Red Sea, Israel finally turned again toward Canaan. They were now not far from the place where they had been when God, in righteous judgment, first sent them into the wilderness. For a long time they had seemed to move in a maze, while God carried out the sentence against the rebels who had been condemned. Now they were brought back onto the right path, and they stayed in Kadesh (Numbers 20:1).

This was not Kadesh-barnea, which lay near the border of Canaan, but another Kadesh on the edge of Edom. It was farther from the promised land, yet still on the route back from the Red Sea. In this place Miriam died, Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron, and likely the older of the two. She must have been the same sister who watched Moses when he was placed in the basket among the reeds, and who later died in Egypt (Exodus 2:4, Exodus 2:1). She was a prophetess, and God used her for much good among Israel (Micah 6:4).

Miriam had gone before the people with a tambourine, praising God for his mighty works, just as Moses and Aaron had gone before them with the rod to do wonders (Exodus 15:20). In that way she truly served the people. Yet she had once grumbled with others against God, and because of that she was not allowed to enter Canaan (Numbers 12:1). Here, at the end of their journey, another Meribah appears. There had been an earlier place by that name at the beginning of the wilderness march, so called because the people quarreled there (Exodus 17:7). Now there is a second Meribah, again named for the people’s strife, and again the same kind of trouble breaks out (Numbers 20:13).

There was no water for the congregation (Numbers 20:2). The water that had come from the rock at Rephidim had likely gone with them while they needed it, and for some time they may have been supplied in the ordinary way. When common providence gives, the miracle need not continue. But here there was no water, or not enough for the people. We live in a world of need, and wherever we go we should expect some hardship. It is a great mercy to have plenty of water, and we often only learn its value when it is lacking.

Because of this, the people rose up in anger and mutiny (Numbers 20:2). They gathered together and turned against Moses and Aaron, speaking to them in the same foolish and stubborn way their fathers had done before them. They said they wished they had died with their brethren under God’s judgment, rather than be left for a time as if God had forgotten them. Instead of thanking God for sparing them, they despised his mercy and complained that their lives had been preserved at all.

They also grumbled that they had been brought out of Egypt and led through the wilderness (Numbers 20:4, Numbers 20:5). They blamed Moses for what they knew was the Lord’s doing, treating God’s greatest kindness to them as if it were an injury. They preferred slavery to freedom, and Egypt to the land of promise. Though their immediate lack was only water, once they began finding fault they spoke as if they had been cruelly denied vines and figs as well.

Their sin was made worse by several things. First, they had already suffered for nearly forty years because of the unbelief and discontent of their fathers (Numbers 14:33). Even so, they walked in the same path and did not humble themselves, though they knew the history well (Daniel 5:22). Second, they had long experience of God’s goodness, and of Moses and Aaron’s patience and faithfulness. Third, Miriam had just died, so they should have shown greater respect to the leaders who remained. Instead, they acted as if they wanted God to leave them like sheep without a shepherd. Rather than comfort Moses and Aaron in their grief, they added to it.

Moses and Aaron answered them not at all. They went to the door of the tabernacle to seek God’s will in this matter (Numbers 20:6). There they fell on their faces, as they had done before in a similar situation, asking God to turn away his anger and give them direction. The text does not record any words from them. They knew God had heard the people’s complaints, so they humbly lay before him, praying with groanings too deep for words. There they waited for God’s command: “Speak, Lord, for your servants are listening.”

God then appeared to settle the matter. He did not appear on his throne of judgment to punish the rebels as they deserved. He will not always keep accusing, and he does not delight in destroying his people (Hosea 11:9, Genesis 8:21). Instead, he appeared in two ways. First, he showed his glory to quiet the people’s sinful noise (Numbers 20:6). A sight of the Lord’s glory would put a strong check on our passions and sinful desires, and it would silence our mouths. Second, he acted in grace to meet their true need. They needed water, and though their way of asking was wrong, God did not use that as a reason to deny them. He gave immediate instructions for their relief (Numbers 20:8).

Moses was to command water from a rock again, this time in God’s name, to show that God was still as able as ever to care for his people, even in their worst need and when all ordinary help failed. Almighty power can bring water from a rock, and it can do so again. His arm is not shortened. To keep anyone from thinking the first rock had some special hidden spring, God told Moses to strike another one. He did not even name the exact rock, as he had before, but left Moses free to use the one before him. To God’s power, they were all the same.

God also told Moses to take the rod, the same famous rod by which he had called down the plagues on Egypt and divided the sea. With it in his hand, both Moses and the people would be reminded of the great things God had already done for them, and they would be encouraged to trust him again.

This rod seems to have been kept in the tabernacle (Numbers 20:9), for it was the rod of God, the rod of his power, as the gospel is called (Psalm 110:2), perhaps with a nod to that rod. God told Moses to gather the whole assembly, not only the elders, but all the people, so they could see what happened. In that way, they would be convinced by their own eyes and shamed for their unbelief. God’s works of wonder have no trick in them, so they do not fear the light or the close attention of many witnesses.

God also told Moses to speak to the rock, and it would obey. This would shame the people, who had been spoken to so often and still would not listen or obey. Their hearts were harder than that rock, less tender, less willing, and less obedient. God promised that the rock would give water (Numbers 20:8), and it did so (Numbers 20:11). The water came out in great abundance.

This shows both God’s power and his mercy. He could bring honey out of a rock and oil out of a hard stone, but he also chose to do it for such a complaining people. This was a new generation, since most of the older people had already died, yet they were as bad as those before them. Complaining seemed to run in the family, yet God did not break off his favor. In this event, his patience shines as brightly as his power. He is God, not man, in sparing and pardoning. He not only gave them water for themselves, but also for their animals (Numbers 20:8, 20:11). In that water, he also gave them a picture of spiritual drink, meaning the blessings of salvation, for that rock was Christ.

Moses and Aaron handled this matter wrongly, and God was so displeased that he told them at once they would not have the honor of bringing Israel into Canaan (Numbers 20:10-12). This is a strange story, but it teaches us much. It is certain that God was greatly offended, and rightly so, because he is never angry without cause. Though Moses and Aaron were his servants, and had received grace to be faithful, though they were his favored servants, he still punished them for something they thought, said, or did here. He made them die short of Canaan, like the other unbelieving Israelites. No doubt, the offense deserved the punishment.

Still, it is not fully clear what part of their behavior was so provoking. The fault seems to have had several parts. First, they did not follow their instructions exactly. God told them to speak to the rock, but they spoke to the people and struck the rock, which they had not been told to do at that time. They seem to have thought speaking would not be enough. When we doubt the power of God’s word and turn to worldly force in matters of conscience, we act like Moses here, striking the rock when we should only speak to it.

Second, they took too much of the glory of this miracle to themselves. “Must we fetch water?” they asked, as if the power or worthiness were theirs. For that reason, God said they did not honor him as holy in the eyes of the people, meaning they did not give him the glory that belonged to his name.

Third, unbelief was the main sin (Numbers 20:12). God said, “You did not believe me.” It is even called rebellion against God’s commandment (Numbers 27:14). The command was to bring water from the rock, but they rebelled against that command by doubting it and wondering whether it would actually happen. Their words sound uncertain: “Must we fetch water?” They may also have shown by other actions that they were unsure whether water would come for such a rebellious people. Perhaps they doubted because the Lord’s glory did not appear at this rock as it had at Rephidim (Exodus 17:6). They would not take God at his word without a sign. Dr. Lightfoot thought their unbelief may have been this: they doubted whether, now that the forty years were ending, they would really enter Canaan, and whether a new round of hardship lay ahead. They may have seen the opening of a new rock as a sign that their stay in the wilderness would be longer. If so, it was just that the people entered the land at the appointed time while Moses and Aaron were kept out.

Fourth, they spoke and acted in anger. Psalm 106:33 says, “They provoked his spirit, so that he spoke unadvisedly with his lips.” Moses called them rebels in a fit of passion. It is true that they were rebels, and God had called them that, and Moses later used the same word in a proper rebuke (Deuteronomy 9:24). But here it came from a troubled spirit and was spoken too quickly. It was too much like calling someone a fool in anger. His striking the rock twice, apparently without waiting for water after the first blow, shows how heated he was. The same words and actions may be right when done gently, but very wrong when done in anger (James 1:20).

Fifth, the worst part was that this happened in public, before the children of Israel, who should have seen in Moses and Aaron an example of faith, hope, and gentleness. Moses had once shown sinful distrust in private (Numbers 11:22-23), between God and himself, and there he was only corrected. But this sin was public. It dishonored God before Israel, as if he were unwilling to show them kindness, and it discouraged their trust in him. That made the punishment more severe, especially because of the rank and standing of those who sinned.

From all this, we learn several things. The best people still have faults, even in the very graces where they are strongest. Moses was very meek, yet here he sinned in anger. So anyone who thinks he stands should be careful not to fall. We also learn that God does not judge sin the way people do. We might think there was little wrong in what Moses said and did, yet God saw reason to punish it sharply. He knows the state of people’s hearts, their temper, and the thoughts and motives behind their words and actions. So his judgment is always true, even when it does not match ours.

We also learn that God notices the sins of his people and is displeased by them, and the closer people are to him, the more serious their sins are (Amos 3:2). The psalmist seems to refer to this sin of Moses and Aaron when he says, “You were a God who forgave them, though you took vengeance on their wrongdoings” (Psalm 99:8). Many are spared in this life and punished in the next, and many are punished in this life and saved in the next. Finally, when our hearts are hot within us, we must be careful not to sin with our tongues.

This is also clear proof of Moses’ sincerity and fairness in writing this account. He records his own fault and does not hide his weakness. That shows that, in both what he wrote and what he did, he cared more about God’s glory than his own honor.

For that reason, the place was called Meribah in Numbers 20:13. It is also called Meribah-Kadesh (Deuteronomy 32:51), to tell it apart from the other Meribah. It means “water of strife,” and the name keeps alive the memory of the people’s sin, Moses’ sin, and God’s mercy. God still gave them water and still supported and honored Moses, even after his failure.

In this way, God showed himself to be holy, the Holy One of Israel, who is honored even when he shows mercy and holds back judgment (Hosea 11:9). Moses and Aaron did not honor God as they should have in front of Israel (Numbers 20:12), but God still honored himself through them. He will not let any person take away his glory. If we do not glorify him, he will glorify himself through us.