Numbers Chapter 20: A Big Chapter in which Miriam & Aaron Die; Israel & Moses Sin; God Commands; and Edom Refuses Passage to the Israelites
Numbers 20:1-29
Day 73. Minneapolis is “burning”, and a police officer was charged with 3rd degree murder and manslaughter. Murder is either first degree or second degree, except in three states (Florida, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota). There were violent riots last night in Atlanta, New York, Washington, and Minneapolis. The world is no longer a safe place. Racism is still rampant. Love is still missing big time. I can’t speak for others, but I feel the church is silent. It was, for all intent and purposes, silent as Hitler was implementing his “final solution”. The Church of Jesus Christ has the only true “final solution” that works for mankind and it needs to take bigger risks to share it these days. I recently was asked on social media if I was prepared to actually admit that I “talk with God daily, etc.” I said “yes, I do” and the person proceeded to ridicule me. That’s okay. But the message got out there. Franklin Graham of the Billy Graham Association is using this Covid-19 experience as an opportunity to share the Gospel – clearly and simply. I congratulate him. We need to put our money where our mouths are. Let’s be a blessing to someone today.
On a positive note, today NASA/SPACEX (the latter being owned by Elon Musk who owns brought us Tesla cars) has successfully launched American astronauts into space again, after nearly one whole decade. We wish them godspeed.
Thank you for joining us in our study of Numbers. Chapter 20 is a chapter with lots of events. Read on.
The Passage
20 Then the sons of Israel, the whole congregation, came to the wilderness of Zin in the first month; and the people stayed at Kadesh. Now Miriam died there and was buried there.
2 There was no water for the congregation, and they assembled themselves against Moses and Aaron. 3 The people thus contended with Moses and spoke, saying, “If only we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord! 4 Why then have you brought the Lord’s assembly into this wilderness, for us and our beasts to die [a]here?5 Why have you made us come up from Egypt, to bring us in to this wretched place? It is not a place of [b]grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, nor is there water to drink.”6 Then Moses and Aaron came in from the presence of the assembly to the doorway of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces. Then the glory of the Lord appeared to them;
7 and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 8 “Take the rod; and you and your brother Aaron assemble the congregation and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it may yield its water. You shall thus bring forth water for them out of the rock and let the congregation and their beasts drink.”
9 So Moses took the rod from before the Lord, just as He had commanded him; 10 and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. And he said to them, “Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?” 11 Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their beasts drank. 12 But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”13 Those were the waters of [c]Meribah, [d]because the sons of Israel contended with the Lord, and He proved Himself holy among them.
14 From Kadesh Moses then sent messengers to the king of Edom: “Thus your brother Israel has said, ‘You know all the hardship that has befallen us; 15 that our fathers went down to Egypt, and we stayed in Egypt a long time, and the Egyptians treated us and our fathers badly. 16 But when we cried out to the Lord, He heard our voice and sent an angel and brought us out from Egypt; now behold, we are at Kadesh, a town on the edge of your territory. 17 Please let us pass through your land. We will not pass through field or through vineyard; we will not even drink water from a well. We will go along the king’s highway, not turning to the right or left, until we pass through your territory.’” 18 Edom, however, said to him, “You shall not pass through [e]us, or I will come out with the sword against you.” 19 Again, the sons of Israel said to him, “We will go up by the highway, and if I and my livestock do drink any of your water, then I will [f]pay its price. Let me only pass through on my feet, [g]nothing else.” 20 But he said, “You shall not pass through.” And Edom came out against him with a heavy [h]force and with a strong hand.21 Thus Edom refused to allow Israel to pass through his territory; so Israel turned away from him.
22 Now when they set out from Kadesh, the sons of Israel, the whole congregation, came to Mount Hor. 23 Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor by the border of the land of Edom, saying, 24 “Aaron will be gathered to his people; for he shall not enter the land which I have given to the sons of Israel, because you rebelled against My [i]command at the waters of Meribah. 25 Take Aaron and his son Eleazar and bring them up to Mount Hor; 26 and strip Aaron of his garments and put them on his son Eleazar. So Aaron will be gathered to his people, and will die there.” 27 So Moses did just as the Lord had commanded, and they went up to Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation. 28 After Moses had stripped Aaron of his garments and put them on his son Eleazar, Aaron died there on the mountain top. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain.29 When all the congregation saw that Aaron had died, all the house of Israel wept for Aaron thirty days.
Footnotes
- Numbers 20:4 Lit there
- Numbers 20:5 Lit seed
- Numbers 20:13 I.e. contention
- Numbers 20:13 Or where
- Numbers 20:18 Lit me
- Numbers 20:19 Lit give
- Numbers 20:19 Or no great thing
- Numbers 20:20 Lit people
- Numbers 20:24 Lit mouth
Thoughts on the Passage
A packed chapter indeed. Verse 1 tells us where they are and when they got there and simply that Moses’ sister, Miriam, died there. Miriam was the first of the three siblings to die (Aaron and Moses were to follow). This was in keeping with God’s promise that none of the original generation of those who left Egypt, save Joshua and Caleb, would enter the promised land.
In verses 2-6, we find out that the people grumble again, this time for water. They approach Moses and ask the same questions, “why, why, why”. And of course, Moses and Aaron go towards the doorway of the tent of meeting, fall on their faces, and the glory of the Lord appears to them and God speaks to Moses. He instructs Moses on how to deal with the situation. Let’s look at the instructions carefully because this event is a lead-up to the most critical or key verse of the entire book of Numbers.
David Guzik says the need was real, but the reaction of Israel smacked of unbelief and a bad attitude. Sometimes, as we all know, we overact to what we think is a pressing need in our lives rather than to take the matter to God.
God says: i) take the rod; ii) you and Aaron assemble the congregation; and iii) speak to the rock before their eyes, so that it would yield water. Simple. Three requests. Nothing else was needed. The rod that Moses was to take, according to Robert Jamieson, was the one that had been deposited in the tabernacle as we are told in Numbers 17:10. It was the rod of Aaron. There was no request to ‘use’ the rod to strike the rock as God had instructed Moses to do back in Mount Sinai when there was a similar need. Just talking to the rock this time would produce the water needed and the congregation and their animals would have their thirst satisfied. But what happened?
Moses i) takes the rod (so far, so good); ii) Moses and Aaron gather the assembly before the rock (even better); and iii) – oh oh, Moses doesn’t speak to the rock! He speaks to the people (verse 10) and he calls them rebels. He asks them if he and Aaron were to give them water out of the rock. And then, only then, does Moses strike the rock twice without speaking to it. The water gushes forth and the people and their animals drink as much as they want.
What was Moses guilty of from a human perspective? First, he added his own approach to the process that God had given him to deal with the situation. Second, he chided the people and was angry at them. His emotions or attitude took over his heart. And finally, as Guzik says, he over-magnified his part or potential part in the solution – “shall we give you water?” Who’s “we” Moses? You can’t do anything. Did you forget that? That’s our lesson here. When God wants us to do something – stick to what He tells us to do and we must not exaggerate in our minds or with our words, our role in that. And then he strikes the rock not once, as if he were a magician, but twice, out of shear anger and frustration.
We need to note how gracious God was to the Israelites. Even though Moses didn’t follow the instructions, God didn’t deny His people what they needed. The thought that comes to mind is how we often see God taking care of His people in local church when their leaders are not following God’s exact instructions. God loves us and He will take care of us regardless of leadership. And then He will deal with the leadership.
And the God speaks to Moses and Aaron, and here comes the most critical or key verse in the whole book, verse 12, “Because you guys did not believe me and you did not treat Me as holy in the sight of the people, you both will not have the privilege of leading them to the promised land.” The rock did not need to be struck; it only needed to be spoken to. Come on, God. We’re talking about Moses and Aaron here. These are you chosen servants. They have gone through so much in obedience to you. One little mistake and that’s it, they’re out? That’s it, they are out. And not only that, they, or at least Moses, still has a lot of work to do for God. No exceptions, not even for Moses.
We have to understand what God was upset about here. It was the fact that He was misrepresented to the people by Moses and Aaron. He says, “because you did not believe me.” Because God said that, we can know that Moses did in fact have a problem at that very moment with his belief in God being able to deliver the water by Moses simply speaking to the rock. And as a result, Moses lost out on his life’s dream – the promised land. The lesson? Don’t ever misrepresent God. Don’t ever doubt God. Don’t stop believing in what God tells you directly. Leaders, pastors, elders, deacons, church staff take note – don’t ever do that. And that goes for the rest of us, too.
Now, here’s the comparison to Christ the Rock. In order for Christ to accomplish His work for the Father, He only needed to be struck once – to be crucified. He did not need, in order to save us all from sin, to be struck twice. Guzik says Moses in striking the rock twice, “defaced a beautiful picture of Jesus' redemptive work through the rock which provided water in the wilderness”.
Verses 14-21 relate the account of Moses sending messengers to the king of Edom requesting permission to pass through his land on their journey. Notice these messengers referred to themselves, to Israel, as “Edom’s brother”. Guzik says, “The nation of Israel was brother to the nation of Edom, because the patriarch Israel (also known as Jacob) was brother to Esau (also known as Edom), as related in Genesis 25:19-34.
They give him the story about all the hardships they’ve been through and that they will not harm their land at all. The king of Edom says no, and if they try anyway, he would go after them in battle. They tried again asking if they could even just go by one highway and again, he said no, at which point the Israelites turned to travel away from Edom’s territory and they got to Mount Hor (verse 22). The refusal was truly unnecessary. It would have cost Edom nothing to agree. But what was the lesson for the Israelites? It was the same as it is for us today: when people do not support our work or cause and set up barriers for our service to God, leave them to God and don’t try to avenge their actions. In my own life, I’ve seen God take care of those kind of uncooperative sorts appropriately soon after their refusal to help.
God once again speaks to Moses and Aaron. This is important because now God is telling them that it is time for Aaron to die because they both rebelled against God at Meribah (where the water miracle took place). And Moses was to take Aaron and his son Eleazar up to Mount Hor. God uses the phrase “bring them up” so we could assume that He was going to be there as well. Moses was to strip Aaron of this high priestly garments and put them on Eleazar. And then Aaron was to die there. And that’s exactly what happened. Then Moses, after supposedly burying Aaron (we don’t know for sure), along with Eleazar went back down. The whole congregation connected the dots and realized that Aaron had died, and they all wept and mourned for 30 days.
Several things to note here. Aaron’s death had been announced prior to the trip up Mount Hor. So, there was time for an orderly and appropriate transition from Israel’s first High Priest to their second. Also, we must remember that as good as Aaron was, he was also involved negatively in the whole situation with the Golden Calf. He, like sister Miriam, and later Moses, could be said to have had a mixed record in serving God. What’s the lesson? Guzik suggests that many times the office and the work is more important than the man (or woman) carrying it out. [I can’t but think of how so many Christians today complain about the personal sins of a president but fail to see what that president may be doing that God wants done. We need to think about that as we verbalize our opinions.]
What is not lost on us and Matthew Henry is that these same people who time and again came out and complained about Aaron, now mourn 30 days for his loss. That is human nature. That is the fickleness of people. That is the hypocrisy of people. I can go on. I won’t. Our job is to work and live throughout our lives for an audience of one – our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That is my prayer for you and me today.
It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.
Some great lessons from a packed passage. Thanks, Ken.
ReplyDelete