Numbers 20:10-11

AN ILL-TEMPERED LEADER

‘Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice.’

Numbers 20:10

This is a memorable incident in Israel’s history, and it is rich in warning to us at this day. Moses had failed in his duty towards God, and that in three particulars. (1) He had failed in strict obedience. God had bidden him speak to the rock, and he had smitten it, smitten it twice. (2) He had shown temper, used hard language. ‘Hear now, ye rebels!’ (3) He had taken to himself the credit of supplying the Israelites with water. ‘Must we fetch water for you out of the rock?’

I. The first lesson to be learned from Moses at Meribah is the danger of departing, in the least jot or tittle, from any law of God.

II. The second is the immense importance attached to temperate speech, the necessity of keeping a check on temper and not letting ourselves be moved to hot and angry words. The want of self-control was very heavily visited upon Moses and upon ‘Aaron, the saint of the Lord.’ Because of it they were shut out of Canaan.

III. The scene at the rock of Meribah is further useful as carrying our thoughts upwards to Him who is the source of all our hopes, the nourishment of our soul, the very life of our religion, the Lord Jesus Christ. The rock in the desert was but a type and shadow; the reality it typified is represented in Jesus Christ. All other waters after a while must fail; the water that Christ can give ‘shall be in us as a well of water, springing up unto everlasting life.’

Rev. R. D. B. Rawnsley.

Illustration

(1) ‘It was probably through lack of faith that Moses smote the rock, instead of speaking to it. It seemed such a little thing to speak, hardly enough, surely, to awaken a response in the hard rock; hence he lifted up his hand, and smote the rock with main force, as though his might were to do the work; and it was his lack of faith, allied as it was with impatience, that excluded the great Lawgiver from the Land of Promise.’

(2) ‘Note how the right things may be done in the wrong spirit. The Lesson speaks of God’s displeasure at Moses. He was told that he would never enter the land of Canaan because of his conduct in this matter of the rock. There was no question that God had been true to His word—there flowed the water in an abundant stream—but there was that in Moses, even while he wrought the miracle, that was intensely displeasing to Jehovah. Moses had been bidden speak to the rock; instead of that he struck it, not once, but twice. He was in a heat of passion, too, with the rebellious people, and, as the psalmist says, he spake unadvisedly. And doubtless, in the secret chambers of his heart, God saw an unbelief that no one else saw, for we read in verse 12, “Ye believed Me not.” Note, then, how a man may do the right thing, yet he may do it wrongly, and have to suffer for it. God not only reckons the actions that we do; He reckons also the spirit in which they are done. Two girls may give their toys to some poor children, but the one does it cheerfully and willingly; the other does it with a grumble and a grudge, thinking it a hardship all the time. So far as the poor children are concerned, it does not matter—they get the toys, as Israel got the water—but in the eyes of God there is a world of difference betwixt the gifts of the two little maidens. Two boys are asked by their mothers to go a message; the one goes promptly and happily, the other sulkily. Of course the message is done in either case, but how different are the two actions, up in heaven! It is the saddest of all experiences to do wrong things; but scarcely less sad is it to do right things wrongly.’

(3) ‘It is easy to see why Moses had to die outside the land of rest. He had not learnt the secret of rest in himself. That double ‘smiting of the rock, that impetuous address to the congregation, indicated, how far he had fallen short of the rest of faith; “Ye believed Me not to sanctify Me.” Oh, Spirit of God, who dost lead us into rest that we may give rest, deliver us from the sin of smiting the rock twice, and breathe into our nature that perfect peace from out which we may learn the art of speaking to the Rock!’