Water from the Rock
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.
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. (Numbers 20:2-13)
Consider just how different Moses' response to the people and God's response to the people is. Moses' frustrated and angry and the rebellion of the people distrusts God, misrepresents God, and acts in anger saying, "Hear now, you rebels, shall we bring water for you out of this rock." God rather, in the face of Israel's rebellious grumbling and Moses and Aaron's rebellious and proud striking of the rock causes water to "abundantly" pour from the rock.
Moses and Aaron clearly missed God's grace and provision in the midst of the trial of waterless wanderings in the desert. They knew to go to the Lord, maybe how I do too often when I pray, not seeing God's graciousness in providing what I ask for. What an opportunity Moses and Aaron had to get the peoples' eyes off of themselves and toward God and his gracious provision in spite of their sin, and instead they focus on the people's sin and emphasize themselves rather than God. Water pouring out of the rock was an act of such God-glorifying grace that in 1 Corinthians 10:4 Paul points out that the Rock was Christ; just like our bread and wine remind us of God's greater provision in Christ on the cross, this rock would be an ever-flowing testimony to God's grace. But what did Moses and Aaron fixate on at this moment in which God was about to graciously give rebellious Israel water: Themselves.
God then said to Moses and Aaron, just as rebellious as the people
they had chastized, "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 htis assembly
into the land that I have given them."
So what, how do these observations apply to me. Everything that I have is because of God's graciousness; nothing good that I have is because I deserve it or have earned it. Anytime that I bear with the sin of others or decide to love them inspite of their very imperfect love for me, it is nothing compared to God's graciousness to me. When I forgive somebody seven times for the same sin or grumbling and then continue to do it seventy times more than that, my sinful and proud tendency is to make much of my forgiving attitude and the sins against me. What that truly amounts to what God points out in Number 20:12, I have a disbelieving heart and have chosen not to uphold God as holy in the eyes of others. Each time I'm sinned against, I must see it as an opportunity to believe God, trust his grace, and uphold God as holy in my eyes and the eyes of others.
