Numbers 3

Chapter 3. The Failure and RetreatTheir journey might have been, and should have been, a career of glorious conquest. It would have been just as easy to enter Canaan now, as half a century later; but 40 years of disaster and disappointment intervened, and at last the skeletons and skulls of all the men and women of adult age who came out of the land of Egypt were left as monuments of awful warning on the burning sands. The stages of the unbelief and disobedience which at length culminated in their refusal to enter the land were very gradual, and are traced by the fingers of the Holy Spirit with strictest detail. Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry.” We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. We should not test the Lord, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel. (1 Corinthians 10:6-10) This solemn failure of ancient Israel has become the portentous warning of all the subsequent dispensations. We find the psalmist in his day recalling it to the minds of God’s people with the imposing admonitions: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did. For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.” So I declared on oath in my anger, “They shall never enter my rest.” (Psalms 95:7-11) And again in the Epistle to the Hebrews, just in the midst of the last 40 years of opportunity given to Israel before the destruction of Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit again recalls the example of ancient Israel, not only as a lesson to the nation, but also as an admonition to each individual Christian, bidding him to take heed, lest by unbelief and disobedience he should miss the higher rest of which Canaan was but the type. As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief. Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it…. Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, “So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’” And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world…. For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience. (Hebrews 3:15-19; Hebrews 4:1, Hebrews 4:3, Hebrews 4:8-11) Murmuring1. The failure of ancient Israel began in their murmuring at Taberah. “Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the Lord, and when he heard them his anger was aroused. Then fire from the Lord burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp” (Numbers 11:1). The marginal reading here is very striking. “And when the people as it were, complained, it displeased the Lord; and his anger was kindled and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp. And he called the name of the place ‘Taberah,’ because the fire of the Lord burnt among them” (Numbers 11:1, Numbers 11:3). The spirit of discontent and ingratitude is generally the beginning of deeper and bolder unbelief and sin. Here we see that even before it had become fully manifest, God saw it and manifested His burning displeasure against it. For the people “as it were, murmured.” This implies that kind of discontent which does not dare openly to reproach God with our troubles and misfortunes, but scolds Him through other people, and finds fault with circumstances and things, scarcely imagining that God is really blamed, or regards our murmurings as against Him. When we find fault with circumstances, we are really finding fault with God, with whose permission, at least, all things come to us. God wants us to learn that the bitterness that we tolerate in our spirit is as really sin as that which is expressed in open murder or defiant blasphemies against God, though not as aggravated. “Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer” (1 John 3:15). And unthankfulness and ingratitude toward God are the real roots of rebellion. For we read in Romans, “although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened” (Romans 1:21), and God gave them up to a reprobate mind, and all the aggravations and issues of sin. Lusting (Numbers 11:4-10, Numbers 11:18-20, Numbers 11:31, Numbers 11:33) 2. The lusting of the people and the mixed multitude at Kibroth Hattaavah. “The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, ‘If only we had meat to eat!’” (Numbers 11:4). This spirit of earthly desire began with the mixed multitude who had accompanied them out of Egypt, and who seem to have been a sort of loose rabble of mere camp followers, having no part with God’s covenant people except to be a point of contact and temptation between them and the world. Unhappily, the professing Church of God in the Christian age has been large-ly made up of just such camp followers. People who do not belong to the true Israel, but simply follow the camp of the Lord because of earthly attachments and advantages; and when trials or temptations come they are always channels or instruments of evil. On this occasion they began to lust after the luxuries of their Egyptian life. “We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!” (Numbers 11:5-6). This would seem very disgusting if it were not so much like ourselves. It is the spirit of the flesh, and it is usually the occasion of most of our murmuring. Our Lord has given us the same sad picture of a restless and discontented world in every age. “‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things” (Matthew 6:31-32). It is the spirit of the animal in man, and it is the same in the most refined form of self-indulgence as it is in the coarse and brutal slave. The apostle calls it “the desires of the sinful nature” (Galatians 5:16). The Lord has given us physical needs and appetites, but He never designed them to be predominant in our nature; and whenever they become ends of life and objects of gratification, they drag us down into the depths of corruption. God becomes indignant with the unholy tears and murmurings of the camp, and even Moses for a little loses his self-control and speaks with impatient haste. But the patience of God does not fail even in the hour of His displeasure. The sensual cry of the multitude was answered by the sending of a great swarm of quails, which covered the entire ground and fell to a depth of three feet for miles around. They kept the whole people a day and a night in gathering them as they fell, and they were surfeited for a whole month with the supply, until it became repulsive to them. The judgment of God fell upon them in the midst of their gluttonous indulgence, and a plague broke out which destroyed many lives. God has warned us very solemnly in the New Testament against the spirit of earthly indulgence, in the beautiful language which refers so graphically to our Christian pilgrimage. The Apostle Peter says: “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul” (1 Peter 2:11). And the Apostle John declares, “For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world” (1 John 2:16). “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). If we would avoid the love of the world, we must avoid the mixed multitude and maintain our separation from evil men; so we are commanded: Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” “Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. (2 Corinthians 6:14 to 2 Corinthians 7:1) Moses’ Failure (Numbers 11:11-17, Numbers 11:21-30)3. The next indication of declension and danger is seen in the wavering of even Moses himself in this hour of testing, when God announces to him the miracles which He is about to perform in feeding the people with flesh. It had already begun in Moses’ impatience with the people’s complaints, and even with the Lord for placing such a burden upon him. “He asked the Lord, ‘Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me?… I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. If this is how you are going to treat me, put me to death right now—if I have found favor in your eyes—and do not let me face my own ruin’” (Numbers 11:11, Numbers 11:14-15). This was a fit of downright petulance, and Moses lost much by it. God took him instantly at his word, and relieved him of much of his honor and care, by taking some of the Spirit which was upon him and dividing it with the elders, who henceforth were to share the cares of the congregation with him (Numbers 11:17, Numbers 11:25). There was more of the divine Spirit given than Moses himself had possessed, only it was shared with a large number. We are not sure that this was ultimately a real blessing. Moses might still have retained the sufficiency of God Himself, and that was all the elders had after they had received the blessing. They simply had some of the Spirit that he had had before. Moreover, this was the origin of the Hebrew eldership, and the end of it was the condemnation and crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. The spirit of impatience in Moses led to a spirit of unbelief. God’s great promise of deliverance is met by him with the question, “‘Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?’ The Lord answered Moses, ‘Is the Lord’s arm too short? You will now see whether or not what I say will come true for you’” (Numbers 11:22-23). This was the first indication of wavering in the spirit of the great lawgiver. It is not marked as severely as his later fault which excluded him from the land of Canaan, but it was probably the root even of that great and fatal error, and therefore the Lord reproved it somewhat sharply that his servant might be guarded and forewarned. “See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart” (Hebrews 3:12), so that we never limit the Infinite and Almighty One. Miriam and Aaron (Numbers 12:1-16) 4. The spirit of discontent next breaks out in Miriam and Aaron. The sister of Moses had been preeminently used of God in this marvelous history as the chosen instrument in his early childhood of bringing him under his mother’s nurturing care, when discovered by the daughter of Pharaoh. Afterwards she had been called by the special anointing of the Spirit. She had been selected to lead the choral songs of the triumphant people after they had crossed the Red Sea, and probably, also, afterwards in seasons of public worship and rejoicing. Being the older sister of Moses, she probably assumed a degree of authority which would be quite natural, and in this case it was carried by her to the extreme of interference in his personal matters, as good people often do. The immediate subject of her dislike and annoyance at this time was the wife of Moses. She was joined in her prejudices and evil speaking by her brother Aaron, and their combined influence threatened serious disaffection in the camp. The description of Moses’ wife has opened an unsettled controversy as to whether this was the daughter of Jethro, the wife whom he had married in Midian, or some other and second wife of whom we have no detailed account. Certainly it seems a little strange that a daughter of Midian should be called an Ethiopian. Many have found in this incident a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the jealousy of the Jewish people, represented by Miriam, against the Gentile bride whom He has called to share His love and honors. Certainly it is at least a solemn lesson that comes even to the best Christians when they interfere unduly in matters which are personal to others, and which the Lord alone can judge and regulate. Many have lost their peace and become separated from God by putting their hands on Jehovah’s ark when they thought it needed steadying. Miriam and Aaron seem to have carried their interference a great deal further than the mere question of Moses’ domestic relations, for they even challenged his special authority, saying: “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses?… Hasn’t he also spoken through us?” (Numbers 12:2). Perhaps they thought they had a perfect right to pass judgment upon his actions, because God had been pleased to use them in His work. In this severe trial Moses seems to have stood in the attitude of dignified and exemplary silence and meekness, for it is added immediately afterwards: “Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth” (Numbers 12:3). Such an attitude will ever bring the protection and vindication of God. So we read that the Lord heard it, and spoke suddenly unto Moses and unto Aaron and unto Miriam, and came down in the pillar of cloud and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called them forth and said: “Listen to my words: When a prophet of the Lord is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams. But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. With him I speak face to face” (Numbers 12:6-8). That is not merely visions and dreams, but directly, “clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” (Numbers 12:8). The awful reproof was followed by the second withdrawal of the divine presence, and the stroke of leprosy upon the person of Miriam. Aaron falls in entreaty at the feet of Moses, and intercedes for his stricken sister, acknowledging his own equal sin; and Moses instantly intercedes for her restoration. The Lord graciously answers his prayer, but requires that she shall dwell apart for seven days outside the camp, as a token of the separation which sin ever makes between the soul and God’s fellowship. It is not very long before we read of the death both of Miriam and of Aaron (Numbers 20:1-28). In this instance we see the still lurking life of self which ever shows itself in our Christian experience in similar ways, preeminently in the spirit of judging and uncharitableness. He who has truly seen and sacrificed himself will always think very patiently and tenderly of others. Therefore we find in Christ’s Beatitudes that the poor in spirit come before the merciful. And in the Epistles of Paul the great lesson of death and resurrection is fully taught before the spirit of love is unfolded. The Spies (Numbers 13:1-31) 5. The next development of the spirit of evil and the cause of subsequent failure which we trace in this book was the sending out of the spies to survey the land and bring a report before the whole people attempted to force an entrance. The full account of this is given in the first chapter of Deuteronomy, with the immediate causes which led to it; and from this statement we see that it originated not in the first thought either of the Lord or of Moses, but in the timidity and human reasonings of the people. When they came to Kadesh Barnea, which was the entrance to the land of promise, Moses had said to them: “‘You have reached the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. See, the Lord your God has given you the land. Go up and take possession of it as the Lord, the God of your fathers, told you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.’ Then all of you came to me and said, ‘Let us send men ahead to spy out the land for us and bring back a report about the route we are to take and the towns we will come to’” (Deuteronomy 1:20-22). It was in consequence of this that the Lord permitted the sending out of the spies; but it only led to temptation, cowardice, unbelief and ignominious and fatal failure. The true pathway of faith is to go forward implicitly at God’s bidding, and if we wait for reason to take counsel of flesh or blood after God Himself has spoken, we are almost sure to be involved in confusion and failure. Paul says: “But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man” (Galatians 1:15-16). Here we see the spirit of promptness and implicit obedience to God, irrespective of the counsels of human wisdom. When our way is not clear and our duty is not plain, it is becoming that we should take counsel of those to whom the Lord may direct us. But when God has spoken it is always dangerous to listen to the voice of man and always safe to “trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). The spirit of human reasoning is the natural enemy of faith; and the command of God will often lead us in the face of improbabilities and seeming impossibilities. Dr. Jamieson wisely remarks concerning this: “God granted their request at once as a trial and a punishment of their distrust.” Their Suggestive Names The names of the spies are all suggestive of human strength and wisdom. Shammua, the first, means renown. So men today are going by the advice of the great and famous names of the Church and the world; but alas, they are not going into Canaan. Shaphat means the judge, and represents the very preeminence of human wisdom. The names of Caleb and Joshua, the two faithful ones, signify boldness and divine help. The one expresses the spirit of courageous faith, and the other the fact of almighty power which this always brings. Rebellion of the Congregation (Numbers 14:1-45) 6. The culmination of all this series of failures came at last in the shameful refusal of the whole congregation to enter the land, and their disgraceful surrender of all their hopes and privileges through cowardly unbelief and disobedience. The immediate occasion of this was the report of the spies, from which no good could have been expected and certainly none came. They could not deny the excellence of the land, the wonderful richness of the products and the soil and climate, but overtopping all these glorious prospects they could see nothing but gigantic figures of the Canaanites, the mighty Anakims and the warlike Amalekites, Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites. “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large…. We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are…. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them” (Numbers 13:27-28, Numbers 13:31, Numbers 13:33). It was in vain that the noble Caleb and Joshua stood up against their brethren and said: “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it” (Numbers 13:30). “If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land,… and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them” (Numbers 14:8-9). These heroic words were only met by a wail of disappointment and vexation, and a shower of stones. All that night the angry, mutinous cries of the congregation went up to heaven and soon the old and awful refrain was heard like the angry billows of the sea, “‘If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert! Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?’ And they said to each other, ‘We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt’” (Numbers 14:2-4). The Crisis It was indeed an awful hour and a crisis such as had never come before, and Moses and Aaron fell on their faces in the silence of a great fear, and of their utter helplessness. The Judgment Suddenly the glory of God, like a lightning flash, appeared in the tabernacle in the sight of all the people, and their murmurings were hushed in terror before that fiery flame. Then, upon their leader’s ear, there fell this terrific message: “How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them? I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they” (Numbers 14:11-12). The Mediator It was then that the true spirit of this noble hero was fully revealed. He rose in this terrible hour nearer to the very height of his divine Master’s self-sacrifice and priestly intercession than mortal ever approached. Utterly forgetting himself and lost only in the glory of Jehovah, he cried to God for His own name’s sake to spare and pardon once more His offending and rebellious children. Then the Egyptians will hear about it! By your power you brought these people up from among them. And they will tell the inhabitants of this land about it. They have already heard that you, O Lord, are with these people and that you, O Lord, have been seen face to face, that your cloud stays over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. If you put these people to death all at one time, the nations who have heard this report about you will say, “The Lord was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath; so he slaughtered them in the desert.” Now may the Lord’s strength be displayed, just as you have declared: “The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.” In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now. (Numbers 14:13-19) God’s Gracious Answer After 3,000 years we can almost hear the loving tones of that cry, and feel the warmth of that glowing heart, and the power of those burning tears. It was almost worth all the sorrow to have such a spectacle of love. We cannot wonder that He who had prompted that prayer quickly answered: “I have forgiven them, as you asked” (Numbers 14:20). But in that hour there arose the vision and the purpose of a blessing, wider than Israel should ever know, even the calling of the Gentiles and the fulfilling of His mighty purpose by those who should prove more faithful than the chosen race. “As surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the Lord fills the whole earth” (Numbers 14:21). The failure of any man or any people cannot hinder the fulfillment of God’s purposes. He has other instruments ready; and it is an awful thing when any man, or any church or race are excused by the Lord, or when they let another take their crown. Israel’s terrible sin has become an awful type and warning of the danger against which the Church and the Christian are so solemnly guarded in the New Testament: the danger of coming short of the fullness of their inheritance. For each of us there is a land of promise, a heritage of rest and a career of triumph and blessing, which nothing can prevent our entering but our own unbelief or disobedience. Like theirs, it is challenged by mighty enemies, and confronted by almost insuperable obstacles. But if the Lord our God delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us. “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it” (Numbers 13:30). In every great work and in every Christian life there comes such a crisis. God forbid that any who read these lines should fail to meet it through fear of difficulties. This is the secret of thousands of unsanctified souls today, and of hundreds of withered churches. “So, as the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts’” (Hebrews 3:7). Unbelief and disobedience always go together, and have been partners since they met at the gate of Eden. The last procession of lost humanity described in the closing verses of Revelation is led down to the dark abyss by the fearful and unbelieving, and the rear is brought up by the disobedient and unholy (Revelation 21:8). And yet, it is strange that these very sins are associated closely with their seeming opposites, and men who are afraid to follow the Lord will follow the devil in the face of certain destruction and frightful risk. The men who will not obey God can be led as very captives by Satan at his will, and by wicked men as credulous tools and subservient dupes. So we see in this very passage that the next day the people who would not go up against the land at the word of God were determined to go up when He forbade them—as rash now as they had been timid before, and as willful now as they had been recreant and disobedient. Early the next morning they went up toward the high hill country. “We have sinned,” they said. “We will go up to the place the Lord has promised.” But Moses said, “Why are you disobeying the Lord’s command? This will not succeed!…” Nevertheless, in their presumption they went up toward the high hill country, though neither Moses nor the ark of the Lord’s covenant moved from the camp. Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in the hill country came down and attacked them and beat them down all the way to Hormah. (Numbers 14:40-42, Numbers 14:44-45) The Faithful Two But God was not without His faithful ones, even in this time of national defection. The two brave spies who had stood alone in that night of rebellion were not permitted to lose their inheritance on account of the failure of even the whole camp. But in that hour God pledged to them their sure inheritance when the little ones at their feet should have taken the places of the men before them. Forty years later that pledge was gloriously redeemed in the cities of Hebron and Timnath Serah, where these heroes were permitted to crown their services and close their lives amid the complete fulfillment of all the promises of God. So it has ever been through the Christian centuries. Amid the unbelief and declension of the many, there have been a few names “who have not soiled their clothes” (Revelation 3:4), and a little flock who have dared fully to trust and wholly to follow their Shepherd Master, and to whom the inheritance has been ever given in its spiritual foretaste, and shall yet be completed in the glorious day of His appearing and His kingdom. Rebellion of the Nobles (Numbers 16:1-50) 7. The failure of the entire congregation is followed two chapters later by an account of the more desperate and defiant rebellion of the nobles of Israel, under the leadership of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Rebellion Their special offense was an act of open rebellion against the authority of Moses and Aaron, and a presumptuous claim of equal right to come into the presence of God, both for themselves and for all the congregation. “You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, everyone of them, and the Lord is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the Lord’s assembly?” (Numbers 16:3). It was really an outbreak of socialism and lawlessness, a sort of typical democracy strangely prophetic of the last awful development of human wickedness and license which is to close the present dispensation in the coming of the Lawless One. More generally it represents, however, the spirit of disobedience and self-will, refusing the authority of God’s Word, denying and defying all the claims of veneration, age, and the sacred times and ordinances of divine religion, or human order and government. Our own land and time are fast sweeping to the vortex of license which was opened for the fearful descent of these daring rebels against divine and human authority. This question was soon settled by an appeal to God, and the manifestation of His terrific judgment in the entombing of these bold and wicked men, with their censers of unholy fire and their families and possessions, in the bowels of the engulfing earth, while the swiftly descending fire of God fell upon them as they went down, and its awful flame was mingled with the hideous cry of horror and anguish which arose from their midst as the earth closed over them in a living hell. Never could the people forget the sight which they then witnessed, and henceforth the authority of God and His servants was unchallenged. So will He consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming all that oppose themselves to the name and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, against whom, already, The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One. “Let us break their chains,” they say, “and throw off their fetters.” The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them…. “You will rule them with an iron scepter; you will dash them to pieces like pottery.” Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. (Psalms 2:2-4, Psalms 2:9-12) Moses’ Unbelief (Numbers 20:9-13)8. This series of mournful failures closes, alas, with the failure of Moses himself. The account of this fatal error on the part of God’s faithful servant is given in Numbers 20:11-13. The immediate occasion of it was the murmuring of the people at the fountain of Meribah, where the waters had failed, and the people again broke out, as they had innumerable times before, in bitter complaints and vehement reproaches. For a moment Moses lost his meekness and yielded to the temptation, against which he had been warned before in a similar outbreak at Kibroth Hattaavah (Numbers 11:11). His fault on this occasion consisted in a good deal more than his angry retort to the people: “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” (Numbers 20:10). There seems to be a deeper offence implied in the fact that Moses struck the rock, whereas he was commanded only to speak to it. There was no need that the rock should be struck again, for this had been done at Rephidim in the beginning of their march, and it had been open ever since. The striking of the rock was typical of the opening of the fountains of salvation and grace through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, once for all. Then He was stricken by the rod of the Lawgiver and from His riven side there flowed the water and the blood, which have never since ceased to be “of sin the double cure.” All that was necessary now was to speak to the rock already open and ready to flow at the call of believing prayer. The rod that he used now was not the Lawgiver’s rod, but Aaron’s rod, the rod of the priesthood, and so a type of prayer. The purpose of this rod was not to smite, but to claim that which was already purchased and provided. Its tender buds and blossoms were not prepared for such rude blows, nor was it necessary that the willing fountain should be compelled by force to yield its flowing treasures. Beautiful type of that gentle Spirit in His boundless fullness, opened to us by the death of Jesus, and ready to meet our need and cry at the gentlest touch of faith and prayer, but grieved when we doubt His love and try to wrest His blessings from His willing hands, as though they had to be taken by storm! It was thus that the priests of Baal prayed, cutting themselves with knives and shouting as though their god was deaf. But it was not thus that Elijah prayed. It was not thus that Jesus prayed, even at the grave of Lazarus, but with calm assurance he cried as one standing there within the holy of holies: “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me” (John 11:41-42). It is not required that we shall suppress the intense emotion of the heart overflowing with the impulse of the Holy Spirit, but there is a danger that we shall still strike the rock, when we need only to speak to it in the words of simple trust which will never fail to bring the overflowing blessing that God is more willing to give than we will ever be to receive. Let us speak to the Living Rock again and again. He has bidden us, “Whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life” (Revelation 22:17). “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). The sin of Moses, therefore, involved the element of unbelief, as well as disobedience, haste, and even petulance and anger. It lost him the land of promise. Tenderly he pleaded with his God that it might be overlooked, and he be permitted to lead His people into their inheritance; but in vain. Even the lawgiver himself must be an example of the stern inexorable justice of the law which he had given. It is the most awful commentary upon its inflexible severity and righteousness, that it slew even the one who gave it the moment he transgressed it. “Who then can be saved?” (Mark 10:26). Of all men, Moses cries most loudly to us from his lonely grave on this side of Jordan: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law” (Galatians 3:10), and points us to Jesus Christ as “the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes” (Romans 10:4). Alas, the law made nothing perfect; not even Moses himself. But, thank God, “a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God” (Hebrews 7:19).