Numbers 20:1
Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first month: and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there. Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first month: and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there.
The whole congregation came into the desert of Zin in the first month and abode at Kadesh, and this marks the end of the desert wandering after forty years. They were brought back to the very place where God had proved them soon after leaving Egypt nearly forty years before, now at the very end of the wandering. They stood in sight of the hills of Canaan only a few days' march from its borders and a little distance from Edom, just before entering Canaan.
There Miriam died and was buried, ending a lifelong wandering that had begun with rejoicing with song and dance on the shores of the Red Sea to celebrate Jehovah's triumph. She shared the same fate as the millions who came out of Egypt with high hopes whose sin dashed the cup of blessing from their lips. The water God had brought from the rock at Horeb had continued to flow and had gushed out beside their encampment to supply them throughout their journey until just before they came again to the rock at Kadesh, when God caused the living stream to cease.
God stopped the water before they had reached Edom in order to prove them again whether they believed His promise and remembered His power. He would see whether they would trust His providence and care and endure the trial of faith, giving them opportunity for a little time to walk by faith instead of sight rather than again murmur against Him. The cutting off of the miraculous water meant the wandering was ended and should have been a cause of rejoicing, for they were about to pass in a direct course through the well-watered, fertile country of Edom to Canaan. God had promised unmolested passage and opportunity to buy meat and water sufficient to supply the whole host, but blinded by unbelief they missed this evidence of the fulfillment of God's promise, gave up hope that God would bring them into possession of Canaan, and clamored for the blessings of the wilderness.
Their thirst and the first trial for water exposed the same turbulent, unthankful spirit manifested by their fathers. No sooner was the cry for water heard than they forgot the hand that had for so many years supplied their wants and instead of turning to God for help murmured, wishing they had died when their brethren died before the Lord in the rebellion of Korah. They complained that they had been brought up out of Egypt into an evil place with no seed, figs, vines, pomegranates, or water to drink. That murmuring at Kadesh was wicked and brought great guilt before God because it was not merely against Moses and Aaron but against God Himself.
Moses and Aaron sinned on this occasion by feeling personally aggrieved and looking to themselves and their own sympathies. As God's representatives they did not honor Him and failed to set the people's guilt before them, so God pronounced no judgment on the people and let all the reproof fall on the leaders. The passage beginning here concerns Moses' sin in striking the rock, failing just upon the borders of the promised land after being wearied with the forty years wandering of Israel, when strength failed and will power weakened and his faith for the moment let go its hold upon infinite power. His fall illustrates Satan's policy of assailing in the time of greatest weakness, when faith ceases to repose in God, to overcome those who have stood long and valiantly for the right. The verse raises the question whether the next generation will learn the lesson from the fathers' failure.