This is the water of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with the LORD, and he was sanctified in them.
This is the water of Meribah at Kadesh where Israel strove with the Lord just before entering Canaan, the same wilderness place where God first proved them soon after leaving Egypt by bringing water out of the rock. At the time they were in sight of the hills of Canaan, only a few days' march from the promised land and a little distance from Edom. The living stream from the rock had flowed beside Israel's camp for years until just before they returned, when God deliberately caused it to cease before they reached Edom. He stopped the miraculous supply to test whether they would trust His providence and believe His promise, to give them opportunity for a little time to walk by faith instead of sight, and to see whether they would endure the trial of faith or imitate the unbelief of their fathers.
The cutting off meant the wilderness wandering was ended and they were about to enter a well-watered, fertile country, for God had directed them to pass through the coast of the children of Esau in Seir and to buy meat and water from them for money with promise of unmolested passage. It should therefore have been a cause of rejoicing and a token of fulfilled promise, but blinded by unbelief they made it an occasion of doubt and murmuring, showing they had given up hope that God would bring them into Canaan and clamored instead for the blessings of the wilderness. The first trial exposed the same turbulent, unthankful spirit as their fathers, for as soon as the cry for water arose they forgot the hand that had supplied their wants for so many years and instead of turning to God murmured against Him. Their cries were directed against Moses and Aaron, wishing they had died when their brethren died before the Lord in the rebellion of Korah, and complaining that Moses and Aaron had brought the congregation into the wilderness to die and had brought them up out of Egypt into an evil place with no seed or figs or vines or pomegranates and no water to drink.
Their quarrel over the water was ultimately against the Lord, not merely against Moses and Aaron. They transgressed against Christ, their invisible leader, and it was Christ they offended, who bore their iniquities and suffered most intensely. To be sanctified in them meant to give Him glory and honor by displaying His mercy, long-suffering and tender pity to soften and subdue the hearts of the complaining people and lead them to repentance when they found no water. Moses and Aaron sinned by not sanctifying Him there, an episode identified with Moses' sin in striking the rock. Wearied and provoked by continual complaining they took the murmurings as a trial and dishonor to themselves and claimed the power of opening the rock as their own. They forgot that Israel was grieving, sinning against and dishonoring God and murmuring at His providence, not against men appointed by God to carry out His purpose, insulting their best Friend by charging their calamities on Moses and Aaron, and thus they failed to honor God, to show the people their guilt before Him, and to represent Him rightly.
Moses failed just upon the borders of the promised land when wearied with the forty years wandering of Israel. In the time of greatest weakness, when strength failed and will power weakened and faith ceased to repose in God, his faith for the moment let go its hold upon infinite power. Satan stirred up the worst passions of Israel to incite murmuring and rebellion until Moses lost command of himself. His sin was not premeditated but he was surprised into it, yet by taking to himself the murmuring that was really against God and appropriating to himself the glory that belonged to God he transgressed God's law and placed himself on Satan's side of the controversy and in Satan's dominion and power. His sin kept him from entering the Promised Land and cut short lives that might have been illustrious to the close, showing that God does not excuse sin in exalted position any sooner than in the humble. Satan therefore claimed Moses as his property and contended earnestly with Christ for his body. Yet this one wrong act in his long service as Israel's leader was followed by repentance: he humbled himself and sought pardon through faith in Jesus, the Promised One who would die as humanity's sacrifice.
God gave Israel water in response to their cries, yet their unbelief brought consequences: they had to cross the desert again and depend on the miraculous spring, which they would no longer have needed had they trusted Him. Their sin brought the journey around Edom, though God punished them lightly, and instead of being grateful for His mercy they blamed Him for the hardship that followed. Moses' experience proves that Satan assails with fiercest temptation in the weakest moment by the policy by which he had gained the victory over man, overcoming even those who had stood long and valiantly for the right. He attacks weak points of character to shake confidence in God and break hold upon God, and meeting him as Jesus did escapes defeat while parleying with him gives him advantage.
This is the water of Meribah at Kadesh where Israel strove with the Lord just before entering Canaan, the same wilderness place where God first proved them soon after leaving Egypt by bringing water out of the rock. At the time they were in sight of the hills of Canaan, only a few days' march from the promised land and a little distance from Edom. The living stream from the rock had flowed beside Israel's camp for years until just before they returned, when God deliberately caused it to cease before they reached Edom. He stopped the miraculous supply to test whether they would trust His providence and believe His promise, to give them opportunity for a little time to walk by faith instead of sight, and to see whether they would endure the trial of faith or imitate the unbelief of their fathers.
The cutting off meant the wilderness wandering was ended and they were about to enter a well-watered, fertile country, for God had directed them to pass through the coast of the children of Esau in Seir and to buy meat and water from them for money with promise of unmolested passage. It should therefore have been a cause of rejoicing and a token of fulfilled promise, but blinded by unbelief they made it an occasion of doubt and murmuring, showing they had given up hope that God would bring them into Canaan and clamored instead for the blessings of the wilderness. The first trial exposed the same turbulent, unthankful spirit as their fathers, for as soon as the cry for water arose they forgot the hand that had supplied their wants for so many years and instead of turning to God murmured against Him. Their cries were directed against Moses and Aaron, wishing they had died when their brethren died before the Lord in the rebellion of Korah, and complaining that Moses and Aaron had brought the congregation into the wilderness to die and had brought them up out of Egypt into an evil place with no seed or figs or vines or pomegranates and no water to drink.
Their quarrel over the water was ultimately against the Lord, not merely against Moses and Aaron. They transgressed against Christ, their invisible leader, and it was Christ they offended, who bore their iniquities and suffered most intensely. To be sanctified in them meant to give Him glory and honor by displaying His mercy, long-suffering and tender pity to soften and subdue the hearts of the complaining people and lead them to repentance when they found no water. Moses and Aaron sinned by not sanctifying Him there, an episode identified with Moses' sin in striking the rock. Wearied and provoked by continual complaining they took the murmurings as a trial and dishonor to themselves and claimed the power of opening the rock as their own. They forgot that Israel was grieving, sinning against and dishonoring God and murmuring at His providence, not against men appointed by God to carry out His purpose, insulting their best Friend by charging their calamities on Moses and Aaron, and thus they failed to honor God, to show the people their guilt before Him, and to represent Him rightly.
Moses failed just upon the borders of the promised land when wearied with the forty years wandering of Israel. In the time of greatest weakness, when strength failed and will power weakened and faith ceased to repose in God, his faith for the moment let go its hold upon infinite power. Satan stirred up the worst passions of Israel to incite murmuring and rebellion until Moses lost command of himself. His sin was not premeditated but he was surprised into it, yet by taking to himself the murmuring that was really against God and appropriating to himself the glory that belonged to God he transgressed God's law and placed himself on Satan's side of the controversy and in Satan's dominion and power. His sin kept him from entering the Promised Land and cut short lives that might have been illustrious to the close, showing that God does not excuse sin in exalted position any sooner than in the humble. Satan therefore claimed Moses as his property and contended earnestly with Christ for his body. Yet this one wrong act in his long service as Israel's leader was followed by repentance: he humbled himself and sought pardon through faith in Jesus, the Promised One who would die as humanity's sacrifice.
God gave Israel water in response to their cries, yet their unbelief brought consequences: they had to cross the desert again and depend on the miraculous spring, which they would no longer have needed had they trusted Him. Their sin brought the journey around Edom, though God punished them lightly, and instead of being grateful for His mercy they blamed Him for the hardship that followed. Moses' experience proves that Satan assails with fiercest temptation in the weakest moment by the policy by which he had gained the victory over man, overcoming even those who had stood long and valiantly for the right. He attacks weak points of character to shake confidence in God and break hold upon God, and meeting him as Jesus did escapes defeat while parleying with him gives him advantage.