Numbers 20:6, commentary and pictures

Nearly forty years after water first came from the rock, Israel came again to Kadesh on the borders of Canaan, and God caused the living stream that had followed them to cease to prove whether they would trust Him, but when they found no water they forgot His past provision and murmured against God and against Moses and Aaron as if brought into an evil wilderness to die. Instead of answering the angry assembly, Moses and Aaron withdrew to the door of the tabernacle and fell upon their faces before God in the crisis, and His glory appeared to them and directed them to take the rod and with Aaron gather the people and speak to the rock before their eyes that it would give water. The moment was a golden opportunity to sanctify God and show His long-suffering pity, but wearied and provoked by complaining they sinned by not giving Him glory, claiming to themselves the power to fetch water and taking as dishonor to themselves what was murmuring and sin against God. Moses, worn by forty years of wandering, for the moment let go his hold on infinite power in a surprise transgression that appropriated God's glory and placed him under death and shut him out of the promised land, proving that Satan assails when strength and faith weaken and that God excuses sin in exalted position no sooner than in the humble. It was Christ their invisible leader against whom the people had transgressed and who suffered most from their sin, and though God mercifully gave water, their unbelief at Kadesh turned them back to wander and journey around Edom when He had intended a better course.

Setting and Meaning

Nearly forty years after God first gave Israel water from the rock, Israel was brought again to the very wilderness place at Kadesh where He had first proved them after leaving Egypt. That return came within sight of the hills of Canaan, just before entering Canaan. The living stream that had flowed wherever Israel camped had continued to supply them for years until just before they came again to the rock. God caused it to cease at that point to prove His people again, to see whether they would trust His promise and endure the trial of faith or would again murmur against Him.

When thirsty and finding no water, the people became impatient and forgot God's past provision and power shown nearly forty years before. Instead of trusting God they murmured against God and against Moses and Aaron. They angrily charged them with bringing the congregation with their children and cattle out of Egypt into the wilderness to die, into an evil place with no seed or figs or vines or pomegranates and no water to drink. They wished they had died with their brethren destroyed by the plague in the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.

Instead of answering the angry assembly, Moses and Aaron went from its presence to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to the entrance of the meeting tent. There they fell upon their faces before God, bowing down seeking Him in grave crisis. And the glory of the Lord appeared unto them, again seen by them as before.

After the glory appeared, Moses was told to take the rod and with Aaron gather the congregation, gather the assembly together. He was to speak to the rock before their eyes so that it would give water, so that it would give forth water and bring water out of the rock for them, for the congregation.

Failure and Warning

The glory appearing was mercy about to be displayed to soften and subdue hard hearts and lead them to repentance, a golden opportunity for Moses and Aaron to sanctify the Lord before the people and to reveal His long-suffering and tender pity. Instead both leaders sinned at the waters of Meribah by failing to give glory and honor to God, wearied and provoked by unceasing complaint until they claimed for themselves the power to open the rock and fetch water for rebels. Their weariness turned complaint against God into a personal grievance, as though dishonor had been done to themselves.

They took the murmuring for lack of water as a great trial to themselves and felt themselves aggrieved, forgetting and losing sight of the truth that Israel was grieving, sinning against, dishonoring, and murmuring against God and not against them as men appointed to carry out His purpose. By looking to themselves and appealing to their own sympathies they unconsciously fell into sin, and as God's representatives they did not honor Him nor set before the people their great guilt before God in insulting their best Friend and murmuring at His providence. Therefore reproof fell on the leaders alone, with no judgment pronounced on the people whose wicked course had provoked them.

Moses, wearied by forty years of wandering with Israel, failed just upon the borders of the promised land when for the moment his faith let go its hold upon infinite power. His sin was not premeditated but a surprise transgression in which he failed to keep God's law and appropriated to himself glory belonging to God, placing himself on Satan's side and in Satan's dominion and power and under death after Satan had stirred Israel to murmur and rebel until Moses lost command of himself. That deviation from the right, brought on by the murmuring and complaining spirit of the children of Israel, kept him out of the Promised Land.

The episode proves that Satan assails in the time of greatest weakness, when strength fails and will power weakens and faith ceases to repose in God, so that even one who has stood long and valiantly for the right can by that policy be overcome. It proves also that God does not excuse sin in exalted position any sooner than in the humble, so the great sin of greatly exalted and honored leaders cut short lives that might have been illustrious to the close. Christ, their invisible leader, was the one against whom the people had transgressed and whom they had offended, not Moses, and He was the one who would bear their iniquities and who suffered most intensely from their sin. Moses mourned because he had sinned and felt that he had caused the children of Israel to sin, yet the sin was their own.

God still provided water in response to the people's demands, but their unbelief brought consequences. Had they trusted God they would not have needed to cross the desert again and rely on the miraculous spring. Their complaint at Kadesh when water ceased led to their having to journey around Edom, though God had intended a better course for them.