This was a sad passage. After all Moses had done, he does a seemingly benign thing (striking the rock for water) and is told that he will no longer be allowed to enter the Promised Land. HARSH! At face value, it does seem a bit much, but we're not about face value! Verse 12 of chapter 20 has God giving the precise reason for His disappointment with Moses. And as with all of us, He was not concerned so much with Moses' actions, but his heart. "Because you did not trust me enough to demonstrate my holiness to the people of Israel...". It is clear that the issue was Moses trust, faith, belief in God. He was instructed to simply speak to the rock in order to get it to produce water for the people. Instead, in anger ("Listen you rebels! Must we bring you water from this rock?") Moses struck the rock with his staff. Certainly, Moses lost his temper, but I don't think this was the problem. Righteous indignation is OK, as evidenced by Jesus turning over the tables in the Temple. It was in the striking of the rock that things went wrong. Moses had used his staff in the performing of many miracles and had perhaps become accustomed to being the central figure in them. Perhaps he actually thought that his staff had magical powers and that it was the staff, moreso than the Lord, that was the causative agent in the previous miracles. Note his use of the word "we" in reference to bringing water from the rock, as though he and Aaron were making the provision instead of God. He may have somehow felt that God needed his help in order to pull off this miracle, thus the lack of trust in God's ability to "demonstrate His holiness to the people". Thinking his involvement more important than it actually was, is an arrogant presumption that many Christians fall prey to today. We say we give God all the glory for the success and blessings in our lives, but really, we assume that we ourselves play a large role in our own "good fortunes" or in the work God has called us to do. Very few of us have the type of faith that trusts God entirely with our needs. We all assume He needs a little help from us. Still, was this enough of a transgression to merit exclusion from the Promised Land? Not for us to say. God is sovereign.
Skimming....the Israelites are turned away from passing through Edom, which was the nation descending from Esau. Perhaps out of respect for the family relationship, they did not war with them, despite having an enormous army (over 600,000 of fighting age) that could easily have over-powered them. They were not so merciful with the Canaanites, who were descendants of Cain. Shortly after the victory over Canaan, the people grumble again about their living conditions (lack of water, boring food, arduous journey) and are again disciplined by God in the form of poisonous snakes, an animal which I thought was an inspired choice! What seems odd, is that God tells Moses to make a replica of the snake and post it on a pole for poisoned Israelites to look upon for their healing. It's odd because the second of the Ten Commandments mandates that God's people NOT make for themselves an idol of any kind. The distinction between these two occurrences is that idols are made to be worshipped while God was not suggesting that the people worship the snake. It's purpose was to provide a tangible expression of their faith. All they were asked to do was to look at the snake and be healed. Sometimes God asks us to do crazy things that make no sense. Usually we question such notions..."surely I am not hearing the voice of God...He would never ask me to do that... " but the Israelites were desperate to believe God and did what was asked of them. AND THEY WERE HEALED. The snake was to have no lasting role in their community, but they saved it nonetheless. Hundreds of years later, it resurfaced and was worshipped as an idol before being destroyed by a godly king who knew better. The second major difference between the prohibition of making idols and the command to make the bronze snake, is that the former is man's idea and the latter was God's.
Tomorrow's reading: Numbers 22-24
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Several years ago when I was studying Moses in-depth, I read an interpretation of this passage that shed light on it that brought it down to a more personal level. Of course it's just an interpretation, but I thought it highlighted an important concept. Back in Exodus 17, when the Lord first has Moses bring water from the rock, God tells Moses that he will stand before him "on the rock." God doesn't tell Moses specifically in this passage that he will be on the rock, but after Moses strikes the rock (after being told to speak to it), God chides him for not treating him as holy. In Moses' moment of anger toward Israel and arrogance about his own abilities, he strikes the very God he has gotten to know more intimately than any other human. In essence, Moses sucker punches the Lord. When I first considered this interpretation, I was blown away when I thought of how my own sinful actions -- particular in the heat of anger -- were hurtful to the Lord. Because now, the Lord doesn't come down to meet on a rock or in a tabernacle. He dwells in the very hearts of man, and when we display the kind of arrogance and anger we see here in Moses, we grieve the Spirit of God. It's not that I live in fear of punishment like the one Moses received, but I have a deeper appreciation of God's holiness and how my sin can, in essence, be a slap in the face to the God who has forgiven and saved me.
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