But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not trust Me to show My holiness in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them." Sermons
I. WHAT THEN WAS MOSES' SIN? Two circumstances are obvious on the face of the story. 1. Moses, being directed to speak to the rock that it might give forth its water, smote it instead with the rod of God which was in his hazed; and this he did not once only, but twice. 2. He spoke to the people, not with meekness and calm authority, but in heat and bitterness. "Ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock?" Thus he "spake unadvisedly with his lips" (Psalm 106:33). It is not difficult to understand how Moses should have so far forgotten himself on this occasion. Let the facts be weighed. The servant of the Lord is now 120 years old. The generation which sinned thirty-seven years ago, and was condemned to die in the wilderness, is nearly all gone. Moses is mortified to find that the new generation is infected with a touch of the same impatient unbelief which wrought in their fathers so much mischief. No sooner are they at a loss for water than they rise against Moses with rebellious murmurings. For once he loses command of himself. On all former occasions of the kind his meekness was unshaken; he either held his peace, or prayed for the rebels, or at most called on the Lord to be his Witness and Judge. Now he breaks out into bitter chidings. At the root of this there was a secret failure of faith. "Ye believed me not," - did not thoroughly rely on my faithfulness and power, - "to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel" (verse 12). His former meekness had been the fruit of faith. He had been thoroughly persuaded that the Lord who was with him could accomplish all he had promised, and therefore he faced every difficulty with calm and patient resolution. Now a touch of unbelief bred in him hastiness and bitterness of spirit. II. LESSONS. 1. The failings of good men may be culpable in God's sight and displeasing to him out of all proportion to the degree of blameworthiness they present to our eye. So far is it from being true (as many seem to think) that believers' sins are no sins at all, and need give no concern, that, on the contrary, the Lord dislikes the stain of sin most when it is seen in his dear children. The case of Moses is not singular. Sins which the Lord overlooks in other men he will occasionally put some mark of special displeasure upon, when they are committed by one who is eminent for holiness and honourable service. It is, no doubt, a just instinct which leads all right-thinking people to be blind to the failings of good men who have been signally useful in their day. But if the good men become indulgent to their own faults they are likely to be rudely awakened to a sense of their error. The better a man is, his sins may be the more dishonouring to God. A spot hardly visible on the coat of a labouring man, may be glaringly offensive on the shining raiment of a throned king. 2. The sins we are least inclined to may nevertheless be the sins which will bring us to the bitterest grief. Every man has his weak side. There are sins to which our natural disposition or the circumstances of our up-bringing lay us peculiarly open; and it is without doubt a good rule to be specially on our guard in relation to these sins. Yet the rule must not be applied too rigidly. When Dumbarton Rock was taken, it was not by assailing the fortifications thrown up to protect its one weak side, but by scaling it at a point where the precipitous height seemed to render defense or guard unnecessary. Job was the most patient of men, yet he sinned through impatience. Peter was courageous, yet he fell through cowardice. Moses was the meekest of men, yet he fell through bitterness of Spirit. We have need to guard well not our weak points only, but the points also at which we deem ourselves to be strong. - B.
The people abode in Kadesh. The fortieth year is now running its course. The time of the curse has nearly expired. And now preparations may be begun for entering a second time on the march to Canaan, where a new generation must vindicate the claim of Israel to be indeed "the hosts of the Lord," by taking possession of the land of promise. It was at Kadesh that the sentence had been pronounced which doomed their fathers to these dreary years of wandering. It is at Kadesh again that the camp is reorganised. It seems likely that during the interval there was no definite aim or object before the people, so that they moved about as suited their convenience or necessities, very much as the wandering tribes of the desert do still. This would lead to a relaxation of discipline and order in the camp, and more or less scattering of the people. Their unity was indeed to a certain extent kept up, and their marching orders given as of old, probably at long intervals. So at least we would infer from the itinerary in chap. Numbers 33.; but there must have been no little disorganisation and dispersion, rendering it necessary that there should be a reassembling of the forces. For this purpose no place could be better or more appropriate than Kadesh, not only because it must have been so familiar to all, but also because, by making it their point of departure, they resumed the thread that had been broken by the unbelief of their fathers. The total loss of the long interval of time, moreover, is more distinctly marked by the gathering of the people together at the old halting-place. There is a striking contrast between the new departure and the old. The first began with the numbering and mustering of the armed men, and all the bustle, activity, and energy of a youthful host setting out to victory. The second seems to have a much less hopeful beginning. The twentieth of Numbers is one of the saddest chapters in the book. It begins with the death of her who had been the leader in the song of victory on the shores of the Red Sea. It ends with the death of him who had so long been the honoured representative of Israel in the Holy and the Most Holy Place. And, between the two, we have the old story of murmuring on the part of the people, and mercy on the part of God, but with this sad addition, that Moses himself has a fall — a fall so serious that it leads to his own, as well as Aaron's, exclusion from the land of promise. It seems a hopeless beginning indeed. But was there not something hopeful in its very hopelessness? Recall that scene of wrestling at Peniel, when the patriarch Jacob gained the new name of Israel. How did he gain it? By his own strength? Nay. It was through weakness that he was made strong. It was when his power was utterly broken that his hope of victory began. This will illustrate what we mean when we say that there is something hopeful in the very hopelessness of this chapter. And this prepares the way for the great lesson of the next chapter, which may be expressed in the very words which follow the passage just quoted from the 146th Psalm, "Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God."(J. M. Gibson, D. D.) Miriam died there. I. DEATH TERMINATES THE MOST PROTRACTED LIFE. Miriam must have been about 130 years old when she died.II. DEATH TERMINATES THE MOST EVENTFUL LIFE. 1. The girl watching over the life of her infant brother (Exodus 3:4-8). 2. The experienced woman sharing in the interest and action of the stirring events which led to the great emancipation from Egypt. 3. The prophetess leading the exultant songs and dances of a triumphant people (Exodus 15:20, 21). 4. The envious woman aspiring after equality with, and speaking against her greater brother (Numbers 12:1, 2). 5. The guilty woman smitten with leprosy because of the sin (Numbers 12:9, 10). 6. The leprous woman healed in answer to the prayer of the brother whom she had spoken against (Numbers 12:13-15). The most stirring and eventful life is closed by death, as well as the quiet and monotonous one. III. DEATH TERMINATES THE MOST DISTINGUISHED LIFE. 1. Miriam was distinguished by her gifts. Prophetic gifts arc ascribed to her. "Miriam, the prophetess," is her acknowledged title (Exodus 15:20). 2. Miriam was distinguished by her position. IV. DEATH, BY REASON OF SIN, SOMETIMES TERMINATES LIFE EARLIER THAN IT OTHERWISE WOULD HAVE DONE. V. DEATH SOMETIMES TERMINATES LIFE WITH SUGGESTIONS OF A LIFE BEYOND. It was so in the case of Miriam. Can we think that the gifts with which she was so richly endowed, and the treasures of experience which in her long and eventful life she had gathered, were all lost at death? This would be in utter opposition to the analogy of the Divine arrangements in the universe. (W. Jones.) People Aaron, Egyptians, Eleazar, Israelites, Miriam, MosesPlaces Edom, Egypt, Kadesh-barnea, King's Highway, Meribah, Mount Hor, ZinTopics Aaron, Assembly, Believe, Believed, Bring, Community, Congregation, Didn't, Faith, Hallow, Holy, Honor, Israelites, Sanctify, Sight, Sons, Spake, Spoke, Treat, TrustOutline 1. The children of Israel come to Zin, where Miriam dies.2. They murmur for want of water 7. Moses smiting the rock, brings forth water at Meribah 14. Moses at Kadesh desires passage through Edom, which is denied him 22. At Mount Hor Aaron resigns his place to Eleazar, and dies Dictionary of Bible Themes Numbers 20:12 5102 Moses, life of Library August 17. "Speak Ye unto the Rock" (Num. xx. 8). "Speak ye unto the Rock" (Num. xx. 8). The Holy Ghost is very sensitive, as love always is. You can conquer a wild beast by blows and chains, but you cannot conquer a woman's heart that way, or win the love of a sensitive nature; that must be wooed by the delicate touches of trust and affection. So the Holy Ghost has to be taken by a faith as delicate and sensitive as the gentle heart with whom it is coming in touch. One thought of unbelief, one expression of impatient distrust or fear, will instantly … Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth The Waters of Meribah Kadesh. Rekam, and that Double. Inquiry is Made, Whether the Doubling it in the Maps is Well Done. The Baptist's Inquiry and Jesus' Discourse Suggested Thereby. Epistle xxviii. To Augustine, Bishop of the Angli . Travelling in Palestine --Roads, Inns, Hospitality, Custom-House Officers, Taxation, Publicans Peræa to Bethany. Raising of Lazarus. The Hebrews and the Philistines --Damascus Backsliding. 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