“Speak To The Rock”  Num. 20:8

In Numbers 17 God tried to put the children of Israel’s murmurings against Him and Moses to rest with a ‘dead stick‘ that budded, blossomed, and bore almonds in one night. It wasn’t grafted, planted, watered or nurtured it was just a dried up, old piece of wood, but it came to life! In Numbers 18 He told them He gave them the priest’s office as a ‘gift of service’ and they were not to meddle with it.  We also see the “Tithe of the Tithes” in chapter eighteen, along  with the ‘Salt covenant,’ one of the three covenants spoken of in the Torah.  The other two are, the “Shoe covenant” and the “Blood covenant.”  Then we come to Numbers 19 and the (Parah Adumah) or the “Red Heifer,” or as some have referred to her as, ‘The Holy Cow.’  Her purpose was cleansing of defilement contacted on the pilgrim walk through the wilderness, primarily from being near a dead person, or burying a dead person, touching a dead person on their property or killing a person in battle.  You see for the next 38+ years everyone over 20 years old out of 2.5 to 3 million people were going to die.  So how many funerals a month would that be? 6,000/month or 200/day plus!  There is no indication in Num. 19 that the high priest had to be sprinkled with the ashes of the (Parah Adumah) to enter the ‘Holy of Holies,’ that came much later through ‘Rabbinic Tradition.’

Then there is an ‘Interlude’ between Num. 19-20, because when you get to Num. 20 the wandering in the wilderness is over.  Starting in Num. 20 they either stop or march but they don’t wander any more, and in Num. 20:1 Miriam dies, and is buried in Kadesh, she is about 132 years old.  Ever since her rebellion over the Ethiopian wife of Moses, Num. 12:1, she is not mentioned again until here where she dies.  Immediately after her funeral the people have no water and they chode, strove, quarreled, contended physically with Moses, Num. 20:3: The root of this word is the same root for the word ‘Meribah’ where they were. Then they said, “Would to God we had died when our brethren died before the LORD!”  So, obviously 1.5+ million Israelites were already dead and buried at this point, that’s a lot of funerals and a lot of ashes from the ‘Red Heifer.’.

So, Moses and Aaron went to the door of the tabernacle and ‘fell on their faces’ back in the dirt again, humble before YeHoVaH! (they spent a lot of time in a mud-puddle)  Then the glory (ka-vode) the splendor, the glorious abundance, the “Shekinah Glory” of YeHoVaH appeared unto them. (Very Imp!)  And “He, YHVH, spoke unto Moses,” Num. 20:7; When was the last time the Lord appeared to you, or spoke to you in an audible or distinguishable way? Maybe in your heart, or mind, through a verse, testimony, sermon, sign, song, DMI, creation, etc.  You say, ‘God doesn’t speak to people,’ really Peter?  Have you read John 10:27; 1 Kings 18:12; 1 Sam. 3:1-10 lately? Or so many other passages where God spoke to people.  The LORD told Moses to, “Take the rod,” I believe the one that budded, “and gather the assembly and Aaron,” and, “speak to the rock before their eyes, and it shall give forth water…”  Num.20:8.  Now you can pick Moses’ own rod if you want, it does not matter a wit to me but I believe it was Aron’s rod which the LORD used to silence their murmurings.

So, Moses took the rod out of the ark, gathered the people and Aaron and his anger got the best of him and he said in v.10, “Hear now, you rebels (Marah – Ex. 15:22-26, he reminds them of the waters of Marah 38 years earlier when their parents rebelled) must we (not the LORD) fetch you water out of this rock?”  And Moses lifted up his hand, with the rod and he smote the rock twice, not once but twice and water came out abundantly and the congregation drank and their beasts also.” He struck the ‘Rock’ at Meribah in Ex. 17:1-7 once at the start of their journey and now he strikes the ‘Rock’ again in Meribah in Num. 20: 7-13 twice at the end of their journey.

Moses struck a rock in Horeb in Exodus 17:6 right after the ‘Manna’ experience with his rod and they got water at “Massah in Meribah” because they tested the LORD and said, “Is the LORD among us or not?”  Here, Moses struck the rock twice with the LORD’s rod in anger; He spent 40 years in Egypt; 40 years in Midian; 40 years in the wilderness; and with one act of rebellion, he was not allowed to enter the promised land – ‘Almost’ but not quite:  Webster says, ‘almost is very nearly, but not completely.’  Ps. 106:32-33 says, “They angered him also at the waters of strife, so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes; Because they provoked his spirit, so that he spoke inadvisably  with his lips.”  Be careful my friend, don’t let them anger you to this point!  And because of this, “Because you believed Me not, to sanctify Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this congregation into the (Promised Land) which I have given them.”  He was speaking to Moses and Aaron.

In fact Aaron also dies in Num. 20:23-29 on Mt. Hor and is stripped of his priestly garments and Eleazar his son takes his place because he rebelled with Moses at the waters of Meribah and his death really marked the end of the ‘Wilderness Wanderings.’  No plea for mercy here from Moses; no crying out for another chance; no offering for forgiveness; no ashes of the ‘Red Heifer;’  You rebelled against God, you are going to die; but there is more;  you took My glory, “Must we,  Moses and Aaron fetch you water out of this rock?” So, in essence they took God’s glory from Him for a moment, be careful my friend, God shares His glory with No One!  Not with me, not with  you, not with Moses, not with anyone!  They ‘fell on their faces’ in Num. 20:6 before the LORD’s tabernacle and the ‘Shekinah Glory‘ appeared unto them and told them what to do, and they took matters into their own hands and were angry at His congregation, and hit the ‘Rock!” Whose congregation? God’s!  “Moreover, brethren I would not that you should be ignorant, that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea;….  And did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.”  1 Cor. 10:1-6. When you ask God for something, you need to do exactly what He tells you to do, not what you ‘THINK’ He wants you to do!  Especially not what you want to do to please Him.

So, what “P.F.P.” or “Principle For Prayer” do we take away from this event with Moses and Aaron, in the mud, on their faces before God? Do exactly what God tells you to do and not read into it, or try to interpret it, in your own paraphrase, or liberal translation, or try to allegorize it.  To often we hear God’s instruction through His Word or His messengers and we say, “I know what He said, but that can’t be what He really meant!”  He can’t want me to go to Africa or Asia, He can’t want me to marry that person, He surely doesn’t want me to quit my job and go to Bible School, right?  Maybe that wasn’t God talking to me, let me read another chapter, let me pray some more, let me strike that ‘Rock’ again! Let me bury my father first, let me care for my aged mother, or grandmother, let me, let me, let me… Listen, if He told you to speak to that ‘Rock’ then put down your rod and do what he told you to do and do it, NOW!  Till next time, I’ll see you in my prayer closet or, “…..Between The Lines…..”

“Speak To The Rock”  Num. 20:8