Numbers 20:1-13

The great Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini was legendary for his fits of rage. The librarian of one of his orchestras was particularly vexed by the maestro’s habit of throwing valuable musical scores at the musicians when angry. Watching closely, he observed that when Toscanini became enraged, he first took his baton in both hands and tried to break it. If it snapped, he usually calmed down and the rehearsal continued. If it did not, he began hurling scores. So the librarian made sure the conductor had a generous supply of flimsy batons on hand for rehearsal!

Moses wielded a staff rather than a baton, and he was not prone to fits of rage, but in this passage (Numbers 20:1-13) he too allowed rage to subvert his usually calm demeanour. The narrator tells us the month, but not the year, when these events unfolded; it was probably during the 40th year after the exodus from Egypt (see Numbers 33:36-38; Deuteronomy 1:3).

These people are no longer urban slaves; they’re seasoned desert nomads, but they can’t find water to slake their thirst and refresh their herds. And then Moses’ older sister Miriam dies, plunging Moses and his brother Aaron into grief. And then “the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. They quarrelled with Moses and said, ‘If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the Lord! [a reference to the events of chapter 16] Why did you bring the Lord’s community into this desert, that we and our livestock should die here?’ ” (verses 2b-4; cf a similar story in Exodus 17:1-7).

I am constantly amazed at people’s ability to choose the most inopportune time to voice their criticism. Reading this narrative, you might be thinking, “Do these people never learn? Have they learned nothing from their past experiences with God?” But we are more like them than we choose to believe.

Ask God for help

We don’t read of any verbal response from Moses and Aaron to this criticism. Instead, they leave the crowd and go to the tabernacle, asking God for help.

From this narrative I found five principles for successful living as God’s people: First, when I face unfair criticism, ask God for help (verse 6; cf 14:5; 16:4, 15). Like death and taxes, criticism is an unavoidable element of life; indeed, if you are never criticised, you should ask yourself whether you’re doing anything useful or worthwhile with your life.

“Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall” (Psalm 55:22). Peter paraphrases this psalm in a letter to Christians: “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). Don’t render evil for evil. Take your righteous concerns, your problems, your pain to the Lord: he cares for you, he will sustain you, he will never let you fall. Moses and Aaron did the right thing, and God responded to the people’s complaint not with wrath but in grace (see vv 7-8).

Philip, in his commentary on Numbers, writes, “Water for the thirsty, bread for the hungry, home for the homeless, rest for the weary, pardon for the sinful – this is grace.” Moses had no idea there was a rocky crag nearby containing a reservoir of fresh water, and that, by talking to the rock, he would release God’s power and thereby satisfy his people’s thirst! God surprised him with his grace; let God surprise you with his grace.

The Lord had given clear instructions. Usually Moses obeyed with faithful precision, but on this occasion he did not (see verses 9-11). Several irregularities emerge from this account, leading to a word of rebuke from the Lord, and a devastating punishment for both Moses and Aaron. As instructed, Moses takes Aaron’s rod (the one that budded in chapter 17:8-11), but in verse 11 he seems to be holding his own rod. He shouts an angry question at the people when he was instructed to speak to the rock (verse 10b). And he strikes the rock twice when he should have spoken to it (verse 11a).

But something more is implied in his angry words: “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” (verse 10b). In his frustration (and grief), he forgets that he is merely the Lord’s instrument, and not the miracle worker.

Recognise your role

Second, when I serve God, I am a servant (verse 10b). As Jesus said, “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave – just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:26-28).

Leadership is one of the most closely observed and least understood phenomena on earth. Leaders are people who get things done through others (who themselves want those things to get done). There are three kinds of people: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened. Leaders make things happen, and Moses was that kind of person. For all his skill and diplomacy, though, he was met by torrents of criticism and staunch opposition. The Israelites were experiencing significant change, and, as most leaders discover, a change agent will usually be attacked personally.

It was so with Moses. But that did not excuse his presumption, complacency, pride, or exasperation with the people among whom God had placed him; and it does not excuse us. Humble servant leadership, the most difficult and costly leadership style of all, is what God honours and accepts above all others. Jesus was the servant leader par excellence, and he is our pioneer and example.

Take responsibility

Third, my sin is never justified by the sins of others (verse 11). Someone said that a person who is angry on the right grounds, against the right persons, in the right manner, at the right moment, and for the right length of time deserves great praise. But we seldom get it right, and Moses certainly did not.

To justify his regretful words and actions, Moses might have argued that he was encountering grief as a result of his sister’s passing, or that the people’s criticism was unwarranted, or that it was their parents’ sins of unbelief and unfaithfulness that led to their wandering in the desert for 40 years, or even that he was a tired old man who had had enough of leadership. What really mattered was that God viewed his inexact obedience as lack of trust in God, and that he must bear the consequences of his sin.

Ironically, Moses’ failure to precisely obey the Lord’s instructions on this occasion was as much an act of unbelief as the people’s failure to trust God’s promises instead of the ten spies’ pessimistic reports so many years before (see Numbers 14:11). Both Moses and Aaron pay dearly for the failure. The Lord excludes them from entering the promised land, and withdraws the privilege of leading the people into the land, and it is Joshua, one of the faithful spies, who leads Israel into their covenant blessings (see Deuteronomy 3:24ff; 32:48ff; Joshua 1:1ff).

There’s a grave wake-up call for us here: our sins can lead us to lose forever some of the privileges, blessings and opportunities of salvation. Further, the higher we climb on the ladder of Christian leadership, the more influence and impact we have, but the further we may fall. Perhaps that is why James sounds a warning to those who aspire to the calling of “teacher” in the church: “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly” (James 3:1).

On the other hand, God wants every Christian to make a positive difference in their world. Leave a positive example, and an enduring legacy, as Paul counsels us in The Message paraphrase: “Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God” (Philippians 2:14-15, TM).

Do the right thing

Fourth, I serve a God who expects exact obedience (verse 12). Jesus said simply, “The one who obeys me is the one who loves me” (John 14:21, LB). Inexact obedience, or partial obedience, is equivalent to disobedience, and disobedience dishonours the Lord.

To some of us Moses’ action might seem insignificant, but it was disobedience. God calls it “lack of trust in me” (verse 12); verses 24 and 27:14 describe it as rebellion; and Psalm 106:33 speaks of “rash words” coming from Moses’ lips.

As I said earlier, devastating consequences flowed from these rash words and lack of trust in God. Just as the people were unfaithful years before when the spies returned from their mission, and were condemned to die in the desert, so the two key leaders now make the same mistake and are condemned to the same fate. Numbers 20 not only records Miriam’s death, and Aaron’s death (verses 22ff), but Moses’ death sentence too (although he doesn’t die until Deuteronomy 34).

To trust in God is to discover that he is worthy of reliance. For example, after the parting of the Red Sea, “when the Israelites saw the great power the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant” (Exodus 14:31). If only they had maintained that first vibrant faith and trust! Do I regard God as worthy of my reliance?

Honour God as God

Finally, I serve a God who is holy and just. The Lord’s words to Moses and Aaron were: “Because you did not trust in my enough to honour me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them” (verse 12). Then the narrator adds a final comment: “These were the waters of Meribah, where the Israelites quarrelled with the Lord and where he showed himself holy among them” (verse 13).

How did the Lord show himself holy in this situation? First, by graciously giving water to his thirsty people and their animals; and, second, by judging the sin of his trusted leaders. God’s justice and mercy, wrath and grace, holiness and love, are intrinsically connected.

One of the most beautiful aspects of the Good News, and a truth that will eternally permeate heaven’s praises, is that the holy God loves the sinner and makes cleansing and forgiveness possible. One of the most powerful images of this truth is recorded by Isaiah:” ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty’ . . . ‘Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.’

“Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, ‘See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.’

“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!'” (Isaiah 6:3-8).

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E133 Copyright (c) 2003 Rod Benson. Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: New International Version (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1980). To talk with Rod about this message, email or write to P.O. Box 1790, MACQUARIE CENTRE 2113 AUSTRALIA. To subscribe, email with “subscribe-river” in the subject. To unsubscribe, type “unsubscribe-river” in the subject.