Numbers 20
McGeeCHAPTER 20THEME: At Kadesh again (after 37 years); the seventh murmuring; water from rock, disobedience of Moses; Edom refuses Israel passage through their land; death of AaronThe chapter before us opens with the death of Miriam and it closes with the death of Aaron. The chapter is bounded by death. It also contains the sin of Moses and the sin of Edom. Yet this is an important chapter because it marks the end of wandering for the children of Israel and the beginning of marching. This section, from chapters 14 to 20, is the only section which deals with the forty years of wandering in the wildernessand that’s not very much. We have only a few incidents that took place during these forty years. Israel is out of God’s will, and there is little to tell. We can talk about Israel being God’s chosen people, but they didn’t amount to anything except when they were in God’s will. And that is still true today. It is also true of you and me that we don’t amount to anything when we are out of the will of God. When you and I are not functioning in the body of believers, exercising the gift that He has given to us by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are as unnecessary as a fifth leg on a cow. Actually, we get in the way.
Numbers 20:1
AT KADESH AGAIN (AFTER 37 YEARS)Here we have the death of Miriam and only one verse is given to it. There is no long funeral oration, no days of mourning, no effort to eulogize. Miriam died and was buried. That’s all. They are back at Kadesh. They had been here almost thirty-eight years before and now they’re back again. Thirty-eight years of wandering, going nowhere. Although these years of wandering were not years of great blessing for the people, they provide great lessons to be learned because many of us today are not marching as pilgrims through the world; we are simply wandering pilgrims in this world down here.
Numbers 20:2
THE SEVENTH MURMURINGOf course they don’t really mean that. None of us wants to die. Death is unnatural for man. But they are complaining, whining again, and murmuring. This is the seventh murmuring, and it is over the lack of water.
Numbers 20:4
Here they are back at Kadesh where they had failed before, and again they are complaining instead of trusting. Well, the land of milk and honey is ahead of them, but it isn’t here. I don’t care where you are today, or who you areyou as a child of God need to recognize that you are not here permanently. All of us are just pilgrims passing through this world; we won’t be in any one place for long. So we ought not to spend so much time complaining.
Numbers 20:6
Again I call your attention to the fact that every time these people murmured or complained, the glory of the Lord appeared. God was displeased with their complaining. That should make us realize that if we are whining and complaining saints, we are not pleasing to God. That is true no matter who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing.
Numbers 20:7
WATER FROM ROCK, DISOBEDIENCE OF MOSES"Take the rod"this rod was Aaron’s, by the way. “Gather the assembly together, and speak unto the rock.” Why were they simply to speak to the rock this time? It is because many years before this (as recorded in the seventeenth chapter of Exodus) the rock was smitten and water came forth. The rock is to be smitten only once!
Numbers 20:9
Not only are the children of Israel complaining, but Moses is complaining now, don’t you think? I have great sympathy for him. He’s been with them all of forty years in the wilderness, and frankly, he is getting pretty tired of them. He is forgetting himself here in verse Num_20:11 when he says, “Must we fetch you water out of this rock?” Moses is not going to fetch them water out of the rock at all. God is the One who will provide the water. They need to learn a great lesson here which is that the rock is a type of Christ. Now Moses became angry and he did something that he should not have done. This is going to keep him from entering the Promised Land.
Numbers 20:11
Some men teach that his error was in smiting the rock twice. He should not have smitten it at all, friend. It had already been smitten. The rock is a type of Christ (1Co_10:4). Christ suffered once for sins, never the second time. He died once.
God was teaching this to them in a type, and Moses should have protected and guarded the type by obeying God. God told him very clearly that he was to speak to the rock. That was all he needed to do. But Moses failed to obey God. The importance of this act of disobedience was that the rock pictures Christ. “Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; And did all eat the same spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ” (1Co_10:1-4). The water came out abundantly. The error of Moses did not keep the water from coming out. How gracious God is!
Numbers 20:12
God is saying here that Moses and Aaron did not believe Him, neither did they sanctify Him in the eyes of Israel. That is, they took to themselves the credit for the miracle. When we read the New Testament, we find that Moses did reach the Promised Land eventually; he appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration with Christ in that land. Canaan is actually the picture of where you and I should live by faith. It is not a picture of heaven. We are in this world which is a wilderness, but you and I ought to be enjoying the blessings of Canaan. That comes, as we shall see in the book of Joshua, by the death and resurrection of Christ. We are to reckon upon that, believing God and yielding to Him in this matter. That is what Moses and Aaron failed to do.
Numbers 20:13
Today, unbelief is our great sin also. My, what a reflection it is on God when we don’t take Him at His Word and believe Him!
Numbers 20:14
EDOM REFUSES ISRAEL PASSAGE THROUGH THEIR LANDMoses gives them a little history of their nation, and then he asks for permission to cross their land. Now that was a request that was made in a very kind sort of way. Edom was their brother, and Moses reminds them of this. Edom sinned by not letting them pass through.
Numbers 20:17
Moses gives them a little history of their nation, and then he asks for permission to cross their land. Now that was a request that was made in a very kind sort of way. Edom was their brother, and Moses reminds them of this. Edom sinned by not letting them pass through.
Numbers 20:18
The children of Israel again told Edom that they had their cattle and little ones and wanted to come through. Again they assured them that they would not take anything or damage the land.
Numbers 20:20
Now they are making a circuitous route which would not have been necessary had they been given permission to go through Edom. However, I think that Moses made a mistake here. Moses should have been following the cloud. He didn’t need to worry. God would be leading him and guiding him. Instead of asking Edom for permission to go through, he should have simply followed the cloud. I think that the pillar of cloud would have led him in a way so he would never have had to fight Edom at all. I believe this is a case of running ahead of the Lord. Unfortunately, many of us do that.
Numbers 20:23
DEATH OF AARONWe come now to the death of Aaron and that brings us to the end of the chapter which ends on a sad note. But there are very precious lessons in this chapter for you and for me. You know, there are many people today who are saved, but even in this life they never enjoy the fruits of salvation and they do not have the peace of the Spirit in their own lives. They do not know what it is to walk in fellowship with the Lord Jesus. Yet I would never for one moment question their salvation. Aaron was typical of that kind of life. He knew forty years of rugged experience in the wilderness, but he never knew what it was to sit down and enjoy the fruits of the Promised Land. He did not know what it was to drink the milk and eat the honey in the land of milk and honey. Many of us rob ourselves of that because of our unbelief.
Numbers 20:25
There is a precious lesson here for us. This was a very sad thing in Israel, but it has in it for us today something that should cause us to thank God. The children of Israel mourned for thirty days. I think there were many in that company who had been to Aaron, the high priest. They knew Aaron, and Aaron knew them. They would bring their sacrifice and they would ask Aaron, “Oh, do you think God will forgive me?” And I think that Aaron would comfort them and tell them that our God is a gracious, merciful God. Then he would offer their sacrifice for them. Now they saw Eleazar come down clothed in the garments of Aaron. Aaron is dead and gone. And they would say, “I don’t know Eleazar and he doesn’t know me. It’s a different priest now.” May I say to you today that we have a High Priest who ever lives to make intercession for us. Our Lord is not a Priest after the order of Aaron but after the order of Melchizedek. He has neither beginning of days, nor end of life; He abides a Priest continually! Our High Priest will not die. He died once for us down here; He lives forever for us up there. He will always be there for us. We can always depend on Him. He knows each of us individually and we can know Him. To know Him is life everlasting. Knowing Him will occupy us for all eternity and it will never be changed. That is something to be thankful for today. Israel has finished the wilderness wandering now and will be getting ready to enter into the Promised Land. Also God has a “promised land” into which He wants to bring us today. Christ is the One who can bring us there right now.