We come to another sad chapter: Numbers 20. We already know that only 2 of the 600,000+ men who left in the Exodus will go into the Promised Land (Numbers 13 and 14). Now Moses himself is tripped up in the second “water from the rock” incident. The first is back in Exodus 17:

• Exodus 14: Red Sea Crossing
• Exodus 15: Celebrating with singing
• Exodus 16: Manna
• Exodus 17: Water from the rock: strike the rock

Now in Numbers 20, the instruction changes: “Speak to the rock.”

Then Moses and Aaron came in from the presence of the assembly to the doorway of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces. Then the glory of Yahweh appeared to them; and Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “Take the rod; and you and your brother Aaron assemble the congregation and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it may yield its water. You shall thus bring forth water for them out of the rock and let the congregation and their beasts drink.” So Moses took the rod from before Yahweh, just as He had commanded him; and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. And he said to them, “Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?” Then Moses raised high his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their beasts drank. (Numbers 20.6 – 11, LSB, emphasis mine)

There are a few obvious lessons:

• Don’t operate out of anger
• Don’t assume that the rules don’t change
• Don’t forget where the power is: “Shall WE bring forth water…”

The New Testament emphasizes that we are to learn from these experiences recorded in the Pentateuch:

For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ. (1 Corinthians 10.1 – 4, LSB)

That’s the way it was supposed to work.

However,

Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased. For THEY WERE STRUCK DOWN IN THE WILDERNESS. Now these things happened as examples for us, so that…

• we would not crave evil things as they also craved.
• Do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, “THE PEOPLE SAT DOWN TO EAT AND DRINK, AND STOOD UP TO PLAY.”
• Nor let us act in sexual immorality, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day.
• Nor let us put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents.
• Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. (1 Corinthians 10.5 – 10, LSB, bulleted for clarity)

Some of this stuff in the Pentateuch is as relevant as it gets!

Miriam dies at the beginning of Numbers 20; Aaron, at the end. And Moses finds out that he will die before going into the Promised Land:

And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.” (Numbers 20.12, ESV)

As my friend Fisher DeBerry, former head football coach of the Air Force Academy, used to say:

You’re only as good as your last play.

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3.12 – 14, ESV)