“But Adonai said to Moshe and Aharon, ‘Because you did not trust in me, so as to cause me to be regarded as holy by the people of Isra’el, you will not bring this community into the land I have given them.’This is M’rivah Spring [Disputation Spring], where the people of Israel disputed with Adonai, and he was caused to be regarded as holy by them.”-Numbers 20:12-13
The incident of Moses striking the rock and as a result being subsequently barred from entering the Promised Land just explodes with all kinds of awesome spiritual takeaways that we can begin applying IMMEDIATELY to our lives.
Before I delve into some of the awesome nuggets of insight embedded in this section, I want you to first notice the name of the area where the dispute occurred.
The name given to this area was MERIBAH.
This literally means “quarreling” in Hebrew.
In those days, place names were given according to what happened there.
We’ll see this quite a bit in Scripture.
For example, recall what Jacob called the place where he had that mysterious wrestling session with the Angel of the Lord.
“Jacob called the place P’ni-El [face of God], ‘
Because I have seen God face to face,
yet my life is spared.'”
-Genesis 32:30
Okay, let’s take a look at the spiritual lessons to be learned from this chapter.
First, despite the serious sin Moses and Aaron committed, God so perfectly demonstrated how He is the absolute master when it comes to turning a lemon into a lemonade.
Amidst all of the quarreling, in the end, HASHEM used this incident to to affirm His HOLINESS before all the people.
Second, we learn that it is a great sin to misrepresent God, whether in character, word, or deed.
The blazing temper which Moses displayed would have come across as if he didn’t really care for the people and that he viewed the whole situation as a bother to him personally.
Third, we learn that it is a great sin to take on the prerogatives or characteristics of God or even to make oneself out to be a god-like person with supernatural powers.
As I mentioned in my post a couple of days ago, I believe this was the main reason God had to judge Moses and Aaron as severely as He did.
The two made themselves out to be sorcerers and ended up paying a steep price for it.
Finally, we are again reminded that how we respond to God’s chosen Mediator is how we respond to the Father Himself.
The people may have thought they were directing their anger and frustration towards Moses, but they were really rebelling against HASHEM.
I’m done.
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