And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Israel has run out of water. The people have turned on their leaders, and Moses and Aaron have fallen on their faces before God. Verse 7 is the turning point: God breaks the silence, and what He says next shows whether He answers rebellion with punishment or with supply.
The complaint was serious. Yet God's answer is not a rebuke.
Also they lacked water. The journey was still prolonged. The resources were far from increasing; on the contrary, what there had been of joy and testimony was vanishing. They gather themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. God directs them to the provision He had made against murmurings. If we have just witnessed His holiness, we see now His resources and His blessing.
Moses left the crowd instead of arguing with it. That is where God's word found him.
It is deeply touching to find Moses, again and again, on his face before God. It was a sweet relief to escape from a noisy crowd and turn to the only One whose resources were enough for such a moment... As far as we can tell, they made no reply to the people at all. "They went from the presence of the assembly" and cast themselves upon the living God. They could not possibly have done better.
God says "take the rod" — one particular rod. Commentators identify it from where Moses had to fetch it.
God told Moses and Aaron to take "the rod." This was clearly Aaron's rod that had budded. Moses took it "from before the Lord," where Numbers 17 says it had been stored.
Darby marks this grace off from two things it could be confused with.
"Take the rod," says God — He knows of no other now — "and speak to the rock, and it shall give forth its water." There is nothing to do but show the sign of grace... and speak the word, and the people's needs are met at once. This was not exactly the grace that had followed the people from the Red Sea to Sinai. Nor was it authority punishing sin. It was grace taking priestly knowledge of sin and needs.
Water had come from a rock once before, in Exodus 17, and then by a blow. The change of method here is the whole point.
The first time the people needed water, the rock had to be struck (Exodus 17). That pictured the Lord's death on the cross. But blessing ever after would and does flow from His intercession as our High Priest on high. So in Numbers 20 Moses was to take Aaron's rod, and with it in his hand simply speak to the rock. The rod spoke to God of the future high priesthood of His Son. The whole scene pictured in advance the blessing of the Lord's active intercession for the people.
Kelly names who the rock stands for, and which rod belongs to each scene.
We have apostolic authority for believing that the rock is Christ. In Exodus, God directed that the rock be struck — struck by Moses' rod of judgment... In Numbers it is the opposite. God told Moses to take the rod, that is, Aaron's rod of priestly grace from before Jehovah. He and Aaron were to speak to the rock in front of the people, and it would give water.
Moses took the right rod. What went wrong was inside him.
But Moses takes the rod as God commanded, and the rebellion of the people has soured him. He thinks of his authority and their rebellion. He does not grasp the counsels of grace, and speaks rashly: "Must we fetch you water out of this rock?"... The rebellion of the people and the contempt of his authority have got a firmer hold on his mind than the understanding of the grace of God. He strikes the rock with his rod.
Commentators read this command as a pattern for how God meets need today.
The rock was struck once; that never needs to happen again. "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many." No need for that to be repeated... Ever after, all that is needed is to "speak to the Rock." The ministry of the Word ministers Christ to us in the refreshing power of the Holy Spirit.
- Provision, not punishment. God answered a rebellious crowd by pointing to the supply He had already stored up for such murmurings.
- The rod chosen. God sent Moses to fetch Aaron's budded rod from before the Lord — the sign of priestly grace, not Moses' rod of judgment.
- The word, not the blow. Striking belonged to Exodus 17 and pictured Christ's death. Here God asked for a word alone, because that death is never repeated.
- The failure. Moses held the right rod but struck the rock, because the people's rebellion filled his mind more than God's grace. He spoiled the picture.
- The pattern. Water still flows to the thirsty, but it comes now by speaking to the Rock, not by striking Him again.
Take the staff, and gather the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes, and it shall give its water; and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock, and shalt give the assembly and their beasts drink.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And Moses took the staff from before Jehovah, as he had commanded him.
Verse 9 records one quiet act of obedience: Moses went and fetched the rod God had named. Everything that follows in the chapter turns on which rod that was, and on why God asked for a word instead of a blow. (Where the ESV reads "staff," the older translations quoted here read "rod.")
The phrase "from before the LORD" identifies the object. Only one rod was kept there, and it was not the rod Moses himself had used before.
God told Moses to take the rod and gather the congregation together. Then he was to speak to the rock in front of them, and it would give water for the people and for the animals (v.8). Moses therefore took the rod from before the Lord (v.9). This was Aaron's rod that budded (ch.17:10), the rod of priesthood. No doubt Moses remembered that he had used a rod before to bring water from a rock (Ex. 17:5). But that was not Aaron's rod. It was the rod of Moses, the rod of authority and judgment, and God told him to strike the rock with it. In that case, the striking speaks of Christ being judged at Calvary for our sins.
Aaron's rod proved God's own choice of priest. The way it proved it points past Aaron to someone else.
There was, also, Aaron's rod that budded, the witness that God had really called him to the priesthood. It was a rod cut off, its life taken away. Then, in the presence of God, it budded and brought forth fruit. It is a beautiful picture of how Christ, cut off in death, brings forth much fruit in resurrection — and so is marked out as the true Priest.
The rock had already been struck once. This time Moses only had to speak.
There was no need for Christ to be struck twice. Once was enough, and rivers of life-giving water flowed to us. Moses stood for God with the rod of priestly grace in his hand. So, on God's behalf, he had only to speak, and the waters would be given again. When our "great high priest … passed through the heavens" (Heb. 4:14), He was, so to speak, laid up before the Lord. Then the word was spoken, and what abundant waters flowed from Him in the gift of the Spirit, as recorded in Acts 2.
God did not say "a rod." He said "the rod," and the choice of that one rod had already ruled the other out.
God called Aaron's rod "the rod." The other was set aside. They were never under that rod again. It is Christ for us, or nothing. It is only a word now, and every blessing flows. To smite the rock again would be the same as saying, because we fail Christ must die again. It is denying grace to say that anything is needed now except intercession.
Verse 9 shows Moses getting it right. The failure starts one verse later.
There was no misunderstanding. "Moses took the rod from before the Lord as He commanded him; and Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock." From this point on, however, everything was wrong. Moses was provoked by the great ingratitude and revolt of the people, and he "spoke rashly with his lips." "Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?" Who asked this of him? Moses was overcome by evil instead of overcoming evil with good.
Commentators differ over which rod struck the rock in verse 11. Some read it as Moses going back to his own rod of authority. Others read it as the budded rod misused. All agree the striking itself was the error.
Holding the rod was not the same as understanding it. Moses and Aaron both missed what it meant.
Neither of them had learned the meaning of "the" rod. In anger Moses took his own rod, but what right had he to be angry when God would show only mercy? Both he and Aaron must die in the wilderness. … God remembered mercy, Moses thought of their sin. God looked at the rod as a pledge of grace, Moses saw only the "token."
Moses failed at the rock. The water came anyway.
Moses did not count on God's grace, which was all that was needed. But does God stop His grace because of this? Does He stop the water flowing to quench their thirst? No, He does not. He comes in Himself when the one who should act fails. He will act according to the rod He appointed, if Moses does not.
- The rod named. "From before the LORD" points to one rod only: Aaron's rod that budded, the rod of priesthood.
- The rod's message. A dead stick that bore fruit in God's presence pictures Christ cut off in death and marked out as the true Priest in resurrection.
- The rod's method. Because the rock was struck once and once only, priestly grace now asks for a word — and the water still flows.
- The rod's rival. Moses' own rod stood for authority and judgment. It had done its work. Reaching for it again denied that one death was enough.
- The rod's Lord. Verse 9 obeys; verse 11 fails. Moses and Aaron must die in the wilderness for it — yet God still gave the people their water.
And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said to them, Hear now, ye rebels shall we bring forth to you water out of this rock?
Israel has no water at Kadesh, and God tells Moses to take the rod, gather the people, and speak to the rock. Moses gathers them. But then he turns on the crowd instead of the rock. He calls them rebels and asks a question God never gave him to ask.
The instructions were exact. Moses did part of them and then stopped. One writer marks the point where his obedience breaks off.
Moses did take the rod from before the LORD, as He commanded him. But when he and Aaron gathered the people, he said to them, "Hear now, you rebels!" Instead of speaking to the rock he speaks to them. He was not told to do so.
The question he asks puts himself and Aaron where God should have been. A writer notices how much weight rests on a single pronoun.
He was so jealous for his authority that for the moment he forgot his own place as a servant. "Shall we bring water for you out of this rock?" Where was the honour due to God in that word "WE"? No one was as meek as Moses. But here he failed, and he did not honour God as holy in the eyes of the people. His own place and authority filled his mind: there was no room at that moment for the thought of grace.
Moses had been angry before without sinning. This time it had turned into something else. One writer sets the two occasions side by side: the broken stone tablets after Israel's idol worship, and this one.
He acted in defence of the holiness of God when he broke the tablets in pieces at the foot of the mountain. His anger burned hot, yet his behaviour fitted the command, "Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger." But when Moses raised his rod to strike the rock and said, "You rebels," his anger had sunk far lower. He was no longer defending the character of God, as he had done before. He now laid himself open to God's righteous anger, because he acted in direct opposition to His word and will.
The pressure came from the people, and Scripture says so plainly, but it does not excuse him. Another writer describes what filled his thinking at that moment.
The rebellion of the people and the contempt of his authority have got a firmer hold on his mind than the intelligence of the grace of God.
Moses spoke for God, so his tone and his actions told Israel something about God. That is where the failure was most serious.
His sin was simply this: he gave a false picture of God to Israel. He misrepresented God to a rebellious people... God was acting towards Israel in the boundless grace of His own heart. It was grace, and priestly grace too, because only priestly grace can bring a complaining people through the wilderness. But Moses, instead of taking the rod, takes his own rod, the rod of judgment and government... he stood before the people the very contrast to that character in which God was dealing with them.
Years earlier God told Moses to strike the rock, and he obeyed. Here he strikes it a second time, and that spoils the picture, because the rock stands for Christ.
He did not serve in God's way. So his service was not acceptable. It displeased the Lord so much that he was not allowed to go into the land because of it... The failure was very great. He did not obey the Lord's plain command, and he also spoiled the picture. That picture was surely meant to teach us that the rock, once struck, need never be struck again. It would give out refreshing streams at the cry of faith, as we now know Christ.
The servant failed, but God's grace towards the people did not stop.
We see, then, how angry God is with those who interfere with His ways in grace and dare to try to block its flow, whether towards saints or sinners. So God let Moses strike the rock, but He did not let that sin stop the tide of His grace. That grace rose higher than the sins of His people — including the sin of His servant Moses.
One writer turns the lesson on the reader, with plain advice for the moment before you speak.
Oh, learn, I beg you, to choke your anger. Weep over your folly and sin in the presence of God. Be firm in your efforts to control the workings of your passions within. Firmly refuse to open your lips to say your words while they are red hot. Let them cool, or else like Moses you will speak rashly with your lips.
- Provoked — the people's rebellion filled his mind more than God's grace. Anger that once defended God's holiness now fought His word.
- Misrepresented — a servant sent to show God's grace showed the opposite. He stood before the people as the very contrast to how God was acting.
- "We" — one pronoun took the honour that belonged to God, and Moses forgot for a moment that he was only a servant.
- Struck twice — Moses spoiled the picture. The rock once struck never needed striking again; it gives its streams at the cry of faith.
- Yet grace won — God kept His servant out of the land, yet His grace rose higher than the sin of both.
And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his staff smote the rock twice, and much water came out, and the assembly drank, and their beasts.
The people were thirsty again. God told Moses to take the rod and speak to the rock. Moses struck it twice instead, and the water still poured out. Commentators see two things here at once. Moses ruined a picture God was drawing, and grace flowed anyway.
The instruction here was deliberately different from the earlier one at Rephidim, and the difference is the whole point.
God told Moses to take the rod laid up before the Lord, which was Aaron's rod that had budded, and with it to speak to the rock, and the water would gush out. He struck the rock in disobedience. The water came out in grace, but he suffered for his act. What Moses no doubt did not understand then is plain to us now. Blessing flows to us only on the ground of the Lord's death. But He died only once. So on the first occasion when water was needed the rock was to be struck, a picture of the Lord's death on the cross. But blessing ever after would and does flow from His intercession as our High Priest on high.
The rod Moses carried was not his own, and striking with it damaged the very thing it stood for.
There can be no repetition of the death of Christ; and so Moses was wrong to strike the rock twice with his rod — wrong to strike it at all. He was commanded to take "the rod," Aaron's rod, the priestly rod, and speak to the rock. The atoning work is done. Now our great High Priest has passed into the heavens, to appear in the presence of God for us. The streams of spiritual refreshment flow to us on the ground of accomplished redemption.
The blow did not come out of nowhere. Moses had just asked the people whether he and Aaron must bring them water out of the rock. That "we" gives him away.
Moses has forgotten the rod. What is Moses? Nothing; he has no power to fetch water from the rock, and he has forgotten the present power of God, the only thing that could enable him to do it. He has forgotten God; he is thinking about himself. Here we see again the sin of our hearts, using the very grace God has given us for the purpose of self-exaltation, to say "we."
God was showing mercy at that very moment. Moses reached for his own authority instead.
He who had so long lived as the meekest of men failed in this very respect at last. God was magnifying His mercy and calling attention plainly to the truth that nothing but priestly grace could bring an erring people through. At that moment Moses gave way to natural resentment and asserted his own authority. He had sunk to their level, instead of hiding himself, as faith would have done, behind the grace of God.
The key word in the verse is "abundantly." God did not cut back His supply to match His servant's failure.
He had been told to speak to the rock; but he strikes it twice, as though divine power needed to be backed up by human energy. Yet still "the water came out." God's faithfulness is not touched by the failure of His servant... God may be using someone's ministry for the blessing of others at the very moment when He is about to discipline that same person.
The water flowed at once, so nothing looked wrong. God settled the account later.
At the water of Meribah Moses and Aaron sinned seriously. They committed a very high offence in striking the rock and challenging the congregation. But the water came out, and it came at once and abundantly, as though all were right. The whole congregation drank of it, and to all present appearances the Lord had no dispute with anyone. But afterwards the Lord let them know that their offence had not been overlooked. Because of it they would fall short of the land of Canaan and die on the wilderness side of the Jordan.
The picture Moses spoiled still shapes how believers seek fresh power today.
Moses spoiled the picture. The rock had been struck once. Christ has been struck once... What we need is not a fresh giving of the Spirit. We don't have to have Christ go and die again in order to give us the Spirit again. No! Speak to the Rock. Christ is the Rock. Speak to Him, so that the fullness of the Spirit may flow out more and be seen in His saints.
- Once struck. God told Moses to strike the rock the first time. That blow pictures Christ's death, and it can never be repeated.
- Then spoken to. This time the rod is Aaron's, the rod that budded. Supply now comes through our living High Priest, not through another blow.
- Struck twice. Moses gave way to resentment and claimed his own authority. He struck with the rod when God had said speak.
- Water still flowed. God's faithfulness did not depend on His servant's obedience. The people and their animals all drank their fill.
- Judged later. The instant blessing hid nothing. Later the Lord told Moses and Aaron they would fall short of the land.
And Jehovah said to Moses and to Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to hallow me before the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land that I have given them.
At Kadesh there is no water, and God tells Moses to take the rod and speak to the rock; Moses calls the people rebels and strikes it twice. The sentence falls on the two leaders, not the crowd: what did Moses do that cost him the land?
God had once told Moses to strike a rock, back in Exodus 17. The difference between the two scenes explains the failure here.
In Exodus God told Moses to strike the rock, and he struck it with his rod of judgment. The gift of the Spirit comes from Christ after He was struck and suffered for us. In Numbers it is the opposite. Moses was told to take the rod — that is, Aaron's rod of priestly grace, kept before the Lord. He and Aaron were to speak to the rock in front of the people, and it would give out its water. But there they failed. Moses did take Aaron's rod, as the Lord commanded him, but he struck the rock twice with his own rod. So they failed in faith to sanctify the Lord before Israel. Striking was as wrong now as it was right before.
Aaron's rod was the staff that had budded, kept before the Lord as the sign of priesthood. Moses held that rod and struck the rock anyway.
There can be no repetition of the death of Christ. So Moses was wrong to strike the rock twice with his rod — wrong to strike it at all. The atoning work is done, and now our great High Priest has passed into the heavens, to appear there in the presence of God for us. The streams of spiritual refreshment flow to us on the ground of finished redemption. They flow in connection with Christ's priestly ministry, and Aaron's budding rod is the beautiful picture of it.
God names the failure twice over: they did not believe Him, and they did not treat Him as holy before Israel. Both charges come back to the rod.
How did they fail to sanctify God? By not doing as they were commanded. The truth of priesthood taught by the rod was set aside as if it were of no use to the people... But God is most jealous of anything at all that interferes with His grace. God remembered mercy; Moses thought of their sin. God looked at the rod as a pledge of grace; Moses saw only the "token." He did not see the mercy side of the rod. No wonder he took his own rod, the symbol of the righteous government of God. He said "Hear now, you rebels" — a word the Lord had not put into his mouth.
The blow was not the only failure. Listen to the pronoun Moses used.
He was so jealous for his authority that for the moment he forgot his own place as a servant. "Shall we bring water for you out of this rock?" Where was the honour due to God in his saying "WE"? No one was as meek as Moses; but here he failed and did not sanctify God in the people's eyes.
The penalty can feel out of scale with one angry moment. Its weight matches how close these men stood to God.
God most of all resents a grave misrepresentation of Himself by someone who ought to have known Him well. Moses and Aaron were very near to God. They had entered — Moses above all — into His grace. That is exactly why their total failure now became the reason for setting Moses aside as a vessel that had done its work.
The water still came. God's honour did not finally depend on His servants getting it right.
Moses and Aaron did not sanctify Him; they gave up grace to defend their injured authority. Had this been God's feeling, they would have brought no water out of the rock at all. The Lord was sanctified all the same. He kept to His own word and His own grace, despite the failure of Moses and Aaron. That failure brought immediate reproof on them, and the sharp chastening of dying outside the land where grace was leading the people.
Some say Moses was shut out only because of the office he held.
Neither Numbers 20 nor Deuteronomy 1 says anything about Moses in his official role. We have the man himself before us. God forbids him to enter the land because he spoke rashly with his lips.
Yet the door God shut was not the last word He spoke to Moses.
God, in government, kept Moses out of Canaan. God, in grace, brought Moses up to Pisgah. These two facts in the history of Moses show clearly the difference between grace and government... Grace pardons and blesses; but government takes its course.
- Rod — God named the instrument: Aaron's budded rod of priestly grace, not the rod that struck Egypt. Using the wrong rod was the whole failure in miniature.
- Repetition — the rock struck once pictures a death that is never repeated. The second blow spoiled that picture.
- Representation — to sanctify God meant showing His mercy. Moses showed judgment instead, and God guards His grace jealously.
- Responsibility — the sentence fell hard because these men stood close to God. He most resents a false picture of Himself from those who knew Him best.
- Result — government kept Moses out of Canaan; grace still carried him up Pisgah. Grace pardons and blesses, but government takes its course.
These are the waters of Meribah, where the children of Israel contended with Jehovah, and he hallowed himself in them.
Numbers 20:13 ends the story of the rock at Meribah with a name and a verdict. Two questions follow: what was the quarrel about, and how was God honoured on a day when His two chief servants failed?
The name of the water records what the people did there, and how God acted.
This was called the water of Meribah (which means strife), because Israel quarreled with the Lord there, and because He was set apart as holy — separate from them in His character of grace, which was so different from their attitude (v.13).
The same name was already attached to an earlier scene.
Verse 13 speaks of the place where all this happened as "the water of Meribah." That was the name given to the place where the rock was rightly struck, as recorded in Exodus 17:7. So the two events were linked from the start.
Moses picked up the wrong rod, and the mistake went deeper than method.
Moses' failure at this time was this: he gave a false picture of God to a rebellious people... God was acting toward Israel in the unbounded grace of His own heart. It was grace, and priestly grace too, because only priestly grace can bring a murmuring people through the wilderness. Moses, instead of taking the rod, takes his own rod, the rod of judgment and government. So he misrepresented God in every way. In picture he denied the one sacrifice of Christ by striking the rock twice, and he misrepresented the voice of God by speaking to Israel as he did... We are left here to give a right picture of Christ in our actions, our words, and our ways in this world. The only way the world can see Christ is in His people, since He has gone away.
His words to the people show what was moving him.
"Hear now, you rebels" might be true and even just, if it were a question of man; but was it God's word for that moment? Was He acting in grace or in judgment? And if it were added, "must we bring water for you out of this rock," was God before their eyes? Was it not self, wounded by the ingratitude of man?
The second blow mattered because of what the rock pictured.
The death of Christ can never be repeated. So Moses was wrong to strike the rock twice with his rod — wrong to strike it at all. He was commanded to take "the rod," Aaron's rod — the priestly rod — and speak to the rock. The atoning work is done, and now our great High Priest has passed into the heavens, there to appear in the presence of God for us. The streams of spiritual refreshment flow to us because redemption has been accomplished, and through Christ's priestly ministry. Aaron's budding rod is the beautiful picture of that ministry.
God was treated as holy that day, but not by Moses and Aaron.
Moses and Aaron did not sanctify Him; they gave up grace to defend their own injured authority. If God had felt as they did, they would have brought no water out of the rock. Yet He was sanctified — by holding to His own word and His own grace, despite the failure of Moses and Aaron. That failure brought them an immediate rebuke, and the sharp discipline of dying outside the land, Canaan, where grace was leading the people.
God's answer did not depend on Moses getting it right.
God had told him to speak to the rock, but he strikes it twice, as though divine power needed human energy to back it up. Yet still "the water came out." God's faithfulness is not touched by the failure of His servant... God may be using someone's ministry to bless the souls of others at the very time He is about to discipline that same person.
Moses was shut out of Canaan, yet that was not the end of God's kindness to him.
God, in government, kept Moses out of Canaan. God, in grace, brought Moses up Mount Pisgah. These two facts in the history of Moses show the difference between grace and government very clearly. That subject is of the deepest interest and of great practical value. Grace pardons and blesses; but government takes its course.
There was more for Moses, long after his death.
The discipline had in it an element of mercy. If Moses had been spared to lead the host into the land, what further heartbreaks would have been his! About fifteen centuries later, he stood on the mount of transfiguration with Christ and spoke with Him about His departure. For that moment he was in the land, under far happier circumstances.
- Strife — the place is named for the people's quarrel. God answered in grace, the opposite of their attitude.
- Rod — Moses was told to hold the priestly rod and speak; he used his own rod of judgment and so gave a false picture of God.
- Rock — the rock was struck once and must never be struck again. Refreshment now comes through a High Priest, not a repeated sacrifice.
- Sanctified — God was set apart as holy by Himself, not by His servants. He held to His own word and grace despite their failure.
- Government — the water flowed and the people drank, yet Moses still died outside the land. Grace pardons and blesses; government takes its course.