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The Sin of Moses: What Happened at Meribah?
There are few characters that play a larger part in the story of the Bible than Moses. He is the human protagonist of four Old Testament books and is consistently held up in both the OT and NT as a shining example of faith in the promises of God. The law that he delivered to the people of Israel serves as the foundation of the nation of Israel, and is lauded by Jesus as a testament that would not pass until “heaven and earth pass away…[and] all is accomplished.” One of the great tragic moments of the Bible is where Moses is denied entrance to the Promised Land for his sin at the Rock of Meribah; after faithfully leading Israel for forty years, Moses strikes a rock instead of speaking to it and is condemned to die before living in the Promised Land. On its surface, this might seem unfair to Moses. One mess-up and God gives him this great punishment? How many times had Israel failed in their journey and at Mt. Sinai, and God had spared their lives and allowed them to keep going? Yet His most faithful servant is barred over this one, seemingly insignificant event? If we take a closer look at the text, however, we see why Moses’ failure was such a stark one. While it doesn’t diminish the tragic nature of the event, it does shed light on why God takes such a drastic step to respond.
First, it is important to note that a pattern is established in the story of Israel and Moses. This pattern can be seen at Mt. Sinai when Aaron and Israel create the golden calf idol (Exodus 32). Israel sins, and in response to that the Lord tells Moses to step aside so that He may destroy Israel in His wrath (Exodus 32:9-10). When this occurs, Moses intercedes for Israel and pleads for God to turn away His fierce anger for His own sake (Exodus 32:11-14). This intercession works, and Israel is spared utter destruction. This pattern of sin, wrath, intercession, and relenting occurs twice more in the Book of Numbers: once in Number 14 when Israel rebels and refuses to go into the Promised Land, and again in Numbers 16 when Korah leads his rebellion against Moses and Aaron (the major difference in Numbers 16 being that Aaron is the one to intervene by offering incense for atonement to the Lord).
This pattern shows itself again in the beginning of Numbers 20 after the death of Miriam. Once more Israel rebels against Moses and Aaron, this time over a lack of water in the desert of Zin. They claim that it would have been better to have died with Korah’s rebellion rather than wander without food and water, and they express regret over leaving Egypt, a land of “grain, figs, vines, and pomegranates.” This might seem a bold claim, since in our reading Korah has just died a few chapters earlier. Careful reading, however, indicates that there’s actually been a quiet time skip; Numbers 33:38 indicates that Aaron died in “the fortieth year after the sons of Israel had come from the land of Egypt, on the first day in the fifth month.” Given that Aaron’s death is recorded in Chapter 20, just a few verses after the episode at Meribah, this would indicate that the episode at Meribah occurred in year 38 of the 40 year wandering in the wilderness (remember that Israel had spent more than a year at Sinai in addition to travel time from Egypt to Sinai and from Sinai to the Promised Land before the wandering). This means that this rebellious generation of Israelites aren’t referencing a recent event, but instead wishing they had died nearly forty years earlier with Korah! Moses and Aaron have been dealing with this wicked and hard group of people for a very long time, and they are now claiming it would have been better to have died with Korah: a fate they were only spared because of Moses and Aaron’s own intercession!
We would expect the pattern to repeat here. The people have rebelled, so the next part would be God’s wrath and threats of destruction. Instead, however, God merely grants their request for water. No mention of sin or possible annihilation, just grace in providing for Israel’s needs. The fact that this cycle we’ve come to expect changes is designed to highlight an important event; the oddity of the text “awakens us from our narrative slumber,” as one commentator puts it, and forces us to pay attention closely to what’s occurring. Why would God not threaten destruction? To answer that, we have to remember a key aspect of God’s character: He does not change. Hebrews 13:8 says He is the same yesterday and today and forever, “without variation or shifting shadow,” (James 1:17). The purpose of the threats of destruction, and Moses/Aaron’s intercession, was not to actually change God’s mind. God knew exactly what was going to happen in all these instances. God’s threats on Israel are spoken to Moses so that Moses will intercede. They are tests of Moses’ (and Aaron’s) character, just as God’s conversation with Abraham over the fates of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18) was about testing Abraham’s character rather than the doomed cities. Yet here, in Numbers 20, God does not follow the pattern. Why?
This gets us back to the question of what, exactly, Moses’ sin was. Many commentators focus on the physical actions that Moses took in verses 9-11. Some say Moses sin was striking the rock rather than speaking to it, but Moses was told to take the staff of God. Exodus 17:5-6 had Moses striking the rock to cause water to come out of the rock (in fact, it’s actually the same rock of Meribah!), so it’s possible to read an inference that the staff was to be used to strike the rock. Some commentators see Moses’ harsh words for Israel as the sin, or perhaps that he speaks to the people rather than speaking to the rock. Regardless of which of these views, they don’t account for what the text itself says: Numbers 20:12 makes it clear that the sin of Moses and Aaron was “…you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel.” Indeed, focusing on Moses’ actions of striking the rock or speaking harshly makes it seem doubly unfair to Aaron, who had neither spoken nor struck the rock.
The reading that makes more sense is to focus on the breaking of the pattern established to this point. Moses’ harsh words toward the Israelites reveal his emotions in this moment; he classifies Israel as “rebels” rather than the chosen people, and his rhetorical question seems to imply that he does not view Israel as worthy of God’s grace any longer. This is the real failure of Moses in this moment: he’s lost his faith in God to fulfill His promises to these people. Israel is a nation of rebels outside of grace, outside of God’s ability to make a great nation, outside of the promises that God has given. It seems nearly forty years of dealing with this people has finally broken Moses, and he is so overwhelmed in this moment that he has lost faith. From God’s perspective, Moses has lost faith in the Lord to overcome Israel’s faithlessness. Moses has not believed in God, and has not treated Yahweh as the Holy God who is able to overcome the weakness of His people. Indeed, this is exactly what Numbers 20:12 says was Moses’ sin! He (and Aaron!) did not believe God and did not treat Yahweh as holy in that moment. God did offer Moses the opportunity to intercede for the people (and thus broke the pattern) because He knew that Moses did not have faith in Him.
This interpretation is solidified by Moses’ words about this event in the Book of Deuteronomy. Three times in the first four chapters of Deuteronomy, Moses says that he is not able to enter the Promised Land because of Israel. At first glance, again, this might seem an unfair charge. Moses had caused his own exclusion, hadn’t he? Why is he accusing the generation after the event in Numbers 20 of being the cause of his failure? If we look at these three mentions, we see a few important facts. In the first instance, Deuteronomy 1:37, Moses is recounting the failure of Israel when they listened to the 10 spies’ negative report and how God forbade that generation from entering the Promised Land, and he then says “The Lord was angry with me also on your account, saying, ‘Not even you shall enter there.’” Moses associates his inability to enter the Promised Land with Israel’s rebellion and unfaithfulness, but he also seems to be lumping the people’s refusal to enter the land (Numbers 13-14) with his own sin in Numbers 20. This is not Moses forgetting the chronology of these two events, but rather indicating that they are closely associate with one another.
The second mention is in Deuteronomy 3:23-26, where after retelling the defeats of the kings Sihon and Og Moses relates that “I also pleaded with the Lord at that time, saying, ‘O Lord God, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your strong hand; for what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as Yours? Let me, I pray, cross over and see the fair land that is beyond the Jordan, that good hill country and Lebanon.’ But the Lord was angry with me on your account, and would not listen to me; and the Lord said to me, ‘Enough! Speak to Me no more of this matter.” Again, Moses directly links the Lord’s anger towards him with the Israelites.
The third mention is in Deuteronomy 4:21-23, where Moses has moved past the historical recounting and is now warning Israel of the danger of idolatry. He says ““Now the Lord was angry with me on your account, and swore that I would not cross the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. For I will die in this land, I shall not cross the Jordan, but you shall cross and take possession of this good land. So watch yourselves, that you do not forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a graven image in the form of anything against which the Lord your God has commanded you.” Now Moses uses his own tragic story as an illustration on the importance of avoiding idolatry in the Promised Land. So Moses’ failure to enter the Promised Land was related to the continuous rebellion of Israel, and was an illustration of the dangers of violating the covenant promises.
Reading the Numbers 20 passage the way that has been suggested makes sense of what Moses says in Deuteronomy. He’s not shifting the blame to Israel for his own failures, but highlighting that their constant rebellion was what caused him to lose his faith in God. Moses lack of faith led him to forget the promise and covenant of God, so he is using that illustration to demonstrate the dangers of forsaking the covenant: just like Moses, Israel will be forbidden the Promised Land if they don’t maintain faith in the covenant promises of God. That’s really one of the main points of Deuteronomy. It’s not just the covenant laws for the new generation, but Moses exhorting the new generation to never lose hope in the promise of God. Moses, knowing Israel, recognizes that there will come a day when they fail to uphold the covenant and they will be punished for it, but he also recognizes that God’s promises will stand no matter how badly Israel fails to uphold it. This, then, is the main point we should derive as well: God will always keep His promises. We, as the heirs to the promises to Abraham and Israel, should always firmly believe in the power of God to bring us, a broken people like Israel, to the shores of the Promised Land!
