The Bible does indicate that there was unbelief involved in Moses' actions. Whenever I have read it, I looked at it like Moses went with what had worked before, striking the rock, rather than something unproven, speaking to the rock. If you believe that is more in line with what is written, where do you believe the unbelief comes in? What do you think was the cause of Moses' lack of belief to where he struck the rock twice?
Why does anyone have any unbelief ? Closest answer might be it is a choice?
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4. (9-11) Moses’ contention with the people – and with the LORD.
So Moses took the rod from before the LORD as He commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock; and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?” Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank.
a. So Moses took the rod from before the LORD as He commanded him: Moses began by doing exactly what the LORD had told him to do: Take the rod and gather the people of Israel.
b. Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock: God did not command him to speak to the nation, and to speak so severely to the nation, yet Moses did.
i. Moses, after doing what God had told him to do, then did something God had not told him to do: He lectured the nation.
ii. Worse, he lectured the nation with an attitude of heart he had not shown before – one of anger and contempt for the people of God, with a bitter heart. Before, Moses fell on his face before God when the people rebelled (Numbers 16:4). At Meribah, when the people contended with Moses because there was no water, Moses cried out to the LORD, not against the people (Exodus 15:22-25). When the people did need to be boldly confronted, Moses did it; but without the edge of anger, contempt, and bitterness we see here (as in Exodus 17:1-7). There are a hundred explanations for Moses’ frustration here (Psalm 106:32-33 describes how the people provoked Moses here), but not a single excuse.
iii. Worse yet, Moses not only took the rebellion of the people against the LORD too personally, he also over-magnified his own partnership with God: Must we bring water for you out of this rock? Moses spoke as if he and God would do the job, as if they divided the work fifty-fifty; as if God couldn’t bring water unless he was around to speak to the rock. His lapse into contempt for the people led him into a lapse of subtle pride.
c. Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod: Moses disobeyed God directly, striking the rock instead of speaking to it.
i. Not only did he strike it, but he struck it twice. When he struck the rock at the beginning of the Exodus journey, he only had to strike it once, but now, out of anger and frustration, he did it twice.
d. Water came out abundantly: Yet, despite Moses’ lapse into sinful attitude and action, God still provided abundantly for the people.
i. This teaches us that God’s love for His people is so great, he will use very imperfect instruments, and that the fact God uses someone is no evidence – to themselves or to the people – that they themselves are really right with God or ministering according to God’s heart.
ii. God would deal with Moses, but the people needed water – and so it was provided. Moses might have come away thinking he did right, and the people probably thought so as well – because what Moses did seemed to work. But what works is not the best measure of what is right before God.
5. (12-13) God’s rebuke and correction of Moses.
Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.” This was the water of Meribah, because the children of Israel contended with the LORD, and He was hallowed among them.
a. Because you did not believe Me: Moses’ sinful attitude and action was rooted in unbelief. He didn’t really believe God when the LORD told him to speak to the rock and not to strike it.
b. To hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel: What Moses did was an unholy thing. He made God look no different than an angry man or one of the temperamental pagan gods. He did not reflect the heart and character of God before the people.
c. Therefore you shall not bring this congregation into the land: God’s correction of Moses was hard; he would not lead Israel into the Promised Land. That which he dreamed of and felt called to even as a child in the palaces of Egypt – to deliver God’s people – would not be completed. Another person would finish the job.
i. This was only painful because of Moses’ faithful heart; an unfaithful man is not pained at the idea that he cannot complete what God had called him to.
ii. We might have thought, Israel might have thought, and Moses might have thought he was exempt from the decree that all the generation that was of age when the Exodus began would perish in the wilderness – after all, Moses was Moses! But Moses, great a leader as he was, was still a man subject to God and God’s law.
d. You shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them: This may seem an excessively harsh punishment for Moses. It seems that with only one slip-up, he now had to die short of the Promised Land. But Moses was being judged by a stricter standard because of his leadership position with the nation, and because he had a uniquely close relationship with God.
i. It is right for teachers and leaders to be judged by a stricter standard (James 3:1); though it is unrighteous to hold teachers and leaders to a perfect standard. It is true the people’s conduct was worse than Moses’, but it is irrelevant.
ii. Worst of all, Moses defaced a beautiful picture of Jesus’ redemptive work through the rock which provided water in the wilderness. The New Testament makes it clear this water-providing, life-giving rock was a picture of Jesus (1 Corinthians 10:4). Jesus, being struck once, provided life for all who would drink of Him (John 7:37). But it was unnecessary – and unrighteous – that Jesus would be struck again, much less again twice, because the Son of God needed only to suffer once (Hebrews 10:10-12). Jesus can now be come to with words of faith (Romans 10:8-10), as Moses should have only used words of faith to bring life-giving water to the nation of Israel. Moses “ruined” this picture of the work of Jesus God intended.
e. And He was hallowed among them: At the end of it all, God was seen as holy among the children of Israel. Moses did not hallow God in this incident, but God hallowed Himself through the correction of Moses. God will get His glory, God will be hallowed – but will it come through our obedience or our correction?
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