WE NOW come to the most sorrowful moment in the life of Moses, this dear servant of God.
“And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?”
“And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.”
The Lord had told Moses to “speak” to the rock; instead he spoke to the people, calling them rebels. No doubt they were rebels, but that isn’t what God had told him to say. He remembered mercy, while Moses only thought of their sin.
“Must we fetch you water out of this rock?” There was no honor for God in that. But Moses was jealous of his own authority and seems to have lost sight of his place as a servant. On an earlier occasion he and Aaron had answered the people, “What are we that ye murmur against us?” Moses was the meekest man in all the earth, but in this very thing he failed.
God was above all the people’s sin, and when He said, “Take the rod,” He meant them to understand how He would act in grace with that beautiful rod which He had made to blossom and bear fruit as a sign of the priesthood He had set up. Moses ought to have been above the people’s sin with God, and then he would have been able to act in the grace of God. But he was not, for no man is ever perfect in everything, except the Lord Jesus, when He took the place of the servant down here.
In his anger with his own rod Moses smote the rock twice. He had no right to be angry when God would show mercy. Still the water came forth abundantly and the thirsty people drank. Grace rises above all our sin and failure and supplies every need. O how great is God’s goodness.
But Moses had spoiled one of the most precious types of Scripture. Christ has been smitten once that grace might flow out to meet our need as sinners. And now as His people, all our wants, whatever they may be, are met by His priestly grace. We only have to “speak” to Him and those wants shall be supplied.
Because they had failed, God told Moses and Aaron they could not bring the people into the land. They must both die in the wilderness. Moses, it seems, mourned over this till the end of his days, but it is lovely to see his submission to the will of God. It is not that God loved His servant less, but that He is jealous of whatever touches the glory of Christ and His grace.
ML-01/27/1974