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NUMBERS 19–20; PSALMS 43–44

Week 8, Day 6

This Book of Numbers mixes law and action indiscriminately, as if to say that the whole business of life is the business of law and that it touches life at every point. That seems logical, in light of the conduct of the people. They are murmurers and rebels. Again and again they find some reason to question the leadership of Moses or to complain against God. From our distance, this seems strange. We think they ought to feel profound gratitude to Moses for his tireless leadership and to God for their deliverance from slavery. But our spiritual memories are often short. Even miracles, like the encounter at the Red Sea, are forgotten or at least pushed aside when frustration sets in.

This time the issue was water. That was a valid concern, surely, but the people handle it in what seems to have been their customary fashion: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt . . . to this wretched place?” (20:5). This time Moses loses his patience. Instructed by God to speak to the rock, instead he impatiently strikes it, twice. Both he and Aaron are held responsible for this act, which was an expression of unbelief. Neither was allowed to enter the promised land, though Moses would later have opportunity to see it from afar. But Aaron’s ministry has now come to an end. In a dramatic changing of the guard, his garments are passed on to his son Eleazar. Life goes on.

PRAYER: Am I inclined to use my freedom for complaint and rebellion? If so, correct me and restore me, for your name’s sake. Amen.

What was so bad about Moses’ action that it shut him out of the promised land?