MERIBAH

NUMBERS

CHAPTER 20

            A nice warm welcome back to you from Daily Bread.  We're following the children of Israel today into the desert of Zin.  It's the first month of the fortieth year now, that the children of Israel have been wandering in the wilderness.  The Lord led them to a place called Kadesh and his sister Miriam died and was buried there. 

            At that time, there was no water for the people and they grew angry AGAIN against Moses and Aaron.  They criticized Moses, and said, It would have been better if we died when our brothers died before the Lord!  Why did you bring God's people into this wilderness, so we could die with our cattle out here?  Why did you make us leave Egypt to come to this evil place?  It has no seed, or figs or vines or pomegranates.  There isn't even water to drink.

            Moses and Aaron went to the door of the tabernacle and fell on their faces.  The glory of the Lord appeared to them, and the Lord told Moses, Take the staff and gather the people together, you and Aaron, and speak to the rock so they can see, and it will give forth his water so they and their beasts can drink.

            Moses took the rod from before the Lord and he and Aaron gathered the people together in front of the rock.  Now, Moses' temper overtook him and instead of speaking to the rock, as the Lord commanded him, to show that the Lord provided the water, and giving God the credit, Moses spoke to the people, and said, Listen now, you rebels; do we have to bring you water out of this rock?  And he lifted up his hand an he struck the rock twice with the staff.  The water came rushing out and the people and their cattle drank.

            This disappointed God and He told Moses and Aaron, Because you didn't listen to me and honor me in the eyes of the children of Israel, you will not bring them into the Promised Land.  This is the water of Meribah, because the children of Israel quarreled with the Lord and He was holy in them.  (If you remember back to the second time God's people complained of no water, at the rock in Horeb, Moses called that place Meribah, because it means dispute or quarrel.)

            For forty years Moses and Aaron led these rebellious people through the wilderness, looking forward to the Promised Land, and now they won't be able to finish the journey because of what happened.  Moses, God's chosen man to lead His people out of Egypt, was, after all, human too.  It had to be crushing for Moses and Aaron and you just know in their hearts, they were so sorrowful for what they had done.  Never, NEVER take credit for something that the Lord does through you.  Always, ALWAYS give credit to God.  Peter says in his first epistle, I Peter 4:11, if a man speaks, let him speak the message of God.  God gives man the ability to speak so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ.

            Even though he wouldn't be going into the Promised Land, Moses still had a job to do.  He sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom (Remember, that's Esau's people).  The message said, Your brother Israel says, You know all the trouble that's happened to us.  How our fathers went down into Egypt and we have lived in Egypt for a long time.  The Egyptians tormented us and our fathers.  When we cried to the Lord, He heard our voice and sent an angel.  He has brought us out of Egypt and now we're in Kadesh, on your outer border.  I ask that you let us pass through your country.  We won't pass through the fields or through the vineyards or drink the water from your wells.  We'll stay on the kings highway and not wander from it until we have passed your borders. 

            Edom answered, You will not pass by me or I'll come against you with the sword.  The children of Israel tried to negotiate saying, We'll take the highway and if I or my cattle drink your water, I'll pay for it.  We only wish to pass through your land on foot and nothing else.  Edom answered again, You will not go through, and he came out against Israel with force.  So Edom refused to let Israel pass through his land and Israel went a different way from Kadesh to mount Hor at the edge of the land of Edom.

            The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron there and said, Aaron will be gathered to his people (meaning, he will die).  He won't enter into the Promised Land because you went against my word at the water of Meribah.  Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up into mount Hor and take Aaron's garments and put them on Eleazar, then Aaron will die there.  Moses did what the Lord said, and when God's people saw that Aaron was dead, the entire congregation of the house of Israel mourned for him for thirty days.

            So, it was a very sad time for Moses.  He lost both his brother and his sister and his chance to enter the Promised Land.  But he didn't lose his integrity.  We all do things we wish we hadn't, but that doesn't mean we're less of a person than we ever were.  We're human, Moses was human.  Everyone makes mistakes.  As long as we don't use our humanity as an excuse to premeditate something unrighteous, or take up a moment of our life pitying ourselves, then we can get right back up on our feet and move forward.  Regret?  That's part of repentance.  If we didn't regret, then we'd be headed for trouble, but regret is a lot different than pity. 

            As you saw, Moses didn't waste any time.  Even though he couldn't go into the Promised Land, things weren't over for him just yet.  Come back and join us again for more of our study of the book of Numbers here at Daily Bread, and we'll see what happens to Moses and the children of Israel next.

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