Numbers 20:1-29

Finishing the Journey Strong

Christopher Lindsey / General Adult

Numbers / Moses / Numbers 20:1–29

Moses's sin causes him not to enter the promise land. Moses tries to hurry there through Edom and the Israelites get ran off because it wasn't in God's will to do so. Aaron is succeeded by his son, Eliezer and dies upon the mountain.

My wife and I enjoy a show on the History Channel called Alone. If you haven’t heard of Alone, it is a show about 10 men and women being dropped in a remote wilderness and they have to survive for as long as they can in hopes of being the last survivor there. The grand prize of 1 million dollars is enough to keep the loneliness, depression, and panic attacks at bay long enough for one lucky participant to reach the end. In this show you could lose your fire stick and not be able to make fire any more, be attacked by bears or wolverines, your food supply could run out or you lose your water supply due to the freezing temperatures. Like those in the show Alone, the Israelites in the book of numbers have been facing the harsh conditions of the wilderness they have been traveling. Their prize is the Promised land that is flowing with milk and honey. If they persevere through the wilderness, following God and having faith that he will provide then they will reach their prize. I believe those who have been wondering around in the wilderness, have it a little better than those on Alone. They are able to be in community with one another, God has provided them food and water, but on another aspect there is still grumbling and discontentment. Let’s read numbers 20 together.

Prayer

Lord as we open up your word today to such a sad chapter of scripture. Would you not harden our hearts to your word, but fill us with understanding and trust in you. Let us lay our burdens at your feet, and continue in worship. Help me Lord communicate well and speak through me. In Christ name, Amen

Introduction

The Israelites have been through some trials as they have wondered throughout the wilderness. Most of their trials have come from their own disobedience and unbelief in God. From the time that the Israelites started journeying through the wilderness, there have been much grumbling and conflict, not between the people of Israel and other people groups but within. God had brought the people to the edge of their land that was promised to them, the land that was flowing with milk and honey. 12 spies went out into the land, while they all returned, two of them returned with good news and the rest described the land and the inhabitance of the land as a land that devours it inhabitants and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. This caused the people to rebel and complain against Moses and Aaron, they did not see the protection and care that God had for them, they walked with unbelief supposing that it was Moses and Aaron that were the ones who started all of this. God judged them, He promised still that the people of Israel would enter the land that was for them, but that generation were to die out before they reached it.

The last narrative that we had concerning the nation of Israel came from numbers 16 and 17. If you remember there was a group of leaders that came before Moses and Aaron, there was Korah, Dathan and Abiram. They complained about the leadership of Moses and Aaron and in their pride sought to place themselves before the God given tasks that they were given. God judged them, by opening the earth and alive they were swallowed up. Then the next day the people came to Moses and Aaron complaining, saying that it was Moses and Aaron who were the ones responsible for the deaths that occurred before that. We saw a beautiful picture of God’s grace through the high priest Aaron where he interceded between the dead and the living and he made atonement for the sins of the people. God then used a dead stick, to which he gave life as a pillar of remembrance for the people of Israel. This rod with blooming flowers and with almonds protruding from the staff was a reminder to the people of Israel that they may end their grumblings against God, or they would die.

The Death of Miriam V. 1

Thirty-eight years later we reach the place where we are today. There isn’t much said about the wonderings and activities of the Israelites through the years. A long wandering is now ending, and the people of Israel are back in the wilderness of Zin at Kadesh. Thirty-eight year there was no recorded incident or narrative until the death of Miriam.

If you remember Miriam, she was the older sister of Moses and Aaron. She was the one that oversaw watching her little brother float down the Nile and she is the one that offered Pharaohs daughter a Hebrew woman to nurse the infant Moses. Miriam is also seen in Exodus 15:21, where she plays the tambourine and Sings of the triumph that the people of Israel experienced through the Exodus. The last time that we encounter Miriam is in Numbers 12:1-15. Where she and Aaron brought a charge against Moses because he married a Cushite woman also saying, Has the Lord indeed spoke only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also? Through this whole ordeal God judged Miriam with leprosy.

Now 38 years later, Moses writes that Miriam died and was buried. Moses through narrating the death of Miriam is providing for his readers understanding that the old generations that God had promised would not reach the Promised land were dying out. But we still see the effects of the old generation upon the new. Listen to verse 2-12.

The waters of Meribath/Moses Strikes the rock V2-13

Again, we see another grumbling of the old generation, there is no water, therefore no provision for the people of Israel and instead of trusting God they decided to complain to Moses. What is significant about this complaint is that the congregation said, “Would that we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord!“ They remember what happened in chapter 16, they remembered the rebellion of Korah, they remember the plague attacking the congregation because of their sins. They remember all the bad, but they forget the grace of the Lord. They forgot that the lord had provided everything that they needed, they forgot the new mercies that they received every morning. This may have not been the last complaint that they had for last 38 years, but They believed it would have been better for them if they were to die 38 years before. Again in this complaint they remember Egypt, but they forget that the land that they were traveling to had the Pomegranates, grains figs and grapes that they were desiring, only if they were to persevere till the end they would be able to make it.

Sin does this to us; it makes us look back at the things that we had, or we thought we had back in our bondage of sin. The enemy likes to remind us that in our former way of life it could seem to be better. That overindulging in the drink will make us feel better. That one website that we are not supposed to be on will fill our desire. That price of clothing that we cannot afford would look great on me, and it feels invigorating when I am able to walk out the door with it without paying for it. Just as the nation of Israel was in bondage of Egypt, so were we under sin. We have been rescued, there has been a great Exodus from sin for those who are in Christ. Now those who are in Christ can seek and travel to the promised land, looking to Jesus as we navigate life wilderness. But here we also see a warning for us. That though we continue we must persevere in holiness. We must persevere seeking after God’s own glory.

Another aspect of this complaint is clear, the older generation rubs off on the newer generation. The older generation is dying, and the younger generation is assuming command in the complaints, and yet instead of focusing on the grace that they have been shown, they continue to focus on what could have been if they stayed in bondage. It is clear that our children hear and see what we complain about. The older Israelites who will not enter into the promised land , are discipling the younger Israelites who will enter into the promised land . This is the case so much that in Deuteonomy, Moses recounts the law and provides one last sermon as the New generation of Israelites enter into the promise land. He gives this command in the Shema, Deutoronomy 6, Here O Israel: The Lord our God the Lord is one. You shall love the lord your god with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And here words that i commanded you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates.” It is clear that Moses wants the people of israel that are entering into the promised land to Love the Lord with all their heart soul and might, so he tells them to teach them diligently to your children, talk about him all the time. Are we doing this church? I know in my own sinful heart i tend to grumble, am I passing on this grumbling to my children to the newer generation or am i providing for them an opportunity for them to see what it looks like to live in the right realtationship with Christ. Am I showing them what it looks like to be a consistent Church member, serving and loving the people of God. Am i showing them what it looks like to live out loving God , through my daily devotion. We are raising up the younger generation of this Church, are we being diligent and seeeing them made righteous by the blood of Jesus. This isn’t for just the parents with younger children, it is also for those who have older children, are you showing them how Christ has impacted your life in these same ways?

As the people complain, Moses and Aaron like they normally do, they intercede for the people of Israel. God once again manifested himself in front of Moses and Aaron. God commanded Moses and Aaron to get the staff, assemble the congregation and speak to the rock. The staff that God commanded Moses and Aaron to get was the one that budded when it was placed before the Lord. This was the staff that God had commanded to be placed in the Tabernacle before the ark of the testimony that was to be kept for a sign for the rebels so they would cease from their grumblings or die. Moses and Aaron grab this staff, gather the congregation of Israel before them and what happens. He does something different than the Lord commanded him to. Like a father that had been on a long road trip with a bunch of children he acted out. He calls the congregation rebels. And strikes the rock with his staff twice and then water came out of the rock. Look at verse 12. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given to them.“

God judges Moses and Aaron. Moses and Aaron sinned against God. All this time of traveling, teaching, persevering, Moses, and Aaron fall into sin. Their sin was foundation for their judgment, the meek and righteous Moses, the high priest Aaron, both on the brink of entering to the promise land, sin and are not able to enter. We see ways that Moses sinned against God. Moses in anger stepped before the people of Israel. He let the rebels and complaining cause him to anger, but this time it wasn’t righteous anger, this time it was selfish anger. Moses assumed that God was angry at the people of Israel, but it was only him that was angry. Psalm 106:32-33 says that, “They (the Israelites) angered him (Moses) at the waters of Meribah, and it went ill with Moses on their account for they made his spirit bitter and he spoke rashly with his lips“. By speaking harshly to the people. He placed himself before the people of Israel and made himself a Judge over them when he wasn’t asked to be. God commanded him to speak to the rock, instead he spoke to the congregation. Moses then struck the rock, twice, when all he was commanded to do is speak to it. Now the parallels that we can see in

Exodus 17 and this passage are definitive.

listen to Exodus 17, “All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore, the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” So, Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?””

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Here we see another complaint that is similar to this one. God there indeed tells Moses to strike the rock. But in the instances of Numbers 20 God asks Moses to speak to the rock. And Moses assumed what happened in

Exodus 17would be permittable to do here in Numbers 20.

Furthermore, Moses says, May we (speaking of himself and Aaron), bring forth water? It wasn’t God who was going to do it through Moses ‘s speech it was himself and Aaron. They were the ones that were doing the cheap parlor trick to provide for the people. They did not attribute the glory to God, whom the water flowed from. They were giving themselves the glory for what was about to be done. one commentator puts it this way, “Moses thought that he and Aaron were bring called on to perform a Miracles for people who were defectors from God’s ways. “however, God wanted to bless them.

Even though Moses and Aaron sinned God still provided for them water to drink, enough for all their livestock, it came out abundantly. God still provided for the people everything that they needed. But god issued judgment upon Moses and Aaron saying, “because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given to them.”

They were cut off. They did not rely, or trust god and it cumulated into Moses striking the rock twice. The rock represented God himself, and Moses struck it. It was as if Moses struck God himself by striking the rock, Moses did not regard the Lord as holy and raised his staff against him. In Exodus 17, Moses was commanded to strike God for living water but God was extending his mercy and providing for the people of Israel. However, God was extending his mercy and grace to the people of Israel without the need of Moses’s striking of the rock.

God’s judgment was clear neither Moses nor Aaron would enter the promise land. But Moses does the same exact thing as the people of Israel when they were told that they would not enter the promise land. He tries to enter it by force.

Edom v. 14-21

It is clear here what happens, Moses took it upon himself to try to enter the promise land and travel through Edom. Now if you remember the Edomites are close kin to the people of Israel. Jacob through which the nation of Israel comes from was the brother of Esau, in which the nation of Edom comes from. Moses tries to find a way to the promised land through the help of kin, but the answer is no. Then he says please, and they still say no emphatically with a whole army as an exclamation point. God had other plans for them, for starters they were to pass from Kadesh to Mount Hor. here we see this in the sad ending of this chapter.

Death of Aaron V22-29

This chapter begins with the death of Miriam and ends with the death of Aaron. Two very prominent leaders of the nation of Israel and now both are dead. Both are succumbed to judgment for their unbelief and rebellion. One commentator writes, “it was actually unbelief and rebellion that threatened death in the wilderness, not lack of water.” And here at the end of the chapter Moses accounts for the death of his brother, the high priest Aaron. God instruct Moses and Aaron of Aaron’s impending death and how they would go about the transfer of the High priestly garments and duties to Eleazer his son. There is good news of grace that is spoken her by the lord concerning Aaron. Even though he was to die he would be gathered to his people. Often the phrase “gathered to his people” is language concerning death of a righteous person being gathered to the ones that went before them in death to be with the Lord. I’m sure this was a comfort for Moses and the new high priest, that even though Aaron was not to enter the physical promise land, Aaron was able to still enter into the presence of the Lord after his death.

Application

There are a couple of things that we should see and address throughout this passage that I would like to address.

The bible describes Moses in Numbers 12:3 as very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth. He followed God’s commands and did them faithfully until the last year of his life. However, we see his sin cause him not to enter into the promise land. This should be a warning for us. If anyone could have found favor because of his works before the Lord it would have been Moses. If anyone could have entered into the promised land because of obedience it would have been Moses. However, Moses sinned. He still was judged because of his own sin and was not allowed to enter. It is not our righteousness allow us to be saved. It is not our obedience that grants us justification. We need someone better than ourselves and better than Moses to come along and bring their own righteousness before the Father so that we may be made right before him. Jesus has done this. Jesus, the righteous one, placed himself upon the cross and partook of the full wrath of God, satisfying it completely, so that we the unrighteous may be made righteous. This is glorious news, Christian because of Christ you have been saved. But heed this warning from the book of Hebrews, “Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.” If you have entered the rest that Christ provides, do not grow weary, but persevere till the end. Trials may come through out our lives, people may die around us, sin may cause us to face God’s discipline but he is still faithful and he will fulfill his promises. Persevere brothers and sisters.

In this passage this morning we have seen the end of two leaders of the nation of Israel. Miriam’s leadership ended 38 years after she was judged for going against the Lord and assuming her place as the same as Moses. Aaron was a faithful high priest but yet we see him being judged with Moses for not following God’s commands. Moses’s leadership was great in many ways. He was successful in many of the tasks that God had set him to do. However, he succumbed to his sinful pride and struck out against the lord. Leading a congregation or a ministry is difficult, ministry is hard. Brothers and Sisters in the church, please pray regularly for the leaders in the church. Pray for your deacons. Pray for your elders. Pray for God to grant them wisdom and discernment on how they are to lead and the decisions that they are to make. God has placed each of our Elders over us for specific reasons. It is no light task that they are facing each day through the shepherding of Christs church. And let me Humbel you in the process, as me myself have noticed about my own life, we are not easy sheep to shepherd. We are have our grumbles and complaints, and we can easily bring discouragement to those who are in leadership. For our leaders and elders Remember that they themselves are sinners in need of grace. The Elders are a broken picture of the Chief Shephard. Intercede on their behalf, asking God to keep them from stumbling and anger, that they would as 1 Peter says, “shepherd the flock of God that is among us, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have them, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in their charge but being examples to the flock.” The elders of Pineview Baptist Church, if you don’t know are Brandon, Otis, Sal and Paul. Pray for these brothers. Pray that they would continue to persever even when the sheep are wondering. Elders, pray for us that we may see Christ as better than our grumbling and unity in spirit as we walk together in Christ.

Finally, brothers and Sisters. We have a greater Moses, a greater Aaron and a greater rock in which we are able to drink from. 1 Corinthians 10:1-4 tells us that, “For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers,1 that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and fall drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown2 in the wilderness.

Brother and Sisters, we have opportunity to drink from this spiritual rock, the same rock that provided spiritual drink and spiritual food for the nation of Israel. Jesus with the woman on the well in John 4 tells here that Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Do you desire this water? Have you tasted and seen that the Lord is good?

This water that comes from him is free to all, all you must do is have faith in his name. For those of us in Christ, do not delay from drinking from the fount of many blessings that come from our Lord.

Sunday isn’t the only day that we are able to be nourished from the living water of Christ, but we can every day, through our worship of him. Run to this living water, do not let any drop go unwanted, and drink till your hearts content because there is a fountain filled and will never run out.

Lets Pray.

Father, you have shown us mercy and grace, even when we do not deserve it. You are our rock and a mighty fortress. Even in our failures, your kingdom still continues and your Son still reigns. Lord we pray for our elders, would you keep them from stumbling, help them be holy before you, cause them to look to their Chief Shephard as their model. We are thankful for your grace to us in providing for us brothers who are willing to partake of this task of leading and shepherding us as a church. Jesus we are thankful that you have provided for us what we couldn’t have done. Help us this morning as we come to your table, see our sins that we need to repent of, soften our hearts, fill us with your water. In Jesus Name, Amen.