Parasha Chukat

Me

This week we read Parasha Chukat, Numbers 19:1-22:1. Hopefully, leading up to this Shabbat you’ve made time throughout the week to read through the Parasha in advance, so let’s refresh your minds with a little synopsis of what we see happening in Parasha Chukat.

First, in chapter 19 we see the command and revelation of the Parah Adumah, or the Red Heifer. This is a series of commands pertaining to a special ritual that would provide Mayim Chayim, living waters that would be used for the cleansing of those who have encountered a dead body. Oddly enough, these waters were meant to cleans those who were touched with them, but everyone involved in the production of the Mayim Chayim became unclean until Sundown. Next, in chapter 20 we read about Miriam dying, the people of Israel (shockingly) grumbling against Moses and Aaron over a lack of water, Moses errantly striking the rock a second time, and God providing water from the Rock again. Israel attempts to pass through Edom but are rejected passage, Aaron dies and the nation mourns for 30 days for him. Then in chapter 21 we see Israel battle with the Canaanite king of Arad from the Negev who attached Israel and captured some. Then as Israel journeys by the Yam Suf again to go around Edom they complain against God and Moses because the trip is taking too long… Adonai sends poisonous snakes into the camps and many Israelites die in the plague because of it, then the nation repents and ask Moses to intercede on their behalf. The Lord tells Moses to construct a bronze snake on a stake and hold it in the air and anyone who is bitten by a snake if they look up to the snake on a stake they will be saved from the poison and live. (As an aside, this is the same snake on a stake that Israel started worshipping as an idol at some point after taking the Land, and that King Hezekiah of Judah destroyed in 2 Kings 18.) Then Israel journeys to the plains of Moab, they are attached by Kings Sihon and Og and the Lord provides victory over them for Israel and they leave no survivors.

Back before Danielle and I moved to NY I worked for O’Charley’s in Mobile, ultimately I ended up working there for about three and a half years. When I was hired I made it very clear that I was a Messianic Jew and what that meant. I didn’t work Fridays or Saturdays in order to keep Shabbat, I wore a kippah all the time, which I have done for many years, and I had countless opportunities to share about the Love of God with people, both those I worked with and customers.

Heck, my manager even used me as they interviewed people… There’s a lot of sketchy, worldly activity that restaurant employees tend to be involved with and restaurants tend to not be the best spiritual environment to work in. So, when we’d have students from University of Mobile, which is a Christian university in Mobile, apply for jobs there the managers would have me sit down with them for a few minutes in their interview to kind of fill them in on what they may encounter working in that environment and make sure they knew what they were getting into.

But, there was a season when I was working there that I just wasn’t in a good place spiritually, for whatever reason. I was always angry and short with folks… And it was really only when I walked into the restaurant…

(Talk about Tolley pulling me aside in between a double and going outside to pray and read the Bible)

I had a dramatic breakthrough on that break… And I realized something important… Being able to talk to people about God, being able to wear the garb and look the part on the outside, really doesn’t amount to much if people aren’t seeing God glorified in me. And at that point in time, they definitely weren’t, my anger had coworkers afraid of me… People who use to talked to me about God and seek council in me were avoiding me, and everyone but me could tell something was off...

We

Have you ever experienced a scenario like that? A season in your life in which your faith wasn’t shaken at all, but for whatever reason everything about your life told a different story?

Maybe it was a work crisis like I found myself in… Your coworkers weren’t seeing your life match up with your supposed faith...

Maybe it was a family crisis and while you were trying your hardest to put on a good show for everyone around you, your family was falling apart and you were wrecked because of it and were acting out of your humanity rather than out of the Spirit within you...

Maybe you had a sin you thought was secret and hidden as deep as you could imagine suddenly become exposed and you were struggling with where you found yourself at at that moment...

Maybe it’s something you’re going through right now… Your faith is shaken, or your walk is just not right, because of everything the world is throwing at you (and trust me, we are all going through something), and while you’re trying your hardest on your own strength to hold it all together what everyone around you sees is anything but the presence of Messiah… You’re finding yourself talking the talk, but your walk just isn’t in alignment and you can’t find your way back...

God

Parasha Chukat reveals something to us about this very reality. As we read through the Torah (and really the Bible as a whole) we see time and time again in which Israel got in a bit of a sticky situation and instead of turning to God for help we turned and grumbled, griped, and complained against Him… In fact, we loved to walk in His blessings, we loved the idea of His Promises laying ahead of us, but we wanted it all when we wanted it… In theory, we believed everything He said, we just struggled in aligning our lives and our mindsets with that belief… Another way of wording this is perhaps in a principle I think we see in a part of the Parasha we’re going to dig a little further in today… That principle is this:

We’ve got to make sure we are actually walking the walk if we’re going to talk the talk.

So let’s dig into the Text a bit, shall we...

Numbers 20:2–5 TLV

Now there was no water for the community, so they assembled against Moses and Aaron. The people quarreled with Moses saying, “If only we had died when our brothers died before Adonai! Now why have you brought the community of Adonai into this wilderness, for us and our livestock to die here? Why have you brought us from Egypt to bring us to this evil place—a place without grain, fig, grapevine or pomegranate—and there’s no water to drink!”

Now, if you’ve ever read the Bible, then this scenario isn’t a shock or surprise to you… Something appears to go wrong for Israel and our first reaction is to throw our hands up in the air, throw in the towel, and begin to gripe and complain against God, against Moses, against Aaron, against anyone we can possible place the blame on.

“Oh great, there’s no water available for us hear we’re going to die of thirst… How in the world could you have done this to us Moses… We had so much water and food back in Egypt, but here we are, we’re going to die because of a lack of water...”

How often do we do this ourselves? We find ourselves in a bind (usually of our own making) and instead of turning to God and asking for help we throw a tantrum, we gripe and complain, we blame someone else, we cause a scene, sometimes we even get angry at God for it… But how much different could things look if instead of immediately turning to our fallen human response, we turn to God and ask for strength, for clarity, for His direction and peace?

But, this is obviously not the route B’nei Israel turns… Instead they get angry at the Moses, at Aaron, and at the Lord.

But, what is Moses and Aaron’s response?

Numbers 20:6 (TLV)

So Moses and Aaron went from before the assembly to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting and fell on their faces.

They fall on their faces in intercession on Israel’s behalf. Israel’s walk may not be in alignment with their talk, but (at least in this moment) Moses’ and Aaron’s are. They aren’t just talking the talk they are walking it. Everything blows up and they, once again, set a powerful example before Israel to seek the Lord when things get difficult.

Then the Lord appears to Moses and Aaron in front of Israel and says:

Numbers 20:8 TLV

“Take the staff and gather the assembly, you and your brother Aaron. Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will give out its water. You will bring out water from the rock, and you will give the community something to drink, along with their livestock.”

Now, this is one of several events in Torah that are repeats in Israel’s journey to the Promised Land. We see this idea with the quails provided for meat, the first time everything went well and the second time the a plague broke out because of Israel’s lack of faith and gratitude. And much like that, this scene has played out before in Exodus 17:1-7, just after Israel is freed from Egypt. In that account Moses is commanded by God to strike the rock and water will pour out for the people. However, in this repeat scenario, Moses is specifically instructed not to strike the rock, but rather to speak to the rock before the people.

The nation, who had previously experienced the Lord’s provision of water through Moses’ brute force, are now intended to experience His provision of water through Moses’ humble faith. Moses is suppose to simply speak to the rock and let God do the rest, an even bigger miracle.

But instead we see this:

Numbers 20:9–11 TLV

So Moses took the staff from before the presence of Adonai, just as He had commanded him. Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly in front of the rock. He said, “Listen now, you rebels! Must we bring you water from this rock?” Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with the staff. Water gushed out and the community and its livestock drank.

So when this all first begins Moses and Aaron do the right thing, they turn to the Lord in intercession, they pray before they open their mouths. But here they have another opportunity to live out our principle before Israel:

We’ve got to make sure we are actually walking the walk if we’re going to talk the talk.

But Moses fails… Instead of following through completely on God’s instructions he let’s his humanity get the best of him… And truthfully, who among us could blame Moses at this point? I mean, you’ve got to imagine at some point he’s bound to just throw in the towel with this crazy bunch of angry and ungrateful people…

Heck, as a father there are times when I can totally feel where Moses is coming from. There are times when I have asked my kids over and over again to do something and it doesn’t happen and I blow a fuse… In my own humanity I loose my temper…

This is exactly what I was talking about early when I was working at O’Charley’s… I would get angry and my temper would get the best of me and the people around me weren’t seeing God in me as they should.

Well, with Moses, the Lord still comes through for Him and still provides the water from the Rock and still reveals His holiness before Israel despite the fact that Moses dropped the ball. I don’t know about you, but if I was in HaShem’s shoes, I think I would have hung Moses out to dry on this one… But, thankfully for us all, I am not in His shoes...

Next we read:

Numbers 20:12 TLV

But Adonai said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in Me so as to esteem Me as holy in the eyes of Bnei-Yisrael, therefore you will not bring this assembly into the land that I have given to them.”

Because Moses failed to follow through on this one simple, but powerful principle:

We’ve got to make sure we are actually walking the walk if we’re going to talk the talk.

He ends up being banned from entering the Promised Land Himself. In fact, this act by Moses culminates a series of rebellions we find in three distinctions in the the book of Numbers: first, by the people, who at the report of the spies reject the Promised Land (chap. 14); then, by the Levites and chieftains (chap. 16) who revolt against Moses and Aaron in the Korach Rebellion; and, finally here in Parasha Chukat, by the leaders, Moses and Aaron. The result for all of them is the same: They will not inherit the land but, instead, will die in the wilderness.

So, what exactly was Moses’ mistake here? Was it striking the rock instead of speaking to it specifically? No, that was just a symptom of the real issue. The real issue is explained by Adonai in verse 12, let’s read it again:

Numbers 20:12 TLV

But Adonai said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in Me so as to esteem Me as holy in the eyes of Bnei-Yisrael, therefore you will not bring this assembly into the land that I have given to them.”

Moses’ faith and trust in HaShem, and thus his allowing the Holiness of the Lord to be revealed through his faith and trust fell short. Moses took it upon himself to, in some ways, place himself in Adonai’s shoes when he struck the rock this time… Israel has already seen that party trick and I think God knows if Israel sees it again the same exact way they won’t see Adonai’s provision and faithfulness, they’ll mentally attribute it to Moses in stead. So, instead of making God holy before Israel, Moses in essence elevates himself to God’s role by trying to take the task on his own shoulders and striking the rock. He even cries out in anger, “Must we bring you water from this rock?”

And because of this, Moses is condemned to miss out on the Promise Land himself. All because he let his fallen humanity get the best of him…

We’ve got to make sure we are actually walking the walk if we’re going to talk the talk.

We see James speak almost directly to this very reality in James 1:

James 1:22–26 TLV

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror— for once he looks at himself and goes away, he immediately forgets what sort of person he was. But the one who looks intently into the perfect Torah, the Torah that gives freedom, and continues in it, not becoming a hearer who forgets but a doer who acts—he shall be blessed in what he does. If anyone thinks he is religious and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is futile.

What good does it do us to hear the Word, to know the Word, but not live the Word? Moses learned this valuable lesson, perhaps a little late, but he learned it. When God says do something we do it as He said, and in our faithfulness His holiness will be shown. Sometimes that is a physical act like striking the rock in Exodus 17, and sometimes it is a spiritual act, a simple act of trust like speaking to the rock in Numbers 20.

James calls us to be doers of the Word, to let what we hear and what we read of God permeate our very being and flow from the inside out. In essence, James is reiterating the principle we learn through Moses’ unintentional failure in Parasha Chukat:

We’ve got to make sure we are actually walking the walk if we’re going to talk the talk.

You

I am sure there are situations in your life in which you can easily see your life not quite lining up with the idea of walking the walk, especially if we’re going to talk the talk.

Perhaps you are one of the few people in your family who have a walk with God and believe in Yeshua’s Salvation, and you’ve been praying for years to see the rest of your family come to faith… But when you’re with them you find yourself acting more like the world than like a follower of Yeshua so you fit in a little more...

Perhaps you have your faith life and walk in your own personal time, but when you’re at work you’re just one of the guys or just one of the girls… You don’t want to stick out… You don’t want to be made fun of or have to answer questions, so you hide what you believe…

Perhaps you have heard the Lord speak to you in the grocery store to share the Love of Messiah with someone you saw on aisle 3 but you’re just too busy, you don’t have the time, you are just too tired from work and want to get home… And you fail to follow through on walking the walk as the Lord called you…

Odds are there is some scenario you have experienced in which you know for fact you were much more like Moses striking the rock when God said speak to it and you failed to show His holiness through your trust and faith.

No matter what it is, the principle we see here in Parasha Chukat is the same:

We’ve got to make sure we are actually walking the walk if we’re going to talk the talk.

We

If there is anything we know for sure, life is not easy… We will constantly face complicated and uncomfortable situations. But, how we respond and react to them show the depth of our faith. This is not to say that if we respond to a crisis out of our fallen humanity (as Moses did) that we are not men and women of God or that we are not bought by the Blood of the Lamb. But, it will reveal to us areas in our lives in which we still need to submit our own pride and our own humanity under the authority of the Lord.

And people around us are watching us, especially if we are believers in Yeshua. Trust me, the world is watching… And they are waiting to pounce and call us out on it, and they won’t always be as kind and caring about it as my manager back in the day was. Our lives should constantly be rooted in the revelation of Messiah in everything we say and do.

We’ve got to make sure we are actually walking the walk if we’re going to talk the talk.

I want to encourage us today to take some time and consider your own personal walk with the Lord and how deep your trust and faith in Him is. Is our life revealing His love, faithfulness, and holiness to the world around us? Are we truly walking the walk, or are we just talking the talk?