Word of Salvation – Vol. 42 No.3? – October 1997

 

Moses & Aaron Stumble on the Last Step

 

A Sermon by Rev. P. Archbald on Numbers 20:1-13

Scripture Readings: 1Corinthians 10:1-12; Numbers 20:1-13

 

Covenant People of God.

How frustrating it is to come near to finishing a long and arduous task, only to have something go wrong at the last minute.  Something that sets you right back – right back to square one.  Something you’re building, or making, or drawing, and little brother comes along and wrecks it.  Or that long composition on your computer, and it’s accidentally wiped just before completion – with no backup.  The last card on a house of cards, and someone thoughtlessly opens the door, allowing a gust of wind to sweep through the room.  And it’s back to the drawing board once again.

Thankfully, the Lord God does not have to go back to the drawing board.  Not ever.  The Book of Numbers, this Book of Murmurs, outlines the continual failure of Israel – the people; the Levites; the priests; Miriam.  And now in this chapter, the failure of the top echelon; the leaders, Moses and Aaron.  A man would throw up his hands in frustration or despair!  But there is no frustration or despair for the Lord.  Because He does not have to go back to the drawing board.

No, the Lord does not have to go back to the drawing board, but He does go forward.  Forward to the drawing board, the key-stone of His plan of salvation.  He presses on toward the Christ.

We see that under two headings:
            firstly, that the leaders fail to sanctify God; and
            secondly, that God sanctifies Himself.

Firstly, then, the Leaders Fail to Sanctify God.

In some ways, it comes as something of a surprise, this failure of the leaders.  After all, consider Israel’s situation at this point.  The scene is surely one of déjà vu.  It is not the first time Israel had been assembled at Kadesh.  Some forty years prior, the people had been assembled there, ready, we would have hoped, to march the last 80 kilometres or so north into the Promised Land.  But then this is the Book of Murmurs.  Israel was turned back, because of their murmuring, their complaining, their lack of faith, their sheer rebelliousness.

Now they’re back.  They’ve turned once more into the last lap, the home stretch.  They have served their time in the wilderness.  The wicked generation is almost gone.  The forty years almost up.  And just when we expect everything to run like clockwork – how can it not – when they’re this close to success? – something goes wrong yet again.  Something serious!   A repeat performance of the very sins that got them sent back to do forty years ‘hard labour’ the first time round.

Israel’s ‘complaints department is therefore receiving nothing new.  Moses’ ‘suggestion box’ is full of the same old stuff: “If only we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord!” (that’s an oldie, but a goodie)!.  “If only we had been swallowed up with Korah and the rebels!” (notice who they identify with most, who they consider their true ‘brothers’).  “Moses and Aaron, you have led us here only to murder us and our beasts.”  Same old same old!  “Egypt was a better place, with its grains and figs and vines and pomegranates… and water.”

There’s nothing new here, but what astounds is that for longer than Israel had been saying such things, the Lord HAD BEEN providing for all of their daily needs.  They had manna from the sky and water from the rock.  They had it virtually every day for forty years.  Otherwise they wouldn’t still be alive to prepare their official complaints against Moses and Aaron.  Surely forty years would have been enough to teach them that all they needed to do was to seek the Lord’s ongoing help and provision?  But no, that’s a lesson Israel apparently had trouble learning.  It is a lesson they have been rejecting all along in the wilderness travels.

There is, therefore, no new development with Israel in this chapter.  But what is different this time is the reaction of Moses and Aaron.  Moses has come close to bum-out before, but in the past he’s always managed to hang in there, to trust in the Lord – at the crunch.

But Moses is now very old.  So is Aaron.  One by one, their friends and relatives have died in the wilderness.  Even Miriam is gone.  Here they are, two weary old men.  The last of their breed!  Turning into the last lap, only to find…what?  Only to find that this new generation is no different from the old!  Forty years sweating and crying over this hardhearted people, and what is there to show for it?  Nothing!  The new generation is just the same.  They are committing the same sin in the same place.  Maybe the Lord will sentence them to another forty years?!  Then it’ll be back to the drawing board for Moses and Aaron.  Only this time round, they’re just too old and too tired.

Nevertheless, Moses and Aaron do what they normally do in such situations: they fall on their face before the Lord, at the Tent of Meeting.  They pray to Him.  And the Lord does what He normally does: He shows great forbearance, great patience, great love and mercy towards His people.  The Lord tells Moses to take the rod from the Tabernacle – probably Aaron’s rod, the one that had budded and borne the almond blossom; though it might have been the rod Moses had when the Red Sea was parted – and speak to the rock in front of the congregation.  The rock will then yield water.  A great mercy, in view of Israel’s complaining.  The Lord apparently has no intention of sending Israel back to the drawing board.

Unfortunately, Moses and Aaron have other ideas.  Moses takes the rod as commanded, but he speaks to the congregation, instead of to the rock; and he strikes the rock twice, instead of speaking to it.

What is wrong with Moses’ actions?  Well, there are several theories, though the text itself seems to be rather vague on the exact nature of Moses’ sin.

Perhaps it is a deliberate vagueness, a reluctance to parade all the details of Moses’ dirty washing before the reader.  And that is an appropriate reserve.  But it has been suggested that Moses’ sin was that he lost his temper, striking the rock in a temper tantrum.’  Like a child stamping his foot.  No doubt the boys and girls know all about temper tantrums.  Well, sometimes adults have them, too.  Alternatively, it has been suggested that Moses was making himself the centre of attention, rather than putting the Lord first: “Shall we bring forth water…?” rather than “God will bring forth water!”  Moses was acting like some kind of magician, striking his wand on the top hat to bring forth an amazing jet of water, to the oon’s and aah’s of the crowd.  Encouraging superstitious awe and idolatry towards the leaders, or in regard of the rod, the magic wand.

Another theory is that by striking the rock Moses was effectively striking Christ.  For 1Corinthians 10:4 tells us that the rock represented Christ.  Perhaps there is truth in some, or even all, of these theories.  But this much we do know for certain: we know that in regard to these actions, Moses and Aaron did not ‘believe’ God, and they failed to treat Him as holy in the sight of Israel (verse 12).  We know that they ‘rebelled’ against God’s command (verse 24).  And from Psalm 106:32-33, we know that Moses ‘spoke rashly’ to Israel.  Serious charges.  And charges that must be accounted for in our explanation of Moses’ sin.

The best account of these verses seems to be that Moses was failing to carry out his work as Mediator.  Aaron, too.  For the two leaders do not come before the Lord with intercession this time.  Always before they have interceded for Israel.  But this time they come before the Lord with only bitterness and despair.  With more anger and less mercy than the Lord Himself has for His own.

That is why they refuse to follow the Lord’s command.  On many of the previous occasions in Numbers, when instructions are given for the deliverance of Israel, we read that Moses followed the Lord’s command ‘exactly.  This is something that is stressed in Numbers.  But not this time.  Moses will not speak to the rock to bring the Lord’s provision and hope to the people.  He is a preacher who, for the first (and last) time, refuses to preach grace to the people.  He will speak only Law and Judgment.  We could even translate, “Must we bring forth water for you?”

In other words, Moses is saying, “I’ve had enough.  You people can all drop dead as far as I’m concerned, and I don’t care what the Lord says.”  And he strikes the rock twice to hammer home his refusal.  Moses, with the pliable Aaron in tow, has given up on the Church.  Given up on the covenant.  He sees no hope, wants to see none, in spite of the Lord’s promise of water.  He won’t preach hope.  And even tries to withhold hope from the people.

In taking this line, Moses has, ironically, fallen into much the same sin as he deplores in the people.  In Numbers 14 also, the people refuse to trust the Lord for water, despite all the miracles, all the deliverances, all the provision for their needs.  They refuse to rely upon Yahweh to quench their thirst.

But is that not Moses’ sin here in chapter 20?  Moses refuses to rely upon the Lord to quench Israel’s thirst.  Different reason: Israel doesn’t believe in God’s desire or ability to provide; Moses believes in these things, but doesn’t want to see them given to Israel; doesn’t want to see mercy come to these sinners.  But the end result is much the same: Moses will not rely on the Lord’s provision of mercy.

This is the temptation when we focus on the sins of others more than on our own sins.  Many a church leader, apparently faithful and strong, has fallen into this trap.  Grown bitter, cynical, pessimistic over the failure of the congregation; harsh towards ‘those rebellious sinners.’  And in so doing, fallen himself.

Brothers and sisters, we might as well face up to it now.  We will disappoint each other.  Our church will disappoint us.  You can count on it.  If you look closely, you will be staggered at the extent of sin in your congregation.  Pastors and elders know this more than most, because they get to hear much more of what goes on in the daily lives of the people.

And it can undermine you, if you let it!

But let us learn instead to look first to our own sins.  And second to the power of God’s mercy and grace.  And let us trust in His miraculous stream of forgiveness, flowing from the Rock which is Christ.  That is the two-fold way to prevent disillusionment with the church from undermining us, whether we are leaders or followers.

By their actions, Moses and Aaron have partially obscured God’s goodness and mercy.  The leaders failed to sanctify the Lord, to show His glory, and goodness, and mercy, and greatness.  And when that happens, the Lord will sanctify Himself.

Which brings us to our second, and final point: God sanctifies Himself.

The Lord sanctifies Himself in two ways: by punishment and by mercy.  Whenever the leaders of the church fail to sanctify the Lord, He will sanctify Himself in these two ways, in punishment and in mercy.

The punishment, firstly, falls upon the leaders who have failed to sanctify God.  By punishment I mean, of course, chastisement, since we are talking about God’s dealings with His children.  Moses and Aaron are chastised in one way by being shamed before the people.  They are shamed by the water springing up out of the rock.  The very act of refusal, Moses’ angry striking of the rock, produces water.  How embarrassing!

But there is something even worse.  There is also the shame of not being able to enter the Promised Land.  That is part of the punishment placed upon Moses and Aaron for their sin.  To have come so near… and yet, so far.

There is, however, something even worse.  It is implied in the ban upon the leaders’ entry into Canaan.  Moses and Aaron are not only being barred from entering the Land themselves.  That is bad enough.  But they are also being barred from leading the people into the Land.  Moses is being told that his job as Mediator of Israel is about to end.  He is being defrocked, deposed, fired.  He has refused to act as Mediator, and therefore as punishment, he will get his wish.  He will not be allowed to act as Mediator any longer, once Canaan is reached.

In chapter 14, when the people refused to trust the Lord, they were condemned to die outside the Land.  Appropriately, when the leaders refuse to trust the Lord’s mercy, the same punishment is put upon them.  The church’s leaders are not exempt from the Lord’s commands, or His requirement of faith.  In fact, it is particularly important that the leaders are committed to these things.  And by making this clear, by His willingness to chastise even His leaders for these sins, the Lord sanctifies His own Name.  He shows Israel His holiness.

The other way in which the Lord sanctifies His Name is by showing mercy on Israel.  Here is this largely new generation.  Most of the old, rebellious generation have died.  But the next generation sins in the same old way: complaining, looking back longingly to Egypt, to the time when they did not know Yahweh; rejecting the Lord’s chosen Mediator, His way of salvation, His Christ, now provoking the leaders to the point where they sin.  No wonder these events go down in history under the place name Meribah, meaning ‘contention’.

But still the water comes.  Even when Moses and Aaron try to stop it.  This water which satisfies not just physical thirst, but which teaches Israel about God’s mercy and salvation.  Truly, a ‘spiritual drink’ (1Cor.10:4).

And this, too, is for the Lord’s glory.  It also ‘sanctifies’ Him.  Israel contended with the Lord, but He proved Himself Holy among them.  Not only by punishing, but also by providing for the continuation of a holy, chosen people, a nation of priests.  There is Meribah, ‘contention,’ but there is also Kadesh, meaning ‘holiness.

In all of this, the Lord proves Himself holy among them by pointing forward to the drawing board, as I mentioned at the start.  Christ has always been, from the start, from before time, the blueprint and the heart of God’s plan of salvation.  So that when the Mediator and High Priest of Israel were forcibly retired, for dereliction of duty, it didn’t send the Lord scurrying back to devise some hasty contingency plan.  It simply moved Israel one step closer to the Christ, as was planned form the start.

For Israel would now see that they needed a better Mediator, and a greater High Priest.  Aaron and Moses were not ‘it.’  Moses was very good, but not good enough.  Moses was very great, but not great enough.  Moses was very humble, but not humble enough.  He, and Aaron with him, tripped and fell on the last step.  And they couldn’t get up.  And it wasn’t just due to old age.

Israel would therefore need a new leader, a Joshua to lead them into Canaan.  But Joshua is another name for ‘Jesus’.  It means ‘Saviour,’ or ‘salvation.  They would need a Jesus to lead them into the Promised Land.  We need a Jesus to lead us into the Promised Land, the eternal Promised Land.  We need one who would never obscure the Father’s glory, as Moses and Aaron would have done – had the Lord not sanctified Himself.  One who would perfectly sanctify Yahweh’s Name before the people.  One who would not rebel or contend against God.

Israel needed, and we need, one who fully accepts God’s mercy for rebels.  Indeed, mercy for rebels was the life-work of the Lord Jesus.  Water-bearing, providing water for rebels – that is His life’s work.  He is the Spiritual Rock, the source of this water, this mercy, this salvation.  He is the water, the Living water itself.

All this despite far more rebellion than Moses and Aaron ever had to deal with, to be disillusioned by.  The full weight of all the rebellion, of all the elect, was His to bear.  More rebellion, infinitely more rebellion, but a more humble Mediator.  A perfectly humble Mediator.

So that on the last step – in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross – when the people, when even His closest friends and disciples disappointed and deserted and betrayed Him with the Judas-kiss – even then He did not stumble and fall.  No, He entered the Land ahead of us.  Instead of dying and remaining on some forgotten and God-forsaken hill outside of the Promised Land.

Brothers and sisters, when you and I become discouraged by sin – the sin of other Christians, the sin of the church; also by our own personal sin (let’s not forget that) – let us look to this perfect Mediator, Jesus Christ.

This, above all, is the way to deal with disillusionment.  Speak to the Rock, for the Living Water!  We can do that directly now, we don’t need any Mediator other than Christ Himself.  Call forth the water for a sinful people, for a rebellious people!  Water for the weary, and the worn-out, and the disappointed, the disillusioned and discouraged.  Living water from the Living Rock.

Amen.