Numbers 20:8
Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink. (NIV)
Today’s Reading: Numbers 20:1-13 and 1 Corinthians 10:1-5
At this point in Numbers, we are nearing the end of the forty years that the Israelites spent wandering in the wilderness. They were camped in the desert, Miriam had just died and they had no water – again. And once again, the Israelites were uniting together in opposition to Moses and Aaron. The same song was being sung about how they all wished they would’ve stayed in Egypt and not been brought to the wilderness to die. So Moses and Aaron pray to God at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and God responds with a directive.
Recall that the Israelites were also without water at the beginning of their journey out of Egypt. We covered this event found in Exodus 17 on February 12 in detail. As a reminder, God provided water from the rock for all the people to drink. It seems likely from the text that God stood on the rock and instructed Moses to strike the rock to bring forth the water. This gave the Israelites the visual that Moses was striking God and the result was God provided the water to drink.
Paul tells us, “for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ” (1 Cor 10:4). This first rock that Moses struck was a type of Christ. The foreshadowing was that God would be struck and out of Him would flow living water. This was the beautiful picture of the cross where Christ would be struck for our sins and out of that we would receive eternal life. Not to mention we would see actual water flow from Jesus’ side when he was pierced by the soldier.
So now we come to a second rock in the wilderness. This rock is also Christ. But this time it’s different. God instructed Moses to speak to the rock and it would produce water to drink. Moses returned from the Tent of Meeting and instead of speaking to the rock he struck it twice. Water still flowed from the rock for everyone to drink but God punished Moses for his disobedience. Moses would not see the Promised Land because of his actions.
Did Moses deliberately disobey God’s orders? Did he simply not listen closely enough to God? Did he just do what he did before to the first rock and think God just forgot to mention the striking the rock part? Hard to say. But often good intentions don’t make up for the wrong actions. God punished Moses for acting inappropriately regardless of what he intended. But why was Moses punished so harshly?
The first time water came from the rock, we see a picture of Christ’s first coming. Jesus would be struck for the sins of the people and his death would bring forth the water of life for us. Christ ascended into heaven and took his place as Lord of heaven and earth. He would never be struck again (Heb 9:23-28).
So this second occurrence when God would bring water from the rock is emblematic of the risen Christ. Moses was allowed to speak to Christ and he would produce the water of life as we read about in Revelation. However, in essence, Moses struck the risen Christ which was not only disobedient but a complete disregard of Christ’s holiness. And for that, Moses was harshly punished.
I think the lesson for me in this is to listen closely to what God tells me. We don’t hear God speak often but when He does, He doesn’t mince words. All God’s words have purpose and meaning. So when we read the Word of God, remember the Bible is precious real estate. God put in our Bible what needed to be said. Nothing more and nothing less. All His words are of significant importance. And if they don’t seem that way, maybe we need to dig deeper to discover the hidden gem of God’s wisdom.
Christ in the Old Testament 
Leave a comment