Moses Strikes The Rock / Death of Aaron & Miriam (Numbers Chapters 18-20)

Moses Strikes the Rock and the Failure at Kadesh

All right, go ahead and open to Numbers chapter 20. We're gonna cover three chapters tonight, 18, 19, and 20. But as far as playing the video and following along, we're just gonna look at Numbers 20 versus one through 13.

So we'll listen to 20, one through 13, and then go back and do an overview of the three chapters. Numbers chapter 20.

The children of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh. And Miriam died there and was buried there. Now, there was no water for the congregation, so they gathered together against Moses and Aaron.

And the people contended with Moses.

If only we had died when our brethren died before the Lord. Why have you brought up the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness that we and our animals should die here? And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place?

It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, nor is there any water to drink.

So Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and they fell on their faces, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. Then the Lord spoke to Moses.

Take the rod. You and your brother Aaron gather the congregation together. Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water. Thus you shall bring water for them out of the rock, and give drink to the congregation and their animals.

So Moses took the rod from before the Lord as he commanded him. Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them.

Hear now, rebels. Must we bring water for you out of this rock?

Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank. Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron.

Because you did not believe me to hallow me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.

This was the water of Meribah, because the children of Israel contended with the Lord, and he was hallowed among them.

The Duties of the Priests and Levites

All right, so this week we're gonna be covering chapters 18 through 20, and we heard in chapter 20 several significant things. Number one, Moses' sister Miriam dies at the end of the chapter. Aaron, Moses' brother, is going to die also.

And this is really known for the failure on Moses' part, the failure at Kadesh, an error or a sin, because Moses disobeys God. This is a sin that will keep Moses out of the promised land. So once again, as we seem to see every week, just about the people are grumbling and complaining, they're coming against Moses and Aaron, and what's their complaint this time?

There's no water, right? Now obviously they had water, otherwise they would have been dead already. So they've come to a new place, and they're worried that God, here's the problem, they're worried that God isn't going to provide.

They've seen God provide again and again and again, and now they're grumbling, complaining that, oh no, what are we gonna do? Maybe God isn't going to provide. So what happens? The Lord tells Moses to speak to the rock before their eyes and it will yield water.

But Moses, at this point in time, this is really at the end of the wilderness wanderings. Years and years have gone by, Moses is at the end of his rope. So Moses, out of frustration and anger, instead of speaking to the rock, like the Lord said, he strikes it, and he strikes it twice.

And this act of disobedience, and of course he's here in the video, he's speaking to them, you rebels. I envision him a little more animated than that.

He's got an anger problem anyways.

Well, yeah, he's accusing the people of being rebels, but by disobeying God, at least at this moment, Moses himself is acting like a rebel. So before we get into chapter 20, we're gonna look at chapter 19, which covers the laws of purification.

We'll only touch on that briefly, but first let's begin in chapter 18, which covers the duties of the priests and the Levites. So go back to chapter 18. We'll begin reading in verse one, numbers 18, verse one.

It says, then the Lord said to Aaron, you and your sons in your father's house with you shall bear the iniquity related to the sanctuary. And you and your sons with you shall bear the iniquity associated with your priesthood.

Also bring with you your brethren of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, that they may be joined with you and serve you while you and your sons are with you before the tabernacle of witness. So it says in verse three, they shall attend to your needs and all the needs of the tabernacle, but they shall not come near the articles of the sanctuary and the altar, lest they die, they and you also.

Then skip to verse seven. It says, therefore, you and your sons with you shall attend to your priesthood for everything at the altar and behind the veil, and you shall serve. And I give your priesthood to you as a gift for service, but the outsider who comes near shall, what?

Be put to death. Be put to death. Now, is there anything that stood out to you? Well, just look at verse one. There's something different about this dialogue.

Well, God speaks to Aaron directly.

Right.

Remember how every chapter begins, and the Lord spoke to Moses. Another thing, it's again and again. Here, God is speaking to Aaron. So this is the first time and the only time that God speaks to Aaron and Aaron only.

And what's he doing? He's telling Aaron about his responsibility, that from now on, you and your sons after you, because the end of chapter 20, Aaron's son, Eleazar, becomes high priest after Aaron dies.

But from now on, you, Aaron, and your sons, you are responsible for what happens at the tabernacle. So the priests are to have charge of the sanctuary, and the Levites are to assist the priests. And we talked about this before.

What's the difference between the priests and the Levites? Who wants to tell the group?

All priests are Levites, but not all priests.

You got it.

All priests are Levites. Levites need a priest. They have to be Aaron's.

Right, so all priests are Levites, but not all Levites are priests. The priests had to be sons of Aaron.

Good.

So the Levites assisted Aaron and his sons, the priests. Jim, you had your hand up.

Yeah, I just happened to notice something. It says, you and your sons and your father's household with you shall bear the guilt in connection with the sanctuary. What you just said, they were gonna bear the responsibility for it, and that's exactly what it's saying here, that they're gonna be responsible for everything that takes place in that sanctuary.

Right.

And gotta hold them accountable for it.

Because you remember Korah, who was a Levite, wanted to take the priesthood for himself, or the Levites would take it. But now God is saying to Aaron, no, the Levites can't come near. They can't touch any of the holy objects.

They cannot approach the altar. And if anybody does, they're gonna be held accountable, but so will you. So this is a very serious matter. So serving as priest, and certainly serving as high priest, this was, on the one hand, a great honor.

Next to Moses, this is the greatest honor in the nation to serve as high priest, but it's also a massive responsibility. And I'm reminded of the phrase, to whom much is given, much is required. Commentator Matthew Henry says about this passage, verses one through seven, he says, the greater the trust of work and power that is committed to us, the greater danger there is of betraying that trust.

This is a good reason why we should neither envy others' honors, nor desire high places. You just think about it in this country. If a random citizen does something wrong, well, that's bad. But if the president of the United States does that same thing, it's supposed to be that much worse.

So to whom much is given, much is required. And this kind of ties into the whole situation in chapter 20, when Moses strikes the rock. That was enough to keep him out of the promised land. I'm sure there's somebody who reads that or hears that, and we kind of know better than to think or say this, but what's the big deal?

Okay, so he struck the, you're gonna keep him out of the promised land for that?

It's so severe.

It is severe, but why? It's because of Moses and the position that he held. It's the office that he held. God spoke directly to him. So there wasn't any question about what he was supposed to do. And in front of everybody, he did the exact opposite of what God said in that highest position.

So if you consider that, it's not harsh. Of course, God is never harsh. God is just in whatever he does. It only appears that way to some people. But yeah, that was serious enough to keep Moses out of the promised land.

Why?

To whom much is given, much shall be required. Okay, so just to, yes, Jim.

And here's one other thing. And the reason I think they had that separation was the Levites couldn't serve in the priestly positions because when the priests went in, they had to be totally clean from the body and all the clothing and the clothing that they were supposed to be wearing.

The Levites didn't have to be like that.

Okay.

They didn't have to be cleaned.

Okay.

So just making application, because we try to take what we're reading in numbers and make application to the New Testament church. So along this idea, to whom much is given, much shall be required. Does any New Testament verse come to mind that might tie in with this?

So Moses and Aaron are in the leadership in the nation. What about verses warning about leadership in the New Testament church? Okay, well, I thought of James 3, 1, where James says, my brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.

Now, in the past, we've talked about the differences between bishops and deacons and priests and Levites, and they're not the same thing. But with elders and bishops, pastors, deacons, it's still a shepherding role, right?

So it has to be taken seriously. Just as you couldn't just have anybody offer a sacrifice in Israel, and they had to follow the Lord's instructions, so it is today, not just anybody can take the ministry upon themselves and just teach whatever they want and make it up as they go along.

When I look at some of what is called evangelical Christianity, I get the idea that that's what's happening. People are coming up with new methods, new teachings, and it seems like some people kind of make it up as they go.

But if you just take this model, the priests and the Levites had to do things by the book. And you know what? Here, there's areas where we have liberty, but we need to do things by the book. We have the book, right?

What is it?

The New Testament. The New Testament tells us what the church is, how the church should operate. You have the pastoral epistles that tell you what to do and what not to do. So it's not like we don't have any idea and we're just kind of going with the flow.

It's not exactly the same like the law, but yeah, if you read 1 and 2 Timothy, if you read Titus, what does that verse say where Paul tells Timothy, these things I have written to you so that you know how to behave in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

So we need to do things the way God says to do them. So we have a responsibility just like the priests and the Levites in that regard. Okay, look at verses 8 and 9. Numbers chapter 18, verses 8 and 9 says, and the Lord spoke to Aaron, here I myself have also given you charge of my heave offerings, all the holy gifts of the children of Israel.

I have given them as a portion to you and your sons as an ordinance forever. And this shall be yours of the most holy things reserved from the fire. Every offering of theirs, every grain offering and every sin offering and every trespass offering, which they rendered to me shall be most holy for you and your sons.

So who is the offering given to? Well, it's presented to the Lord, but then who does it end up with? Aaron and his sons. Skip ahead to verse 12. It says, and the best of the oil and all the best of the new wine and the grain, their first fruits, which they offer to the Lord, I have given them to you.

Who's he talking to still?

Aaron, right.

Whatever first ripe fruit is in their land, which they shall bring to the Lord shall be yours. Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it. Every devoted thing in Israel shall be yours. Okay, so one commentator says this, in return for their service to the Lord, the priests were to receive a portion of the offerings, which the people presented in worship.

And then verses 21 through 24, talk about the tithes for support of the Levites. I mean, you think about the average Israelite, they had some job, whatever it was that they were doing, and they received something to sustain themselves.

But Moses and Aaron, or the priests, they were working in the tavern. They're consuming things. They're not producing anything. So how did they support themselves? Well, they don't. People support, people are to support them.

So the tithe, basically, was the source of their income, or compensation for tabernacle service. Now, what's a tithe? We all know what this is, right? A tithe is? Yeah, sometimes someone might say, well, I'm giving a tithe, and then they give, well, it's really an offering, because an offering is whatever you want to give.

It might be 2%, it might be 20%, it could be 10, but a tithe is 10%. So if someone was paying a tithe, they would bring, let's say, just 10 pounds of grain, or they had 10 pounds of grain, giving the tithe to Aaron and his sons would be giving them one pound.

All right.

The scripture talks about heave offerings and wave offerings. Sometimes we read through this, and we don't always explain what these are. Does anyone know what a heave offering is? Or a wave offering?

I'll give you a hint, it's, I mean, it's in the name. You can maybe guess what it is.

It's the Lord over your head is lifted up.

Yeah, if you think of someone heaving something, I think of someone just kind of, you know. So a heave offering, they would take whatever it is, and they would lift it up, like to the Lord, and down, and then Aaron gets it.

A wave offering is you're taking it like this. So a heave offering is vertical. A wave offering goes back and forth horizontally.

I thought that they were both over their head, even though they were different.

Do you have a verse? Chapter and verse.

No, back in Exodus, when they first started talking about the heave offering and the wave offering.

I mean, the heave offering, I think, would be, yeah.

It's just, I don't think it really proves anything.

Okay, well, get back to me if you find that. So these were, but these were the sacrificial offerings that were to be made. Somebody could have thought, well, what difference does it make if we do this or back and forth?

You know, can't we just give it to them? I mean, these are the thoughts that pop into people's heads. Why does it have to be this way? And what was the answer? Kathy had it last week, because God says so.

I mean, he's trying to teach these people, I'm God, and you need to do what I say. And we know what the devil's temptation is. Hey, you can eat the fruit. You can do what you want, right? Well, they're not always living up to this, obviously.

All right, in this next section, verse 25, through the end of the chapter, the Levites were to pay a tithe from the tithe. So the people are giving the Levites a tithe, and now the Levites have to take a 10th of that, and they give it as the heave offering, and then they give it to Aaron.

So you can kind of see how this is working out. This was God's design, and I don't think I'm going out on a limb by saying it was a perfect design, right? This is God's design. It's a perfect design.

Okay.

So what's happening? The priests would minister for the people or on behalf of the people. The Levites assisted the priests. The people supported the Levites. They received the tithe, and then they took a tithe and gave it to Aaron and his son.

So everybody's supporting one another, and everybody is involved. So really, this is a wonderful system, and guess what? The church can learn something from this. Making application, and I don't wanna get into the whole subject of tithes and offerings.

I did two sermons on this from 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. So hey, if you want more on that, you can go listen to those sermons on YouTube. But just as far as getting everyone involved, this is the way the church should be.

We support one another, we help one another, and to get everybody in the church involved doing something, that really helps, because everyone feels like they play a part. Everybody feels like, hey, I have a role to play, and that helps preserve unity, it keeps people engaged.

So any good church, that's what you're striving for, to get everybody on board doing something. I think that's God's plan. Any questions so far before we move on? All right, now skip over to chapter 19, and just a few remarks about this.

This chapter covers laws of purification, and what this chapter is known for is the talk about the red heifer. Who knows about the red heifer? Or what do you know about the red heifer? Is this, who's never heard of the red heifers?

I've never, I don't know what this is about. Okay, I'll just put out this warning that if you went on, and I don't suggest that you do this, but if you went online and searched red heifer in the Bible, you're gonna get all sorts of different things that come up.

From what I gather, there are some people who believe that they're looking for a red heifer. I remember Jim Baker, who knows Jim Baker? Remember him from way back? Not someone we would endorse, but there was something about a red cow that was born, and it had the number seven, like a mark, like it looked like a seven on its forehead.

Long story short, there are people who think that there's some prophetic significance that when this specific red cow is born, that ties into the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. I don't know where all this is coming from.

Seems like a lot of kind of crazy stuff. That may tickle people's ears, but we're just gonna deal with what the text says, and it has to do with purification. Now, why is purification important? Think about where they're at, and what would be happening over the course of these 40 years.

You got one or two million people out in the wilderness. That entire generation is going to die in the wilderness. These people are gonna come into contact with a lot of filth and dead bodies and all the rest.

So cleanliness is very important for some obvious reasons. Matthew Henry says this about this passage. We're just gonna kind of focus on the spiritual significance, maybe, of the red heifer. He says, the heifer was to be wholly burned.

This typified the painful sufferings of our Lord Jesus, both in soul and body, as a sacrifice made by fire to satisfy God's justice for man's sin. There is a doctrine out there that says, when Jesus died, he went to hell to suffer in the flames.

It almost sounds like Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry's pretty reliable. Does that, did anyone pick that up from what I just read?

Okay.

We do not hold to that position, okay? And I don't think Matthew Henry does either. But the red heifer being burned, he's saying this symbolizes the suffering and death of Jesus. He said, these ashes are said to be laid up as a purification for sin, because though they were only to purify from ceremonial uncleanness, yet they were a type of that purification for sin, which our Lord Jesus made by his death.

Basically, anytime we're going through the Old Testament, you know this by now, we're looking for types and foreshadows of Jesus. So we kind of have this mindset that, okay, how does this speak of Christ?

How does this picture Christ? Well, he sees that in the red heifer. Now, I brought that up about the thing about hell, so I should clarify. Who's familiar with this teaching? That Jesus, after he died, went to hell.

Who's heard that?

I've heard it.

Okay, some people, all right, yeah.

I don't believe it.

You've heard of the Apostles' Creed. Most people have heard of the Apostles' Creed. Nearly every Christian group, you know, maybe not Baptists, and we don't really recite it necessarily. I don't take a position on it, but in the Apostles' Creed, it says that Jesus descended into hell.

And the question is, okay, what does that mean? Why did he do that? And just to clarify, we do not believe that Jesus suffered in hell. The atonement, Jesus on the cross said, it is finished. So we do not believe that he suffered.

So just to make that clear. All right, any questions on that? Yes, Jim.

I can see the difference between a wave offering and a heave offering.

All right.

One was horizontal, the wave offering, and the other was vertical, the heave offering.

Right.

That's found in Leviticus chapter seven.

Didn't I say that?

Didn't I say that? That's what I said, I can see it. Okay, all right, good.

All right, so now we get into the main focus of our lesson. Most commentators agree that they're reaching the end of their wanderings in the wilderness. So 37, 38, 39, 40 years have passed. So this is, they're right at the end, basically.

From the time they came out of Egypt, you're talking 38 years at least. So they began wandering at Kadesh. Now they finish their wanderings at Kadesh. So Miriam and Aaron, the fact that they both die in this chapter, I think that is representative of that generation coming to an end.

So now the children of Israel are starting to think, once again, about entering into the promised land. Look at Numbers 20, verse one. It says, then the children of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin.

Before it was the wilderness of Sin with an S, but now it's Z, Zin. In the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh, and Miriam died there and was buried there. And just not much else said about that.

Skip ahead for a moment to verses 14 through 20, because now they're thinking about entering the land. What's the best route? From where Israel is at right now, the quickest way, of course, they've been wandering in circles all these years, but now they're on track.

But the quickest way into the promised land is through what area?

Edom.

Right, so they seek permission to go through Edom. And the Edomites were sort of like family. They're distant cousins of the Israelites. Did they treat them that way?

No.

So Edom does not allow Israel to pass through. So this is really the first of a series of hostile acts, probably as the result of jealousy. Israel has become a great nation. Edom is jealous. They're not allowing their brethren, because from Isaac came Esau and Jacob.

So they're related, but they won't allow them to pass through. And for this reason, and a lot of other reasons going forward, what does the Lord do with Edom? What's God's attitude towards the nation of Edom?

The prophet Malachi makes that statement. Jacob have I loved, but Esau, the nation of Edom, I've hated. And we talked a couple Sundays ago about the book of Obadiah, which prophesized the destruction of Edom.

So what do you take away from that? Mistreating the Israelites is a bad idea. And anytime there's been a nation or a people that have taken, and it doesn't matter whether the Israelites are being obedient or not, they're being disobedient in the wilderness.

God still holds it against the Edomites. So any nation that opposes the children of Israel, it never works out. So Miriam is dead. Aaron is gonna die at the end of the chapter. So now the question is, what about Moses?

What about Moses? We already know from our study of chapters 13 and 14 that only two men of this generation enter into the promised land. And who are those two men?

Right.

So we've already seen that. So we know that Moses is not going to enter. So he comes to this place in the wilderness. Look at Numbers 20 verse two. And it says, there's no water for the congregation. So they gather together against Moses and Aaron.

And the people contended with Moses and spoke, saying, if we had only died when our brethren died before the Lord. What are they referencing? When did their brethren die before the Lord? Right there. Yeah, so Korah and Dathan and Abiram were swallowed up.

When the ground opened. The 250 offering incense, they were burned by the fire of the Lord. And then a plague broke out. So all these people died before the Lord. And they said, you know what? We wish we would have been better off if we just died back then.

This is just the same complaint over and over and over again. So look at verse six. Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tabernacle of meeting. And they fell on their faces.

So they're appealing to God, God help us again. And what happened? God shows up again. You should be having deja vu at this point because this is what happened last time. Yes, Larry.

Was, okay, back in Exodus 17, they were at Meribah, the rock of contention. Where they complained, what was it? Three days after they had just crossed from the Red Sea. They were complaining about no water.

And that's when Moses struck the rock. God told him to strike it the first time. And is this the same exact place? Or is it just another similar where, because they're contending again about water. And Moses brings it.

I believe this is a different place. But yeah, so I.

Because it talked about the wilderness of sin.

Right.

Sin and zin and here's the rock again. And it seems very similar. So there is a tradition that says something happened. I'll get to that in a second. But that, yeah, I had the same, I had the same thought.

I believe, I guess I'm not dogmatic, but I'm pretty certain this is a different place. Look at verse seven. So they come before the Lord. The glory of the Lord appeared to them. Verse seven, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, take the rod, you and your brother Aaron, gather the congregation together and speak to the rock.

So like you said, back in Exodus, he said, strike the rock. So it's reversed. Now he says, speak to the rock and it will yield its water. Thus, you shall bring water for them out of the rock and give drink to the congregation and their animals.

So like you said, this is back in Exodus 17, where he said to strike it. This rock, just like the last rock, it brings forth water. Water, you could say, is a picture of life. Without this water in the wilderness, they're gonna die.

Why is it that he said, strike the rock first and speak to it now? Do you think God is just randomly doing that or is there some significance to strike it and now speak to it?

Could it be the conditions, the two different events, condition of the people's hearts?

Okay, you wanna?

I just threw that out there.

Okay, you're throwing it against the wall. See if it sticks. That's okay. I believe there's significance. So it's just a matter of trying to figure out what it is. What does the rock represent? Or who does the rock represent?

I know someone could say, pastor, you're going too far this time. You're saying Moses represents Christ. He's a type of, Aaron is a type of Christ. But a rock? How can a rock be symbolic of Christ? Yeah, many times in the Old Testament, who is a rock but our Lord?

There's many verses in the Old Testament that talk about the Lord as a rock. So here's what I came up with, what I believe. It doesn't spell this out, but here's the best that I can figure. The rock represents Christ who was struck.

And Jesus was struck or he died once for all, never to die again. So Christ is struck once, and now all men everywhere are commanded to repent and call upon the name of the Lord to speak. So Jesus, the rock was struck, now you speak to it.

Jesus was crucified once for all, now we call upon his name. I think that's the symbolism. But Moses doesn't obey. And if you look at it this way, is he's trying to strike Christ again. I know that's not Moses intention, but that would be the symbolism.

But either way, Moses is not obeying the voice of the Lord. God speaks directly to him, he knows better. And then as the leader in front of the whole nation, it seems like he really loses his temper, yells at the people, accuses them of being rebels, and then he strikes the rock, not once, but twice, Larry.

Moses is just a man.

Right, yeah.

How often do I get angry because of what somebody does or says?

Yeah.

Moses is not, he's a type of Christ, but he's not Jesus. He's not without sin. We can sympathize with Moses. You think, well, if I was in that situation, I would have been stressed out and frustrated too.

So we can sympathize, but that doesn't excuse what he did. Look at verse 12. So because of this, the Lord said, because you did not believe me, well, that's interesting. You did not believe me. You know, anytime we do not follow God's word or obey God's word, it's not just that we disobeyed, it's a lack of faith because we know what God said, and yet we don't do it.

That's what he said, because you did not believe me. Now, did Moses believe in God?

Yes.

Did he believe God?

Yes.

It's just his faith was not where it needed to be. So because you did not believe me to hallow me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land, which I have given them.

Christ the Rock, the Water of Life, and Moses' Disobedience

All right, now let's quickly turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Keep a finger in numbers 20. But 1 Corinthians 10 is a key chapter when discussing the book of numbers. We've referenced it many times already.

And in case there's somebody who's not convinced that the rock represents Jesus, this is the proof text, okay? 1 Corinthians 10 verses one through five, the apostle Paul says, "'Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware "'that all our fathers were under the cloud "'and all passed through the sea.'".

He's talking about the Red Sea. "'All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, "'and all ate the same spiritual food, "'and all drank the same spiritual drink, "'for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, "'and that rock was Christ.'".

Now he's saying the spiritual rock, but that's what you're doing. You're spiritualizing the significance of the rock. So that spiritual rock. Apparently, and this is what I was talking about with Larry, I said I'd reference it in a minute.

Apparently there was a Jewish tradition that was taught by the rabbis that the rock that Moses talked to and struck, that that rock followed them through the wilderness.

Because

Yeah, yeah, so they're in a different place, and yet here's this rock that's giving water. Well, it was there, and now it's here. So this was a Jewish tradition that the rock actually moved, and the rock followed them.