Numbers covers the nearly 40 year period from the giving of the Law at Mt. Sinai until the eve of the conquest. Numbers 20 is the ending of the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, and we see in verse 1 that the Israelites have taken 40 years to make an 11 day journey to Kadesh. This is because of the lack of faith that the spies had as they went and checked out the Promised Land. Ten of the spies came back and lived in fear, while Joshua and Caleb had faith that the land could be taken. Due to the lack of faith of the 10, an entire generation was affected! We see that Moses’ sister, Miriam, has just died and was buried at Kadesh. She was the only woman whose death was mentioned for this entire generation. Then, in verse 2, we see a repeat of the people with Moses. There was no water for the people or their livestock, so they assembled against Moses and Aaron. They quarreled with them and said it would have been better to be in Egypt instead of this desert. And they added, “why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place?” Not only did they ask the rhetorical question concerning whether they were brought out of Egypt to die in the wilderness, as they had asked before, but they also expressed the wish that they had died as their rebellious brothers had before. To call the place where God had guided them as “evil” was dangerous ground for the people to tread. Moses and Aaron, as before, went to the tent of meeting and fell on their faces before the Lord. God clearly told Moses to:

1. Take the staff
2. Assemble the congregation
3. Tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water.

Moses disobeyed. Instead, he:

1. Took the staff
2. Assembled the congreation
3. STRUCK the rock twice and water flowed.

Moses also said, “Hear now, you rebels; shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” The prophet who previously had been called “more humble than any other man on the face of the earth” had acted in arrogance. Moses was told to strike the rock and obeyed (Ex 17:6) but in Numbers 20 he was only to speak to the rock (Nu 20:8) and he disobeyed (Nu 20:11-12). Here are some things to consider about why Moses might have been in a bad state of mind:

1. His big sister has died
2. He was frustrated
3. He was angry
4. He was tired of being blamed for everything that went wrong
5. He had gotten them through one disaster after another
6. He was continually interceding on their behalf to keep them out of trouble
7. We have seen that Moses has an anger problem. He killed an Egyptian, he left Pharaoh in anger after announcing the final plague, and he broke the tablets during the golden calf incident. With all this background knowledge, we can see why Moses had done the thing that worked 40 years earlier. God had told him to strike the rock before, but it was the wrong thing to do this time. What Moses had told the Israelites to do – to listen – he himself had not done. Sometimes in exhaustion or exasperation, we don’t pay close attention to God. We assume He will always work the same way, but He doesn’t. There was a dire consequence for Moses’ action. In 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 them.” There are consequences for sin. We are forgiven, but actions have consequences, so we need to think deeply about our decisions. The tragedy is that Yahweh could get them out of Egypt in one night, but couldn’t get Egypt out of them in 40 years.

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1. Are you careful, thoughtful, and responsible when you speak the Lord’s name? Are you in awe when you hear His name, or have you become “too familiar” with Him? When should you have more reverence for the name of the Lord?
2. What is a promise from this Truth that causes you to want to worship the Lord?
3. Choose to start your Thanksgiving week with worshiping the name of Jesus. Give thanks that you can see Him face-to-face because He resides IN you!

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The story of the Israelites moves from the action-packed saga of chapters 1-18 to the more monotonous explanations of the law in chapters 19-40. That said, without understanding the law, we all would still be slaves. James M. Boice said, “Deliverance from slavery is one thing, but freedom without law leads to license and license is only another form of slavery.” Moral Law (Ex 20) – Since it flows from God’s character, it is to be obeyed. (The 10 commandments) Civil Law (Ex 21-24) – This was given to Israel uniquely and is not binding on us. Ceremonial Law (Ex 25-40) – No need to perform the sacrifices because they pointed forward to Christ who fulfilled it completely. Moses goes up Mt. Sinai and meets with God, who gives him the law in the form of the 10 commandments on two tablets. While Moses is on the mountain for 40 days, the masses below get impatient and anxious, and want another “leader”. They told Aaron to “make us gods who shall go before us.” The promises of a God they could not see or touch were not enough. They were used to seeing these two pillars that represented God’s presence to them. They wanted something tangible. Aaron told them to bring him the gold earrings from the people, and he fashioned a calf made from that gold. This is the same gold that God had provided for the people as they left the land of Egypt. Aaron made a calf, probably after the Egyptian bull god, Apis. The people “rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” The word “play” refers to gross sexual immorality. God told Moses to “Go down, for YOUR people, who YOU brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.” It is a condemning word to the Israelites, but Moses reminds God that they are HIS people. Moses goes down, rebukes the people, broke the tablets, burned the calf, ground it to powder, scattered it in the water, and made the people drink it. Then, he ordered the sons of Levi to go throughout the camp and kill about 3000 men. The consequences were severe because idol worship is severe. Idols never deliver what they promise. We are controlled by the idols of our lives. An idol is anything more important to you than God, and anything that controls our heart and imagination more than God. An idol has such a controlling position in your heart that you can spend most of your passion and energy, your emotional and financial resources, on it without a second thought. Idols can represent good things like family, children, careers, and achievements. External idolatry – typically easy to spot because it is obvious in the culture Internal idolatry – soul worship of the heart and mind. It takes the honor only due to the Lord. Moses prays again and asks God to forgive the people. He even offers to be the sacrifice for the people, but God responds with, “Whoever his sinned against me, I will blot out of my book”. The Law was insufficient to forgive us of our sins, but it points to the person of Jesus Christ! Questions:

1. What controls your time? What do you spend your money on?
2. If you seek power, it will control you. If you seek friendships, they will control you. What are you seeking? Is this compromise worth what you give to it?
3. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you anything that is taking your devotion away from the Lord. Commit to do the work to destroy those idols.
4. Read through the 10 commandments (Ex 20) and commit to follow God’s heart.

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