Day 79 – Striking the Rock Twice

You’ll recognise the Corinthians passage from when we looked at the previous passage about the rock/water a week or so ago.

• As Numbers 20 opens, much of the forty years of aimless wandering in the wilderness has passed. We’re now going to start looking at passages which lead us to the home stretch… and the Promised Land to come. In today’s passage multiple things happen, but the people – despite being now very used to being in the desert – are still in a complaining mood!
• Two people die in the rather stark words of our first passage. Who were they? What was the reaction of the people to each of the deaths? What was the reason for Aaron’s death?
• Parts of this chapter should feel familiar to you. What similarities can you see from our readings a couple of weeks ago regarding the water that the people craved?
• Moses did something wrong, and was punished by God. Look at what God told him to do in Numbers 20:8, and what he actually did in verse 11. What was the difference?
• What emotion do you think Moses had that led to him to do something different to what God had asked him to do? Think about how he would have said the words in verse 10.
• Despite Moses not correctly carrying out God’s instructions, water still flowed out of the rock. What does this say about God?
• What was the consequence of Moses’ sin, as indicated in Numbers 20:12?
• Moses had a closer relationship with God than any other human, at least at this moment in time. You might consider that Moses’ disobedience in today’s reading didn’t seem, on the face of it, to be particularly bad. Does his sin, or the severity of the punishment that came with it, therefore surprise you? What do you think angered God so much? You might consider Moses’ important role, his hot-tempered emotions, and the connection to “our Rock Jesus” in your answer.
• Nestled in Numbers 20 is a short passage about a king called Edom. You might not necessarily remember this little moment at the end of our reading plan but I hope you enjoy reading it anyway. Edom seems like a grumpy king, huh! These little titbits of stories help to contextualise the words we’re reading, reminding us that they are real history, rather than made up fables. You can read all about Edom at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edom
• Don’t miss the fact that God makes it very clear who will follow Aaron to become the next High Priest in Numbers 20:26. God is in control!

I’ve talked already about the link between the rock in the desert and Jesus, so I won’t talk about that again here. It’s worth bearing in mind the nature of the rock when thinking about the seriousness of Moses’ sin in regards to speaking to/hitting it. The “rock” had already been struck once before – it doesn’t need to be struck again. That seems like a good reminder for us that Jesus’ death on the cross was enough to deal with the power of sin once and for all – it didn’t (and doesn’t) need to be repeated.

Keep the passage in James in your heart too. Righteous anger is good, in certain situations, but Moses showed uncontrolled anger in this passage. It’s easy to become angry in certain situations, especially when you are a teenager, and this passage reminds us to honour God in our actions at all times (yes – even when all we want to do is shout, swear and punch someone!). If you find anger to be something you struggle with, you may like to highlight these verses.

PS: I’ve attached the family tree again. Look how many people we’ve met in it now – I’ve highlighted them all in yellow. Could you say something interesting about all of the names?