Numbers 20:2,3; Psalm 106:33; Numbers 20:7-12
There was no water for the congregation: and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. And the people chode with Moses, and spake, saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the LORD!
And they provoked his spirit, so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips.
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink. And Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as he commanded him.
And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.
And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): This is a strange passage of story, yet very instructive. It is certain that God was greatly offended, and justly, for He is never angry without cause.
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): What was the offense for which Moses was excluded from the promised land?
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): The submissive and gentle spirit of Moses was fanned, as it were, into a breeze by the perverseness of the people, so that even he spake unadvisedly, saying, “Can God give you water out of the rock?”
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Slight as it may appear to us, it was a complicated offence―there was in it a mixture of irreverence, anger, disobedience and unbelief.
MATTHEW HENRY: They did not punctually observe their orders. God bade them “speak to the rock,” and they spoke to the people, and smote the rock, which at this time they were not ordered to do. It was in his passion that he called them rebels―it came from a provoked spirit, and was spoken unadvisedly: it was too much like “Raca,” and “Thou fool,” Matthew 5:22. His smiting the rock twice―it should seem, not waiting at all for the eruption of the water upon the first stroke―shows that he was in a heat.
JAMES HAMILTON (1814-1867): Angry he certainly was; in the heat and agitation of his spirit he failed to implement implicitly the Divine command. His harangue had a certain tone of petulance and egotism. “Hear now, ye rebels; must we”―must I and Aaron, not must Jehovah―“fetch you water out of this rock?”
MATTHEW HENRY: They assumed too much of the glory of this work of wonder to themselves, as if it were done by some power or worthiness of theirs. Therefore it is charged upon them that “they did not sanctify God,” that is, they did not give Him that glory of this miracle which was due unto His name.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): It is certain from the text that unbelief was their sin.
JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): “Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me.” Ye could not conceive, and were not very willing, that I should show such favour to so undeserving a people: so measuring my thoughts by your thoughts, and my ways by your ways; casting me into a dishonourable mould, as it were; and this publicly, before all the people.
CHARLES SIMEON: Of this in particular God accuses them. Whether they doubted the efficacy of a word, and therefore smote the rock; or whether they acted in their own strength, expecting the effect to be produced by their own act of striking the rock, instead of regarding God alone as the author of the mercy, we cannot say―In either case they were under the influence of unbelief: for, distrust of God, or creature-confidence, are equally the effects of unbelief: the one characterized the conduct of those Israelites who were afraid to go up to take possession of the promised land; and the other, those who went up in their own strength, when God had refused to go before them. This was the offence which excluded the whole nation from the promised land: “they could not enter in because of unbelief,” Hebrews 3:19; no wonder therefore, that, when Moses and Aaron were guilty of it, they were involved in the common lot.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): It was also a marring of a blessed type. Note: it is “smite the rock” in Exodus 17:6, but only “speak” to it here in Numbers 20:8.
H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): The smiting of the rock in obedience to God in Exodus 17 was a beautiful type of the smiting of Christ with the rod of judgment. Christ had to be smitten in judgment on Calvary’s cross, and when the wrath of God that was our due fell upon Him and He bowed His head beneath that rod―when the Rock of Ages was cleft for us—the living water flowed forth for the refreshment of a famished world.
A. W. PINK: Doubtless that word in Isaiah 53:4 looks back to that very type—“Smitten of God.” How solemn to behold that it was the people’s sin which led to the smiting of the rock! Out from the smitten rock flowed the water. Beautiful type was this of the Holy Spirit—gift of the crucified, now glorified, Saviour.
C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): In 1 Corinthians 10: 4, we read, “They drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.” That is plain and positive.
H. A. IRONSIDE: But you know He was only smitten once in judgment. Having died for our sins, He is never to die again and will never know the smiting of the rod of judgment again. That question has been settled once for all.
A. W. PINK: The rock must not be smitten a second time, for that would spoil the type.
JOHN GILL: But why then was Moses bid to take the rod with him, if it was not to smite with it, as he had done before at Horeb in Exodus 17?
A. W. PINK: It was not the same rod used in Exodus 17. On that former occasion Moses was to use his own rod—the rod of judgment. But here he was to take “the rod,”―the rod of Aaron. This is clear from verse 9, “Moses took the rod from before the Lord, as He commanded him;” if we compare it with Numbers 17:10—“And the Lord saith unto Moses, Bring Aaron’s rod before the testimony to be kept for a token against the rebels.” This, then, was the priestly rod. Mark also how this aspect of truth was further emphasized in this type by the Lord bidding Moses, on this second occasion, to take Aaron along with him—Aaron is not referred to at the first smiting of the rock!
H. A. IRONSIDE: Moses was to take the rod of priesthood, reminding us that our Saviour is now ministering in the presence of God as our great High Priest. Christ does not need to be smitten again to sustain our life. And so Moses spoiled the type of God’s lovely picture of the present work of His Son.
C. H. MACKINTOSH: Our great High Priest has passed into the heavens, there to appear in the presence of God for us, and the streams of spiritual refreshment flow to us, on the ground of accomplished redemption, and in connection with Christ’s priestly ministry, of which Aaron’s budding rod is the exquisite figure, Numbers 17:1-10…To have smitten with Aaron’s rod would, as we can easily understand, have spoiled its lovely blossom. A word would have sufficed, in connection with the rod of priesthood—the rod of grace.
A. W. PINK: It is striking to note that though Moses smote the rock instead of speaking to it, nevertheless, the refreshing waters gushed forth from it―Truly, our God is the “God of all grace.”
