The Water of Meribah
“Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first month: and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there,” etc. — Numb. xx. 1-12.
For the first two years after leaving Egypt the career of Israel, and consequently of Moses, was full of incidents. The Eed Sea was crossed, Sinai was reached, the Law was given, the Tabernacle was set up, and that economy was established by which for the next three thousand years a peculiar people was destined to be known and distinsruished. And there was at one time every appearance as if, before the second year had expired, the favoured and Heaven-protected nation would be comfortably settled in their promised land. They were already near it, so near that a few days more might have carried them into the midst of it, had they not been arrested by their own incapacity and unworthiness. A deputation of their number had been sent to explore the country. They came back with a glowing account of its climate and its produce, “it flowed with milk and honey, and here is a cluster of its grapes;” but like the golden apples guarded by the dragon, it was a treasure which could not be touched; the people were such giants and their garrisons so impregnable that it was mere madness to attempt an invasion. It was to no purpose that Joshua and Caleb protested. They did not deny that the Canaanites were tall, and their castles strong; but “the Lord is us,” and “if He delight in us, it is an exceeding good land, and He will give it us.” The contagion of dismay had overspread the multitude; a cry was raised to choose a new commander, and hasten back to Egypt; and Joshua and Caleb were warned that it was as much as their lives were worth if they spoke another word.
It was a sad outburst of cowardice and childishness — a whole army blubbering at the prospect of a battle: “All the congregation lifted up their voice and cried; and the people wept that night.” To men of mettle like Joshua, to men of sense and spirit, it was mortifying to hear them like babies, crying, “Take us back to Egypt,” forgetful of all the horrors of the house of bondage. And to men of God, like Aaron and his brother, it was still more distressing to see how, at each new danger, they lost all memory of past deliverance, and could only believe in God for the moment when His arm of might was actually made manifest. Altogether, it was a discouraging revelation, and it seemed to indicate that an abject, servile spirit on the one hand, and a great perversity on the other, were too deeply engrained to be ever pounded out, seeing that they had survived thirtyeight years of discipline and training in the heart of that desert, and seeing that on the very first trial the new race broke down in the same way with their fathers; and in view of all the provocation, we who are but flesh and blood are apt to say that Moses did well to be angry.
Angry he certainly was; and when, reverting to a former miracle, the Most High directed him to take the wonder-staff — his rod of many miracles — and at the head of the congregation “speak to the rock,” and it would “give forth its water,” in the heat and agitation of his spirit he failed to implement implicitly the Divine command. Instead of speaking to the rock he spoke to the people, and his harangue was no longer in the language calm and dignified of the lawgiver, but had a certain tone of petulance and egotism: “Here now, ye rebels; must we” — must I and Aaron, not must Jehovah — “fetch you water out of this rock?” And instead of simply speaking to it, he raised the rod and dealt it two successive strokes, just as if the rock were sharing the general perversity, and would no more than the people obey its Creator’s bidding. He was angry and he sinned. He sinned and was severely punished. Water flowed sufficient for the whole camp and the cattle, clear, cool, and eagerly gushing, enough for all the million; but at the same moment that its unmerited bounty burst on you, ye rebels, “a cup of wrath was put into the hand of Moses.” -^ To you, ye murmurers, there came forth living water; to your venerable leaders the cup of God’s anger. “The Lord spake unto Moses and unto 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.”
How severe the sentence! and how inclined we are to sympathize with those good and much-enduring men who, at the very end of their task, and on the very edge of the Promised Land, saw vanish from their grasp the blessing which they had never once forfeited all these forty years! But the Judge of all the earth must do right, and we cannot help inquiring, “What was the precise offence which was so instantly and inexorably punished?”
The usual answer and the most obvious is, that Moses lost his temper. And the fact cannot be controverted. As we read in Psalm cvi.,
1 Van Oosterzee, p. 213.
“They provoked the spirit of Moses, so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips.” And on the face of the narrative we see abundant signs of wrath and perturbation. But was Moses the only person then present whose frame of mind was not what it ought to be? Was not the whole multitude in a buzz of hot and angry murmuring? Had they not passed the night in petulant complaints and infantile lamentations? and, the day before, had they not threatened to stone Caleb with stones? We fear that there were few good tempers that morning; and if every man had borne his own iniquity, we fear that few of that company would have gone forward from Meribah, or even survived to drink its living water. What was it then? Alongj with his temper what else had Moses lost? or what was there in an act outwardly so trivial which made it “a great transgression”?
In order to arrive at a reply we must revert to the words of Jehovah: “The Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore,” etc. Here there is nothing expressly directed against their temper or spirit; but they are charged with unbelief. If their temper had failed, the saddest effect was that their faith had also failed; and, allowing their mind to be thrown off the balance, their faith shared the general unhinge-THE WATER OF MERIBAH. 3 1 i)
ment. In the dust and smoke of combat, men nob only get dim and distorted views of their fellows, but the serene sky overhead grows darkened; and this unexpected outbreak of the Israelites, whilst it took Moses and Aaron by surprise, for the instant went far to make even these good men faithless or forgetful. “Has Jehovah’s purpose been defeated? Has all this weariful detention failed of its design in weeding out the murmurers and preparing the people for the promised rest? And owing to this miserable outbreak must Aaron and I make up our minds to forty more years in the desert?” And just as happened with Jonah, who let out his spite upon the gourd, but who was really angry with Nineveh for repenting, and angry with God for sparing it; and just as happens with most people when they get into a passion, Moses wreaked his anger on the people and on the rock, but he was not altogether pleased with God Himself. For once he disobeyed his Master’s orders, and instead of doing exactly as the Lord commanded, he did what he thought should do as well, and instead of the simple and sublime instructions he had received, he substituted an unwarranted and undignified procedure of his own. For the moment he himself was unmindful of the Rock of his salvation, and from not believing made too much haste.
To use the words of one who thought profoundly and whose every word was weighty, — Dr. Robert Gordon, — “Perhaps Moses and Aaron doubted whether it were enough simply to speak to the rock, and whether it would not be necessary not only to smite it, as on a former occasion Moses had been instructed to do, but to smite it twice. If so, then it was a distrust of God’s power — a doubt whether the rock would give forth water at the Divine bidding unaccompanied with the smiting of Moses, which formed no part of his present commission. If so, the rebuke which followed is full of instruction to all subsequent times. That rock was one of the most significant types of Christ with which the Old Testament church was supplied. As that rock was once smitten with the rod of Moses, Israel’s lawgiver, so it behoved Christ the antitype to be smitten once, but only once, with the rod of the great Lawgiver, that He might vindicate the law and make it honourable. When Moses therefore smote the rock again, and twice too, not only without authority, but in opposition to the Divine command, — for he was commanded to speak to it, — he marred the beauty of that type whereby the perfection of Christ’s one sacrifice was so clearly set forth; and the rebuke which he and Aaron incurred does most emphatically condemn the presumption of those who would add to Christ’s one offering of Himself, either by works of self-righteousness, or by the frequent offering of what they call His body and blood in the idolatrous sacrifice of the mass. The divine influence which Christ by His Spirit imparts to His Church may, for the chastisement of the Church, appear for a season to be dried up, as the rock in the wilderness did for a time withhold its water from the thirsty Israelites. But in order to give forth to His people the water of life Christ needs not to be smitten again either in reality or in figure. He has only to be ’ spoken to ’ in the prayer of faith, founded on the warrant of God’s Word; and whether such prayer proceed from the individual believer in his humble cottage, or from a united Church in her collective capacity, it will not fail to draw down those communications of His grace, even the quickening influences of His Spirit, whereby He refreshes His inheritance when it is weary.”
May we not go a little further? What was Moses, what was Aaron? You reply. The one was the prince and prophet, the leader and lawgiver of Israel; the other was Israel’s priest. True; but on whose behalf — by whom appointed, whom representing? You answer, God. That is to say, each was in a certain sense a mediator. Each stood there so far representing God and communicating with Him and with Israel — the one mainly as prophet or
1 Gordon’s Christ in the Old Testament, vol. ii. pp. 95, 96.
revealer of His mind, — the other mainly as priest or reconciler for the sins of the people. For such a function the first essential was unison with God; the next, and hardly the next, for included in the former, compassion on the ignorant and wayward. In a dispensation itself mainly gracious, and foreshadowing one which would be grace altogether, it was of prime importance that the mediating men should be men merciful and gracious, long-suffering and slow to anger. And such they were in marvellous measure. The man Moses was exceeding meek, and if for patience and a sweet submissiveness the palm had been assigned to any one besides, it would have been to Aaron his brother. But after all they were human. Their endurance was wonderful, but it was not inexhaustible; and on this occasion, instead of hastening in betwixt an infatuated people and the God against whom they murmured, and crying, “Pardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of Thy mercy,” when it turned out that God had this time pardoned already, and was about to give them good for their evil, — instead of faithfully exhibiting the Divine munificence and calmly asking the rock for its water, they (so to speak) defeated the Divine generosity, and failing to sympathize with God’s forgivingness, He was not “sanctified in the eyes of the children of Israel.” The final start for Canaan was marked, like every previous stage, by murmurs; but remembering that they were but flesh, the Lord vrould not deal with them after their sins, nor reward them according to their iniquities. No fire came forth, no chasm opened; but “all was mercy, all was mild,” and, condoning their complaints, the gift they needed was about to be conferred on the rebellious. But to this effort of long-suffering and loving-kindness the chafed spirit of Moses and Aaron was unequal. By the way they managed it they spoiled the moral glory of the miracle, and what on God’s side was a gift of pure grace, under their hard blows and hot words assumed the aspect of an angry gospel. They believed Him not, to sanctify Him in the eyes of the children of Israel.
Brimming over with instruction as is this passage, we must leave it with a few remarks.
1. How careful preachers of the gospel and expounders of Scripture should be not to give an erroneous impression of God’s mind or message. The mental acumen is rare, but the right spirit is rarer. But what is the right spirit? — A loving spirit, a gentle spirit, a faithful spirit, a meek and weaned spirit, a spirit which says, “Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth,” and a spirit which adds, “All that the Lord giveth me, that will I speak,” that excellent spirit which is only imparted by the good Spirit of God. For if He withdraw, even a Moses ceases to be meek, and ceasing to be meek even a Moses becomes a bad divine and an erroneous teacher, striking the rock that has been already stricken once for all, and preaching glad tidings gruffly. He who gives the living water does not grudge it; but sometimes, instead of “Ho! every one that thirsteth,” the preacher says, “Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?” and makes the very invitation repulsive.
2. When any one has run long and run well, how sad it is to stumble within a few steps of the goal 1 If Moses had an earthly wish, it was to see Israel safe in their inheritance. And his wish was all but consummated. Faith and patience had held out well-nigh forty years, and in a few months more the Jordan would be crossed and the work would be finished. And who can tell but this very nearness of the prize helped to create something of a presumptuous confidence? The blood of Moses was hot to begin with, and he was not the meekest of men when he smote the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. But he had got a good lesson in ruling his spirit, and betwixt the long sojourn with Jethro and the self-discipline needful in the charge of this multitude, he might fancy that he had now his foot on the neck of this enemy: when lo! the sin revives and Moses dies.
Blessed is the man that feareth alway! Blessed is the man who, although years have passed without an attempt at burglary, still bars his doors and sees his windows fastened! Blessed is the man who, although a generation has gone since the last eruption, forbears to build on the volcanic soil, and dreads fires which have smouldered for fourscore years! Blessed is the man who, even when the high seas are crossed and the land is made, still keeps an outlook! Blessed is the man who, even on the confines of Canaan, takes heed of the evil heart, lest, with a promise of entering in, he should come short through unbelief!
3. Elevation of mind and sweetness of spirit are pearls of great price, and if we wish to preserve them we had better intrust them to God’s own keeping. If Moses lost his faith, it was by first losing self-command; and if a man lose this, it is hard to say what next he may lose: like the mad warrior who makes a missile of his shield and hurls it at the head of an enemy, he is henceforward open to every fiery dart, to the cut and thrust of every assailant. But, as John Newton remarks, “the grace of God is as necessary to create a right temper in a Christian on the breaking of a china plate as on the death of an only son; “and as no man can tell on any dawning day but what that may be the most trying day in all his life, how wise to pray without ceasing,” Uphold me according unto Thy word.
Hold Thou me up, and I shall be safe.” “Set a watch, 0 Lord, before my mouth: keep the door of my lips.” “Who can understand his errors? cleanse Thou me from secret faults. Keep back Thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.”