Numbers 20:1

Between the first verse of this chapter and the last verse of Numbers 14, there was an interval of about thirty-eight years, only five short chapters (Numbers 15-19) having been allotted by Moses to record everything of any great importance that happened to Israel during the whole thirty-eight years. Even the things recorded do not appear to have been given in any pattern, and not even chronologically. "People talk about Israel being God's Chosen People, but they didn't amount to anything when not doing the will of God."[1]

During the long interval of a generation, Israel was in a period of "great declension, even apostasy. O.T. passages confirming this are in Ezekiel 20:15f; Amos 5:25f; and Hosea 9:10."[2] This view is fully confirmed by Acts 7:42f.

The purpose of this chapter is apparently that of recounting the death of the great leaders of Israel before their entry into Canaan, the only reason for Moses' own death not being recounted here probably being that Moses did not write the account of his own death, that account in Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 34) being reserved for its addition by the inspired Joshua. Even so, Moses fully recounted the tragic failure, momentarily, of his great faith and the ensuing displeasure of God. Over and beyond the sin of Moses at Meribah, it was contrary to the will of God for Moses to enter Canaan as the leader of Israel. Had he done so, the essential truth that neither Moses (nor the Law that came through him) could lead men into heaven would have been compromised. That achievement belonged to Christ only, and Moses, as the great O.T. type of Christ, was destined at last to lay his homage at the feet of Jesus on the Holy Mountain. Not even Moses could save men from sin, and had he led Israel into Canaan the accuracy of the typology would have been compromised.

"And the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month: and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there.

And there was no water for the congregation: and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. And the people strove with Moses and spake, saying, Would that we had died when our brethren died before Jehovah! And why have ye brought the assembly of Jehovah into this wilderness, that we should die there, we and our beasts? And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? it is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink. And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tent of meeting, and fell upon their faces: and the glory of Jehovah appeared unto them. And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod, and assemble the congregation, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes, that it give forth its water; and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock; so thou shalt give the congregation and their cattle drink. And Moses took the rod from before Jehovah, as he commanded him."

"In the first month ..." (Numbers 20:1). "This is the first month of the fortieth year."[3] Of course, the people had already gone to Kadesh in the second year (Numbers 13:26), but this does not mean that they had remained in the same area all that time. During the long interim, there might have been maintained a kind of headquarters here centering around the tabernacle, but it is most likely that the greater part of Israel spread out over a large section of the Sinaitic area. The mention here of "the whole congregation" seems to imply this. The people were now assembled for the second time to begin the movement to Canaan.

"Against Moses and Aaron ... and the people strove with Moses ..." (Numbers 20:2,3). Any thoughtful person must stand in consternation before the allegation that there is some kind of contradiction here. Gray affirmed that it was "with Moses alone that the people quarreled."[4] All such allegations are due to the paranoid preoccupation of finding discrepancies and contradictions in God's Word. Allis has thoroughly refuted the unreasonable, inconsistent, and ridiculous nonsense involved in taking every little variation in terminology as "proof!" of divided sources. "Such rules cannot be consistently followed even by the critics themselves, as they freely admit the unity of many other passages having exactly the same little variations."[5]

"Why have ye brought up the congregation into this wilderness ...?" (Numbers 20:5). The verbatim resemblance of these words to the complaint of a previous generation (Exodus 17:3) suggests a stylized type of complaint, probably utilized by Israel over and over again. "It is always the few who put words into the mouths of the many, and this probably indicates that the ringleaders of this complaint were from among the then-young survivors of the other."[6]

"Take the rod ... speak ye to the rock before their eyes ..." (Numbers 20:8,9). The rod here certainly appears to be that rod alone which in the history of Israel could properly be called "the" rod, namely the one used as the instrument in the hands of Moses by which God wrought the mighty miracles of deliverance on behalf of Israel. Some very respected Bible scholars, however, see this as the rod of Aaron that had been laid up before the Lord in the ark of the covenant, the one that had leafed out with blossoms and ripe almonds. This view is based on Numbers 20:9, where it is declared that Moses took the rod from before Jehovah, and also in view of the fact that no mention whatever of Moses' rod ever having been laid up "before the Lord" is made elsewhere in the Scriptures. While we disagree with this view, it nevertheless has much to commend it. There was certainly a variation here in the use of the rod, which apparently was not to be the instrument here but merely to be present when Moses spoke the word. There was thus-a variation also in the procedure Moses was instructed to follow: namely, that he should here "speak to the rock" and upon previous occasions that the rod itself was to be used for "stretching out" or for striking. These variations certainly make it possible to believe that there was also a variation in which rod was to be used. Furthermore, the symbolism of the whole event likewise fits into this view. "The Rock (Christ, 1 Corinthians 10:4) did not need to be struck twice. Christ, once smitten for our sins, did not need to be smitten (to death) the second time. Moses' act of disobedience implied typically that one sacrifice was insufficient, thus setting aside the eternal efficacy of the blood of Christ."[7]