“Moses’s Sin”

 “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.” (Numbers 20:1)

Copyright CaptBlackEagle 2020

Moses was not a perfect person. He had grown into a man with the family of the Pharaoh and learned that he was not an Egyptian. Moses lost his self-control when he saw an Egyptian beating one of he brethren. Then Moses ran off into the land of Midian.

It was in Midian that God spoke to Moses and instructed him on how to deal with the Pharaoh. Moses listened to God and followed his instructions. At Mount Sinai Moses received the laws from God. Not in a dream, but in a personal conversation.

The constant complaining to Moses and to God was like children asking, “are we there yet”, to the point of nausea.

It was the pressure of leading the children of Israel that was Moses’s downfall.

“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.” (Numbers 20:8-11)

God told Moses to speak unto the rock, not to beat it. Moses didn’t say to the people, “Watch how God provides you water”. Moses puffed himself up as being God, “Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?”

As punishment to the children of Israel, to include Moses and Aaron, they would die in the wilderness. Their children would continue into the promised land.

People are like that. They ignore God and substitute themselves as God.