The Sin of Moses

by Ivan Maddox

Decatur, GA

Sometimes the things God does in righteousness, wisdom and justice seem blatantly unfair to us humans. Such is the case with God's refusal to allow Moses to enter into the Promised Land. 

Moses had answered God's call to go before Pharaoh and demand that he let God¹s people go; he had stood as God¹s man in Egypt, doing mighty works there by the power of God; he had led more than two million Israelites out of Egypt, walking faithfully with God when everyone else seemed to be turning their backs on Him; and he had wandered with the Israelites in the wilderness for forty years, after they refused to obey God by entering into the Promised Land. Moses was the meekest man in the earth, and knew the Lord face to face.

Then Moses made one mistake, and all those years of service seem to have counted for nothing. Moses even went to God to beg his forgiveness for what he had done, and asked for permission to enter into the Promised Land. He said to the Israelites shortly before his death,

And I besought the LORD at that time, saying,

O Lord GOD, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand: for what God [is there] in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy works, and according to thy might?

I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that [is] beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon.

But the LORD was wroth with me for your sakes, and would not hear me: and the LORD said unto me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter.

Get thee up into the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and behold [it] with thine eyes: for thou shalt not go over this Jordan.

But charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him: for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see.

Deuteronomy 3:23-28.

In effect, God told Moses, ³Don¹t ever pray about this again!² Again and again Moses had made intercession for Israel before God, and God had forgiven their sins. But; in this instance, Moses was not even allowed to intercede for himself! 

What did Moses do that was so serious that God refused to allow him to enter into the Promised Land? To find out, we need to take a close look at what happened in this incident.

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.

And 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 why have ye brought up the congregation of the LORD into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there?

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 tabernacle of the congregation, and they fell upon their faces: and the glory of the LORD appeared unto them.

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.

Numbers 20:1-8.

Moses was a prophet, a spokesman for God. The Israelites had come to him, grumbling as they so often did, to let Moses know in no uncertain terms that they had no water and were not happy about the situation. Moses and Aaron patiently went to God on behalf of the people. God instructed them to gather the people together and speak to a certain rock before their eyes. When they did this, God would cause water to come out of the rock.

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].

This was definitely not what God had told Moses to do! In spite of this, God still met the needs of the people by providing water from the rock.

It's very easy to understand Moses' feelings in this situation. Moses had had to put up with the complaining and disobedience of God¹s people for forty years. The older generation of Israelites had just about died out, because of their refusal to go into the Promised Land when God told them to. The Israelites that Moses was leading now were, for the most part, the new generation of Israel. But now they were acting just like their parents. After forty years of putting up with the unbelief of the people, Moses had had it!

No doubt Moses felt much better after he told the people off and smacked the rock a couple of times. But this was not what God had told him to do.

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.

This [is] the water of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with the LORD, and he was sanctified in them.

Numbers 20:9-13.

A quick look at this record still doesn't seem to tell us why this was so serious. Moses lost his temper and said some things that he shouldn¹t have said. Is that so bad? Haven¹t we all done similar things? Will God come down hard on us if we lose our tempers?

But Moses had a very special responsibility before God. Moses was a prophet. It is our failure to recognize the seriousness of the responsibility that belongs to a prophet that keeps us from seeing how serious what Moses did was.

A prophet is a spokesman (or spokeswoman) for God. In Exodus 4:14-16, God is even more emphatic about this: a prophet acts as God's mouth with respect to the people he is talking to. 

And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses, and he said, [Is] not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee: and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart.

And thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth: and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do.

And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, [even] he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God.

Exodus 4:14-16.

As God's mouth to the people, a prophet was responsible to speak exactly what God told him to say: no more, no less. To speak anything in God's name other than what God told you to say was punishable by death!

But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall prophesy in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.

Deuteronomy 18:20.

When Moses spoke and did what was on his heart instead of doing and saying what God had told him to say and do, he changed God's Word that God had given him to speak and carry out. As far as God was concerned, Moses and Aaron rebelled against the revelation He had given them.

And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in mount Hor, by the coast of the land of Edom, saying,

Aaron shall be gathered unto his people: for he shall not enter into the land which I have given unto the children of Israel, because ye rebelled against my word at the water of Meribah.

Numbers 20:23-24. 

How much damage was done by the disobedience of Moses and Aaron? To the children of Israel who were there at the time, not much damage seems to have been done. In spite of the disobedience of Moses and Aaron, God brought forth water out of the rock for the Israelites, meeting the need of the people.

Even this is amazing, when you think about it. God gave Moses instructions for working a miracle. Moses disobeyed, but God still brought the miracle to pass. God did something really beautiful here, and critical to the ministry of Moses. God did not humiliate Moses in front of Israel by doing what He was perfectly justified in doing -- not carrying out His part in the miracle since Moses had not carried out his part. He did not give Israel any reason at all to believe that Moses was not still His man. And Moses was. The entire book of Deuteronomy was written by Moses after this event took place.

But in a sense, damage was done to the Word of God. The details of what God says and does are very important and full of meaning. In this instance, a very important detail was changed.

In Exodus 17, there is a record of an incident that occurred in this same spot, Meribah, forty years earlier. At that time, the Israelites were on the verge of stoning Moses because they had no water for themselves, their children and their cattle. Moses asked God what to do.

And the Lord said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go,

Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

Exodus 17:5-6.

This rock, which Moses smote at God's command, and which brought forth water for the people, represented Jesus Christ.

Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;

And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;

And did all eat the same spiritual meat;

And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.

I Corinthians 10:1-4.

From verse 4, we see that the water from the rock represented spiritual water. Jesus himself explained what this spiritual water was.

In the last day, that great [day] of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.

He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet [given]; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

John 7:37-39.

In light of this, it is easy to see the significance of the rock being smitten before water would come forth out of it -- the first time.

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

But he [was] wounded for our transgressions, [he was] bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace [was] upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

Isaiah 53:4-5.

The smiting of the rock represented the smiting of Christ -- the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ. It was necessary that the rock be smitten before the living water would be available.

But forty years later, God did not instruct Moses to smite the rock. There is a very important reason for this: The True Rock, Jesus Christ, having once been smitten, is never to be smitten again! Instead, it is to be spoken to when God's people come to it thirsty!

By smiting the rock the second time, Moses was, in a figure, crucifying Christ a second time!

In Deuteronomy, a very important truth about God's response to Moses' disobedience is set forth twice.

Also the Lord was angry with me for your sakes, saying, Thou also shalt not go in thither.

Deuteronomy 1:37.

Furthermore the Lord was angry with me for your sakes, and sware that I should not go over the Jordan, and that I should not go in unto that good land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee [for] an inheritance.

Deuteronomy 4:21.

In E. W. Bullinger¹s ³Companion Bible,² There is a note on the word ³anger² in I Kings 11:9. The Hebrew word for ³anger² there is 'ANAPH. This word, according to Bullinger, is only used in the Bible of Divine anger. It occurs 14 times in the Old Testament. It is used six times in the Hithpael tense (Deut 1:37; 4:21; 9:8, 20; I Kings 11:9; II Kings 17:18.). In this tense, the word means ³to force one¹s self to be angry (as with someone you love).² 

This sheds an interesting light on this whole situation, and helps us to set it in perspective. God did not want to be angry with Moses over this. However, He forced Himself to be angry for the sake of the people and to punish Moses for this sin.

What was at stake in this situation was the integrity and accuracy of God's Word. Tampering with God's Word -- even God's spoken Word -- is serious business, and evokes a serious response on His part.

God dealt with Moses' disobedience as a very serious matter. God said concerning Moses' actions that Moses:

1. Did not believe Him in this instance. Numbers 20:12.

2. Did not sanctify God, or treat Him as holy, in this instance. Numbers 20:12.

3. Rebelled against the Word of the Lord. Numbers 20:24.

From our point of view, what Moses did was a very minor thing. He didn't worship other gods. He didn't make a graven or molten image to represent God (like Aaron did one time -- and was forgiven!). He didn't murder anybody; he didn't commit adultery with anybody; he didn't steal from anybody. Moses got a little bit upset, and said some things that he shouldn't have said. It seems hardly worth calling a sin!

They angered [him] also at the waters of strife, so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes:

Because they provoked his spirit, so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips.

Psalm 106:32-33.

But Moses disobeyed God while he was in the process of speaking and acting as God's prophet, God's spokesman, God's mouth. Because of this, Moses was given the same penalty as the unbelieving Israelites who refused to enter the promised land when God told them to go in.

Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,

Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:

When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.

Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in [their] heart; and they have not known my ways.

So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)

Hebrews 3:7-11.

Moses was not one of these, but he was counted as one of these because of his one act of disobedience. In Deuteronomy 4:21 we are told that God swore that Moses would not go over the Jordan, just like he did with the unbelieving Israelites. In doing this, God was showing both the greatness of His concern for the integrity of His Word, and his impartiality in dealing with men.

For the LORD your God [is] God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward:

Deuteronomy 10:17.

God has not changed. He has the same concern for the accuracy and integrity of His Word that He had in the days of Moses. 

God has magnified His Word above all His name (Psalm 138:2). When we change or add to His Word, we are magnifying ourselves above His Word, and, as a result, above Him.

Speaking for God is serious business. If God gives you revelation to give to someone else, it is imperative that you speak exactly what God has told you to say -- no more, no less.

Every word of God [is] pure: he [is] a shield unto them that put their trust in him.

Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.

Proverbs 30:5-6.

Ref: http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~cmadd01/mosessin.html