The children of Israel have been wandering the wilderness watching the older people die because of their sin of unbelief. Do you think that they changed their attitude? Nope! And it was going to push Moses past the point of patience.
Numbers 20:2, 6-8- And there was no water for the congregation: and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. 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.
God told Moses to go to the Rock once again. This time Moses was told to speak to the rock and the rock would give them water.
Numbers 20:10-11- 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.
Moses was so upset with the complaining of the children of Israel that he hit the rock instead of speaking to it. In his anger, Moses had disobeyed God!
Numbers 20:12- 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.
God told Moses that his punishment would be to die in the wilderness with the others that had disobeyed Him.
Why do you think God was so upset with Moses for hitting the rock? It's because the rock was a picture of something.
I Corinthians 10:4b- and that Rock was Christ.
The rock was only to be struck once because Christ was only going to die once. After that, all anyone had to do to get saved would be speak to Christ.
Hebrews 9:28a- So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many
Moses didn't realize that he was breaking the picture of the type of Christ. He didn't understand that God was trying to show the Hebrew children something special.
Moses asked the Lord many times to forgive him and let him enter the Promised Land. God did forgive Moses, but God couldn't take away the punishment for sin. Moses would be able to see the Promised Land from a mountain, but he would not be allowed to enter it with the children of Israel.
Numbers 20:23-24- 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.
Not only would Moses die, but Aaron, also, would die without entering the Promised Land. Aaron was going to die now, and his son, Eleazar, was going to take over as the high priest.
Numbers 20:25-29- Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up unto mount Hor: And strip Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son: and Aaron shall be gathered unto his people, and shall die there. And Moses did as the LORD commanded: and they went up into mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation. And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son; and Aaron died there in the top of the mount: and Moses and Eleazar came down from the mount. And when all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, they mourned for Aaron thirty days, even all the house of Israel.
The Israelites realized that even their leaders, the ones chosen by God Himself, weren't allowed to disobey God and get away with it. They saw that all sin was to be punished- that was the point of the law. All sin was wicked in God's sight was something that God wants everyone to understand!
