20:1 And the people of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh. And Miriam died there and was buried there.
The Waters of Meribah
2 Now there was no water for the congregation. And they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. 3 And the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Would that we had perished when our brothers perished before the LORD! 4 Why have you brought the assembly of the LORD into this wilderness, that we should die here, both we and our cattle? 5 And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink.” 6 Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces. And the glory of the LORD appeared to them, 7 and the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 8 “Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.” 9 And Moses took the staff from before the LORD, as he commanded him.
Moses Strikes the Rock
10 Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” 11 And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock. 12 And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.” 13 These are the waters of Meribah,1 where the people of Israel quarreled with the LORD, and through them he showed himself holy.
Edom Refuses Passage
14 Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom: “Thus says your brother Israel: You know all the hardship that we have met: 15 how our fathers went down to Egypt, and we lived in Egypt a long time. And the Egyptians dealt harshly with us and our fathers. 16 And when we cried to the LORD, he heard our voice and sent an angel and brought us out of Egypt. And here we are in Kadesh, a city on the edge of your territory. 17 Please let us pass through your land. We will not pass through field or vineyard, or drink water from a well. We will go along the King’s Highway. We will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left until we have passed through your territory.” 18 But Edom said to him, “You shall not pass through, lest I come out with the sword against you.” 19 And the people of Israel said to him, “We will go up by the highway, and if we drink of your water, I and my livestock, then I will pay for it. Let me only pass through on foot, nothing more.” 20 But he said, “You shall not pass through.” And Edom came out against them with a large army and with a strong force. 21 Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his territory, so Israel turned away from him.
The Death of Aaron
22 And they journeyed from Kadesh, and the people of Israel, the whole congregation, came to Mount Hor. 23 And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor, on the border of the land of Edom, 24 “Let Aaron be gathered to his people, for he shall not enter the land that I have given to the people of Israel, because you rebelled against my command at the waters of Meribah. 25 Take Aaron and Eleazar his son and bring them up to Mount Hor. 26 And strip Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son. And Aaron shall be gathered to his people and shall die there.” 27 Moses did as the LORD commanded. And they went up Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation. 28 And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son. And Aaron died there on the top of the mountain. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain. 29 And when all the congregation saw that Aaron had perished, all the house of Israel wept for Aaron thirty days.
20:1 And the people of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh. And Miriam died there and was buried there.
The Waters of Meribah
2 Now there was no water for the congregation. And they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. 3 And the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Would that we had perished when our brothers perished before the LORD! 4 Why have you brought the assembly of the LORD into this wilderness, that we should die here, both we and our cattle? 5 And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink.” 6 Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces. And the glory of the LORD appeared to them, 7 and the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 8 “Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.” 9 And Moses took the staff from before the LORD, as he commanded him.
Moses Strikes the Rock
10 Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” 11 And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock. 12 And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.” 13 These are the waters of Meribah,1 where the people of Israel quarreled with the LORD, and through them he showed himself holy.
Edom Refuses Passage
14 Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom: “Thus says your brother Israel: You know all the hardship that we have met: 15 how our fathers went down to Egypt, and we lived in Egypt a long time. And the Egyptians dealt harshly with us and our fathers. 16 And when we cried to the LORD, he heard our voice and sent an angel and brought us out of Egypt. And here we are in Kadesh, a city on the edge of your territory. 17 Please let us pass through your land. We will not pass through field or vineyard, or drink water from a well. We will go along the King’s Highway. We will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left until we have passed through your territory.” 18 But Edom said to him, “You shall not pass through, lest I come out with the sword against you.” 19 And the people of Israel said to him, “We will go up by the highway, and if we drink of your water, I and my livestock, then I will pay for it. Let me only pass through on foot, nothing more.” 20 But he said, “You shall not pass through.” And Edom came out against them with a large army and with a strong force. 21 Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his territory, so Israel turned away from him.
The Death of Aaron
22 And they journeyed from Kadesh, and the people of Israel, the whole congregation, came to Mount Hor. 23 And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor, on the border of the land of Edom, 24 “Let Aaron be gathered to his people, for he shall not enter the land that I have given to the people of Israel, because you rebelled against my command at the waters of Meribah. 25 Take Aaron and Eleazar his son and bring them up to Mount Hor. 26 And strip Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son. And Aaron shall be gathered to his people and shall die there.” 27 Moses did as the LORD commanded. And they went up Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation. 28 And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son. And Aaron died there on the top of the mountain. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain. 29 And when all the congregation saw that Aaron had perished, all the house of Israel wept for Aaron thirty days.
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Joel Brooks:
Invite you to open your bibles to Numbers chapter 20. Numbers chapter 20. We'll begin reading verse 1. And the people of Israel, the whole congregation came into the wilderness of Zin in the 1st month, and the people stayed in Kadesh, and Miriam died there and was buried there. Now there was no water for the congregation, and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron.
Joel Brooks:
And the people quarreled with Moses and said, would that we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord. Why have you brought the assembly of the lord into the wilderness, that we should die here, both we and our cattle? And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us into this evil place? It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there's no water to drink. Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces.
Joel Brooks:
And the glory of the Lord appeared to them. And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, take the staff and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron, your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle. And Moses took the staff from before the Lord as he commanded him. Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock, and he said to them, here now, you rebels.
Joel Brooks:
Shall we bring water for you out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank and their livestock. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, Therefore, you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them. These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarreled with the lord, and through them, he showed himself holy. Pray with me.
Joel Brooks:
Lord, we thank you for your word. We pray that in all the times that we have read your word tonight already, that your spirit, he would be at work, he would write those things on our hearts, he would convict us where we need convicting, he would heal us where we need healing. God, my prayer now is that my words would fall to the ground and blow away. But Lord, let your words remain, may they hit their mark and change us. And I pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:
Amen. And for those of you who are new, we've been studying the life of Moses now for months, and we're nearing the end. Next week's gonna be our last week on the life of Moses. And the reason we have spent so much time in Exodus and now in Numbers is that much of our Christian vocabulary, it finds its roots here. Words like salvation, redemption, glory of the Lord, freedom, atonement, they all find their roots here in these early books.
Joel Brooks:
And if we want to understand this Christian vocabulary, understand how it applies to Christ, we need to first find out how it applied here. And so I hope this has been a a beneficial study to you guys. Last week, we looked at the Israelites coming up to the very edge of the promised land in Numbers 14, and then out of fear, they turned around and they they just said, no, we don't want to take this. And so the Lord, he sentenced them to 40 years of wandering in the desert. Now remember that during this time, they didn't cease to be his children.
Joel Brooks:
God took care of the Israelites. He still gave them manna. He still gave them water to drink. He still protected them from their enemies. He still went on before them as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
Joel Brooks:
He did all of those things, but they never really knew the joy that came from being a child of God. And their lives were without purpose. They were sentenced to 40 years of killing time because of their lack of faith. Now, numbers 20, what we just read here, it takes place towards the end of this period. They've been wandering around for about 38 or so years now.
Joel Brooks:
Moses, who was old when they he took this job, now has got to be approaching a 120 years old. And so he should have spent the last 38 years in ease, you know, eating from the grapes, drinking, from the wine and from the honey, all flowing in this abundant land. But instead he's been with a bunch of grumbling people in the desert killing time. And this has got to wear on you. I mean, some of you just got back from Christmas vacations and you were around some people who you're not normally around for just a few days, you just maybe grumble and complain about everything, and it wears on you just a few days, and you can't wait to get out of there.
Joel Brooks:
Imagine 38 years of this. It's wearing on him. And in one weak moment, Moses disobeyed God, and it cost him everything. God said, you can no longer go into the promised land. You are gonna have the same penalty as this faithless generation.
Joel Brooks:
Now the chapter begins with the death of Miriam, his sister, and this had to be terribly sad for Moses because his sister has been with him almost his entire life. She was there, rescuing him basically from the river when he went to pharaoh's daughter. She's the one who said, hey, how about I get a Hebrew mother to take care of him? She was the one when they parted through the Red Sea, she picked up the tambourine and she started a song, and all the maidens of Israel joined her in singing how the Lord has thrown the horse and its rider in the sea. And so she has been with him all this time and now she never gotten to taste the promised land, she's gone.
Joel Brooks:
And shortly after she died, perhaps when they were still mourning her death, the people started grumbling again. It was not a new complaint. Moses, why did he take us out here? To kill us? Moses, our lives were better back in Egypt.
Joel Brooks:
Moses, why are you doing this? And and I think combined with with all these years of frustration, combined with the death of his sister, he finally disobeys god. He first he went before the Lord and he interceded for them. It says that, he went and he he fell prostrate before the Lord. And God said, I want you to go out, and I want you to speak to a rock and give them water.
Joel Brooks:
And and Moses, he doesn't speak to the rock, he speaks to the people, and then he hits the rock and God says, because of your disobedience, you cannot enter into the promised land. Just like that. Just one little sentence. Everything you've been working towards gone. Now I find this surprising for a number of reason reasons that Moses would do that.
Joel Brooks:
First being, obedience has marked his life. When you read through Exodus and you read through Numbers, you see how he's always obeying the Lord. A matter of fact, there's a phrase that you will find over 30 times, something like this, and all that the Lord commanded Moses, He did. You'll find that over 30 times, all that the Lord commanded Moses, he did. Yet here in this moment of weakness, all of a sudden it cost him everything, his disobedience.
Joel Brooks:
And and we can take from this, obedience is not something that we take lightly as Christians. You know, we serve a God who demands total obedience. Remember that he has freed them from slavery and bondage of Egypt to service in the Lord. To obeying the Lord. And God has been preparing Moses, I think, for this moment his entire life.
Joel Brooks:
And you can see this if you kind of look between the lines a little bit, in Moses's life, how God had been teaching him obedience. And I'll just look at Exodus 19 at Mount Sinai. This is it's somewhat comical actually what God does in Moses here. In 19 verse 1, God tells Moses, come up to the mountain. Come up.
Joel Brooks:
Climb up to the top. Now Moses is 80 years old at this point, and we don't know exactly how high Mount Sinai was because we don't know the exact mountain, but we know the range. And so it's somewhere between 65185100 feet. And so God asked this 80 year old man, climb up the mountain. And so he gets up there, and in verse 7, God says, go back down.
Joel Brooks:
Verse 8, God says, come back up. Verse 10, God says, go back down. Verse 20, come back up. Verse 21, go back down. Moses is going up, down, up, down at the bidding of the Lord, this old man.
Joel Brooks:
And and finally, Moses, just just a little bit, he lets it slip that he's not quite happy with this. And, God had told him and said, hey, I want you to go down and tell all the people they need to barricade around this mountain. Nobody touches this mountain. And so he sends Moses down there. And Moses goes down there and tells everybody, barricade the mountain.
Joel Brooks:
Nobody could touch this mountain. And then he comes back up. His first conversation with god is, okay, Moses, I want you to go down there and tell the people that they cannot touch the mountain, to put barricades around the mountain and make sure they don't touch it. And to which Moses responds, Lord, the people cannot come up to the mountain for you yourself already warned us saying, set limits around the mountain and consecrate it. To which the Lord said, thanks for reminding me Moses.
Joel Brooks:
You know, sometimes all these little busyness, things just kind of slip, and you know, thank you. No. The Lord said, go down. So Moses goes down, and he tells the people exactly what he had just told them, then God says, now come up. Down, up, down, up.
Joel Brooks:
Moses goes up there and he receives the 10 Commandments, and those first Commandments say that the the Lord gave them the tablets, and they were written on by the very finger of God. Moses comes down, and he smashes the tablets. Next time, God says, bring up the tablets yourself, Moses. He's teaching him obedience. And you see this all through Moses's life because he wants Moses to obey him instantly without question.
Joel Brooks:
He doesn't have to know the reason why. Yeah, I know you already said that. I know you already told the people. No. Go.
Joel Brooks:
Go. And so when God would take him to a point where he'd say, I want you to strike the rock, he would strike the rock. Or when he takes Moses to his place and says, speak to the rock, he would speak to it. Obedience would be instant. Now now let me point out something really obvious.
Joel Brooks:
It's so obvious I almost didn't mention it. Maybe it's, so obvious we don't think about it, but the the reason that Moses should have obeyed the Lord is because the Lord told him so. The Lord told him. But this is not how most of us relate to God. We need to agree with him first.
Joel Brooks:
And once we agree with God, then we obey him. God, give me your reasons, then I'll obey. I have a 3 year old, Natalie, loves to play in the backyard. Now she doesn't do this. Her older sister used to when she was little, but suppose Natalie picked up a can of, mosquito repellent, a can of off, and she's just about to squirt the whole thing in her mouth, which I wouldn't put it past her, she would do it.
Joel Brooks:
And I and I'd say, Natalie, stop. Stop. Don't do that. And she looks at me. Why?
Joel Brooks:
And I'd say, well, Natalie, that has some harmful chemicals in it. And, see if you were to put that in your mouth, your mouth might swell up swell up, even you might, you know, get really sick. If you drink a lot of it, perhaps you'll die. And Natalie, who's 3, she would look at me and she'd go, daddy, that's a very persuasive argument. Thank you.
Joel Brooks:
That's, that's information I did not know. And and so I'm not gonna do it this time. I'm going to put this this can of off down. Thank you for warning me about daddy that daddy. And and if she were to do that, did she obey me?
Joel Brooks:
I mean, she she put the the off down. She didn't obey me, she just agreed with me. Now what happens come the next time when she doesn't agree with me? Well, she needs to obey me because I'm a lot smarter than her. I've got a lot more experience than her.
Joel Brooks:
And in the same way, in the way we relate to God, when he tells us to do something, we need to obey immediately. Because kind of the the the wisdom gulf between us and the lord is actually much greater than me and my little girl. God's not always going to explain things. Our obedience needs to be instant. We have this phrase at our household, girls, delayed obedience is disobedience.
Joel Brooks:
Delayed obedience is disobedience. You need to obey us right now. But so often we ask God, Why? If you were to go back to man's original sin in the garden, I find it interesting how Satan tempted Adam and Eve, how he tempted and and really what he didn't do, he didn't go up and question God's authority. He didn't say, hey, Adam, Eve, who is God that he could tell you what to do?
Joel Brooks:
He didn't do that. Too obvious. They know he's the guy who created us. Okay? He has the authority to tell us what to do.
Joel Brooks:
So then, the serpent, he goes another route, and he said, well, maybe I can get him to question what God actually said. Did God actually say that you're not allowed to eat from this tree? And Eve said, yes, God did say, we can't eat from it. So then the serpent said, well, I know. I can get him to disagree with God's assessment as to what will happen.
Joel Brooks:
You know what? You eat from that, you're not going to die. You're not going to die. When Adam and Eve thought about it, they disagreed with what God told them. You know what?
Joel Brooks:
We're not going to die if we eat this. And it led them to disobey. And we need to obey God just because he says so. Just because he says so. Let's go back to Moses.
Joel Brooks:
God's been preparing him for this moment in his life, but he disobeys and it costs him. And it says it dishonors God, it dishonors him, he didn't treat God as holy. And I find this really interesting and when God says, you know what, you didn't uphold me as holy in front of these people. And the reason I find this interesting is because it was a private conversation between Moses and the lord. None of the people knew what God had told Moses to do.
Joel Brooks:
The only thing they knew is that, hey, there was water coming down of this rock. Moses did it. They didn't know there was disobedience there. But God says, you didn't treat me as holy in front of all these people. And what he is saying is, even though your sin is private, it affects everyone.
Joel Brooks:
Your private sin has public consequences. My private sin has public consequences for you. Just as my private obedience has consequences for you. And it's the same with you if you bring your private sin, your unrepentant sin in here, it has consequences for all of us. You know, Paul said, you were a temple of the Holy Spirit, and it should be translated y'all if it was a good, you know, southern bible.
Joel Brooks:
Y'all are a temple of the Holy Spirit. Collectively, when you come together, you're God's temple, and His spirit breathes in your midst. And so collectively, we form something beautiful. And so when we bring this unrepentant sin and things in here, it affects us all. Private sin has public consequences here.
Joel Brooks:
It will come out. Another reason that I think Moses disobeyed God is he began to think of himself as being pretty spiritually superior to everyone. Just a few chapters earlier in Numbers 12, it says, Moses was the most humble man who walked the earth. Now we'll assume that another person wrote that in for Moses at this point, but, he says, he's the most humble man who walked the entire earth. Does this look like humility?
Joel Brooks:
Do you want us to bring forth water from this rock, you rebels? Basically, hey, sinners, do we need to bail you out again? We can do it. All of us here are capable of the moral failures we see in others. And Moses had seen such spiritual failure, lack of faith, bitterness, grumbling in others, and he just didn't think himself capable.
Joel Brooks:
But all of us are capable of these things, especially when we begin to think we're not. That we're somebody as if Moses is gonna be the one who gets the water out of the rock and not the Lord. All of us are capable. You see this in Peter, you know, in the classic example when Peter goes to the Lord, you know, here's the rock. Peter, Lord, if everybody else denies you, I won't.
Joel Brooks:
And he's saying this in the presence of others. All these people here, you know, even if they deny you, I won't because my faith is greater than theirs. Just set himself up for a terrible fall. We do that all the time. I mean, we do that with with with churches, you know.
Joel Brooks:
We might look at another church and say, oh gosh, man, they do all these things wrong. Oh, that's horrible. And when, you know, we kinda get sore from patting ourselves on the back so much, and we set ourselves up for failure because we don't think we're capable of that. Or, you know, we we judge people so readily, somebody might raise their hands and worship and we kind of look at them like, hypocrite, they're not worshiping. As if you are in that moment when you're calling them a hypocrite in your mind, but you don't think of yourself as capable of that.
Joel Brooks:
And you've set yourself up for a fall. And Moses I mean, the bitterness had gotten him so much to this point. He goes up to the rock, and after he says, rebels, shall I bring forth water from this rock for you? And he hits it, and it says, I hit it twice. Now the reason he probably hit it twice is because the first time he hit it, nothing happened.
Joel Brooks:
And he had to know at that moment, I'm sinning. I should stop. I should stop here. And he hits it, then he hits it again. He's that far gone.
Joel Brooks:
Now, the amazing thing about this is grace still flows. Disobedience everywhere. Try to find a good character here. There's not a good character in the story, yet everybody receives water. Grace abounds in the midst of our sin.
Joel Brooks:
Grace abounds. You know, if I told you the moral of this story is that you guys need to buckle up and, you know, be better Christians and obey God really, really well this week, how will it fail to you? Or if I even tell you, you know, the the point of the story is God hates sin. True? He hates sin, he hates disobedience?
Joel Brooks:
That's half the story. The full story is the gospel, which we see here. And and to really understand what's going on here, you have to understand what happened in Exodus 17, and we looked at this a couple of months ago. Let me just do do a a really quick recap of that. It's a very similar situation in Exodus 17.
Joel Brooks:
People are dying from thirst. And if you remember, they they said that they actually quarreled with Moses over this, and that word quarrel is a legal word, has a legal connotation to it, a judicial A judicial connotation to it. And basically, they were making an official accusation against Moses. You brought us out here to kill us. And they already have found him guilty, and they were picking up stones, and they were going to stone him.
Joel Brooks:
And so Moses, he goes before the Lord and he pleads with him. God says, alright. Gather the elders. They're gonna act as the witnesses. Gather the assembly together, and Moses, go get your staff.
Joel Brooks:
And then God is very specific. Go get the staff, the one that you hit the Nile with, the one that brought the plagues, the one that brings judgment. Get that staff and meet me in front of the people. And so you have this trial, And then we find the only time ever in scripture, it's remarkable, it says, and God or the Lord stood before the people. Never ever do you see the Lord standing before anyone.
Joel Brooks:
Inferiors stand before superiors. They hear God who says, I will stand before you. God is putting himself in the dock, and Moses has the rod of judgment. And there's the accusation that's put against Moses and God. God, you're not really with us.
Joel Brooks:
And then the amazing thing happens, God says, now Moses take the rod, and all of the people, they've got to be just fearing it. And he says, strike where I stand. And he strikes it where god is standing and water flows. It's the gospel. We see so clearly the gospel.
Joel Brooks:
And you know Paul, he brings us out when he says, that rock, that rock is Christ, and we just read that earlier. A spiritual rock, that is Christ. It's the gospel. So what's going on here? If that was a sign to us, what is going on here?
Joel Brooks:
Why speak to the rock now and not strike it? Well, we've got to understand a few differences. For starters, it's a different staff. It's not the same staff. Just like in Exodus 17, God is very particular about which staff Moses should bring.
Joel Brooks:
Look at Numbers 20 verse 8. It says, take the staff and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water, so you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give them drink to the congregation and their cattle. And Moses took the staff from before the Lord. So he took this staff that is before the Lord. And if you go back just a just a few chapters to number 17, you realize this is Aaron's staff.
Joel Brooks:
There had been a rebellion, and all these people, they they all of Israel thought that they could be priests before the Lord. God said, no, no, only Aaron, only the Levites. To prove this, all of you get a staff, each tribe. Put it in the presence of the Lord. And they put it in the presence of the Lord.
Joel Brooks:
And in the morning, Aaron's staff had budded, had flowers coming out of it, showing everyone that Aaron is the true priest. And in chapter 17 verse 10, it says, and the Lord said to Moses, put back the staff of Aaron before the testimony, to be kept as a sign for the rebels, that you may make an end of their grumblings against me, lest they die. And so Moses grabs this staff that's in the presence of the Lord. The the staff, the Levitical, the priestly staff, the one that was put there to shame the rebels, to stop the rebels, and to stop their grumblings, and he takes this staff and he goes to the rock, and the word rock is different. The the word rock here, it means cliff or an elevated rock.
Joel Brooks:
And so he takes this priestly staff, and now he goes to this elevated rock. And now he's to simply ask for water and not strike, and not strike. And remember, God can always do these miracles anyway, and this is a sign. Justice so easily presented the gospel, this or so clearly presents the gospel, this so clearly presents how we need to pray. How we now have a risen and an ascended savior who does not need to be struck again.
Joel Brooks:
He is no longer smitten. Romans 6 says that that that Christ died to sin once and for all, and he will never die again. He's never be hit again. The sacrifice of God is Christ is final. And Hebrews 4 says, since we have such a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the son of God, let us hold to our confession, and let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in a time of need.
Joel Brooks:
These two rocks are a sign for us. Christ has received our punishment. Christ has forgiven us and given us grace. And now when we fall, and we stumble, and we disobey, we don't have to fear judgment. We come and ask.
Joel Brooks:
We come and we ask. We go to our exalted high priest, and we ask in confidence, and we ask for his mercy, and he will give it. He will absolutely give it. And when we come to God this way, we honor him as holy in the sight of all. Pray with me.
Joel Brooks:
Lord, help us to trust in your gospel. To trust that Christ really has died once and for all, and he has taken away our sins, and that now we truly can come to him without fear of judgment. Our sins are paid for. We could come to you in confidence and we can ask. Ask for your spirit, ask for your blessing, and you give that to us.
Joel Brooks:
We thank you. I ask that this week we would understand that obedience is not something that we can do casually or half heartedly. You demand all of our hearts and all of our souls and mind and strength and obedience to you. And we thank you that when we fail, the blood of Christ has covered that, and we pray this in His name. Amen.