Numbers 19:20-20:11
Anyone who refused to be cleansed from defilement in God’s way, when he was unclean, was to be cut off from the congregation of Israel. He chose to remain unclean— how solemn this is! And yet how many dear Christians go on with some unjudged sin for a long time, until God. finally has to deal with them in His government to produce restoration. This ordinance of the red heifer is mentioned as being a perpetual statute, for no matter how evil the day (and it is getting more evil), we are never to allow ourselves to become so accustomed to the evil we see and hear, that we become careless about it ourselves. Let us keep a tender conscience before God and man, and be watchful that nothing is allowed in our lives that minimizes our thoughts of what sin is before God. We must ever remember that God, our Father, is a holy Father (John 17:11) who cannot allow us to be careless about defilements.
In the twentieth chapter we read that Miriam died in Kadesh. It is well to notice that some like Miriam, died in faith under God’s government in the wilderness, while many of the people died in unbelief and were lost forever. The only way of blessing for man is by grace through faith, founded upon what Christ has done, for he has forfeited every claim to blessing through his own faithfulness.
There was no water for the people to drink in Kadesh, and so they gathered together against Moses and Aaron, blaming them for having brought them out of Egypt at all. Alas, the natural man has no desire or strength for the path of faith, and so unless one is truly saved, the difficulties of the way prove too great and too much, But God is faithful and never fails to care for His people, and so, as soon as Moses and Aaron fell upon their faces before the Lord, He told them what to do. Surely His grace was greater than all their murmurings, He said, “Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before thejr eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them wer out of the rock.” Numbers 20:8.
God had not said “Take thy rod,” but “Take the rod,” referring to Aaron's rod that had budded and brought forth almonds; nor had He said “Smite, the rock,” as before (Exodus 17:6), but “Speak ye unto the rock.” Moses, however, failed to lay hold of the grace of God at this time. He thought more of his own authority—of his rod—which they had despised, and so, when the people gathered together he took his rod and in anger hit the rock twice with it, and said, “Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?” God, ever gracious, caused the water to flow from the rock to satisfy the thirsty people and their cattle, but Moses had failed to honor the Lord before them. If we are going to serve the Lord we must never he impatient with His people, but love and care for them. Moses’ own rod, winch he used here, was rightly used at the Red Sea, and to get water for the people before they came to Mt. Sinai, but the rock must not be smitten the second time. Christ the true Rock (1 Cor. 10:4) was smitten for us at Calvary when He bore the judgment our sins deserved, but He will never be smitten again. That work is finished—forever complete. Now, as our Great High Priest, He lives for us above, ever interceeding at God’s right hand, supplying “grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16), along our wilderness journey, We have only to “speak to the Rock” now—at any hour of the day or night never fails us.
ML 12/02/1951