FORTY years is a, long, long time for a company of people to wander in a wilderness.
But this was what God appointed to the children of Israel when, in their unbelief, they would not count upon Him to overcome for them the difficulties that lay in the way, and lead them into rest; and so they were turned away from the promised Land.
But now the forty years have nearly passed away, and the guiding “cloud” leads them to the “desert of Zin,” and they are once more on the borders of Canaan. This desert of Zin was a different place from the “wilderness of Sin” in the southern part of Arabia which they had reached the month after they left Egypt, and where they murmured because of hunger and had the manna sent down from heaven to meet their needs.
In this wilderness, as in that, there was scarcity of water, as is always the case in desert places; and again the dreadful murmurs of the people began. It seemed indeed as if they would never learn to trust in God, believing in His power and His goodness.
May we not be worse than they! To us has been given the greatest proof that God could give of His love—even the gift of HIS well-beloved Son. Let us praise Him continually for His goodness; let us trust Him fully for the needs, and in the difficulties of the path; and let us smother any complaint that may be ready to arise:
Many of the fathers had fallen in the wilderness, and now their children were filling-their place; for of all the vast company of warriors, princes and rulers who had crossed the Red Sea, Caleb and Joshua only were to enter the promised land. And when the people now murmured, as their fathers had done before them, the Lord was willing to shew mercy. He told Moses to take the rod and he and Aaron were to gather the assembly together, and speak to the rock before their eyes.
And now comes a sad failure on the part of Moses: Instead of speaking to the rock before the eyes of the people, as the Lord had bidden him, he spoke to the people; and he spoke with authority and with indignation. He called them “rebels,” and said, “Must we fetch you water out of this rock?” After speaking thus, he lifted his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice. At Horeb it was different; there, God told him to smite the rock; here, he smote it without the word from the Lord, and smote it twice. And the Lord said to 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.”
How very sad! Moses and Aaron, after leading the people all those weary years, should not enter the land of promise!
Moses did not sanctify the Lord; he was angered with the people and provoked in spirit; as a result of this he spoke unadvisedly with his lips, and then it went ill with him for their sakes. (Ps. 106:32, 33.)
The provoked spirit, is never pleasing to the Lord, and the Lord will not use one Who is in such a spirit. Moses, in his anger, spoke unadvisedly, and contrary to the Lord’s command, and so lost the great honor of leading the people into the land. How much better if he had referred the whole matter to the Lord, instead of acting in the spirit that stirred him!
Perhaps we little know how much we suffer through allowing, and acting in a “provoked spirit”. (Num. 20:7-127And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 8Take 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. 9And Moses took the rod from before the Lord, as he commanded him. 10And 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? 11And 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. 12And 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. (Numbers 20:7‑12).)
ML 07/10/1904