“Are we there yet?” “I’m thirsty!” “I have to go!” Most parents will recognize these as the cries heard from young children on a car trip of any length. Even the inarticulate cries of an infant confined to a car seat can make an automobile journey seem like an unending ride of misery.
They were adults, but the children of Israel got to their leader Moses with their cries and complaints even more than kids in the backseat. Of course, their journey was much longer and the number of gripers in the hundreds of thousands.
As we move through the 90 greatest chapters of Scripture in the first 90 days of 2013, we take a big leap from Genesis 8 last Sunday, to Numbers 20 this coming Sunday. In it we find one of the several scenes where the people are complaining to Moses and Aaron, this time about the lack of water, along with the lack of fruits and grains that grow when there is water for them. “I’m thirsty!”
Like many parents have been pushed too hard, Moses and Aaron succumbed to the pressure of the complaints and responded with an angry outburst, despite God’s promise to provide water. So instead of speaking to a rock as God directs in verse 8, Moses struck the rock with his staff in verse 11.
It’s not just the physical anger, though, which God subsequently finds objectionable in both Moses and Aaron. Moses exclaims in frustration in verse 10, “Listen, you rebels, shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” The implication of those words was that Moses and his brother were the ones who would bring the water forth. As God tells them in verse 12, they did not show God’s holiness to Israel, they did not honor Him as the source of the water and all their needs.
We see further consequences for this lack of honoring God in the rest of the chapter, as all the people suffer a rebuke from the king and people of Edom and then as Aaron dies before being able to enter into Canaan.
For us we see a good warning against rash words, especially words that take credit to ourselves for what is God’s work. The counterpoint is in our Gospel lesson from Luke 3, wherein we see Jesus humbly submitting Himself to water of baptism and thereby honoring His Father. So we have this Sunday a negative example in Moses and a positive example in Christ Himself.