So Moses took the staff from the LORD's presence, just as He commanded him. He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, "Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?" Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.

But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not trust in Me enough to honor Me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I gave them."

Numbers 20:9-12, NIV 

 

Have you ever wondered just what it was that Moses and Aaron did that was so bad that they didn't get to go into the Promised Land? There are several possibilities: First, God told them to speak to the rock. Instead, Moses struck the rock twice. It is interesting to note that on a similar occasion God had commanded Moses to strike a rock to get the water. Maybe Moses just presumed that it would be okay to do so again, but he was wrong. But is was the second thing that Moses and Aaron did that was the likely cause of their being barred from the Promised land: They spoke rashly, and in doing so they violated God's holiness.

 

How do we know this? Well, for one thing God condemned the two for not honoring Him as holy. But to understand fully just what was going on here, we have to read in the Book of Psalms a passage that was likely written more than 400 years after this incident:

 

By the waters of Meribah they angered the LORD, and trouble came to Moses because of them; for they rebelled against the Spirit of God, and rash words came from Moses' lips.

Psalms 106:32-33, NIV 

 

Rash words were the culprit! Instead of just speaking to the rock as commanded, Moses in his zeal decided to make a production out of the matter. He struck the rock twice and then asked, "must we bring you water?" when it was not Moses or Aaron at all who brought the water, but God. And it was this rashness and presumption that they could do and speak as they chose that kept these two otherwise righteous men from entering the land of Canaan.

 

So what's the lesson? I'm sure that there are many, but I do believe that we should pay particular attention to at least this one: If God would keep Moses from entering the Promised Land because of his rash talk and presumptuous ways, do we think that He will treat us any differently? We may at first be tempted into thinking that maybe God was just too picky with the way that He expected Moses and Aaron to approach Him, but we would be wrong! For when it comes to holiness, zeal without knowledge can quickly become the downfall of even the most righteous among us.

 

It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way.

Proverbs 19:2, NIV

 

Today is the 21st day of the 30 day challenge to study through the books of Moses, with Numbers 20-22 being the text for the day. May God richly bless you as you take the time to learn His will and honor His holiness!