The episode at Meribah is remarkable because it is precisely because of it that Moses is finally deprived of the chance to enter the promised land. A natural question arises: for what? There had been plenty of such or similar episodes...
The episode at Meribah is remarkable because it is precisely because of it that Moses is finally deprived of the chance to enter the promised land. A natural question arises: for what? There had been plenty of such or similar episodes on the way from Sinai to the borders of the land God had promised. What makes this one stand out? Outwardly, only one phrase, one question Moses addresses to the crowd: must we bring water out of this rock for you? But God says: because you did not believe Me, you will not bring the people into the land. The emphasis is on precisely this: you will not bring the people in. The fact that you yourselves will not enter is only a consequence. What is the matter, then? What does it mean to manifest God's holiness? How is that even possible for a human being?
Of course, a person cannot be a bearer of God's holiness in and of himself. He can only be a mirror that reflects that holiness, a mirror more or less clean. To reflect God's holiness, humility is needed. Not humility in the sense in which we often understand it today, or in the fatalistic sense in which we regard absolutely everything happening around us as God's will, but in the true, original sense, where humility means the complete surrender of oneself to God's will.
In that case, the person must disappear, as it were, and become completely unnoticeable against the background of God's presence and God's action, so that everything that happens is attributed only to God and to no one else. Then God's holiness will appear in the fullest measure possible for the human being who reflects it. The less sharply a person stands out against the background of God's presence and God's holiness, the more noticeable God's presence becomes, and the more clearly His action is seen.
This was especially important for the people who were looking at Moses and at everything that was happening. They were already ready to see Moses as a leader from whom they expected miracles. But God needed to raise up His own people, not Moses's, Aaron's, or anyone else's. Any human "I" that stands out too sharply, even against the background of God's holiness, interfered with that task. The presence of such a prominent leader as Moses became undesirable in light of the task of educating God's people, and once he had done his work, he had to depart - which is what God tells him directly, as His servant.
20 This chapter begins the history of the fortieth year of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness. Little is recorded of them from the beginning of their second year till this, which brought them to the borders of Canaan. Here is,
20:1 Then - To wit, after many stations and long journeys here omitted, but particularly described, Num 33:1-49. Zin - A place near the land of Edom, distinct and distant from that Sin, Exo 16:1.The first month - Of the fortieth year, as is evident, because the next station to this was in mount Hor, where Aaron died, who died in the fifth month of the fortieth year, Num 33:38.Moses doth not give us an exact journal of all occurrences in the wilderness, but only of those which were most remarkable, and especially of those which happened in the first and second, and in the fortieth year.Miriam died - Four months before Aaron, and but a few more before Moses.
20:2 No water - Which having followed them through all their former journeys, began to fail them here, because they were now come near countries, where waters might be had by ordinary means, and therefore God would not use extraordinary, lest he should seem to prostitute the honour of miracles. This story, though like that, Exo 17:1-7, is different from it, as appears by divers circumstances. It is a great mercy, to have plenty of water; a mercy which if we found the want of, we should own the worth of.
20:3 Before the Lord - Suddenly, rather than to die such a lingering death. Their sin was much greater than that of their parents, because they should have taken warning by their miscarriages, and by the terrible effects of them, which their eyes had seen.
20:8 The rod - That which was laid up before the Lord in the tabernacle; whether it was Aaron's rod, which was laid up there, Num 17:10,or Moses's rod by which he wrought so many miracles. For it is likely, that wonder - working rod, was laid up in some part of the tabernacle, though not in or near the ark, where Aaron's blossoming rod was put.
20:9 From before the Lord - Out of the tabernacle.
20:12 Ye believed me not - But shewed your infidelity: which they did, either by smiting the rock, and that twice, which is emphatically noted, as if he doubted whether once smiting would have done it, whereas he was not commanded to smite so much as once, but only to speak to it: or by the doubtfulness of these words, Num 20:10.Must we fetch water out of the rock? which implies a suspicion of it, whereas they should have spoken positively and confidently to the rock to give forth water. And yet they did not doubt of the power of God, but of his will, whether he would gratify these rebels with this farther miracle, after so many of the like kind. To sanctify me - To give me the glory of my power in doing this miracle, and of my truth in punctually fulfilling my promise, and of my goodness in doing it notwithstanding the peoples perverseness. In the eyes of Israel - This made their sin scandalous to the Israelites, who of themselves were too prone to infidelity; to prevent the contagion, God leaves a monument of his displeasure upon them, and inflicts a punishment as publick as their sin.
20:13 Meribah - That is, strife. In them - Or, among them, the children of Israel, by the demonstration of his omnipotency, veracity, and clemency towards the Israelites, and of his impartial holiness and severity against sin even in his greatest friends and favourites.