Moses Denied Entrance

Numbers 20:7-8,11-12: "The LORD said to Moses, 'Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water' . . . . Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff . . . . 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 give them.'"


As I recently was reading Deuteronomy 34:6, I noticed that Moses was buried in Moab (just east of the Jordan River before entering the Promised Land), and I wondered to myself, "Why Moab? . . . Why not the Promised Land? Certainly Moses was a man who was very close to God and who faithfully led the Israelites for 40 years through the wilderness to the Promised Land." So, as I read through Numbers 20, where Moses in defiance to God's order struck the rock at Kadesh twice, I was perplexed at such judgment by God toward the man who had been so close to God that he once encountered the glory of the Lord (Exodus 33:22). In fact, when Moses pleaded with God to permit him to cross the Jordan and enter the Promised Land with his people, God responded by saying, "That is enough . . . do not speak to me anymore about this matter" (Deuteronomy 3:26). The punishment seemed a bit harsh.


Attempting to explain Moses physical judgment, I concluded that for one to treat the holiness of the Lord with contempt as Moses did was grounds for such a Divine response. Then I attempted to allegorize Moses as the embodiment of the law (Romans 10:5), which always comes up short in gaining entrance into the "promised land" of God's salvation. Still, I wasn't satisfied with my answers and wondered if there was more. Was there something even more significant here that would make such a violation even more egregious?


Then I noticed in I Corinthians 10:4 that the children of Israel from the Old Testament who wandered with Moses in the wilderness, "drank the same 'spiritual drink' from the rock that accompanied them and the rock was Christ." Is it possible that this "rock" mentioned in the Old Testament was a theophany of Christ ? That is, did Christ present Himself in this physical manifestation to typologically illustrate that he is the Rock that is the source of Living Water (i.e. salvation) for the sinner (Ephesians 2:20; I Corinthians 3:11; Matthew 16:18; John 4:10-14; Numbers 20)? Did Christ present Himself this way to provide for the physical needs of the Israelites, and at the same time use this theophany to teach a deeper spiritual truth? It is interesting in I Corinthians 10:4 that this Rock accompanied the Israelites. The Rock was always available to provide nourishment to the people if they would acknowledge its source and respond to it (which parallels our response to Christ's grace . . . acknowledgement and response [submission]).


Now, earlier in Exodus 17 when the Israelites were walking through the Desert of Sin, they cried out for water. The Rock was there; but in this episode, the command to Moses was to strike the Rock. Why strike it here and speak to it at Kadesh? Is it possible that the striking of the Rock at Horeb (Sinai) where God's law was given was done to foreshadow the coming Savior/Rock who would be struck (e.g. crucified) because man violated God's stipulations of the law, bringing judgment?


Notice too that Exodus 17 (at Horeb/Sinai) is the only time in which the command went forth from the Lord to strike the Rock. Could the significance of this one-time command of striking the rock be symbolic of the sole-sufficiency of Jesus Christ's death once and for all for the forgiveness of sins? Hebrews 9:28 says, "Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him."


It's an interesting conclusion, in view of the I Corinthians passage mentioned above, that the Rock that accompanied the Israelites during their pilgrimage through the wilderness to the Promised Land was the source of life for the Jewish people physically. If the Israelites' journey is paralleled to our spiritual journey and the rock from which the water came represents Christ, the Rock, then one can see the rationale for the severity of physical judgment upon Moses for the violation at Kadesh. Striking the Rock at Horeb for living water was necessary to depict the sacrifice for the sins of sinful man in view of the Law, and speaking to the Rock for living water just prior to entering the Promised Land at Kadesh was necessary to proclaim the sole sufficiency of Christ's death and resurrection for our salvation. To violate God's order to "speak to" the Rock in the latter episode is comparable today to one failing to profess by faith the sufficiency of Christ's death and resurrection alone for salvation. Striking the Rock at Kadesh seems to suggest the blasphemous opinion that we can gain entrance into God's Promised Land through our own efforts . . . . We declare through this obstinacy that we don't need Christ.

It is amazing when one reads Moses final Song to the people just before his death (Deuteronomy 32), for in the song Moses repeatedly praises the "Rock" (the symbol of God Almighty). Specifically, Moses heralds to the people that the Rock's ways are "perfect, and all His ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is He . . . . He nourished him (Jacob) with honey from the rock and with oil from the flinty crag . . . . How could one man chase a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up?" Moses seems to have understood the significance of the sole sufficiency of Christ, the true Rock, for salvation into the Promised Land. For this reason, he praises the Rock for His willingness to deliver His people.


Without acknowledging Jesus Christ's death and resurrection as the remedy for our sin and without submitting to His Lordship, we like Moses' physical death will find ourselves dying a spiritual death and never gaining entrance into God's eternal presence. We must "speak to" the Rock, namely Christ, asking for His forgiveness, acknowledging His sacrifice, and surrendering our lives to Him.