(Continued from p.61)

7.-SMITING THE ROCK TWICE

Over twenty years have passed since the scenes we have been witnessing, but there is no improvement in the disposition of the people. Meanwhile Miriam dies. But in Kadesh where she is buried, the people complain because there is no water, and reproach Moses, saying:"Would God that we had died when our brethren DIED BEFORE THE LORD!" referring to the destruction by fire of Korah and two hundred and fifty Levites, the entombment of Dathan and Abiram with their families and property; as well as the death by plague of 14,700 malcontents who would not behave. This is daring defiance of God, an outburst from the impious hearts of a people who refuse to learn. And, adding insolence to irreverence, they say, "This evil place…is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates, neither is there any water to drink" (Num. 20:1-5).They are insinuating they have been misled by false reports of a good land, altogether ignoring the fact that at its very borders they refuse to enter, saying:"Let us make a captain, and let us return unto Egypt;" and when Joshua and Caleb seek to advise them, "bade stone them with stones" (Num. 14). Things are now in a bad way.

Fortunately upon retiring with burdened spirits to the door of the tabernacle, Moses and Aaron, having fallen upon their faces, are given audience with the One who can tell them what to do. "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take 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" (20:7,8). Never was guidance more timely, never was instruction more precise, and never was there greater opportunity to glorify God. But, alas, Moses, experienced, disciplined, and the meekest man on earth, is after all only a man of like passions with us all, and on this occasion takes his own way. For, having assembled the congregation, he addresses them thus:Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock? And 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."

The departure from the implicit instructions of God in this behavior is so abrupt that one cannot but ask:How is it that one so faithful is capable of such transgression? The only answer is that he is but a man. Provoked continually for a quarter of a century, he has lost his temper. This anger is not that of one sympathizing with God, as formerly when he descends Sinai to discover the nation affronting God. That is an indignation within the bounds of communion with God, that goes as far as God supports it; but this is the breakdown of a good man because the flesh in him displaces God's control of him; it is the outbreak of a patient man off his guard, a man provoked by ways he fails to lay before God. And solemn is the dealing therewith, for, "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." Thus "it went ill with Moses for their sakes:because they provoked his spirit" (Ps. 101:32,33), so that

HE SPAKE UNADVISEDLY WITH HIS LIPS
And although he afterwards pleads:"I pray thee, let me go over and see the good land," the Lord says, "Speak no more unto Me of this matter" (Deut. 3:23-27).

Considered typically, Moses as representing the law could not have conducted Israel to the Land. Moreover as he had already smitten the rock (Exod. 17:1-7), setting forth the smiting of our Lord and Saviour when "He suffered once for sins;" when "once in the end of the ages hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself"; and was "once offered to bear the sins of many;" it was intolerable to God to be portrayed as smiting His beloved Son a second time for us. Furthermore, the rod was now intended (not for striking, but) for exhibiting; for it had "budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds" (Num. 17:8), setting forth the authority of Priesthood in resurrection life as vested in Aaron, the type of Christ. As such Christ is to be used, for without Him we cannot make any move but a false one. All that is necessary is to "Speak.. .unto the rock," and there will be refreshment in the power of the Spirit as life. R. J. Reid

(To be continued, D.V.)