Double Tap (Numbers 20:1-13)

In Numbers chapter 20 Moses is about 120 years old. His life has had three major phases:

1) 40 years living in luxury in Egypt, basking in the wealth and wisdom of the Pharaoh's house, growing in stature and prestige.
2) 40 years in the desert as a shepherd leading up to the Exodus.
3) 40 years post-Exodus wandering the desert with the Israelites, fighting their rebellions, putting up with whining, mediating between holy God and a sinful people.

I like that there are three groups of 40, because it makes plain the sovereign hand of the Lord on his life. Since I'm a geek with math stuff, I smile thinking that God loves numbers (since He made them!) and sometimes (always?) arranges the fabric of history to make events fall into a pattern like some grand, repeating MC Escher painting:





















At the beginning of Numbers Chp 20 Moses must feel like one of the guys on this stairway. Or maybe Bill Murray in Groundhog's Day because he's faced with the Israelites' rebellion yet again, and complaints about water again and moaning about food again!

This is the car load of whiny kids, complaining because the window won't roll down far enough, and Billy ate Timmy's french fry, and Susie won't stop touching Jenny's shoe laces. Every 2 minutes somebody cries out, "When are we going to get there?" But there is no "there" to get to because the car is on a merry-go-round! Often the people are called the "children of Israel", and often the description hits the mark. But as soon as I get on my high horse about how childish they were I notice that the horse I'm riding is on the same merry-go-round and my life seems to have some of the same struggles they had.


The Grass Isn't Greener on the Other Side
In vs 4 the people were pining for the "good ol' days in Egypt.". They were wishing for those "glory years" back when they were slaves to Pharaoh, the most powerful tyrant on earth. When there was no voice of God thundering from the mountain above, instead they had the crack of the whip snapping over their heads. In Egypt they had water aplenty but no freedom to worship the Lord. They had meat, potatoes and leeks, but no animals to sacrifice in offering to their loving God. When they had to daily collect straw to make bricks instead of gathering daily manna from heaven. They had a permanent roof over their heads, a warm home, but no home for the presence of God.

The human condition is to want what we don't have. And when we get what we want, it looses value faster than a state room on the sinking Titanic. I often struggle to be grateful for what I have, rather than pouting about what I lack. I'm garuanteed to be miserable if I long more for what I don't have, rather than praise God for what I do. Because no matter how much stuff I cram into my mouth, house, garage and head there will always be far more stuff I don't have in the world.

Psalm 37:16 hits the nail on the head:

Better the little the righteous have, than the wealth of many wicked.

Double Tap
Not only were the people of Israel frustrated and rebellious with their long journey in the desert, but Moses was frustrated as well. And what follows in Numbers 20 is a passage that I struggle with in many ways. When Moses double tapped the rock with his staff to get water he was disqualified from entering the promised land because he did not "trust God enough to honor as holy". Immediately my hackles get raised because Moses served God 40 long years in the desert. This seems way too harsh, unfair, and on the surface rather ticky-tacky. Shouldn't God cut Moses some slack here?

Deuteronomy 34:10-12 enshrined Moses as the greatest prophet and servant of God for all time, but that is still not enough!!! Read this and ponder that Moses still failed to enter the promised land:

Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, who did all those miraculous signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt—to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land. For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.

But this reflects a sad truth of our fallen, sinful condition: our mighty power and awesome deeds aren't enough to merit entrance into the eternal promised land of God's kingdom. The awful potency of our least sin, is enough to taint the full body of our best work. Or, as the saying goes, it only takes one tiny spider leg to spoil a perfectly good soup.

The details of the "double tap" are revealing and help explain what's happening in this episode.

After the Israelites gathered (again!) to complain (again!) about the lack of water (again!), Moses and Aaron sought the Lord (again!) to get instruction. Vs 6 says that Moses left the assembly to go to the Tent of Meeting. Bearing in mind that Moses showed a lack of trust and honor for the Lord, I picture him storming away from the assembly. Stomping his feet to the Tent of Meeting. Yes, he fell facedown before the Lord, but I imagine that Moses' fists were balled up tight, teeth clenched, small puffs of steam popping out his ears. Moses had every legitimate right to be angry. But this anger did not subside, even in vs 6 where the "glory of the Lord appeared."

In vs 8, the Lord told Moses to "speak to the rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water."

Sometimes God brings us back to the same place of suffering time and time again because we don't learn to trust Him, or honor Him as holy, or obey Him. Sometimes we bring ourselves to the same place for the same reasons. God puts us on Escher's staircase to bring us back to a familiar place of suffering so we can learn an important lesson we missed the first time (or second, or third).

But even when soaking in the glory of the Lord at the Tent of Meeting, Moses is still just ticked off. So in anger he grabs the staff from the presence of the Lord (vs 9). This is big mistake #1. This wasn't any old staff, some random stick. It was THE staff. Moses took the staff that God made miraculously sprout almonds to prove that the line of Aaron was chosen for the priesthood (Numbers 17). This staff was holy, set aside in God's presence, special. I imagine Moses yanking it from the Tent of Meeting like it was some billy club and stomping out to crack skulls. This is like using the Stanley Cup trophy for a punch bowl at the 8th grade dance. Or using the Shroud of Turin as a quicker picker upper for spilled pork chop grease. God instructed Moses to take the staff, but I believe that Moses was seeing red at the time.

Moses gathered the Israelites after leaving God's presence, and I picture him holding the staff white knuckled, smacking his hand a few times, wishing he could smack somebody in the crowd. Mo had the fire in the belly after 40 years wandering the desert. And when the Israelites assembled, I imagine he had to yell above the murmuring complaints. He probably saw their eyes roll. They were camping at Kadesh and, like Escher's staircase, they had been there before. The last recorded time was when the people rebelled against Moses and almost killed Caleb and Joshua son of Nun for delivering a good report about the promised land. Was he hitting his hand with the staff, remembering the rebellion? I think so. The Bible says in vs 10-11:

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.

Again, God told Moses to speak to the rock, but instead he goes Chuck Norris with the sacred staff and whacks the rock two times!! This is like stealing Babe Ruth's bat from the Hall of Fame to pound fence posts for the new dog run in your back yard.

Moses did not honor God as holy. He used an opportunity to serve and miraculously provide for the chosen people to exercise his fierce anger. This might have been a scene instead where Moses could point to the holy, living God then speak to the rock and glorify God for His provision. But when he uses God's power as a moment to poke the people in the eyes God cancelled Moses' ticket to the promised land.

I still struggle with this, but that likely means that I still don't fully appreciate what it means to honor God as holy. It shows I devalue the currency of trusting God. My pride still cries out that if I do a bunch of great stuff for God, then I'm entitled to all of the promises. Yet this negates the grace of God which qualifies me for the full blessing of the kingdom based on faith. Moses failed to enter the promised land on the basis of the Mosaic Law when he violated the third commandment and profaned the name and character of God in a sense by his anger. So if Moses can't fully obey the Mosaic law, then who can? Nobody.

And maybe that is exactly the point. It drives us to the saving grace of Jesus and makes us cling to the cross tighter than Moses clung to the staff that he used to hit the rock.