Why Was Moses Disciplined For Striking The Rock Twice? That’s what we are going to be investigating today. It has often been said that the New Testament is in the Old concealed and the Old is in the New revealed. Such is the case with two accounts recorded for us in Exodus 17 and Numbers 20. Today I want to compare and contrast those two passages with the sole purpose of understanding why Moses was denied entrance into the land of Canaan. You can either watch the video below or read the entire post.
Why Moses Was Denied Entrance To Canaan For Striking The Rock Twice
The Passages:
Exodus 17:1-7
Water from the Rock
17 All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” 3 But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” 4 So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the name of the place Massah[a] and Meribah,[b] because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
Numbers 20:2-13
The Waters of Meribah
2 Now there was no water for the congregation. And they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. 3 And the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Would that we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord! 4 Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, that we should die here, both we and our cattle? 5 And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink.” 6 Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces. And the glory of the Lord appeared to them, 7 and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 8 “Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.” 9 And Moses took the staff from before the Lord, as he commanded him.10 Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” 11 And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock. 12 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.” 13 These are the waters of Meribah,[a] where the people of Israel quarreled with the Lord, and through them he showed himself holy.
Why did God punish Moses in the second instance?
First , we need to understand that the command was to speak to the Rock and tell it to yield its water. But as we see in the verses above( more precisely verse12), God was displeased with Moses because he did not believe in God ( He displayed unbelief). And as a result instead of doing what God said to do, Moses trusted in his own ability( he used his staff instead). And the scripture adds that Moses didn’t uphold God as Holy in the eyes of the people of Israel. It was a serious offense and we need to know why. In the Exodus 17 instance, Moses was instructed to strike the Rock upon which the Lord was standing so that water would come out of it. And Moses proceeded to do so and the water came out.
But in Numbers 20, the instruction was to speak to the Rock so it could yield its water. The Rock had already been struck once as recorded in Exodus 17 and that was sufficient in the eyes of the Lord. This is why God told Moses to speak to the Rock so it could yield its water. But Moses didn’t believe the word of God and chose to strike the Rock not once but twice. I’m assuming that he probably struck it the first time, and the water didn’t come out and did it a second time, and God allowed the water to come out. God would’ve been justified in killing Moses instantly before the eyes of the people for disobeying His command. But HE disciplined him by not allowing him to go into the promised land.
What was so significant about the Rock that God was so displeased with Moses when He struck it twice in the second account? To understand that, we’ll look at how Paul the apostle interprets the Rock. Let’s go to 1 Corinthians 10:1-5
10 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers,[a] that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown[b] in the wilderness.
According to the apostle Paul whose interpretation of Old Testament Scriptures is accurate, the Rock was Christ. Hence we understand that the Rock was a picture of Christ. So when Moses was instructed to strike the Rock so that water would come out of it, the striking represented the sacrificial death of Christ that served to atone for our sins, and the water represented the Spirit of God that would be poured upon those God was redeeming out of the world. Jesus said in John 12:32-33
32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.
Let’s also go to Hebrews 7:26-28
26 For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. 27 He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. 28 For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.
Hebrews 9:11-14
11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come,[a] then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify[b] for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our[c] conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
24-28
11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come,[a] then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify[b] for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our[c] conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Hebrews 10:11-14
11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ[a] had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
I want you to see the significance of Exodus 17 and Numbers 20 through the verses above. As we agreed, the Rock represented Christ; so the first time, Moses was told to strike the Rock thus giving later generations a picture of the work of Christ, who suffered only once and whose death was sufficient to perfect all those who would approach God through Him. We are told in John 7:37-39
37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as[a] the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Once we are called into the kingdom of God, Jesus doesn’t need to be sacrificed over and over again in order to quench our thirst. As the Scripture said, ask and it shall be given to you, referring to the Holy Spirit. So all we have to do is humble ourselves and ask God to fill us anew when we are in the desert ( the wilderness).Now you see why Moses was severely disciplined by God for not believing in Him and upholding Him as Holy before the people. He was sending a distorted message to the later generations, as if to say that Jesus’s sacrifice wasn’t sufficient and adequate. Moses may have not fully understood the implications of his actions but God knew it. The fact of the matter is, Moses didn’t obey the instructions of the Lord and forfeited his entrance into Canaan. Hopefully this has given you somewhat of an explanation as to why Moses was disciplined for striking the Rock twice.
PS: I started Tayibs.com for the sole purpose of exploring difficult questions about the Christian faith that most of us shy away from. All the content generated on this website is thoroughly analyzed prior to being shared. And the site is run solely by myself, your generous support is very much appreciated
My name is Tayib Salami and I started Tayibs.com for the sole purpose of exploring difficult questions about the Christian faith that most of us shy away from. In 2017, I entered a very dark time in my life and it’s only by the grace of the Living God that I’m still alive today. It led me to really go deeper in my faith and consider a myriad of questions that I never thought about asking myself or others before. Welcome and enjoy the ride with me.