BEMA 30: Lead with Your Voice
Transcription Status
12 Jul 22 — Initial public release
30 Jun 22 — Transcript approved for release
Lead with Your Voice
Brent Billings: This is The BEMA Podcast with Marty Solomon. I’m his co-host, Brent Billings. Today we wrap up our time in the desert and the book of Numbers with the story of Moses striking the rock and subsequently, having his entrance to the promised land denied.
Marty Solomon: Yes, we got some review to do today. We’ll do that briefly. We’ve got some other stuff to cover today, but we talked about the preface, Genesis 1–11. Big ideas: Who is God? Who is man? What is the world and what is God doing in the world? We met the family of God in the introduction, Genesis 12–50. We took a look at what it means when we take these big ideas and we start to apply them to an actual group of people. What does it look like when people actually start to live these ideas out? They’re perfectly placed for a partnership. And that’s what God does, and that sets up the narrative when we talk about this tale of two kingdoms, and we got empire all throughout our history.
The way that I believe that the Bible is inviting us to view the world is through a lens of these competing narratives. These two dominant narratives one of empire, and one of shalom. This narrative of empire is always a narrative of force; of, we might say, “stick” after our last few desert images, it’s a narrative of fear. It’s a particular kind of power, its comfort, its leisure, its luxury, its fame, its security. Maybe partly, it’s self-preservation.
Against this narrative, which is always being told in our world both internally and externally in our hearts and the world around us, we also have this other narrative that God invites us to trust. God invites us to believe with all of our heart, soul and might — would be the right narrative — and that is a narrative of shalom. It’s a narrative that’s about self-sacrifice instead of self-preservation. Instead of fear, it’s a narrative of trust. Instead of a power of force, it’s a power of invitation. Instead of coercing, you’re inviting people. Instead of a stick, you’re using your voice. These are the two narratives that we have just competing with each other.
That starts in the book of Exodus when we see God rescue His people in the story of the Passover; we see God lead them to Mount Sinai where there’s a marriage ceremony, and the whole rest of the book ends up being about this tabernacle. This tabernacle, which is, if we were to use that marriage imagery, it’s the honeymoon suite. If we were to talk about it from a more literary perspective, we would say it’s a retelling of Genesis 1–3.
If we look at it as a functional part of the narrative, then this is about where the priests work, because God told Israel when they were at Mount Sinai, if you will marry me, if you will enter into this relationship, you will be for me a kingdom of priests. The whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. That raises the question, what does it mean to be a priest in God’s kingdom, and what does it mean that God would want a whole kingdom of priests?
These are newer ideas that this rescued group of slaves out of Egypt needs some guidance on what exactly that will look like when they live it out. God gives them the book of Leviticus, and this whole book of Leviticus is this manual for priesthood. It teaches you how to be a priest. Like the literal priests, it teaches them how to do their job, but it also teaches us as Israelites, how to do our job as priests.
There’s a section on atonement, there’s a section on priesthood. We call it the priest-sandwich, with how to live in the middle of these two bookends of priesthood, because that’s what our call is; God tells us how to party, God tells us how to take care of the oppressed, and that led us into the book of Numbers.
Instead of going through all the stuff, the book of Numbers got a lot of — I’ll call it stuff — a lot of stuff in the book of Numbers there. There’s census details, there’s offerings that are brought for the tabernacle, there’s getting the whole tabernacle set up and people getting ready to launch out and travel through the desert. There’s all these lists. There’s also a bunch of stories and we’re going to kind of cover those as we go today.
We’ve spent our time in the desert as they spent their time in the desert. We call Numbers that desert honeymoon, and we’ve spent our own time in the desert for the last four podcasts talking about the images of the desert. Now, we are going to wrap up the book of Numbers. We will turn our sights to Deuteronomy next week, and then wrap up session one.
It’s been a good ride. It has been great, Torah. Let’s all wrap up Numbers today, this desert honeymoon period. If you’ve been in our discussion groups, we issued a “Hagah Project.” Which if you remember our last hagah project about Zipporah and the circumcision in Exodus 4. A hagah project is where we issue some brain teaser, some scriptural conundrum that we give our students to wrestle with for the weeks leading up to the podcast. This is that podcast for those that got to do that in class. This is where we’re going to resolve that latest hagah, the hagah that we threw out there was: Why does Moses not get into the promised land?
It’s a story where we have our answers. I know what I was taught in Bible college, I know what I was taught in Sunday school; but we have these ideas, it seems to tell us, but it doesn’t seem to be very satisfying. Here’s this God that all throughout Torah, we have learned is full of love, full of grace, full of mercy and forgiveness, abounding in love, and all of a sudden, the greatest leader in Jewish history, we might say, barring Jesus, except Jesus, maybe the second greatest leader in Jewish history doesn’t get in. There’s no forgiveness for him, there’s no second chances because he can’t follow instructions.
The whole thing just seems a little wacky and the rabbis have said the same thing. They’ve said “It can’t be, there’s got to be more to the story going on here.” To get started, I’ll just talk about the three that get tossed around quite a bit. Let’s start with the one that I dislike the most. [chuckles] Which is that Moses hit the rock twice. I don’t even know why that’s an explanation. I’ve heard it before.
Brent: It’s okay to be a little bit angry, but if you’re really angry, then…
Marty: We’ve crossed the line at that point. If it was wrong to hit the rock, then it’s wrong to hit the rock the first time. Hitting it twice doesn’t seem to — there must be something about hitting the rock twice. We might look at that today, but that explanation just isn’t cutting it for me at all.
The other explanation that has been told to me is God told him to speak to the rock, but he hit it. Now, I think that’s going to be a big part of our discussion today. I think that’s absolutely at play in what’s going on here, but that being the explanation of why Moses is not allowed to enter the promised land, because he couldn’t follow instructions, I just have a hard time going, “Of course, that makes sense.” No, it doesn’t. It doesn’t make sense at all. That God wouldn’t let him into the promised land for simply having a bad listening day. No forgiveness for Moshe. That’s rough.
Brent: Especially considering what everyone else with Moses has been doing, right?
Marty: Right.
Brent: Okay, just wait here, I’ll be back.
Marty: [laughs]
Brent: Don’t go making any gods while I’m away.
Marty: Right. There’s forgiveness for the golden calf, not for Moses, not being able to follow instructions. Yes, it just doesn’t fit. This doesn’t fit. The third answer, the one that I was given in Bible college, and I’ve liked it for years, but I don’t like it. It’s that Moses and Aaron or maybe just Moses or however you want to do that, they took credit for God. God brought water and they told the people in the chapter, must we bring forth water from this rock? I was told in Bible college, they took credit. God comes to them, He says, well, you didn’t show me as holy, and so you took credit for what I did. You stole my thunder, and that’s why you’re not —
While that almost starts to scratch the surface of, “Okay, well, I guess that could be a big deal…” I’m still not sure it’s a big enough deal to keep Moses out of the promised land and satisfy that need of an explanation inside of me, but the bigger problem I have is that the Text doesn’t let us do that. Do you have the verse there, Brent, I think it’s verse 8 in the chapter.
Brent: Yes, I’m actually going to start with verse 7, just to make sure we’re completely clear. Starting verse 7, 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. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.”
Marty: All right, read that last sentence one more time.
Brent: You will bring water out of the rock for the community.
Marty: Okay, who does God say will bring water out of the rock?
Brent: Well, the Lord said to Moses, right?
Marty: Correct. He’s just saying what God said. God said, “You will bring forth water from the rock.” Now, of course God’s bringing forth the water from the rock, but in His words, God says if you do this, you will bring forth water. By Moses and Aaron saying must we bring forth this, they’re not going against anything that God said. That’s not what’s going on here in this story. While I liked that explanation for so long, as I’ve studied the story, I’ve realized I can’t like it.
Let’s go back. Let’s try to unpack this problem by going all the way back to the start of most of Moshe’s life, and we gave you a presentation for this. Not a whole lot to it, a few slides, but it might be helpful. I remembered my Washington State group saying it was very helpful when we wrote it on the whiteboard, so I figured, hey, let’s do it here. I want to walk through Moses’s life. We meet Moses, Exodus 1 through the first part of 2. We meet Moses in Egypt, born to this Egyptian, not Egyptians. I’m starting to mess this story up right off the bat. Moses is born to this Israelite mother. They’re down in Egypt, there’s an order, an edict from Pharaoh, that they have to kill all the male children. She knows this baby’s fate and she hides the child, and then puts the child in a basket of reeds and ark, and sends it on its way, and Moses gets raised by who in whose household?
Brent: By Pharaoh’s daughter.
Marty: Right.
Brent: In Pharaoh’s household.
Marty: Yes, Pharaoh’s daughter finds — there’s a wonderful midrash about that, but no time today. Pharaoh’s daughter finds the child. Actually it’s such a good midrash, I can’t leave it alone. The midrash teaches, she’s out there and the Hebrew in the Bible, in the Text, the word for a handmaiden is the same word for your hand. When it says that she sends her — different translations say it differently — she sends her servant to go get the child. She sees or hears the child in the basket and she says, go get that child — the midrash teaches us that the servant actually resisted and said, “I won’t, because your father has this edict, to kill all the male children. I’m not going to go against your father.”
It says her hand in the midrash, like Stretch Armstrong. Her hand reached out and took the child and brought it in, because she was acting in absolute defiance to Pharaoh. I just love that midrash. Anyway, she finds this baby in this basket and he ends up being raised in Pharaoh’s household. Pharaoh, who we would say maybe after our time in the desert, we would talk about Pharaoh in reference to the stick. This is the same Pharaoh that always has the stick of authority, as we saw on Ray’s videos. Always with the stick raised up above his enemies. This is the household that Moses gets raised in. Now, do you remember the very next story that we run into Moses with? He’s a bit older.
Brent: When he’s killing the Egyptian?
Marty: Yes. Yes, so we have this altercation and this — it’s a weird way to talk about slave master being a slave, but the slave master is beating this Israelite slave, and Moses kills the Egyptian, buries him in the sand, ends up being a major problem. This is who Moses is when we meet him. He is this Israelite who has been raised and the narrative of Pharaoh. The narrative of stick. He nakah or in some of the Hebrew manuscripts that we have, vayach, but he nakah in our Hebrew text. Strikes to kill, he smites this Egyptian.
This is the method that he has. He has Pharaoh’s method, but we also see that he has God’s heart. He has a heart that hears the cry of the oppressed. He sees the Egyptian beating the Israelite, and so he has the heart of God, but he has the methods of Pharaoh. He wants to do the right thing, but he uses his stick. Maybe literally, maybe metaphorically, he uses violence to accomplish his purposes.
This is where we meet Moses, this is where his story begins, and of course, that means at the age of 40, which I always have to remind myself of his age here. He’s not a young guy, he’s not a young kid, he’s not a punk 16-year-old. A 40-year-old guy leaves Egypt, goes to Midian where he meets Jethro. In the second part of Exodus 2–3, Moses is then shaped as a shepherd in the desert. All those images we just spent time studying, now they become a part of this Moses story.
Moses spends another 40 years. He spent 40 years under Pharaoh, under that narrative and now he’s got to spend 40 years in the desert under God’s narrative. God teaching him how to lead not as a pharaoh, but God teaching him how to lead as a shepherd.
Brent: Using a different kind of stick.
Marty: Using an absolutely different kind of stick. These sticks become representative of the two authorities. The two narratives, empire and shalom. Which is what happens Exodus 4–14 is going to – basically, the whole story of the Passover is really a battle of the sticks. The whole story is set up and they go down and Moses throws his staff on the ground, and what happens, Brent?
Brent: It turns into a snake.
Marty: All right and then the magicians. We don’t know how many there are, but there’s multiple plural. They throw their staffs on the ground.
Brent: The same thing. The same thing turned into the snake.
Marty: Then?
Brent: Then Moses’s staff eats the others.
Marty: Right. Not snakes, right? I’ve done that chat before. It doesn’t actually say Moses’s snake eats the other snakes, it says that Moses’s stick, in the Hebrew, eats their sticks. I don’t know if that literally is what happened, I don’t believe that at all. I believe it’s probably snakes, but the author definitely wants you to catch, make no mistake, this is not about snakes, this is about sticks. This is about whose narrative, whose method, who has real power. That’s what we see in the story of the Passover and Moses is learning how to use God’s authority. In fact, I find it interesting, the very first plague, which was the plague of what?
Brent: Blood in the Nile.
Marty: Yes, we got this blood in the Nile, plague number one, and what God tells Moses to do is to take his stick and nakahs, and there’s that word again, strike to kill the Egyptian god. God is trying to teach Moses how to use the parts of him that are deeply ingrained for his purposes. We’re watching Moses go on this journey from being raised in Pharaoh’s household to now being shaped in the desert, and now God’s like, okay, are you going to trust my word, are you going to trust my authority, are you going to use my stick for my purposes, my methods, or are you going to use it for yours? That’s what we see in the story of the Passover, he’s learning.
That continues Exodus 15–18. The three tests in the desert on the way to Sinai. Moses is learning all these lessons on leadership. God’s already shaped him for 40 years in the desert as a shepherd, but now God is still shaping him as a leader. How do you take these lessons that you’ve learned as a shepherd, and how do you apply them to leadership?
Through these tests, God keeps teaching them like at Marah, the bitter water. God says, take this twig, take this branch — not the stick, I don’t want you to be confused, that the power is in the stick. The power is not in the stick, the power is in what the stick represents. Take that branch or take that twig and throw it into the well, and maybe it was just practical. Maybe God didn’t want to throw a staff down the well, that might make a — it seems to be a good decision.
Brent: He’s been carrying it around for decades, he’s probably somewhat attached to it.
Marty: Probably, doesn’t want to go on after that. Who knows? God says, yes don’t use that, use this, and then the water becomes — through the tale of the sticks, he’s learning all these lessons on leadership. The next lesson that we saw was when they were at Rephidim, and this was the, will you love me with all of your soul, your nephesh? The second test.
This is where they put God to the test and said, unless you give us water, we’re not going any further. If you remember, God told him to take his staff and walk in front of the people, and we’re going to go to Mount Horeb, 7, 11, 13 miles away, and “I’m going to stand before you at the rock, and you’re going to strike me in front of all the elders, in essence, in picture, in metaphor. I know that people deserve to be hit, but you come hit me, because I want to teach you about what it means to lead.” These were all lessons on leadership and they were all involved — think about the third test. This is the third test, where they’re at Rephidim when they are attacked by the who?
Brent: The Amalekites.
Marty: The Amalekites and what does Moses do during the battle? He holds up?
Brent: His staff.
Marty: His staff. Every one of these tests, Moses has been taught about leadership.
Brent: With the support of others, I should probably say.
Marty: With the support of others, absolutely, and it’s all coming through this narrative about sticks. Is it Pharaoh’s stick? Is that where real power lies or as is it in God’s voice? Is it in the God who lies behind the stick?
This is the journey that Moses has been on. We have the building of the tabernacle, and the rest of Exodus, we have the Book of Leviticus, and then we get back into the story in the book of Numbers. Here the people are, Numbers 10, 11, and 12, are these stories about complaints and rebellion. You’ve got Miriam and Aaron, who want a cup of fit about who Moses says and the authority he gets and this and that, and that doesn’t go well, but you can imagine this probably takes its toll on Moses.
Numbers 13 and 14, this is where the spies go out, and they bring back this report. The midrash teaches that they even knew that the report they were giving was slanted, because the people are so afraid. There’s a couple of passages not just this one in Numbers, but a passage in Deuteronomy really seems to imply that when they come back, they know the land is great, but they know that the people don’t want to hear a good report, and so they give this report of fear, we can’t go in there, and then God says, well, because you decided you don’t want to trust me, you’ll wander in the desert for 40 years.
Then they try to change their mind. They rebel against that. God tells them, “Do not go up and fight, it’s too late for that.” They try to go up and fight anyway. It’s just like rebellion, rebellion, rebellion — Numbers 15, 16, 17, 18 — more complaints, more rebellion, Korah and Dathan. The rebellion of Korah and just how this is taking its toll on Moshe.
Then we finally arrive. Numbers 19, there’s this very interesting story about how to cleanse something after coming in contact with a dead body, which is interesting because Numbers 20 begins with the death of Miriam. If you don’t mind, Brent, how about we jump over to Numbers 20, and how about you start doing some reading for us?
Brent: In the first month, the whole Israelite community arrived at the Desert of Zin and they stayed at Kadesh.
Marty: What’s this place’s name?
Brent: Zin, Desert of Zin.
Marty: The place’s name?
Brent: Kadesh.
Marty: Kadesh. Okay. Interesting. Go on.
Brent: There Miriam died and was buried. Now, there was no water for the community and the people gathered in opposition to Moshe and Aaron. They quarreled with Moshe and said, “If only we had died, when our brothers fell dead before the Lord. Why did you bring the Lord’s community into this wilderness that we and our livestock should die here? Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates, and there’s no water to drink.”
Marty: Let’s stop there. Miriam dies and it’s interesting that the very next thing that happens is people start complaining about water. The midrash teaches that Miriam was the one who was responsible for bringing the water to the people. In fact, the whole story of the midrash goes something like this all the way back in Exodus 17, when Moses struck the rock the first time when he was kind of striking God, so to speak, the elders took the rock that the water was coming out of and they pulled it out of the ground and they put it on a cart.
They took that cart with them all throughout the desert and everywhere they went, the rock followed them and whenever they needed water, Miriam would simply come out and speak to the rock and the rock would give its water. I can’t say how many times I’ve told that midrash. People think, “Man, that is the dumbest midrash. Like, that for sure didn’t happen.”
Brent: We should have brought one of those on the trip.
Marty: Yes, no kidding. The portable rock. Now, what’s interesting though, a little side note, do you have 1 Corinthians 10?
Brent: Yes.
Marty: First few verses of the chapter. It’s interesting to see what Paul says here, listen to this.
Brent: For I do not want you to be ignorant of fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moshe in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them and that rock was Christ.
Marty: They drank from the rock that ‘went with them’ in the Greek, and that rock was Christ. I find it interesting that Paul makes an obvious illusion to this midrash. Not that he believes it in a literal sense, but he alludes to this midrash and says, “Yes, you know that rock that we talk about in the midrash. Well, that rock was Jesus that went with them.” It’s just funny how we hear some of this midrash and we’re like, “That’s so ludicrous.” Only to find that in fact, our own New Testament alludes to the same story.
Sometimes people critique my use of the midrash and the New Testament is always looking back to the midrash. I think it’s important for me to do that as well. Nevertheless, I find it interesting because how many times do you think they complained about water, Brent, in the Text?
Brent: In the Text?
Marty: Yes.
Brent: Couple of times, at least.
Marty: Yes.
Brent: Seems like. In fact, it’s pretty often.
Marty: In fact, we think it’s pretty often. When I do this in class, oftentimes I ask that question. They’re like, “Oh my goodness, they complained every day.” Because that’s what I was taught growing up. Interesting in the Text, they only complain twice about water. They complained only twice.
Brent: That’s what I was struggling with because I was like, “I can think of two times but it has to be so many more.” Right?
Marty: Right. Yes. In the Text, they only complained twice. They complained in Exodus 17 and they complained here in Numbers 20, which is why the midrash all of a sudden makes sense. The first time they complain, they get water from the rock, they then take the rock with them. They have all the water they need and then when Miriam dies, what’s the very next thing that happens?
Brent: We need water.
Marty: We need water. It’s like this connection. Now, what’s interesting here is what the Text doesn’t say. It says that Miriam died and was buried. Now, what’s interesting is Aaron’s going to die here shortly in this story, and any hunches on what they’re going to do for Aaron when he dies?
Brent: Probably throw a big party or something.
Marty: Yes. They’re going to mourn him. It’s going to be this huge thing. Moses is going to die.
Brent: When I say party, not like a celebration but like a big event.
Marty: Right. A big event. Moses is going to die. What do you think they do?
Brent: Big event.
Marty: Yes. They’re going to mourn the death of Moses. They’re going to mourn the death of Aaron. Miriam dies… nothing. I think there’s something happening inside of Moses throughout the book of Numbers, rebellion, rebellion, rebellion, rebellion. He just lost his sister. He just lost his sister and they’re like, where’s our water going to come from? I think there’s anger brewing perhaps in Moshe’s heart but we’ll see what happens. You can go ahead and keep reading where we left off.
Brent: Let’s see where were we, verse six. Moshe and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance, to the tent of meeting and fell facedown and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. The Lord said to Moshe, “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. You’ll bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.”
Moshe took the staff from the Lord’s presence just as He commanded him. He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock. Moshe said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” Then Moshe raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff, water gushed out and the community and their livestock drank but the Lord said to Moshe 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.” These were the waters of Meribah where the Israelites quarreled with the Lord and where He was proved holy among them.
Marty: What was this place called?
Brent: Kadesh.
Marty: Called Kadesh, but didn’t it just say it was Meribah?
Brent: The waters of Meribah. Yes.
Marty: Very interesting. This place is called Meribah but it’s also called Kadesh. It’s got like two names. That’s weird. Wonder if that’s happened before? It’s a weird thing.
Brent: It seems unusual.
Marty: Let’s talk about this in terms of a test. If you remember the three tests going up to Mount Sinai, there was the test of the bitter water at Marah. There was the test of your soul at Rephidim, or what Deuteronomy calls Massah.
Brent: Two names?
Marty: Well, there’s that. There’s even more. I would actually have to double-check that to make sure that Massah is linked to the same Rephidim location. I caught myself saying more than I should until I’m sure of myself. Then the third test was the Amalekites. We know that what we’re struggling here with is not the third test. If I were to take this story in Numbers 20 and say, well, we’re being tested again here. Is that more test number one or test number two? Let’s review these, Brent. First test was a test of what?
Brent: The water.
Marty: Okay.
Brent: The bitter water.
Marty: The test of your heart. Love the Lord the God with all your heart. We said the heart was the seat of the what?
Brent: The will.
Marty: The will. It was your desire, your voluntary worship, your desire to follow. Our first test was a test of the will. The second test was a test of the…?
Brent: Of the soul.
Marty: The soul, the nephesh. What was that a reference to?
Brent: I don’t know. Like, who you are as a person.
Marty: Your whole identity.
Brent: Your essence.
Marty: Your essence. Exactly. Your nephesh is like your whole self. If the people are in sin and rebellion here, and that’s an if, but if they are, is this a test number one or a test number two? Is this a problem with the will or is this a problem of the soul? Are they saying to God, “God, we’re just struggling to —” What was the Deuteronomy quote, Brent? Can you remember test number one? Man does not…?
Brent: Man does not eat on bread alone.
Marty: Yes, man does not live on bread alone. Is this a “man does not live on bread alone” issue? Or is this a “do not test the Lord your God” issue?
Brent: I feel like it could be both.
Marty: It’s tricky, because what does Moses call the people?
Brent: You rebels.
Marty: What was the word there in Hebrew?
Brent: I don’t know.
Marty: It was marah.
Brent: Oh, marah.
Marty: You marah, you rebels. If I’m listening to that, what were the waters? Marah means bitter. It can also mean defiant rebellion. You take a son who is marah in the book of Leviticus and you stone him to death. Capital punishment for a marah son, but it’s also the same word for the waters at marah. What was marah, test number… ?
Brent: That was test one.
Marty: There are some allusions here that I’m thinking, “Well, maybe it’s test number one.” The problem is, well, were there any links to test number — everything in this — before we talk about test number two, I personally feel like this is test number one, all the way. Nobody here is testing the Lord, nobody here is. They’re simply having a hard time waiting on every word. Miriam dies, they’re thirsty, they’re having a test of the heart issue, they’re having a test number one problem.
Brent: I can tell you it doesn’t take long to get thirsty in the desert.
Marty: Doesn’t take long. This is a will you wait on every word — if you remember that Marah, what was waiting just around the corner?
Brent: The 12 springs and 70 palm trees.
Marty: Right. The lesson here could be, you need to trust that God has you, there’s always something around the bend, your Shepherd always knows where He’s leading you, you need to trust. What God wants to teach His people here is a test number one issue, but Moses keeps making this a test number two issue, which is interesting because at the very end of the story, what was the second name this place got?
Brent: Meribah.
Marty: Meribah, but the other name is?
Brent: Kadesh.
Marty: Kadesh, but there’s been Meribah before. Meribah means quarreling, any hunches where the other Meribah was at?
Brent: Sounds like test number two.
Marty: Test number two, which is interesting because that one had two names too. It was called Rephidim; it was also called Meribah. So which is it? Are we at the same location? No, the one was at Rephidim, this one’s at Kadesh, but they’re both called Meribah. Why does the author say these are the waters of Meribah? In fact, read that last verse of our section here in Numbers 20.
Brent: These were the waters of Meribah where the Israelites quarreled with the Lord and where He was proved holy among them.
Marty: Okay, did the Israelites quarrel with the Lord in this passage?
Brent: Doesn’t really seem like they had a lot of conversation.
Marty: Yes, there’s no quarreling with God. Who did they quarrel with?
Brent: Moses.
Marty: Moses. What happened the first time? Moses says you don’t have a problem with me, you have a problem with God. The author here is saying this is about test number two, but it clearly is about test number one. What in the world is going on here? Well, we have these two texts that have been linked together. Obviously, the author is trying to link this text to which story?
Brent: Exodus 17.
Marty: Exodus 17. Our secret to unlocking what’s going on here in this passage and the secret to the Hagah Project, lies somewhere in Exodus 17, it’s our key. Let’s see, if I were to jump back to Exodus 17, let’s read. You know the answer to this, we’re going to have to play this up for our listeners a little bit, let’s see here, let’s start reading Exodus 17: 5-7.
Brent: The Lord answered Moshe, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” Moshe did this in the sight of the elders of Israel, and he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, is the Lord among us or not?
Marty: All right, I was right in the Massah quote. A little hesitant there, but there it is, right there in the Text.
Brent: It’s right there.
Marty: Good vindication. Alright. Let’s read that one more time. Read that exact same, in fact you don’t have to read seven, just read five and six one more time.
Brent: The Lord answered Moshe, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile and go. I will stand there before you, by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.
Marty: All right, now let’s go back to Numbers 20 and read verses, let’s see, 9 and 10 and 11.
Brent: Moshe took the staff from the Lord’s presence just as He commanded him, 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 Moshe raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff, water gushed out and the community and their livestock drank.
Marty: All right. For most of our listeners, I’m just going to pause here and wonder because they can’t tell me, I’m going to wonder if they saw anything in there. If anything, there is a Hebrew phrase just staring at us that was incredibly important to the first story, but I’m betting for 90% or maybe even more of our listeners, they probably didn’t catch it. You stay in Numbers, I’m going to go back to Exodus 17, we’ll read these two passages together.
All right, let’s see, I’m going to go back to Exodus 17, The Lord answered Moshe, “Go out in front of the people, take with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile and go. I will stand there before you at the rock at Horeb, nakah the rock and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” Moshe did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. Now read yours.
Brent: “Moshe took the staff from the Lord’s presence just as He commanded him, 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 Moshe raised his arm, and nakah the rock twice with his staff, water gushed out and the community and their livestock drank.”
Marty: I’m wondering if anybody caught it the second time. Wish I could hear their voices screaming at the podcast, saying I know, I know, but I’m sure there are some that didn’t so I’m going to go back to Exodus 17, we’re going to try to unpack this a little bit, one more time. Last time, I promise. The Lord answered Moshe, “Go out in front of the people, take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand, the staff which you struck the Nile and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and the water will come out of it for the people to drink.” Moshe did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.
Now, Brent, if we were to go back to that story, what was one of the big contextual things we had to unpack about that? Was there a phrase that had particular importance to that teaching?
Brent: Well, God’s standing in front of Moses.
Marty: Right, we talked about the Hebrew word paniym, and when it’s used in this way, the only way that it can be translated and understood is if you remember my awesome drawing [laughs]. My awesome stick drawing — I had a sort of stick-figure, bearded Moses.
Brent: That was pretty great, actually.
Marty: Which looked like he had a duckbill or something like that. There was stick-figure Moses, and then there was Mount Sinai, and then if you remember, there was this presence of God thing that was in between, because the only way that you can translate and understand paniym in this usage is that there’s Moses, and there’s Mount Sinai, and between them, is God.
In order to strike the mountain, to nakah — and see, throughout this whole journey Moses has been learning about nakah. Let’s use your nakah. I’m going to teach you what it means to be a leader, I’m going to teach you how to no longer use nakah as your weapon. In fact, we’re going to turn nakah on ourselves as leaders. We’re going to take the blow, God says you strike the mountain, and in so [doing] you’re striking me, and I’m going to take the blow on behalf of the people. Now let’s go back to Numbers 20.
Brent: Moshe took the staff from the Lord’s presence just as He commanded him. 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 the livestock drank it.
Marty: Okay, now I’m hoping maybe a bunch more people caught up, but that same phrase is present here in this exact same sentence. He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels” — the same exact Hebrew phrase as what we found in Exodus 17. The story that this author says is what this story is linked to. These two stories go hand in hand, the author says, because there’s a lesson here that Moses completely drops the ball.
My personal belief is the reason that we’re told he strikes, he nakah the rock, he strikes to kill the rock. Well, that doesn’t make any sense. The first time it did because he was striking to kill God. God told him to nakah. God told him to strike to kill me, strike to kill the rock; but here, well if it’s just the rock, that doesn’t make any sense, but if Moshe lined the people up between him and the rock, and then strikes to kill twice, I wonder…
My belief personally, my opinion, is that Moshe killed two people that day. His anger, his frustration, his rage, all of this stuff building up. There’s a part of me that doesn’t want to do that at all because this is Moshe we’re talking about here, but on some level, I have to have an explanation for what did Moshe do that made God go, “No, if that’s where we’re at, after 120 years — 40 years when he left Egypt, 40 years in the desert as a shepherd, 40 years with the people of Israel — if that’s where we’re at after 120 years, if that’s the kind of leader, if you’re going to resort to your Pharaoh stick, I can’t let you be the guy that leads them into the Promised Land. That can’t be how we build our story. I’ll let you see it. I’ll bury your body.”
That’s not a poor ending to Moses’s story. In fact, I wish I could have his epitaph at the end of the book of Deuteronomy. We’ll talk about that next week. I wish I could have my tombstone say what Moses’s said, but if there’s a reason and a justification for not making it to the promised land. Here is God saying, “Moses, I want you —” and here’s what’s interesting.
When God says, in Numbers, I’ll read it, “Because you did not trust me enough to honor me as holy...” The word for honor there is actually “demonstrate” in the Hebrew because you did not show or demonstrate me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I will give them. God says you had an opportunity to show the people me, you could have spoken to the rock and used your voice and promoted the narrative of shalom, and instead, you resorted to the narrative of empire.
Oh, Moshe…
Brent: And all of that, right after we just went through this big thing about how to live and how to be a priest.
Marty: Like this is critical. Oh, I can’t, no, we can’t, you won’t be the guy, Joshua, Yoshua will be the guy. Man, this is the stuff you didn’t demonstrate me as holy. Then that last sense, all of a sudden makes sense. These are the waters of Meribah, where the Israelites quarreled with the Lord, and where He was proved holy among them. Well, back in Exodus 17, He was proved holy. Remember, holy means what, Brent?
Brent: Set apart.
Marty: Set apart. Different. Like the thing that we always say sets God apart and makes Him different, is what?
Brent: His love. His grace.
Marty: That’s what makes Him different. That’s what God wanted to show them in Exodus 17, and He did by having Moses strike Him. This is what God wants Moses to show the people now in this moment too. He drops the ball. If we really want to wrap up the book of Numbers, if we have any doubt that this is what the story is about, what’s the very next group of stories to come after this, Brent?
Brent: In Numbers?
Marty: Yes. Not the very, very next one. There’s a couple of things, but the next big block of stories that we’re all familiar with.
Brent: The stories of Balaam.
Marty: Right. The very next thing to come up after this big story, the big lessons, there are a few things as they go from here to here in Moab and what not, and a rod and a bronze snake, but the really big next narrative punch is going to be the story of Balaam. The story of a donkey using its voice. It’s almost like God saying, if you people aren’t going to use your voice for my narrative, I’m going to open up the mouth of a donkey and have him use his voice. That’s how committed to voice God is. Moshe isn’t going to use his voice. The next story is, Balaam’s donkey is. This is the lesson of the desert.
Brent: What is that passage about the rocks crying out? Is that the same thing?
Marty: Oh, I’m trying to think, I’m trying to wrestle down as you say it. That’d be Habakkuk. Referring to the stones of the temple. Again, this is what Jesus quotes in the triumphal entry. If these people don’t cry out, the very stones will cry out. Boy, I’ve never even thought about that but yes, God is a God of the ears. He wants us to be people of the ears, and He wants us to get really used to learning about His voice. Voice, this is so hard. I remember when I learned this Moses lesson. I remember I learned it from Ray, at least the main gist of it, the first part of it.
I remember the day I sat in church and I heard him talk and give a lecture on that. I went, do I have to learn that as a leader? Because I like to lead with a stick. It’s easier. It’s more efficient. It gets the job done. God has had to teach me over the last decade how to lead with voice and how to trust — trust that God’s got this, trust that I don’t have to be God here. I can let God be God. I just need to show God as holy. I need to demonstrate Him as different. I need to demonstrate Him as loving, and I need to lead with my voice.
I’m assuming there’s probably a lot of us out here listening. Some of my listeners, we need to learn how to lead with our voice better. Some of us might be employers or people in charge or a boss or a teacher, how you use your authority tells one narrative or the other. It will either tell the narrative of empire, or it will tell the narrative of Kingdom, of Shalom. Anyway, moving lesson for me when I learned it. I want to be more like that.
Brent: I feel like we had a lot of Star Wars references today. This talk about rebels. All the fear.
Marty: Yes, all unintentional.
Brent: Fear leading to anger and hate and suffering.
Marty: [laughs] Oh man. I’m glad I didn’t catch that as it came out because that would have definitely come out intentionally!
Brent: I didn’t want to derail anything. We couldn’t close it down without pointing it out. It’s perfect. It’s perfect.
Marty: [Yoda voice] Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate…
Brent: [laughs] All right, well, if you live on the Palouse, join us for discussion groups in Moscow on Tuesday or in Pullman on Wednesday. You can check out other discussion groups around the country on the website, as well. If you want to get a hold of Marty, you can find him on Twitter at @martysolomon. I’m on Twitter at @eibcb. And you can find more details about the show at BEMAdiscipleship.com. Thanks for joining us on the BEMA podcast and we’ll talk to you again soon. May the Force be with you, Marty.