Numbers 20:12

In Exodus God told Moses to strike the rock, and he struck it with his rod of judgment. The gift of the Spirit comes from Christ after He was struck and suffered for us. In Numbers it is the opposite. Moses was told to take the rod — that is, Aaron's rod of priestly grace, kept before the Lord. He and Aaron were to speak to the rock in front of the people, and it would give out its water. But there they failed. Moses did take Aaron's rod, as the Lord commanded him, but he struck the rock twice with his own rod. So they failed in faith to sanctify the Lord before Israel. Striking was as wrong now as it was right before.

There can be no repetition of the death of Christ. So Moses was wrong to strike the rock twice with his rod — wrong to strike it at all. The atoning work is done, and now our great High Priest has passed into the heavens, to appear there in the presence of God for us. The streams of spiritual refreshment flow to us on the ground of finished redemption. They flow in connection with Christ's priestly ministry, and Aaron's budding rod is the beautiful picture of it.

How did they fail to sanctify God? By not doing as they were commanded. The truth of priesthood taught by the rod was set aside as if it were of no use to the people... But God is most jealous of anything at all that interferes with His grace. God remembered mercy; Moses thought of their sin. God looked at the rod as a pledge of grace; Moses saw only the "token." He did not see the mercy side of the rod. No wonder he took his own rod, the symbol of the righteous government of God. He said "Hear now, you rebels" — a word the Lord had not put into his mouth.

He was so jealous for his authority that for the moment he forgot his own place as a servant. "Shall we bring water for you out of this rock?" Where was the honour due to God in his saying "WE"? No one was as meek as Moses; but here he failed and did not sanctify God in the people's eyes.

God most of all resents a grave misrepresentation of Himself by someone who ought to have known Him well. Moses and Aaron were very near to God. They had entered — Moses above all — into His grace. That is exactly why their total failure now became the reason for setting Moses aside as a vessel that had done its work.

Moses and Aaron did not sanctify Him; they gave up grace to defend their injured authority. Had this been God's feeling, they would have brought no water out of the rock at all. The Lord was sanctified all the same. He kept to His own word and His own grace, despite the failure of Moses and Aaron. That failure brought immediate reproof on them, and the sharp chastening of dying outside the land where grace was leading the people.

Neither Numbers 20 nor Deuteronomy 1 says anything about Moses in his official role. We have the man himself before us. God forbids him to enter the land because he spoke rashly with his lips.

God, in government, kept Moses out of Canaan. God, in grace, brought Moses up to Pisgah. These two facts in the history of Moses show clearly the difference between grace and government... Grace pardons and blesses; but government takes its course.