“Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy ..."

Numbers 20 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Then the sons of Israel, the whole congregation, came to the wilderness of Zin in the first month; and the people stayed at Kadesh. Now Miriam died there and was buried there.

² There was no water for the congregation, and they assembled themselves against Moses and Aaron. ³ The people thus contended with Moses and spoke, saying, “If only we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord! ⁴ Why then have you brought the Lord’s assembly into this wilderness, for us and our beasts to die here? ⁵ Why have you made us come up from Egypt, to bring us in to this wretched place? It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, nor is there water to drink.” ⁶ Then Moses and Aaron came in from the presence of the assembly to the doorway of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces. Then the glory of the Lord appeared to them; ⁷ and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

⁸ “Take the rod; and you and your brother Aaron assemble the congregation and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it may yield its water. You shall thus bring forth water for them out of the rock and let the congregation and their beasts drink.”

⁹ So Moses took the rod from before the Lord, just as He had commanded him; ¹⁰ and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. And he said to them, “Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?” ¹¹ Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their beasts drank. ¹² But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.” ¹³ Those were the waters of Meribah, because the sons of Israel contended with the Lord, and He proved Himself holy among them…

²² Now when they set out from Kadesh, the sons of Israel, the whole congregation, came to Mount Hor.

²³ Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor by the border of the land of Edom, saying, ²⁴ “Aaron will be gathered to his people; for he shall not enter the land which I have given to the sons of Israel, because you rebelled against My command at the waters of Meribah. ²⁵ Take Aaron and his son Eleazar and bring them up to Mount Hor; ²⁶ and strip Aaron of his garments and put them on his son Eleazar. So Aaron will be gathered to his people, and will die there.” ²⁷ So Moses did just as the Lord had commanded, and they went up to Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation. ²⁸ After Moses had stripped Aaron of his garments and put them on his son Eleazar, Aaron died there on the mountain top. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain. ²⁹ When all the congregation saw that Aaron had died, all the house of Israel wept for Aaron thirty days.

Aaron died right after this incident. In Deuteronomy 34, we see the fulfillment of God’s word to Moses concerning him not entering or leading the Israelites into the promised land.

Now Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land, Gilead as far as Dan, ² and all Naphtali and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah as far as the western sea, ³ and the Negev and the plain in the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar. ⁴ Then the Lord said to him, “This is the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants’; I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.” ⁵ So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. ⁶ And He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor; but no man knows his burial place to this day. ⁷ Although Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died, his eye was not dim, nor his vigor abated. ⁸ So the sons of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days; then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses came to an end.

Neither Aaron nor Moses lost their eternal salvation because of their failure at Meribah. In  Joshua 1:2 God speaks to Joshua after Moses death, saying:  “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people. Moses remained God’s faithful servant and leader of the Israelites. God continued, throughout Moses life, to bless and guide him as he led the people. Even at the time of the incident, when Moses struck the rock in anger rather than following God’s word and simply speaking to the rock, God provided the water through the hand of Moses. Verse 11 in today’s text says:       Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their beasts drank.   There is a great responsibility and accountability which comes with being a leader of God’s people. James 3:1 says: Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.

Again neither Aaron nor Moses lost the salvation, their eternal reward with God over their failure, but they did lose something here in this earthly realm. Even though God was faithful and still honored them, providing the water for the Israelites, He said:  “Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”     Moses and Aaron lost their inheritance, the fullness of entering into the Promised Land. The charge against them;  you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel. We too have been given an inheritance, a promise, a fullness of life with power and authority which we are called to walk in as believers in Christ. Jesus says: I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. (John 10:10) He says: Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.(John 14:12)   He says: I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:18-19) He says:  “if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.  He says: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. ¹⁶ He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. ¹⁷ These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; ¹⁸ they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” (Mark 16:15-18) All these things Jesus said are part of our inheritance, they are part of the promise we are to walk in here and now in this realm. Do we, like Moses and Aaron miss some of the fullness of the promise of our inheritance because we do not believe God and treat Him as holy before His people?

1 Peter 1:13-16 says:  Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. ¹⁴ As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, ¹⁵ but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; ¹⁶ because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”     The focus of that passage is on our behavior and how that is critical to the way we live as examples, treating God as holy before people. But the failure of Moses and Aaron was that they acted in anger and judgment of the people rather than with grace. We are to:   fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.    To believe God and treat Him as holy before men, we need to live in a holy manner, to be holy because God is holy. We also though need to live toward others with the same grace that was revealed to us. To not act in anger or judgment, but rather to follow God’s word displaying His love, compassion and grace.

Each one of us, as a believer in Christ, is called to be a leader of men. The accountability and  responsibility of leadership is great. So too is the promise, the inheritance we have been given.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit, Thank You for the inheritance You have given me here and now in this realm. Thank You for the power and authority You provide, that I might do the things that You did Jesus. Forgive me for not treating You as holy before people, either by not being holy myself or by not living in and as an example of the grace which has been revealed to me. I pray that Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven, here and now, in and through my life. You are holy; I believe.     Amen.