“Moses 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 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.”

So Moses 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 their livestock drank” (Num 20: 6 – 11).

The Lord was not happy with the way this played out. His instructions to Moses were to take the staff, which he did, gather the assembly together, with Aaron’s help (tick!) and then speak to the rock, with everybody watching on.

No tick for the last instruction.

Instead of speaking to the rock, Moses spoke to the people. Actually, he vented his anger at the people and said, “must we bring water out of this rock?” Moses then struck the rock twice with his staff, which the Lord had not told him to do.

You may know the end of the story. In verse 12, we read, “But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honour me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.” In one stupid moment, Moses lost his ticket into the Promised Land.

What did he do wrong?

Perhaps the first thing is that Moses didn’t follow the Lord’s specific instructions. He improvised out of frustration. It is amazing to me that the Lord still went along with it, providing the much-needed water. I guess his compassion for the people outweighed any thought He may have had to hold back the miracle.

Second, the emphasis on “we” in Moses’ question, “must we bring you water out of this rock?” does suggest that he thought of himself a little too highly in that moment. If Moses had followed his orders to the letter, the Lord would likely have honoured him before the people, as he often did. Instead, Moses stole the glory that belongs only to the Lord and paid the price.

Doing the will and work of God is not to be taken lightly. When the Lord entrusts us to serve him in any kind of leadership role, we stand on holy ground. The question is, will we honour him as holy by obeying his instructions and will we honour him as holy by giving the glory to Him?

The most humble man on earth failed to be humble by the waters of Meribah and it cost him dearly. Let’s not make the same mistake today.