In this blog post I am exploring scriptures to answer a question:
Why did Hashem "punish" Moses so severely for not speaking to the Rock?
The 4th Book of the Torah is called Bamidbar בְּמִדְבַּר. The Hebrew means "in the desert" or "in the wilderness." Bamidbar is the culmination of the story of Israel's exodus from oppression in Egypt and their journey to take possession of the land God promised their fathers.
Bamidbar begins by stating a key fact in the first verse. (I am using the Chassidic translation from Chabad.)
וַיְדַבֵּ֨ר - And He spokeיְהוָֹ֧ה ' - YHVHאֶל־משֶׁ֛ה - To Moshe (Moses)בְּמִדְבַּ֥ר - Bamidbar (In the Desert)
Write from the very first word in the Word, we get a strong hint regarding the answer to the question. Hashem has something to say!
If we break down the first word וַיְדַבֵּ֨ר we get:
וַ - Vav (6) - And/Nailיְ - Yod (10) - Hand/Armדַ - Dalet (4) - Doorבֵּ֨ - Beyt (2) - In the Houseר - Resh (200) - Head/Authority
6+10+4+2+200=222 (That's a number that follows me. The link explains.)
That is who is speaking to Moses in the desert! Do you see the Passover revealed?
Exodus 1.1 continues to give us a specific location and date:
... , in the Tent of Meeting on the first day of the second month, in the second year after the exodus from the land of Egypt, saying.
2 Take the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by families following their fathers' houses; a head count of every male according to the number of their names.
Notice all the numeric/mathmatical references in this short piece of scripture. We see:
- 1st
- 2nd (twice)
- Sum
- Count
- Number
See all the references to Numbers in the very first verses of the Book of Numbers. The Torah is a code book that all points to Him.
The Hebrew name of the 4th book is revealed in the 5th word of the book, בְּמִדְבַּ֥ר - Bamidbar (In the Desert). (4 is Dalet/Door. 5 is Hey/Reveal Behold).
Most people know Sefer (Book) Bamidbar (in the desert) by it's more common English title, Numbers. Which makes senses to me because numbers are a door (4) to revelation. This morning is such a case.
For years I have been seeking a deeper understanding of Numbers 20:7-12 (Chabad)
7 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
8 "Take the staff and assemble the congregation, you and your brother Aaron, and speak to the rock in their presence so that it will give forth its water. You shall bring forth water for them from the rock and give the congregation and their livestock to drink."
9 Moses took the staff from before the Lord as He had commanded him.
10 Moses and Aaron assembled the congregation in front of the rock, and he said to them, "Now listen, you rebels, can we draw water for you from this rock?"
11 Moses raised his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, when an abundance of water gushed forth, and the congregation and their livestock drank.
12 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "Since you did not have faith in Me to sanctify Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly to the Land which I have given them
Moses has led the congregation for 40 years faithfully through the desert. But God will not allow Moses to enter the Land He Promised because he failed to:
"sanctify Me in the eyes of the children of Israel,"
Here is the Oxford dictionary definition of Sanctify:Set apart as or declare holy;
Similar word's: consecrate, make holy, make sacred, bless, hallow, set apart, dedicate to God, anoint, ordain, canonize, beatify.
Examples:
- make legitimate or binding by religious sanction as in "they see their love sanctified by the sacrament of marriage."
- free from sin; purify. as in "may God sanctify his soul"
Again, here is what Adonai commanded Moses to do: "Take the staff and assemble the congregation, you and your brother Aaron, and speak to the rock in their presence so that it will give forth its water.
Notice that Hashem instructs Moses to "take the staff" even before he has him gather the congregation or Aaron.
How was speaking to Rock going "sanctify" God?
I have believed I knew the answer to that question for several years. My belief is that God was going to the congregation before bringing forth Living Water from the Rock, He was going to respond to Moses. God was going to put his Word in the "mouth" of the Rock. I blogged about my thoughts last Summer when I looked at the Hebrew letter/number Hey (5).
This morning I believe I confirmed this in the scripture. More specifically in the Sefer Shemot (Book of Names), which we all know of as Exodus. The affirmation I have sought started to come into view yesterday morning.
The Spirit led me to the verses by other verses from Exodus 4 (Chabad):
1 Moses answered and said, "Behold they will not believe me, and they will not heed my voice, but they will say, 'The Lord has not appeared to you."
2 And the Lord said to him, "What is this in your hand?" And he said, "A staff."
3 And He said, "Cast it to the ground," and he cast it to the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses fled from before it.
4 And the Lord said to Moses, "Stretch forth your hand and take hold of its tail." So Moses stretched forth his hand and grasped it, and it became a staff in his hand.
5 "In order that they believe that the Lord, the God of their forefathers, has appeared to you, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."
6 And the Lord said further to him, "Now put your hand into your bosom," and he put his hand into his bosom, and he took it out, and behold, his hand was leprous like snow.
7 And He said, "Put your hand back into your bosom," and he put his hand back into his bosom, and [when] he took it out of his bosom, it had become again like [the rest of] his flesh.
8 "And it will come to pass, that if they do not believe you, and they do not heed the voice of the first sign, they will believe the voice of the last sign.
9 And it will come to pass, if they do not believe either of these two signs, and they do not heed your voice, you shall take of the water of the Nile and spill it upon the dry land, and the water that you take from the Nile will become blood on the dry land."
10 Moses said to the Lord, "I beseech You, O Lord. I am not a man of words, neither from yesterday nor from the day before yesterday, nor from the time You have spoken to Your servant, for I am heavy of mouth and heavy of tongue."
11 But the Lord said to him, "Who gave man a mouth, or who makes [one] dumb or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?
12 So now, go! I will be with your mouth, and I will instruct you what you shall speak. "
13 But he said, "I beseech You, O Lord, send now [Your message] with whom You would send."
14 And the Lord's wrath was kindled against Moses, and He said, "Is there not Aaron your brother, the Levite? I know that he will surely speak, and behold, he is coming forth toward you, and when he sees you, he will rejoice in his heart.
15 You shall speak to him, and you shall put the words into his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will instruct you [both] what you shall do.
16 And he will speak for you to the people, and it will be that he will be your speaker, and you will be his leader.
17 And you shall take this staff in your hand, with which you shall perform the signs."
Moses should have known better not to strike the Rock! God gave Moses signs to build the faith of the Israelites and others in Egypt. Moses knew what they needed to see to build their faith.
But Moses lost his faith and a result, the entire Congregation missed the opportunity to hear God speaking to them through the Rock that was providing them Living Water!
This leads me to back to the chapter just before -- Exodus 3. It took me back to when Moses first encounters God at the Burning Bush, where God speaks to Moses through a bush.
The first clue comes to us in the very first verse of chapter 3 of Sefer Shemot, the Book of Names. Exodus Verse 1 begins "Moses was pasturing the flocks of Jethro..." Who does this remind you of?
How about Joseph and his brothers. If it didn't remind you of Jacob and Joseph, God will make that clear in the 6th verse of the same chapter.
Exodus 3.6 -- And He said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look toward God.
The moment when God spoke to Moses in chapter 3:
Exodus 3:2-5 -- An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from within the thorn bush, and behold, the thorn bush was burning with fire, but the thorn bush was not being consumed. So Moses said, "Let me turn now and see this great spectacle why does the thorn bush not burn up?"The Lord saw that he had turned to see, and God called to him from within the thorn bush, and He said, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am!" And He said, "Do not draw near here. Take your shoes off your feet, because the place upon which you stand is holy soil."
Does this scene remind you of another scene in the Torah when God speaks out from a thorn bush? How about the binding of Isaac in Genesis when a ram caught in thorns by it's horn, provides a substitute for the Lamb and Isaac is spared. By the way, a Ram's Horn, which is used to make a Shofar, will be calling out to the people throughout the Torah.
Back to the point of this blog post where I am seeking to prove why it was so important for Moses to speak to the Rock. Surely, God did not want Moses to not strike the Bush!! He didn't even want Moses to get close enough to strike the Rock!
I believe God had a Word for Moses that He wanted the whole congregation to hear. Moses was commanded to speak to the Rock. Had he, I believe the Rock would have spoken back to Moses and the entire Congregation.
In Exodus 3 there is also foreshadowing for Moses that he will not be able to go into the Land and that "smiting" (Striking) was for God to do, not Moses.
Exodus 3:19-20 -- However, I know that the king of Egypt will not permit you to go, except through a mighty hand. And I will stretch forth My hand and smite the Egyptians with all My miracles that I will wreak in their midst, and afterwards he will send you out.
Like the Egyptians, God wanted the Congregation to see the Rock speak!
Exodus 3.31 -- And I will put this people's favor in the eyes of the Egyptians, and it will come to pass that when you go, you will not go empty handed.
What sign did Pharaoh and the Egyptians finally see to believe and give the Israelites their freedom from slavery? The death of their first born sons.
The entire bible points to God.
In Genesis, when Adam & Eve disobey God and find themselves naked, God calls out Eicha, where are you? At the end, in Revelation 22.22, God calls out six times, Bo, Come!
God created this world and each of us to have a relationship. God never gives up on us. We give up on him.
But a day is coming ...
Joel (Joel) 2:1-2 -- Sound a shophar in Zion and sound an alarm in My holy mountain; all the inhabitants of the land shall quake, for the day of the Lord has come, for it is near.
A day of darkness and gloom, a day of cloud and thick darkness, like the dawn spread over the mountains; a numerous and mighty people, the like of which has never been, and after it there shall be no more until the years of the generations.
