Numbers 20: Even Moses Had Bad Days

Sometimes we tend to glorify our heroes, especially Bible characters and heroes of the faith.  "If only we could experience close communion with God like that, we'd never have any problems," we delude ourselves.  Whether you're talking about Paul, Peter, David, or even Moses, all of them experienced troubled times that pushed them to their limits.

Numbers 20 is full of bad news for Moses.  (Speaking of Numbers, this is the chapter where both Moses' sister Miriam and his brother Aaron have their "numbers come up!)"  Miriam dies in the wilderness of Zin, in Kadesh (vs. 1).  Aaron makes it a little farther, but is stripped of his priestly vestments and dies on Mount Hor (vs. 28).  In a short span of time, Moses loses his vital network of spiritual and familial support, in spite of the sibling rivalry they occasionally experienced.

Not only that, but Moses also gets some bad news: he won't be making it into the Promised Land either.  In what might strike you or me as extremely picky, God tells Aaron and Moses that, because of a lack of trust in Him at Meribah, they will die in the wilderness with their dream of a homeland still unfulfilled (vs. 12).

What atrocious sin was it that prompted God to punish His main man Moses in this way?  Apparently not following His instructions to the letter.  God told Moses to "speak" to the rock; instead Moses "struck" the rock (twice) and implicitly claimed credit for the miracle by saying, "Shall we bring water for you out of this rock?"  As you may have noticed in our study of the Law, details are very important to God.  This lapse was enough to cost Moses dearly.

Finally, the Israelites' distant cousins, the Edomites, refuse Moses' humble request to let his people pass through their land (vs. 20).  While the Edomites will later regret their antagonism toward God's people, for now it causes Moses a major headache in planning the nation's way to the wilderness.

The take-away for me is: don't envy our spiritual heroes in the mistaken belief that their lives were all "peaches and cream."  They faced ordeals and trials tougher than most of us, yet resolutely clung to their faith in spite of it all.  I guess that's what made them heroes.