Numbers 20:1-13
No water! The grumbling begins again. The people gather themselves together and chide as they did at Meribah (Exodus 17). Have they made no progress since they began the wilderness journey, in spite of their rich experiences of the love of God? "And why . . . and wherefore . . .?" (vv. 4 and 5). No water! Yet the rock is always there. The LORD is obliged to remind even Moses of it. Only it is not the repetition of "why?" which can make the water flow. One must speak to this rock. Lovely type of prayer, do you not think? God could give us all that is necessary without ever waiting for us to need it; but He wants us to ask Him for it, to remind us that we depend on Him. Moses here makes a distressing mistake. Instead of speaking to the rock, he strikes it impatiently and hastily. Outwardly not a very important gesture, but in reality of grave significance! Just as the rock had been smitten once at Horeb and should never have been so again, so Christ has received once for all at the cross the blows of divine judgment. Henceforth He has no more to suffer and to die. His work is sufficient to give to His own living water in abundance all along the wilderness way. But we have to speak to Him . . . do we?