NUMBERS

Second Preparation to Enter Canaan

Numbers 20:1-21:36

INTRODUCTION

Approximately one year after they left Egypt, Moses led the Israelites to Kadesh-Barnea located at the southern tip of Canaan in order to begin the conquest of the Promised Land. At that point, in response to the report of the 10 spies the Israelites had refused to take the land God had promised to them. Because of their unbelief, God refused to allow them to possess the land; instead He condemned them to 38 years of wandering in the wilderness until those 20 years of age and older had died off—basically the adult generation which had left Egypt with Moses. Only Joshua and Caleb, the 2 faithful spies, were going to be allowed to enter the Promised Land. At this point in Numbers, the 38 years of wandering are over. Although Moses and Numbers are silent about most of those 38 years, we can surmise that the first generation has passed away. A new generation is now emerging from the wilderness about to begin the conquest of Canaan. The question confronting them is whether or not they will respond in faith to God's leadership and possess the land, or will they rebel as their fathers did and refuse to take hold of the inheritance God has promised them. Starting in chapter 20 Moses will deal with this question. The second major preparation to enter Canaan has now begun.

THE NEED FOR NEW LEADERSHIP (20:1-13)

Just as before when Moses was about to lead the Israelites into Canaan, he brings them to Kadesh-Barnea. When they arrive at Kadesh, Miriam, Moses and Aaron's sister, dies. Not much space is devoted to her death because for all intents and purposes, she had marginalized herself because of her earlier rebellion against Moses. This woman who had protected the baby Moses in the wicker basket floating down the Nile and who had led the congregation in singing praises to God at the destruction of the Egyptian army at the Red Sea was now relegated to the background because of her rebellion. Because of the wonderful things God had done through her, Moses mentions her death; however, because of her rebellion, she warrants only a brief mention. It is sad but true that even the greatest heroes of the faith can sin so greatly that God has to place them on the backburner of His dealings.

At Kadesh, the people once more begin to complain and grumble against Moses. The water supply in this region was not sufficient to satisfy the needs of the people; they begin to complain. In their opinion, they would have been better off if they had died in the wilderness during the last 38 years than to have to undergo such privation. As they had done countless times in the past, Moses and Aaron fall on their faces before God and ask Him what He wishes them to do in response to the murmuring. God instructs Moses to take his rod, walk over to a designated rock, and speak to it so that it might be able to bring forth water. Moses obeys the Lord’s instructions and walks over to the rock with the rod in his hand. Instead of commanding the rock to bring forth water, though, he vents his anger towards the people by calling them "rebels” and then strikes the rock twice with his rod. Although Moses had disobeyed God, God honored his actions by bringing forth water from the rock. Although God had honored Moses and Aaron by bringing forth water from the rock, He was not pleased with them. He informed them that because they had not trusted Him and had not treated Him as holy, He was not going to allow them to enter the Promised Land.

Exactly what did God mean when He said that Moses and Aaron had not trusted God and that they had not treated Him as holy? They had not trusted God because apparently they felt that God was not responding properly to the situation. God was letting the people off too lightly, whereas the people needed firmer discipline than what God had ordered. Moses and Aaron trusted their own analysis of the people rather than God's analysis. Second, they did not treat God as holy because they gave a false representation of God to the people. Each Israelite knew that Moses and Aaron were God's official spokesmen and that when they spoken they were speaking God's own words. Well, when Moses called them "rebels," they naturally assumed that Moses was quoting the Lord when actually he was speaking from himself. As a result, he gave a false view of God to the Israelites. God was not treated as holy in this situation.

All this is revealing that although Moses had proved to be a dynamic leader, his leadership really was appropriate only for that first generation of Israelites who had come out of Egypt. His words would have fit that first generation, but this is not that first generation. It is the second generation of Israelites who differed in many respects from their forefathers and thus should have been treated differently than their fathers had been treated.

How were they different? Didn't they complain just like their fathers had done so previously? Yes, but when they are placed in the exact same situation their fathers were in—placed on the borders of the Promised Land, they unlike their fathers follow God in possessing the land. We can rationalize Moses' reaction all we want. For example, we can say that Moses was finally pushed to the limit and that he finally snapped when the second generation came off looking like the first. Whatever rationale we produce, the truth was that Moses and Aaron were not the appropriate leaders for this second generation. There was nothing wrong with Moses and Aaron; they just were not the leaders for the job.

God had someone waiting in the wings to take Moses' place—Joshua. In fact, God had said all along that Moses would not enter the Promised Land. Whenever the people rebelled the first time at Kadesh-Barnea, God had not said that Moses and Aaron would enter the holy land. He had said that only Joshua and Caleb out of that first generation would enter, a generation of which Moses and Aaron were part. We had just assumed that He was including Moses and Aaron, whereas all along He had said that the only 2 exceptions to the punishment were Joshua and Caleb.

This episode has to be one of the saddest in the entire OT. For 39 years Moses had led the Israelites in the hope of leading them into Canaan. Now that hope was shattered. Moreover, God was not joking about this punishment. In this very chapter, Moses under the Lord’s instructions will lead Aaron to the top of Mt. Hor where he will disrobe Aaron and place the high priestly garments on Aaron's son, Eleazar. The same will be awaiting Moses at the end of the year. Although Moses would beg God for the next year to allow him to enter the Promised Land, God would be unrelenting and would finally tell Moses to quit asking and to accept his punishment.

I fear that I will be fit to take a certain ministry only so far and not as far as God wants it to go. How sad it would be to be a faithful servant of the Lord and yet not be able to experience the best God has for His people and me because of some stupid action, and yet that is a real possibility, not only for me but for every minister in God's kingdom. Moses made the drastic mistake of taking his eyes off the Lord and placing them on the situation. To be the kind of minister God can always use requires that our eyes stay fixed firmly on the Lord and obey Him no matter how much we may or may not understand the situation.

Although this episode seems so tragic to me, the truth is that it has a happy ending. It would have seemed ultimately unjust if Moses had never been able to enter the Promised Land after he had been so faithful for so long. Because of Moses' humility, though, God had not wiped out the Israelites but had finally brought them into Canaan. Well, the Bible informs us that Moses did get to enter Canaan—just not during this period of time. Approximately 1400 years later, when Jesus was alive on earth, Moses met with Jesus and Elijah on the other side of the Jordan River in the area he declared to be God's possession, the Promised Land. Just like God had so many times forgiven the Israelites for their sin, so God forgave Moses and allowed him to touch the land for which he had lived for so long. Unlike the Israelites though of his day, Moses got to enter it with the Son of God Himself. Now that would be worth waiting for (Mark 9:1ff. Matt. 17:1ff.).

THE PLAGUE OF SERPENTS (21:4-9)

Between the previous episode and this one, 2 things have happened. First, the Israelites have to change the route they were going to take to get to the eastern side of Canaan. Instead of attacking from the south, the Israelites are now going to attack from the east. By attacking Jericho first, the Israelites were going to cut Canaan in half, a divide-and-conquer type strategy. The most direct route to Jericho would be to take the King's Highway which ran right through the middle of Edom and Moab. The King's Highway was actually what we call a "wady," that is a riverbed which was dry in the summer but was the site of raging torrents during the winter rainy season. The only problem was that the Edomites refused Moses access to the highway. Because of Israel's close blood ties to the Edomites (the 2 nations were descendents of the half-brothers Esau and Jacob), God forbade the Israelites to attack the Edomites. The same applied to the Moabites who were directly descended from Lot, who was the nephew of Abraham—the father of the Israelite nation. As a result, the Israelites go around Edom and Moab. It was longer and out of the way; however, it avoided open hostilities between Israel and 2 kindred nations. The second thing which happened was the death of Aaron.

On the longer way to Canaan, the Israelites once more begin to complain. They complain about the wilderness and the lack of food. Moreover, they are sick and tired of the manna that God had provided for them the past 39 years. Note that this time there is no mention of Moses praying for the people. Either his prayers were ineffectual or he did not pray, or else God chose to work another way. Either way, God sends fiery serpents to plague the people. Their venom was so potent that any person who was bitten by a fiery snake died. We would call these snakes "two-steppers." (When we were in Belize (1998) walking about in the jungle because of Julia Motycka's love of adventure, I was told to watch out for two-steppers. When I asked what those were, my friends told me that they were snakes whose venom was so vicious that the person bitten died after taking only 2 steps. I decided if I got bit, I would take only 1 step!)

The people immediately turn to Moses and ask him to pray for them. Note that they confess they have sinned before they ask God to remove the serpents. Now this episode does differ from the ones their parents underwent. This generation unlike the previous one confessed its sins and asked for prayer. (Also keep in mind that when it came down to it, this generation still was willing to occupy the Promised Land whereas the first generation was not.) God instructs Moses to make a bronze serpent and suspend it from a pole. He declared that whoever was bitten by a fiery serpent had only to look at the bronze serpent and he would be saved.

Once more this episode differs from the ones involving their parents. Unlike previous episodes, in this one God gave the Israelites an opportunity to exercise faith in order to experience His salvation. Before, Moses' prayers were what saved the Israelites. In this instance, their faith in God's Word is what saved them. And look at that word. It involved (1) a lifting up (2) of a symbol (3) of the very wrath God was pouring out upon His people. Faith always demands that we look up. I once heard that grief looks behind, worry looks around, but faith always looks up. Well, God is saying here that the Israelites will be saved only by faith or not saved at all. The same applies to us as Christians today. Faith is the operative word in our relationship with God and faith alone.

Second, just like the Israelites looked at the symbol of God's wrath for salvation, so we too must look to the symbol of God's wrath for our salvation. The cross is where both God's love and God's wrath meet. It is the locus of God's love because what happened here resulted in salvation for mankind. Because of the cross of Christ, Christians need never worry about whether or not God loves them. He has proven once and for all on the cross that He loves us beyond human understanding. However, the cross is also the locus of God's wrath because here God poured out every last ounce of His wrath against sin and mankind upon Jesus Christ. The cross is the most demonstrable piece of evidence of God's love we will ever witness; however, it is the most demonstrable piece of evidence of God's wrath against sin we will ever witness also. Only by looking up in faith to the cross—that place of love and, do we experience God's great salvation.

CONQUEST OF THE CANAANITES ON THE EASTERN SIDE OF THE JORDAN RIVER (21:21-25; 33-35)

After going around Moab and Edom, the Israelites now head west through the territory of Sihon king of the Amorites towards Jericho. Like the Edomites and Moabites before him, Sihon refuses access to Jericho through the territories. He mistook for cowardice the desire of the Israelites to honor their blood ties. Since he had defeated the Moabites of whom Israel was “afraid,” surely he would be able to defeat these cowardly Israelites. Unlike the Edomites and Moabites, though, the Amorites were not blood relatives of the Israelites. They were part of the family of the Canaanites whom God had destined for destruction. This time, Moses does not go around the Amorites but meets them in hand-to-hand combat. The result is a decisive victory for the Israelites. The same applied to Og, king of Bashan, who engaged the Israelites in battle afterwards.

God was giving the Israelites a real taste of what was to come. In defeating Sihon and Og, the Israelites were defeating the 2 mightiest kings of the Amorites. This would give the Israelites the confidence they would need to take on the whole of Canaan. Moreover, these 2 victories sent shock waves throughout the land of Canaan. If these 2 powerful kings fell before the Israelites so easily, then the entire land of Canaan was in severe jeopardy—and they knew it! Rahab the harlot reflects this when she cares for the Israelite spies, telling them that the inhabitants of Jericho were terrified of the Israelites: “The terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you” (Joshua 2:9).