Why this story matters

(commentary on Numbers 20-21)

(Page 1 of 4)

Introduction

The highly influential Jewish philosopher, Maimonides, called this one of the most difficult problems in the Torah (first five books of the Bible). There are two main difficulties. First is Yahweh's harsh treatment of Moses, Aaron, and the people who died from the snake bites. And second is the pagan method of healing people by use of a bronze idol. As we shall see, many centuries after Maimonides spoke about these difficulties, we’re not much closer to making sense of them.

Twin Stories

The story illustrated here from the book of Numbers actually has a twin story from the book of Exodus (chapter 17). In both stories, there is no water for the people to drink, and each time Moses strikes a rock with his staff which produces water. When Moses does this in the Exodus story, everything is fine. When he does it in this story, he learns that he and his brother must die. Unfortunately, we're not sure why.

 

The staff, the rock, and the water

When Moses hears the complaints, he and Aaron leave the people and go to what's called the Tent of Meeting where Yahweh tells Moses to take the staff and go speak to the rock. Moses takes the staff, strikes the rock twice, and water flows out. Apparently, though, both Moses and Aaron have done something terribly wrong. Yahweh tells them that, because of what they have done, they will both have to die before reaching the Promised Land. The reason we're given is the following: "Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them" (Numbers 20:12).

But the text is ambiguous. In what way did Moses not trust Yahweh, or fail to honor him as holy? Because it's not clear, apologists have come up with a variety of explanations. Some have noted that Moses struck the rock with the staff instead of speaking to the rock as Yahweh commanded. He also scolded the people before he struck the rock, which Yahweh never told him to do. The Commentary Critical and Expository characterizes Moses' sin like this: “He had been directed to speak to the rock, but he smote it twice in his impetuosity, thus endangering the blossoms of the rod, and, instead of speaking to the rock, he spoke to the people in a fury.” But this seems a little thin. In the twin story from Exodus, Yahweh tells Moses to strike the rock to make the water come out and it works. So why would he tell Moses to take the staff with him again this time, if he's not supposed to use it? And couldn't Moses be given the benefit of the doubt for trying the same method that worked before? It's just not clear that this is the problem.

The Scofield Reference Notes has a slightly different take on it. It asserts that Moses sinned by striking the rock a second time. In other words, he should have had enough faith that Yahweh would bring water after the first strike: “The rock once smitten, needs not to be smitten again.” But if this was really Moses' only mistake, then surely sentencing him to death is petty and excessive. And besides, if this was what Moses was guilty of, it doesn't explain why Aaron was sentenced to death, since he wasn't guilty of either of these offenses.

Because of this, other Bible teachers have scoured the verses to find less problematic reasons for Yahweh's vengeance. Adam Clarke, in his commentary, believed he'd come up with the solution. When Moses was scolding the people he said the following: "'Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?'". Clarke believed that Moses, “did not acknowledge God in the miracle which was about to be wrought, but took the honour to himself and Aaron." Again, though, this is speculation. Moses may have been referring to himself and Aaron because they would be the one's doing the actual striking. 

There are other ideas about what Moses and Aaron may have done, but I've provided the most popular ones. The fact that there are many divergent ideas demonstrates that no one really knows why Yahweh decided to kill his loyal leaders.

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