Why moses struck the rock

You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink. Moses, instead, strikes the rock.

Although God still does give the Israelites water, he's angered by Moses' disobedience. Moses' rebellious actions ironically enough he called Israelites "rebels" right before he struck the rock rebelliously guarantee him a death in the wilderness, instead of the Promised Land.

The passage doesn't directly say something like, "Moses had gotten pretty ticked off with how much the Israelites complained—and they complained a lot—so he decided to strike the rock instead of speak to it. Moses had grown frustrated with God's people. At every turn, they questioned him, questioned God, and questioned Moses' leadership. Moses had to quell rebellions and literally overturn idols when he left for a few weeks to get the 10 Commandments.

At first glance, it seems like God is going really hard on Moses. After all, Moses had followed God's commands up to this point. Couldn't God just let this one slide? Did he overreact? First, we have to know that the first striking of the rock serves as a foreshadowing of Christ, as described in 1 Corinthians So God only intended for this symbolism to happen once.

Moses striking the rock again ruins this original intention of God. Secondly, anytime we question God's punishments in the Bible, or in our own lives, we forget about the gravity of sin. Sin essentially tells God that we don't think he deserves to be on the throne of our lives. Instead, we supplant him and rule a kingdom of one, until our corruption decays us from the inside out and reduces us to a grumble, as cleverly illustrated in C.

Lewis's The Great Divorce. Sin paralyzes, eats us from the inside out, corrupts, ruins, destroys, ravishes. Not only does Moses directly disobey God's orders, but if we look closer at the passage, he takes credit for God's actions as well:. Notice the "we". Moses had, in essence, claimed glory for God's actions. Which we see throughout the Bible, never ends well. Take a look at what happens to Herod when he does that in Acts Meribah shows us that God still provides, even when we disobey him.

He had every right not to provide water from the rock when Moses struck it, but instead, he chose to provide for the needs of the Israelites anyway. But the passage also shows us that sin has far more deadly consequences than we may foresee. When someone rouses our anger, we need to make sure not to sin while angry.

New American Standard Bible Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their livestock drank.

NASB Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their beasts drank. Amplified Bible Then Moses raised his hand [in anger] and with his rod he struck the rock twice [instead of speaking to the rock as the LORD had commanded].

And the water poured out abundantly, and the congregation and their livestock drank [fresh water]. Christian Standard Bible Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff, so that abundant water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank. Holman Christian Standard Bible Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff, so that a great amount of water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.

American Standard Version And Moses lifted up his hand, and smote the rock with his rod twice: and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their cattle. Aramaic Bible in Plain English And Moshe lifted his hand and he struck the rock with his rod two times and many waters went out and all the people drank and their cattle.

Brenton Septuagint Translation And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his rod twice; and much water came forth, and the congregation drank, and their cattle. Contemporary English Version He raised his stick in the air and struck the rock two times. At once, water gushed from the rock, and the people and their livestock had water to drink. Douay-Rheims Bible And when Moses had lifted up his hand, and struck the rook twice with the rod, there came forth water in great abundance, so that the people and their cattle drank, English Revised Version And Moses lifted up his hand, and smote the rock with his rod twice: and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their cattle.

Good News Translation Then Moses raised the stick and struck the rock twice with it, and a great stream of water gushed out, and all the people and animals drank. Water came pouring out, and all the people and their animals drank. International Standard Version Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod.

Lots of water gushed out, and both the community and their cattle were able to drink. JPS Tanakh And Moses lifted up his hand, and smote the rock with his rod twice; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their cattle. King Saul did not do as God says but instead, he kept their King and the best of their livestock.

Samuel went on to meet Saul. Saul claimed the livestock was for sacrifice to God. Samuel replied to him in scripture…. To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. Obeying God has a spiritual impact on the body and not just the body but also the heart. It is what builds our faith in God.

It pleases God to see that we have faith in him by obediently following all he says. This is the first case of disobedience in the Bible and the reason why all human beings are born into sin. The kind of interpretation people give as to what it means to eat the fruit God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat is not what it is.

We have seen different photos, drawings, and some illustrations where two people are together holding an apple, sometimes a pear — all these are to show that at least a fruit was eaten but not that an apple or pear was eaten. Adam and Eve eating from that tree are deeper than what it looks like in the Bible. The true meaning of will ushers us into the real meaning of what Moses did, what God asked him to do, why it resulted in punishment.

Adam and Eve disobeyed — the point is not about the fruit they ate — the point is that they disobeyed God. Not that the fruit possesses some kind of magical power that can make someone brilliant or look radiant but disobedience was involved. What was the fruit? There is no biblical text that says it was an apple as if God hates apples but is rather partial to pineapples and pears.

It is not necessary to suppose that the fruit is magical, such that by ingesting it—whatever it is—a switch suddenly goes on in the brain, the chemistry changes, and now you suddenly start pronouncing good and evil.

That is not quite the point. Regardless of what this fruit is, it is an inevitable test. Adam and Eve failed the test. They were punished not only because they ate the fruit but because they disobeyed God. In the same manner, Moses striking the rock has spiritual meaning. At first, in Exodus , God told Moses to strike the rock. At each point, God always tells Moses to gather the elders and people to see — this is not coincidental, God is trying to use this to pass a message to the people.

The bible described who the rock is in scripture. People needed to be saved from thirst, what came out of that rock is more than water, it was spiritual water. Striking the rock at the first stage has to do with the first stage of salvation, it starts with the death of Jesus Christ for all mankind, going on to shed his blood for the atonement of sin. The blood that flows through him is the blood that cleanses from all unrighteousness. So God was trying to make it clear to Moses and the elders what the rock symbolizes.

The water coming from the rock symbolizes two things which are; his blood and the living water. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. The picture was not clear to Moses at the first time.

As we are growing in Christianity, spiritual maturity is needed. There are some levels we should have attained that should be greater than the way we started.