Numbers 20:1-5 – Improve by learning from our past

In Numbers 20, we see that the people of Israel were now almost at the end of their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. This is indicated by the death of Miriam. In Exodus 16, when the people of Israel first left Egypt, she was a young vibrant lady. She was said to have led some women with tambourines to dance and sing of the victory of their deliverance in the Lord. Then in Numbers 12, we read of how she joined hands with Aaron and came against Moses for marrying a Cushite woman. For that, she was stricken with leprosy which the Lord healed after Moses interceded for them. Now in Numbers 20:1, we are told that she died in Kadesh in the wilderness of Sin and was buried there.

The first time the people of Israel grumbled against Moses when they needed water to drink was at  Rephidim recorded for us in Exodus 17. They put the Lord to the test in quarreling with Moses. They charged him with leading them and their livestock into the wilderness to make them die of thirst. So when Moses sought the Lord who then instructed him in Exodus 17:5-6 saying, “Pass before the people and take with you some of the elders of Israel; and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did as he was told, and God provided them with water to drink.

After these many years, and having gone through so much hardship, one would have expected the people of Israel to have learned not to grumble. But they had not. Facing a similar situation like the one they faced in Rephidim, they could have simply sought the Lord and He would have gladly met their needs again. But they did not. They resorted to accusing Moses and Aaron. Hear what they said in verses 4-5. “Why then have you brought the LORD’S assembly into this wilderness, for us and our livestock to die here? Why did you make us come up from Egypt, to bring us into this wretched place? It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, nor is there water to drink!” 

They seemed to have forgotten that where they were was a result of their choices. They were the ones who had chosen to listen to the negative reports of the 10 spies instead of Caleb’s and Joshua’s. They were the ones who had refused to step out in faith. And now they were shifting their blame to Moses and Aaron. Notice in verse 3, how they had adopted the same spirit as Dathan and Abiram. They said, “If only we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord!”

Was it not their decision not to enter the promised land when they were presented with the opportunity? Was their journey in the wilderness so much worse off than their suffering in Egypt? Didn’t God provide for their every need? Here we see the unreasonableness and ingratitude of the people in full display. They resorted to blame-shifting and exaggeration when they themselves were the cause of their own misery. They had not paused to take stork. When life comes unglue, learn to pause, stay still before the Lord and seek to identify the real cause. Don’t start blaming others. Don’t miss out on the opportunity accorded to us to make alignments to our own lives. Every experience we have is a God-given opportunity to better ourselves. Seize the moment!