1. The story of the sin of Moses is found in Num_20:1-29. The tribes had come, after thirty-eight years' wandering, into the wilderness of Zin; and, finding no water, they gathered themselves together against Moses and Aaron. Once more the old murmurs were heard, “Wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us unto this evil place?” God's fidelity and the sin and punishment of their fathers were forgotten; they “chode with Moses, and spake, saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord!” Moses and Aaron went from the people to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation; and while they were on their faces before the Lord the glory of the Lord appeared again to them: Moses was commanded to take the rod, the symbol of God's presence, with him, and speak to the rock, which should give forth its water for the congregation. But the patience of Moses was worn out: standing before the people, he addressed them thus: “Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?” Then “Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice; and the water came out abundantly.”
The spirit of Moses appears clearly in the narrative. He is angry with the people, resentful; he treats their murmuring as an offence against himself. He parades his power before them: his twice smiting the rock reveals his heat. And God immediately rebukes him. He charges Moses with not sanctifying Him in the eyes of the people, and tells him that He shall not bring the congregation into the land which the Lord has given them.
Perhaps we may take it that the outbreak of petulance when Moses smote the rock was only one instance of some general decay of character on that side, or perhaps one should rather say, of some general falling away from the self-restraint which had distinguished him. It seems strange that this one failure should have been punished in him, by exclusion from the land he had so steadfastly believed in, the land which most of those who actually entered it would never have seen but for him. And it is pathetic to find him among that great company of martyrs for the public good-those who in order to serve their people have neglected their own characters. Under the stress of public work and the pressure of the stupidity and greed of those whom they have sought to guide, many leaders of men have been tempted, and have yielded to the temptation, to forget the demands of their better nature. But whatever their services to the world, such unfaithfulness does not pass unpunished. They have to bear the penalty, whosoever they be; and Moses was no more an exception than Cromwell or Savonarola was, to mention only some of the nobler examples.1 [Note: A. Harper, The Book of Deuteronomy, 485.]
Herein consists the awfulness of human life,
That no man knows the confines of a sin,
The generations of a virtuous deed;
And hence the obligation to entreat
All men with tender charity, since all
Are victims if offenders too; and oft
The fractures of the wicked are derived
From flaws of saints. And since one perfect Life
Can leaven all, perhaps one sinning soul
Can stay the bliss of all the Church of God.2 [Note: A. Bunston, The Porch of Paradise, 33.]
2. In a call to service, such as the call of Moses, there are perils.
(1) There are perils in its graces. We see in the narrative what we so often see, in the Bible and in life-that godly men will transgress just where they seem most secure, will yield to the temptations against which, either naturally or by past discipline, they seem to be best armed. “The man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.” God called him to a place requiring great meekness, and He endowed him with it. Naturally, he was perhaps rash and impulsive; but the failure of his first efforts to put himself at the head of the people, and his long sojourn as a shepherd in Midian, had sobered him. What strikes us most in his history is his quiet endurance, his self-devotion. When Aaron and Miriam speak against him, it is God who vindicates Moses, not Moses who vindicates himself. He pleads with God that they may be forgiven, and Miriam's curse removed. When the people “sin their great sin,” making them gods of gold while he was with the Lord on Sinai, Moses prays: “Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin-; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.” For eight-and-thirty years he “endured the contradiction of sinners against himself”; and it seemed as if the old hasty temper were quite subdued. But here at length, in an unguarded moment, the former passion blazes out, and the meekest of men is hot, resentful, self-assertive.
(2) There are perils belonging to the gifts of a high calling. If any one might have seemed secure against these perils, it was Moses, whose humility during his forty years' leadership was as conspicuous as his patience. He was the predestined leader of his people; marked out as such by the regal beauty which led his mother to save him, by the romantic story of his deliverance, by the accomplishments he acquired and the favour he enjoyed at the court of Pharaoh. Some consciousness of these advantages appears in his first presentation of himself to his brethren, and his supposing that they would have understood that God by his hand would deliver them. A court is not a good school in which to train men for the exercise of distinguished gifts. Far better the lonely desert, exile, and the humble work of tending flocks. Moses did seem to have learned his lesson. “Who am I?” he asks, in unaffected self-distrust, when God tells him he is to lead Israel out of Egypt. “Who am I?” he questions again and again. He goes to God with all his difficulties, asks God to show him what to do; God gives him all his power; he exalts before the people, not himself, but God. All the more instructive is the arrogance of this humble man. Is this Moses who so proudly asks: “Must we fetch you water out of this rock?” Moses, just returned from the tabernacle, where he had prostrated himself on his face before the Lord!
(3) There are perils incident to the fulfilment of a high calling. A high calling means a calling to high and noble work, and the work brings its strain and weariness with it. God intends those whom He signally endows to be more to men than others are; more trusted, more lavish of themselves; and this implies a more than ordinary exposure to temptation, greater responsibilities, peculiar dangers. Those whom men look to as their leaders will be the first objects of their distrust; men demand more from them than from others, and will resent disappointment as a personal wrong. The people whom Moses led out of Egypt, who saw the wonders he had wrought for them, and knew the favour he enjoyed from God, were they of whom he said: “They be almost ready to stone me.” Do anything for the people, they will expect you to do everything for them; do them good, they will demand that you do their pleasure; arouse high hopes in them, quicken in them spiritual aspiration, they will murmur at you should their meanest expectations fail, and at every disappointment will treat you as one who trifles with them.
A leader of men, moreover, must always be one of clearer insight, quicker emotion, stronger moral convictions, than others. He will be more aware than they are of their sin and weakness; he will judge their conduct by his conscience, and not by theirs. It was thus with Moses. The people murmured-poor, blind, ignorant people, they knew not how heinous was their ingratitude. Want of water was their great distress: they were like perverse children, not reflecting on their want of faith. All this Moses, however, did see; and, failing in lowliness and compassion, he failed in patience and self-control, and scorned them in their sin. A man so led away by passion perverts even his spiritual perceptions. Instead of thinking how patient God was with them, Moses dwelt simply on their rebellion. He was wounded, provoked; he was angry; it was with personal bitterness that he said: “Hear now, ye rebels!” and smote the rock.
Moses, the patriot fierce, became
The meekest man on earth,
To show us how love's quick'ning flame
Can give our souls new birth.
Moses, the man of meekest heart,
Lost Canaan by self-will,
To show, where Grace has done its part,
How sin defiles us still.
Thou, who hast taught me in Thy fear,
Yet seest me frail at best,
O grant me loss with Moses here,
To gain his future rest!1 [Note: J. H. Newman, Verses on Various Occasions.]
