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Numbers 20 Bible study: Speak to the rock
The LORD said "speak to the rock" (20:8); Moses said "you rebels" and struck it twice (20:10-11), and the water came anyway. The LORD named what went wrong, "you didn’t believe in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel" (20:12), and at Mount Hor used Moses' own word of him and Aaron: "you rebelled against my word" (20:24).
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“The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you didn’t believe in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.””
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“In Numbers 20, the LORD told Moses to take the rod before telling him to speak to the rock.”
Is that in Numbers 20, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
What the LORD said, and what Moses did
The LORD's instructions have three parts: "Take the rod, and assemble the congregation, you, and Aaron your brother, and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it pour out its water" (20:8). Moses does the first two. He "took the rod from before the LORD, as he commanded him" (20:9), and he and Aaron "gathered the assembly together before the rock" (20:10). Then, instead of speaking to the rock, he speaks to the people: "Hear now, you rebels! Shall we bring water out of this rock for you?" (20:10). And "Moses lifted up his hand, and struck the rock with his rod twice" (20:11). Even so, "water came out abundantly. The congregation and their livestock drank" (20:11).
Where it leads to Jesus
Never thirst again
Numbers 20:11leads toJohn 4:13-14
Once more "There was no water for the congregation" (20:2), as at Rephidim (Exodus 17:1); once more water comes from a rock, and "The congregation and their livestock drank" (20:11). At Jacob's well Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life" (John 4:13-14). Jesus is speaking of the well in front of him and doesn't cite Numbers 20, so this is a reading: some set the wilderness water, given and needed again, beside the water Jesus says ends thirst; others read his words only of the well and the gift he offers there (John 4:10).
Honest questions
Questions people ask about Numbers 20
That was a taste
The rest of Numbers 20 is waiting in Favor
- "You rebels", and "you rebelled"
- "To sanctify me" at Kadesh
- The garments passed on
- "Your brother Israel"
- Which rod?
- Gathered to his people
- 14 questions as you read
- 9 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
Favor reads the Bible in order, so you'll reach Numbers 20 with everything before it in view. First week free, then $10 a month per person.
The Hebrew word behind it
קָדַשׁqadashsay ka-DASH
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "be set apart, consecrated", and for the form in 20:12, "regard or treat, as sacred". "Because you didn’t believe in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel" (20:12). One verse later the same verb says the LORD was shown holy anyway: "he was sanctified in them" (20:13), a form Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "shew oneself sacred". The WEB gives it as "to honor me as holy" in 27:14, and in Moses' last days, "you didn’t uphold my holiness" (Deuteronomy 32:51). Aaron had heard it after Nadab and Abihu died: "I will show myself holy to those who come near me" (Leviticus 10:3).
For your group
Numbers 20 Bible study questions
- 1At Kadesh the people complained about water (20:2-5), as Israel had in Exodus 17 (Exodus 17:1-3). What complaint do you find yourself coming back to, even after God has provided before?
- 2The LORD wanted to be shown holy "in the eyes of the children of Israel" (20:12). When you're tired or frustrated with people, what helps you keep pointing them to God rather than to yourself?
- 3Israel lost Miriam and Aaron in one chapter, and wept thirty days for Aaron (20:1, 20:29). Who has passed something of their faith on to you, and what would you want to pass on?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Numbers 20 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Questions
What is Favor?
Favor is a Bible study app that explains every chapter as you read: the Hebrew and Greek behind the words, the details most readers miss, and how each part of the Bible leads to Jesus. Read on your own, or start a Bible study with friends, family or your church.
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The World English Bible, a modern, readable translation in the public domain. God's name appears as "the LORD", as in most English Bibles.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home