The Lesson of Disobedience Given by Moses

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Moses: The Lesson of Disobedience
 

Numbers 13 (KJV)
13 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
2 Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them.
3 And Moses by the commandment of the Lord sent them from the wilderness of Paran: all those men were heads of the children of Israel.
 
17 And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain:
18 And see the land, what it is, and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many;
19 And what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad; and what cities they be that they dwell in, whether in tents, or in strong holds;
20 And what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood therein, or not. And be ye of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the firstripe grapes.
21 So they went up, and searched the land from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, as men come to Hamath.
 
26 And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land.
27 And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.
28 Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there.
29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.
30 And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.
31 But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.
32 And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.
33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.
 
14 And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.
2 And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!
3 And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt?
4 And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.
5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.
6 And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes:
7 And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land.
8 If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.
9 Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us: fear them not.
10 But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.
11 And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them?
12 I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.
13 And Moses said unto the Lord, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;)
14 And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that thou Lord art among this people, that thou Lord art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night.
15 Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying,
16 Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness.
17 And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying,
18 The Lord is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.
19 Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.
20 And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word:
21 But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.
22 Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;
23 Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:
24 But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.
 
Numbers 20 (KJV)
20 Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first month: and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there.
2 And there was no water for the congregation: and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron.
3 And the people chode with Moses, and spake, saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord!
4 And why have ye brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there?
5 And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? it is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink.
6 And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they fell upon their faces: and the glory of the Lord appeared unto them.
7 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
8 Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.
9 And Moses took the rod from before the Lord, as he commanded him.
10 And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?
11 And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.
12 And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.
13 This is the water of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with the Lord, and he was sanctified in them.
 
Deuteronomy 32:51-52 (KJV)
51 Because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of MeribahKadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because ye sanctified me not in the midst of the children of Israel.
52 Yet thou shalt see the land before thee; but thou shalt not go thither unto the land which I give the children of Israel.

A. Moses Was Disobedient

It is clear by both incidents that we just read about that Moses had a problem fully trusting God and His plan to prosper them.

Moses' disobedience caused the older Israelites and himself to miss the Promised Land
I have heard countless times when ministers would preach on Numbers 20 and say that Moses did not get to go to the Promised Land due to his actions with the staff and rock, but they are missing the main point here. Moses didn’t miss the miracle of the Promised Land, the covenant God had with his people due to a rock, but rather due to his down-right lack of trust in God and His ways.

Moses disobeyed God in the presence of all His people by striking the rock not once, but twice as if somehow signifying that his action was what would cause the rock to bring forth water rather than the authority of the Word of God which was just spoken to Moses. He is even recorded saying in the Scripture, “Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?” “Must we,” surely isn’t saying anything about God or His blessing of water from the rock. God is so merciful and good despite our wicked ways that He gave them water despite their leadership mistakes. How many times has God been good to us even when we were disobedient?

This action directly disrespected God in the eyes of His own people. The KJV says that Moses did not “sanctify me”, another version says “uphold me as holy,” and another version states “honor me as holy.” However, every version starts with Moses not trusting in the Lord. The Word tells us in one version of Deuternonomy 32:52 that Moses would only, “see the land from a distance.” This means it was close enough to see, but he wasn’t allowed to touch it. Now what if someone dangled a new car, even a chicken leg in front of your face, would you not want it?
 

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B. God’s Reaction Was After Years of Disobedience and Mistakes 

God did not take actions to such an extreme the first time Moses disobeyed Him, actually Moses had a long history of disobedience and behavior that showed his lack of trust in God.

In Exodus 2, we see where Moses murders an Egyptian due to his abuse of the Hebrews

​In Exodus 3, Moses doubts God about who he was created to be, the leader of the Hebrews that would help God deliver His people. He says, “Who Am I that I should go to Pharaoh?”

In Exodus 4, throughout the whole conversation continued, Moses tries to avoid his calling.

In Exodus 6, we see God has to allow Aaron to speak for Moses

Even after everything the Lord had done for the Israelites, Moses still disobeyed God
We must ask ourselves, have we also disobeyed God numerous times? Would we have been worthy of walking into the Promised Land? What about all the sins that we continue to act out? Do we follow every step and plan that God has laid out before us?

It was only after many years of disobedience, groaning, and mistakes that God took that privilege away from Moses.



C. God’s Perfect Will: The Master Plan of Our Lives  

We must strive daily for God’s will in our lives. Moses failed to do this when he summoned the spies to check out the Promised Land.

He ordered the spies to tell collect intelligience on basically everything.
Moses says, “And see the land, what it is, and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many;
19 And what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad; and what cities they be that they dwell in, whether in tents, or in strong holds;
20 And what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood therein, or not. And be ye of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the firstripe grapes.”
 
God did not ask him to request all of this information to devise his own plan, but rather to simply “search” the land so that they might see how awesome the land they would soon possess was.

God was already acting on the request of the Hebrews to even allow the search party when we look at Deuteronomy 1:22 saying, “Then all of you came to me and said, “Let us send men ahead to spy out the land for us and bring back a report about the route we are to take and the towns we will come to.”
Perhaps God allowed this misstep to take place as punishment for their disbelief, or possibly as a way to encourage them, however the people of God had their own plans.

Whatever your plans are, ensure they are obedient unto the Word of the Lord by being in His perfect will today!