(with Psalms 106:32-33)
This is a memorable incident in the Jews' history, and it is rich in warning to us at this day. Moses had failed in his duty towards God, and that in three particulars. (1) He had failed in strict obedience. God had bidden him speak to the rock, and he had smitten it, smitten it twice. (2) He had shown temper, used hard language. "Hear now, ye rebels." (3) He had taken to himself the credit of supplying the Israelites with water. "Must wefetch water for you out of the rock?"
I. The first lesson to be learned from Moses at Meribah is the danger of departing, in the least jot or tittle, from any law of God.
II. The second is the immense importance attached to temperate speech, the necessity of keeping a check on temper and not letting ourselves be moved to hot and angry words. The want of self-control was very heavily visited upon Moses and upon "Aaron, the saint of the Lord." Because of it they were shut out of Canaan.
III. The scene at the rock of Meribah is further useful as carrying our thoughts upwards to Him who is the source of all our hopes, the nourishment of our soul, the very life of our religion, the Lord Jesus Christ. The rock in the desert was but a type and a shadow; the reality it typified is represented in Jesus Christ. All other waters after a while must fail; the water that Christ can give "shall be in us as a well of water, springing up unto everlasting life."
R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons,3rd series, p. 100.
References: Numbers 20:11. J. Vaughan, Sermons,11th series, p. 166; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. xvi., p. 157; T. R. Stevenson, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xiv., p. 170.