Our passage tonight is all about death, grumbling, disobedience, resistance, and oh, did I mention death?
Our text is bracketed by two deaths: the death of Miriam in verse 1, and the death of Aaron in verse 28.
The death of Miriam and Aaron represent the death of Israel in the wilderness. After all, Miriam and Aaron had grumbled against Moses in the third rebellion (ch 12), even as Korah and Dathan and Abiram had grumbled in the fifth rebellion (ch 16). And God had declared that this whole generation would perish in the wilderness.
Aaron may be the high priest. Miriam may be a prophetess. But the wages of sin is death.
And at the center of our story tonight is the rebellion of Moses. And the rebellion of Moses in verses 10-13 is couched in the language of the great rebellion. “You did not believe in me” (v12) – this is what God said to Israel in 14:11.
At the heart of Israel’s great rebellion was Israel’s lack of faith. And at the heart of Moses’ disobedience is lack of faith.
So let’s pay attention to this as we go through Numbers 20 – so that we can learn from our fathers not to have a stubborn, unbelieving heart.
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