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| Moses and Water from the Rock
The next forty years in the wilderness will become a time of formation for the younger generation before they enter the Promised Land. The hope is that p 103 they will learn from their parents’ mistakes and begin to trust God based on his previous words and deeds. Israel’s refusal to trust God is paralleled in an incident later in their wilderness wanderings. In the wilderness of Zin, the people are once again unable to find water. They bitterly repeat their complaint against Moses for bringing them out of Egypt and into the wilderness (Nm 20:3–5). Moses and Aaron intercede before God in the tabernacle, and the Lord responds: Take the rod, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water; so you shall bring water out of the rock for them. (Nm 20:8; emphasis added) Earlier in Exodus on their way to Sinai, Israel ran out of water; the people had complained, and even prepared to stone Moses. That time, God had instructed Moses to strike the rock with his rod, and when Moses did so, water flowed (Ex 17:1–7). This second time around, however, Moses is to bring the staff that had once struck the rock, but rather than striking the rock, he is simply to speak a word of command and the rock will yield water for the people. Moses gathers the assembly, saying, “Hear now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?” (Nm 20:10). Moses then lifts up his hand and strikes the rock twice with his rod, and abundant water flows out. However, Moses has struck a wrong chord with God, for he is told: Because you did not believe in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them. (Nm 20:12) Moses is accused of failing to “believe” God, just as Israel failed to “believe” God during the bad report of the ten spies. As a result, Moses, too, will be barred from entering the Promised Land. Not entering the Promised Land seems a severe punishment for such a faithful leader. But under the pressure of Israel’s complaining, Moses has turned his focus from defending God to vindicating himself and his leadership. This is manifest when Moses speaks to the congregation at the rock. Moses makes no mention that the gift of water comes from Yahweh, instead asking the congregation rhetorically p 104 if “we” can bring forth water from the rock—the “we” being Moses and Aaron. Moses is seeking to prove his and Aaron’s worthiness and goodness rather than God’s. Moses is forgetting that while he leads in God’s name, all the glory belongs to God. Additionally, Moses does not obey God. Rather than speaking, he strikes the rock twice. Moses was not supposed to strike the rock at all. Moses fails to follow God’s instructions, and God reveals this as a failure of faith, “because you did not believe in me” (Nm 20:12). Now Moses shares the fate of the people and will be unable to enter the good land promised by God. Christ the Rock The image of water from the rock occurs in the story of the Exodus and the Desert Wanderings and is taken up again after the Temple is destroyed, when the prophet Ezekiel has a vision of an ever-growing stream of water pouring out of the stone of the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem (Ez 47). The Feast of Tabernacles, which commemorated Israel’s wilderness wanderings and the Presence of God in the tabernacle, included a rite in which the priests of the Temple brought water from the Pool of Siloam and poured it on the steps of the Temple as a reminder of Exodus’ water from the rock and of Ezekiel’s vision. During this feast, Jesus, having made clear that he is the true temple (Jn 2:13–22), proclaims that “living water” will flow from the heart of those who believe in him (Jn 7:37–39). John will punctuate this when he describes Jesus’ heart gushing forth “blood and water” at the crucifixion (Jn 19:34), a sign that the waters of baptism have been unsealed. Thus John says, “This is he who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the witness, because the Spirit is the truth. There are three witnesses, the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree” (1 Jn 5:6–8). tải về 6.33 Mb. Chia sẻ với bạn bè của bạn:
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