Read again Numbers 20:12-13. What specific reason did the Lord give to Moses for why he couldn’t go over because of what he did? See also Deuteronomy 31:2 and Deuteronomy 34:4.

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According to this text, there was more to Moses’ sin than just his own attempt to take the place of God, which was bad enough. He also showed a lack of faith, which, for someone like Moses, would be inexcusable. After all, this is the man who, from the burning bush (Exodus 3:2-16) onward, had had an experience with God unlike most people, and yet, according to the text Moses did not “believe Me,” (NKJV); that is, Moses showed a lack of faith in what the Lord had said, and as a result he had failed to “hallow Me,” before the children of Israel. In other words, had Moses kept his calm and done the right thing by showing his own faith and trust in God amid their apostasy, he would have glorified the Lord before the people and been, again, an example to them of what true faith and obedience were like.

Notice, too, how Moses had disobeyed what the Lord told him specifically to do.

Read Numbers 20:8. What had the Lord told Moses to do, but what did Moses do instead (Numbers 20:9-11)?

Verse nine has Moses taking the rod as the Lord had commanded him. So far, so good. But by verse 10, instead of speaking to the rock, from which water would then have flowed as an astounding expression of God’s power — Moses struck it, not once but twice. Yes, hitting a rock and having water come from it was miraculous, but certainly not as miraculous as just speaking to it and seeing the same thing happening.

Sure, on the surface it might have seemed that God’s judgment upon Moses was extreme: after all that Moses had been through, he was not going to be allowed to cross over into the Promised Land, after all. For as long as this story has been told, people have wondered why — because of one rash act — would what he had been anticipating for so long be denied him.

<–Sunday Tuesday–></

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Time and again, even amid their apostasy and wilderness wanderings, God miraculously provided for the children of Israel. That is, however undeserving they were (and often remained that way) God’s grace flowed out to them. We, too, today, are recipients of His grace, however much we are undeserving of it, as well. After all, it wouldn’t be grace if we deserved it, would it?

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And, besides the abundance of food that the Lord had miraculously provided for them in the wilderness, another manifestation of His grace was the water, without which they would quickly perish, especially in a dry, hot, and desolate desert. Talking about that experience, Paul wrote: “And all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4, NKJV). Ellen G. White also added that “Wherever in their journeyings they wanted water, there from the clefts of the rock it gushed out beside their encampment.” — Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 411.

Read Numbers 20:1-13. What happened here, and how do we understand the Lord’s punishment for Moses because of what he had done?

On one level, it’s not hard to see and understand Moses’ frustration. After all that the Lord had done for them, the signs and wonders and miraculous deliverance, here they were, finally, on the borders of the Promised Land. And then — what? Suddenly, they are short on water, and so they begin to conspire against Moses and Aaron. Was it that the Lord could not provide water for them now, as He had done for them so often before? Of course not; He could have, and was going to do so again.

However, look at Moses’ words as he struck the rock, even twice. “Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?” (Numbers 20:10, NKJV). One can all but hear the anger in his voice, for he begins by calling them “rebels.”

The problem wasn’t so much his anger itself, which was bad enough but understandable — but when He said “Must we bring water for you out of this rock?” as if he or any human being could bring water out of a rock. In his anger, he seemed to forget at the moment that it was only the power of God, working among them, that could do such a miracle. He, of all people, should have known that.

<–Sabbath Monday–>

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Sabbath Afternoon

Read for This Week’s Study: Numbers 20:1-13, Deuteronomy 31:2, Deuteronomy 34:4, Deuteronomy 34:1-12, Jude 9, 1 Corinthians 15:13-22.

Memory Text: “Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you!’” (Jude 9, NKJV).

As we have seen all quarter, Moses is the central mortal in Deuteronomy. His life, his character, his messages pervade the book. Though, yes, Deuteronomy is about God and His love for ‘am yisra’el, “the people of Israel,” God often used Moses to reveal that love and to speak to His people Israel.

Now, as we come to the end of the quarter, the end of our study of Deuteronomy, we come also to the end of Moses’ life, at least his life here.

As Ellen G. White expressed it: “Moses knew that he was to die alone; no earthly friend would be permitted to minister to him in his last hours. There was a mystery and awfulness about the scene before him, from which his heart shrank. The severest trial was his separation from the people of his care and love — the people with whom his interest and his life had so long been united. But he had learned to trust in God, and with unquestioning faith he committed himself and his people to His love and mercy.” — Patriarchs and Prophets, pages 470, 471.

As Moses’ life and ministry revealed much about the character of God, so, too, does his death and resurrection.

Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, December 25.

Sunday–>

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Support for the mission activities of the Seventh-day Adventist church has always been part of the Sabbath School program. This video is Mission Spotlight for this week.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWLj8BrIhUk&w=560&h=315]

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Further Thought:

Just as the Old Testament quotes itself (that is, some of the prophets would quote or refer to, for example, texts from the five books of Moses), the New Testament is filled with direct quotes, references, and allusions to the Old. Psalms, Isaiah, and Deuteronomy were among the most quoted.

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Often, too, the New Testament writers would quote from what is known as the Septuagint (LXX), sometimes called the “Greek Old Testament,” which was the earliest known Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. The first five books of the Bible, known as the Torah or the Pentateuch, were translated in the third century B.C., and the rest of the Old Testament about the second century B.C.

One can learn a great deal, too, about how to interpret the Bible by how the inspired writers of the New Testament used the Old. And one of the first lessons we could learn is that, unlike so much Bible scholarship today, the New Testament writers never raised any question about the authenticity or authority of the Old Testament books. Nothing in their writings revealed, for instance, doubt about the historicity of Old Testament stories, from the existence of Adam and Eve, the Fall, the Flood, to the call of Abraham, and so forth. The “scholarship” that questions these things is just human skepticism, and it should have no place in the hearts and minds of Seventh-day Adventists.

Discussion Questions:

<–Thursday

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