Today was one of those exciting days when I discovered something new about an old Bible story.
Here is the story from Numbers 20:1-13. So that you don't have to look it up, here it is.
Water From the Rock
20 In the first month the whole Israelite community arrived at the Desert of Zin, and they stayed at Kadesh. There Miriam died and was buried.
2 Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. 3 They quarreled with Moses and said, “If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the Lord! 4 Why did you bring the Lord’s community into this wilderness, that we and our livestock should die here? 5 Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!”
6 Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the tent of meeting and fell facedown,and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. 7 The Lord said to Moses, 8 “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.”
9 So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence, just as he commanded him. 10 He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” 11 Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.
12 But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”
13 These were the waters of Meribah,[a] where the Israelites quarreled with the Lord and where he was proved holy among them.
That's the story. Today we went to En Avedat National Park walked up a long, hot, dry canyon which has huge rock walls on either side. Here it is -
At the bottom of the canyon is a river bed with a little trickle of water which comes out of the rock.. As you can see from the picture the rock of the canyon wall in the top middle of the picture iis heavily layered. These are soft limestone layers which are worn away by wind, rain and, strangely, birds nesting in holes, and ibex walking along the narrow ledges and wearing out grooves. However not all the layers are limestone, some are very hard flintstone. Here is what the bands look like close-up.
Rain water soaking into the top of the formation makes its way down through the porous limestone until it reaches the flintstone and there it stops and builds up until it forces a little hole and the water begins to run out. As most of you will know this sort of water is full of salts which begin to build up on the outside of the hole and eventually the hole is effectively plugged. What shepherds know is that to obtain water for their flocks all they need to do is strike the rock with his staff and ..... water will come rushing out.
When Moses ran away from Egypt what did he become? A shepherd in the desert So it is highly probable that he knew of this method to find water.But it is NOT what the Lord told him to do. Moses was told to SPEAK to the rock. This story is not about Moses, it is about the Lord and what the Lord is able to do to provide for His people. God can do so much to provide our every need - in abundance - too often we take matters into/ our own hands. In this case Moses said to himself "I know what to do here, it it certainly isn't to speak".
To close here are two final photos - the first shows the laters of limestone, the layer of flintstone and where the water has run. The second is a detail from the first and shows the salt plug.
Well that's it for now. Bless you all
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