Numbers 20

20:1 Then - To wit, after many stations and long journeys here omitted, but particularly described, Num 33:1 - 49. Zin - A place near the land of Edom, distinct and distant from that Sin, Exo 16:1. The first month - Of the fortieth year, as is evident, because the next station to this was in mount Hor, where Aaron died, who died in the fifth month of the fortieth year, Num 33:38. Moses doth not give us an exact journal of all occurrences in the wilderness, but only of those which were most remarkable, and especially of those which happened in the first and second, and in the fortieth year. Miriam died - Four months before Aaron, and but a few more before Moses.

20:1-13 After thirty-eight years' tedious abode in the wilderness, the armies of Israel advanced towards Canaan again. There was no water for the congregation. We live in a wanting world, and wherever we are, must expect to meet with something to put us out. It is a great mercy to have plenty of water, a mercy which, if we found the want of, we should more own the worth of. Hereupon they murmured against Moses and Aaron. They spake the same absurd and brutish language their fathers had done. It made their crime the worse, that they had smarted so long for the discontent and distrusts of their fathers, yet they venture in the same steps. Moses must again, in God's name, command water out of a rock for them; God is as able as ever to supply his people with what is needful for them. But Moses and Aaron acted wrong. They took much of the glory of this work of wonder to themselves; Must we fetch water? As if it were done by some power or worthiness of their own. They were to speak to the rock, but they smote it. Therefore it is charged upon them, that they did not sanctify God, that is, they did not give to him alone that glory of this miracle which was due unto his name. And being provoked by the people, Moses spake unadvisedly with his lips. The same pride of man would still usurp the office of the appointed Mediator; and become to ourselves wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. Such a state of sinful independence, such a rebellion of the soul against its Saviour, the voice of God condemns in every page of the gospel.

Chapter 20 At this chapter begins the history of the fortieth year (which was the last year) of the Israelites’ wandering in the wilderness. And since the beginning of their second year, when they were sentenced to perform their quarantine in the desert, there to wear away the tedious revolution of forty years, there is little recorded concerning them till this last year, which brought them to the borders of Canaan, and the history of this year is almost as large as the history of the first year. This chapter gives an account of, I. The death of Miriam (v. 1). II. The fetching of water out of the rock, in which observe, 1. The distress Israel was in, for want of water (v. 2). 2. Their discontent and murmuring in that distress (v. 3-5). 3. God’s pity and power engaged for their supply with water out of the rock (v. 6-9). 4. The infirmity of Moses and Aaron upon this occasion (v. 10, 11). 5. God’s displeasure against them (v. 12, 13). III. The negotiation with the Edomites. Israel’s request (v. 14–17), and the repulse the Edomites gave them (v. 18–21). IV. The death of Aaron the high priest upon Mount Hor, the instalment of Eleazar in his room, and the people’s mourning for him (v. 22, etc.).Verses 1-13 After thirty-eight years’ tedious marches, or rather tedious rests, in the wilderness, backward towards the Red Sea, the armies of Israel now at length set their faces towards Canaan again, and had come not far off from the place where they were when, by the righteous sentence of divine Justice, they were made to begin their wanderings. Hitherto they had been led about as in a maze or labyrinth, while execution was doing upon the rebels that were sentenced; but they were now brought into the right way again: they abode in Kadesh (v. 1), not Kadesh-barnea, which was near the borders of Canaan, but another Kadesh on the confines of Edom, further off from the land of promise, yet in the way to it from the Red Sea, to which they had been hurried back. Now,I. Here dies Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron, and as it should seem older than either of them. She must have been so if she was that sister that was set to watch Moses when he was put into the ark of bulrushes, Ex. 2:4. Miriam died there, v. 1. She was a prophetess, and had been an instrument of much good to Israel, Mic. 6:4. When Moses and Aaron with their rod went before them, to work wonders for them, Miriam with her timbrel went before them in praising God for these wondrous works (Ex. 15:20), and therein did them real service; yet she had once been a murmurer (ch. 12:1), and must not enter Canaan.II. Here there is another Meribah. one place we met with before of that name, in the beginning of their march through the wilderness, which was so called because of the chiding of the children of Israel, Ex. 17:7. And now we have another place, at the latter end of their march, which bears the same name for the same reason: This is the water of Meribah, v. 13. What was there done was here re-acted.1. There was no water for the congregation, v. 2. The water out of the rock of Rephidim had followed them while there was need of it; but it is probable that for some time they had been in a country where they were supplied in an ordinary way, and when common providence supplied them it was fit that the miracle should cease. But in this place it fell out that there was no water, or not sufficient for the congregation. Note, We live in a wanting world, and, wherever we are, must expect to meet with some inconvenience or other. It is a great mercy to have plenty of water, a mercy which if we found the want of we should own the worth of.2. Hereupon they murmured, mutinied (v. 2), gathered themselves together, and took up arms against Moses and Aaron.