GREAT readings yesterday. I hope your homily was as good as the one our priest gave.
From: Numbers 20:1-13
Moses Brings Water from the Rock
[2] Now there was no water for the congregation; and they assembled
themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. [3] And the people
contended with Moses, and said, “Would that we had died when our brethren
died before the LORD! [4] Why have you brought the assembly of the LORD
into this wilderness, that we should die here, both we and our cattle? [5] And
why have you made us come up out of Egypt, to bring us to this evil place?
It is no place for grain, or figs, or vines, or pomegranates; and there is
no water to drink.” [6] Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the
assembly to the door of the tent of meeting, and fell on their faces. And
the glory of the LORD appeared to them, [7] and the LORD said to Moses,
‘”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; so you shall give drink to the congregation
and their cattle.” [9] And Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as he
commanded him.
[10] And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock,
and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you
out of this rock?” [11] And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with
his rod twice; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation drank,
and their cattle. [12] And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “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.” [13] These are the waters of Meribah,’ where the people of
Israel contended with the LORD, and he showed himself holy among them.
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Commentary:
20:1-19. When the spies sent to explore the land of Canaan returned to base,
people of Israel were in the desert of Paran, in Kadesh (13:26). The desert
of Zin, which is referred to here, and which is different from that of a
very similar name (Sin) mentioned in Exodus 16:1 and 17:1, was the
north-west part of the wilderness of Paran, to which the cloud had led the
Israelites from Sinai (cf. 10:12). Kadesh was not really a town but an area
containing leafy oases. It was a key point of reference for the people of
Israel’s route towards Canaan. From Kadesh they will leave for the plains of
Moab (cf. 22:1). Kadesh marks the end of the desert trek (cf. chaps. 33-38);
from now on the land is inhabited and the Israelites will have contact with
those who live there.
As they make their way, the people encounter both external and internal
difficulties, but that does not stop their advance to the promised Land,
because God is their guide and he is helping them. In this sense the people
of Israel prefigures the Church, for “as Israel according to the flesh which
wandered in the desert was already called the Church of God (cf. Num 20:4;
etc.), so too, the new Israel which advances in this present era in search
of a future and permanent city (cf. Heb 13:14), is called also the Church of
Christ (cf. Mt 16:18). It is Christ indeed who had purchased it with his own
blood (cf. Acts 20:28); he has filled it with his Spirit; he has provided
means adapted to its visible and social union” (Vatican II, “Lumen Gentium”,
9).
20:2-13. Unlike Exodus 17:1-17, here it is Aaron who accompanies Moses,
so that both of them share in the sin of mistrusting God (cf. v. 12). The text
does not say what their sin was exactly: presumably it was because they
struck the rock twice due to lack of faith, instead of once (cf. vv. 11-12)
or in the fact that they struck the rock whereas God had told them to speak
to the rock (cf. v. 8)—although in Exodus 17:6 Moses was in fact told to
hit it. In v. 24 we are told it was a sin of rebellion, and in Psalm 106:32-33
it says that Moses “spoke words that were rash”. In Deuteronomy 1:37 and
elsewhere, the punishment inflicted on Moses is, however, attributed to the
people’s disobedience. At any event, the event is recounted here, just before
the narrating of the death of Aaron (as it will also be mentioned in Deuteronomy
32:51 before the account of Moses’ death). Here the episode is connected with
two place-names—Kadesh, which means in fact “holiness” and which would
remind people of the holiness of God (cf. v. 13), and Meribah, which means
“rebellion” and would evoke Moses’ sin. The two names appear linked
(Meri-bath-kadesh) in Deuteronomy 32:51 and Exodus 47:19.
This rock prefigured Christ, according to 1 Corinthians 10:4-5. The Fathers
gave an allegorical interpretation: the rock is Jesus, and the water the grace
which flows from the open side of our Lord; the double strike stands for the
two beams of the cross. Moses stands for the Jews, because just as Moses
doubted and struck the rock, the Jewish people crucified Christ, not believing
that he was the Son of God (cf. St Augustine, “Contra Faustum”, 16, 15;
“Questiones In Heptateuchurn”, 35).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.