But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”
Numbers 20:12
I’ve been sharing some things I’ve learned from the first five books of the Bible, these past few weeks. Today, I’d like to direct our attention to something that has always bugged me a bit, and how I found an answer during my reading of the Pentateuch. In so doing, I think we’ll discover a principle that we can trace throughout the Bible—a principle that is still valid today.
If you are like me, today’s verse has struck you as a bit harsh. I mean, you have this faithful servant of the Lord named Moses, who God commissions to guide His people out of the land of Egypt. He endures all their grumbling and complaining, their insurrection and ingratitude, only to blow it one notable time, and then he’s forbidden from entering the land he brought Israel out of Egypt to possess. It seems a little extreme, doesn’t it?
I’ve heard different explanations for this. One I recently came across is that Moses was forbidden from entering the Promised Land due to the fact that he violated a type—a foreshadowing of who Jesus Christ would be and what He would do. While there is good reason to see the incidences of rock drinking in the Pentateuch as a foreshadowing of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4), I think that this does still not adequately explain why Moses was forbidden to enter the Promised Land for the single infraction of striking a rock instead of speaking to it. After all, we have no indication that Moses knew that the rock had any significant prophetic significance. Instead, I believe that the answer to the question about why God’s response to Moses’ disobedience was so severe is found earlier in the book of Numbers, in an apparently unrelated context, Numbers 12.
In Numbers 12:6-8 God said, “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream. Not so, with My servant Moses, He is faithful in all My household; with him I speak mouth to mouth, even openly, and not in dark sayings, and he beholds the form of the LORD.” In Numbers 12, Moses is being criticized by his siblings Miriam and Aaron. As a result, God puts in a word of support for Moses, which is what we find in Numbers 12:6-8. In this word of support, however, God also describes the unique relationship He had with Moses.
God was not in a distant relationship with Moses. He had revealed Himself to Moses in the most intimate ways. In fact, Scripture tells us the encounters God had with Moses were so exceptional, Moses’ face glowed afterward (Exodus 34:35; 2 Corinthians 3:13). Moses knew God in a unique way. And this unique personal knowledge created an exceptional responsibility.
God judges a person in a way commensurate with the degree of revelation about Him they possess. Or, put another way: The greater the degree of revelation, the greater the degree of accountability. The more information or knowledge we possess, the more for which we are accountable. This, incidentally, is why listening to good Bible teaching is such a dangerous exercise. When we are exposed to the truth, we become accountable for it. Jesus said something similar in Luke 12:48. There, we read, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be required.” Those who know the most are responsible for the most.
In applying this principle of greater revelation bringing greater accountability, we can quickly understand why God dealt with His servant Moses so severely. Moses knew God as few have. As a result, He was accountable to God as few have been. God judged Moses in a way commensurate with the degree of revelation he had received.
Where does this leave us? In the light of God’s new covenant revelation that reached its zenith in His Son (Hebrews 1:2), we have a great accountability, as well. If we have been exposed to the gospel message, we are accountable for believing it. If we have been exposed to truth beyond this (which I believe all of us have), we are also accountable for what we do with it. While not all of us have been exposed to the same degree of truth, we are all accountable for what we know. And, if you are like me, your knowledge often exceeds your obedience.
We may not be excluded from the land promised to Abraham’s descendants as a result of disobedience, but we certainly can miss out on the rewards of a life lived in a way commensurate with what we know. May the convicting reality of our accountability before God disturb us into obedience!
