. . . don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled, when they tested me in the wilderness.
Hebrews 3:8
This is a very subtle statement from someone who knows the Old Testament very well. The depth of this general statement is astounding. The quote from Psalm 95 has been replaced with a different construction yet still maintains the meaning of the original. It takes the sense of what is being said a few degrees deeper, perfectly matching the intent of the background found in the book of Numbers.
“Don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled, when they tested me in the wilderness” is the replacement for the equivalent reading from Psalm 95. “Don’t harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah, as they did at Massah in the wilderness.” The rest of both readings are a match and this initial portion is perfect because it is highlighting something the writer of the letter to Hebrews clearly knows well.
As I have told participants in Deeper Bible in the very first session of the entry level course (101), the Hebrew name for Numbers is “Bamidbar” which means “In the Wilderness”. You may wonder why the writer of Hebrews doesn’t take the words straight from the text of Psalm 95. By leaving out Meribah and Massah it appears the author of Hebrews is making it more general than what the Psalmist intended. That is not the case. The writer of the letter is far more savvy than that. I think it is deliberate on the part of the writer of Hebrews. The whole of the book of Numbers is about the way Israel tested the LORD in the wilderness. The trying of the LORD’s patience went on for 40 years!
Did you note the duration of the testings from both the letter and the psalm?
THE LETTER | THE PSALM |
WHEN THEY REBELLED, | your ancestors tested |
WHEN THEY TESTED ME IN THE WILDERNESS. | and tried my patience, |
THERE YOUR ANCESTORS TESTED AND TRIED MY PATIENCE, | even though they saw everything I did. |
EVEN THOUGH THEY SAW MY MIRACLES FOR FORTY YEARS. | For forty years I was angry with them |
Have you ever noticed the pattern in the Book of Numbers? Numbers Chapter 33 contains a longer, complete list of the places the Israelites passed through on their way from Sinai to Kadesh Barnea. There are 32 places that are named on the list in Numbers 33. Notice in contrast to this, the way from the end of Numbers 9 to 16 there is a condensed time scale where a selection has been made from the total number of places they passed through. We are told deliberately that the Israelites leave Sinai where God’s Presence was always over them.
The Cloud Covering the Tabernacle
On the day the Tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered it. But from evening until morning the cloud over the Tabernacle looked like a pillar of fire. This was the regular pattern—at night the cloud that covered the Tabernacle had the appearance of fire. Whenever the cloud lifted from over the sacred tent, the people of Israel would break camp and follow it. And wherever the cloud settled, the people of Israel would set up camp. In this way, they traveled and camped at the LORD’s command wherever he told them to go. Then they remained in their camp as long as the cloud stayed over the Tabernacle. If the cloud remained over the Tabernacle for a long time, the Israelites stayed and performed their duty to the LORD. Sometimes the cloud would stay over the Tabernacle for only a few days, so the people would stay for only a few days, as the LORD commanded. Then at the LORD’s command they would break camp and move on. Sometimes the cloud stayed only overnight and lifted the next morning. But day or night, when the cloud lifted, the people broke camp and moved on. Whether the cloud stayed above the Tabernacle for two days, a month, or a year, the people of Israel stayed in camp and did not move on. But as soon as it lifted, they broke camp and moved on. So they camped or traveled at the LORD’s command, and they did whatever the LORD told them through Moses. Numbers 9:15-23
Numbers 9:15-23
Take note of what we are told when the Israelites leave Sinai. They were still led by the Presence of the Lord, the Pillar of Cloud by day and the Pillar of Fire by night. It couldn’t be clearer, could it? God led them by fire and cloud to Paran. They travelled from place to place until the cloud came to rest and stopped in Paran, in the middle of the wilderness.
In the second year after Israel’s departure from Egypt—on the twentieth day of the second month—the cloud lifted from the Tabernacle of the Covenant. So the Israelites set out from the wilderness of Sinai and traveled on from place to place until the cloud stopped in the wilderness of Paran. When the people set out for the first time, following the instructions the LORD had given through Moses . . .
Numbers 10:11-13
Notice what happens from this point on in the account of the Israelites’ wanderings in the wilderness in Numbers. If you read from this point forward there is a constant, repetitive refrain of the Israelites grumbling, complaining and rebelling, resulting in the LORD growing increasingly more angry with them. The selected accounts which appear through Numbers (In The Wilderness) are their lowlights, not their highlights. The examples chosen to enlarge on what happened focus on the incidents of grumbling and rebellion. The two place names we read in Psalm 95 are not two different places, they are the two names given to the one place or account of what happened – Meribah and Massah. But the Book titled in Hebrew ‘In The Wilderness’ [Numbers] contains multiple accounts of their grumbling and complaining. It was an on-going occurrence. The testing of the LORD’s patience lasted for 40 years, despite the Israelites seeing miracle after miracle.
In Chapter 14 it comes to a head:
Then the whole community began weeping aloud, and they cried all night. Their voices rose in a great chorus of protest against Moses and Aaron. “If only we had died in Egypt, or even here in the wilderness!” they complained. “Why is the LORD taking us to this country only to have us die in battle? Our wives and our little ones will be carried off as plunder! Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?” Then they plotted among themselves, “Let’s choose a new leader and go back to Egypt!”
Numbers 4:1-4
Finally in Chapter 16 after Korah, Dathan and Abiram’s rebellion, God tells the people to move away from these three men and their families and they and everyone associated with them were swallowed up by the ground. Following that, fire came out from the ground and consumed a further 250 people who were close to them. In the account of In the Wilderness [Numbers] the writer reminds us that with each rebellion, grumbling or complaining there are those who die and don’t end up entering their rest. Clearly coming into the Promised Land is being used as a metaphor for something more eternal. You have to admit it is a curious feature of Numbers, that every time we are told another account of the rebellion of the Israelites, we are given a summary of the death of someone specific or the death of many. Perhaps, the numbering in Numbers is important to keep a tally of how many are lost each time. (Just saying)
The Death of Miriam
In the first month of the year, the whole community of Israel arrived in the Wilderness of Zin and camped at Kadesh. While they were there, Miriam died and was buried.
Numbers 20:1
The Waters of Meribah
There was no water for the people to drink at that place, so they rebelled against Moses and Aaron. The people blamed Moses and said, “If only we had died in the LORD’s presence with our brothers! Why have you brought the congregation of the LORD’s people into this wilderness to die, along with all our livestock? Why did you make us leave Egypt and bring us here to this terrible place? This land has no grain, no figs, no grapes, no pomegranates, and no water to drink!”
Moses and Aaron turned away from the people and went to the entrance of the Tabernacle, where they fell face down on the ground. Then the glorious presence of the LORD appeared to them, and the LORD said to Moses, “You and Aaron must take the staff and assemble the entire community. As the people watch, speak to the rock over there, and it will pour out its water. You will provide enough water from the rock to satisfy the whole community and their livestock.”
So Moses did as he was told. He took the staff from the place where it was kept before the LORD.
Numbers 20:2-9
Moses Strikes the Rock
Then he and Aaron summoned the people to come and gather at the rock. “Listen, you rebels!” he shouted. “Must we bring you water from this rock?”
Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with the staff, and water gushed out. So the entire community and their livestock drank their fill.
But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust me enough to demonstrate my holiness to the people of Israel, you will not lead them into the land I am giving them!”
This place was known as the waters of Meribah (which means “arguing”) because there the people of Israel argued with the LORD, and there he demonstrated his holiness among them.
Numbers 20:10-13
The Death of Aaron
“The time has come for Aaron to join his ancestors in death. He will not enter the land I am giving the people of Israel, because the two of you rebelled against my instructions concerning the water at Meribah. Now take Aaron and his son Eleazar up Mount Hor. There you will remove Aaron’s priestly garments and put them on Eleazar, his son. Aaron will die there and join his ancestors.”
So Moses did as the LORD commanded. The three of them went up Mount Hor together as the whole community watched. At the summit, Moses removed the priestly garments from Aaron and put them on Eleazar, Aaron’s son. Then Aaron died there on top of the mountain, and Moses and Eleazar went back down. When the people realized that Aaron had died, all Israel mourned for him thirty days. Numbers 20:24-29
Numbers 20:24-29
The Death of Moses
One day the LORD said to Moses, “Climb one of the mountains east of the river, and look out over the land I have given the people of Israel. After you have seen it, you will die like your brother, Aaron, for you both rebelled against my instructions in the wilderness of Zin. When the people of Israel rebelled, you failed to demonstrate my holiness to them at the waters.” (These are the waters of Meribah at Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.)
Numbers 27:12-14
When the writer of the letter to the Hebrews switches Meribah and Massah for In the Wilderness, I think he has the whole of the book called In The Wilderness in mind. He has exchanged the first place where rebellion raised its head and was calling out all of Israel’s rebellion over a forty year period. That is exactly what the psalmist and the writer of the letter are doing by the way they chose their words. The five worst moments across the forty years were being used to suggest that Israel’s rebellion was constant over those forty years. No matter what positive things God did for them, they still did nothing to change their attitude. So God carried out His oath to prevent those who rebelled from entering into their rest.
I think I know what I have to do in the following Gem. If the timing had been different I might have written it up as the next series in the Nuggets. I will ponder that one over the next couple of days.
As long as you think that the cause of your problem is “out there”, that anyone or anything is responsible for your suffering, the situation is hopeless. It means that you are forever in the role of victim.
Byron Katie
When Moses distrusted God, he did not treat him as being in a magnificent class of power and trust. He treated him as just another common person to be distrusted as unwilling or unable to do what he said.
John Piper
He that is discontented in one place will seldom be content in another.
Aesop
If you spent as much time praying as you do complaining, you’d have a lot less to complain about.
Rick Warren