(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
Numbers 20:1–13, “Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first month: and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there. And there was no water for the congregation: and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. And the people chode with Moses, and spake, saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the LORD! And why have ye brought up the congregation of the LORD into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there? And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? it is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink. And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they fell upon their faces: and the glory of the LORD appeared unto them. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink. And Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as he commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also. And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them. This is the water of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with the LORD, and he was sanctified in them.”
Even though Miriam was Moses older sister and had been told to watch him while he was is the ark among the bulrushes,she eventually died. Until today, every person who was born can look forward to dying one day. There will be some alive when the Lord returns but no one can actually claim to be certain that they will never die. The people started their complaining again. They had already seen the Lord provide water for them but as soon as they struck a dry period they began to complain rather than trusting the Lord to do what He had always done. There were about two million people and they probably had about ten million head of stock altogether but, by this stage, they should have realised that that was just a small issue for the Lord. After all, He made all the water and He made people so that they needed water so He knew exactly what they needed every day that they were in the wilderness. Moses and Aaron went to the Lord and prayed again. They knew that they Lord was the only Person able to solve the problem so they brought it straight to Him. The Lord Moses to speak to the rock and the water would come out but he was angry and struck the Rock with his rod. The Lord honoured Moses but refused to let him lead the people into the Promised Land. This was very hard for Moses but the Lord knew that Joshua would not be able to properly lead the people if Moses was still alive. However, Moses chose to disobey the Lord and the Lord dealt with him accordingly.
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