After all the people have been through and all that they’ve seen, you would think that the whole grumbling thing would be behind them. After all, they’ve whined several times (Exodus 15, 16, 17; Numbers 11, 14) and were rebuked on almost every instance.
In a few cases, people were even killed because of those complaints. The most famous example is Korah in Numbers 16, who argued that “the entire congregation is holy” and wanted to assume leadership for himself. He and his compadres were executed in startling fashion.
With all of that in mind, Numbers 20 is hard to fathom. The people have a valid complaint (thirst), but they claim that they might actually be better off dying “with their brothers” instead of dying in the sand.
The “brothers” in this instance is assumed to be Korah and his people, which means that they’re telling Moses they would prefer to be consumed by fire or dropped into the heart of the earth than wander in the wilderness and die of dehydration. What a statement.
But it gets worse! They also question the general direction of the wanderings themselves. “Why have you brought the Lord’s Assembly into the wilderness? Why have you made us come up from Egypt? Where are the pomegranates?” These are all statements indicating faithlessness and carnality.
Keep in mind too that since this occurs in the fortieth year of the wanderings (Numbers 33:37-39), this is not the same generation that left Egypt. This is the next group of people—those who were under 20 when the twelve spies entered Canaan and ten of them came back with a negative report.
These people, in other words, don’t really even remember the hardships of Egypt. Their memory of the plagues and Mt. Sinai is probably also scattered, which means the wilderness is really all they know. Moreover, they knew the wilderness would only be for forty years (Numbers 14:33-34). They were almost there! Just keep your mouths shut!
The parallel between this story and the one in Exodus 17 is striking, and, in my opinion, not an accident. Even the names are roughly the same: Exodus 17 has the waters of Massah and Meribah, whereas Numbers 20 is just Meribah. Coincidence? I think not.
The complaint is also the same. In both cases, they want water. And in both cases, they are given water without any complaint from God. Moses complains in both—feeling the burden of leadership on himself—but God gives them the water because He knows they need it.
I’m not entirely sure what to make of that. What the people need is justified; God’s character demands that He supply it (Isaiah 41:17). Yet the way in which they ask it is wrong. You simply can’t demand something of God like that.
In the end, the need won out over the way in which it was asked. If they didn’t have water, they would die. God understands this and, to our eyes, doesn’t view it as outright rebellion.
Moses’ attitude, on the other hand, takes center stage. In this story, he’s the one that is rebuked by God.