“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.”
But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, 'Because you did not trust in me, to show my holiness before the congregation, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them' — the judgment is immediate and absolute. Moses and Aaron's sin is twofold: they did not trust (lo he'emantem) the LORD's word, and they failed to 'show my holiness' (lehaqdisho lifnei ha-am) before the people. The strike rather than speech obscures God's nature as one whose word creates; it reduces the LORD to a force that responds to force.
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