Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, 'Listen, you rebels: shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?' — Moses addresses the people as 'rebels' (morim), echoing the wilderness generation's pattern of rebellion. But Moses' question contains a fatal ambiguity: 'shall we bring forth water?' The pronoun 'we' assigns the miracle to human agency rather than to God alone. The presumption is subtle but significant: Moses takes credit and ownership for what the LORD alone can accomplish.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

Publish a note on this verse