Unbelief
Numbers 20:12
Excerpt
Of this in particular God accuses them; “Ye believed me not, to sanctify me.” Whether they doubted the efficacy of a word, and therefore smote the rock; or whether they acted in their own strength, expecting the effect to be produced by their own act of striking the rock, instead of regarding God alone as the author of the mercy, we cannot say: we rather incline to the latter opinion, because of the emphatic manner in which they addressed the Israelites; “Ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock?” In either case they were under the influence of unbelief: for, distrust of God, or creature-confidence, are equally the effects of unbelief: the one characterized the conduct of those Israelites who were afraid to go up to take possession of the promised land; and the other, those who went up in their own strength, when God had refused to go before them. This was the offence which excluded the whole nation from the promised land: “they could not enter in because of unbelief:” no wonder therefore, that, when Moses and Aaron were guilty of it, they were involved in the common lot…
Simeon, Charles. Horae Homileticae: Numbers to Joshua. Vol. 2. London: Samuel Holdsworth, 1836. Print.
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