Why did Moses strike the rock twice and what was Aaron’s participation?<\/p>\n\t
“So Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and they fell on their faces. And the glory of the LORD appeared to them. Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Take the rod; you and your brother Aaron gather the congregation together. Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water; thus you shall bring water for them out of the rock, and give drink to the congregation and their animals.” So Moses took the rod from before the LORD as He commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock; and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?” Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank. Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them<\/em>” (Numbers 20:6-12).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Beyond a simple statement of fact, striking the rock twice tells us that this wasn’t an accident. Why Moses struck the rock can be explained by two things. First, this is the second time God supplied water to Israel. The first time Moses was told to strike the rock (Exodus 17:6). Second, God told him specifically to bring Aaron’s rod. We can understand that Moses assumed that the rod was requested because it was to be used.<\/p>\n
Aaron’s involvement was being there, thus, showing approval to what was being done, and it was Aaron’s rod which was being used by Moses. God considers those who give support to wrong as equally guilty as those who do wrong (Romans 1:32).<\/p>\n
Moses and Aaron’s failure was two-fold. In scolding the people they asked if they (Moses and Aaron) had to bring forth water. They did not give God the credit as they should have. Secondly, they did not do as God commanded. They improvised, but in doing so they introduced doubt into this miracle. One could claim that the water was there and Moses merely knocked a stone covering the spring aside. If Moses had done it God’s way it would have been more impressive because merely speaking to a rock would not allow water to flow.<\/p>\n\t
Response:<\/h2>\n
Thanks for your insight and may God bless you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Why did Moses strike the rock twice and what was Aaron’s participation? Answer: “So Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and they fell on their faces. And the glory of the LORD appeared to them. Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1184,485,841,54],"class_list":["post-21114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-aaron","tag-moses","tag-numbers","tag-obedience"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":28596,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-god-break-his-promise-to-moses\/","url_meta":{"origin":21114,"position":0},"title":"Did God break His promise to Moses?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 22, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In Moses' time than God had promised him that he would go into the promised land right but then later when Moses strikes the rock twice and water comes out then god says that Moses will not Lead the people into the promised land because how can Moses be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":87599,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-would-god-have-moses-strike-the-rock-one-time-and-not-the-next\/","url_meta":{"origin":21114,"position":1},"title":"Why would God have Moses strike the rock one time and not the next?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 7, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Brother Jeffrey, I have a question and would appreciate your insights. In Exodus 17, God commanded Moses to smite the rock for water, and then in Numbers 20, He commanded Moses to speak unto the rock for water. We know that Moses smote the rock in Exodus; he\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33278,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-significance-of-aarons-rod-that-budded\/","url_meta":{"origin":21114,"position":2},"title":"What is the significance of Aaron’s rod that budded?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is the significance of Aaron's rod that budded? Answer: To understand the significance, you first need to know that neither Moses nor Aaron had an easy time being accepted by the Israelites as their leaders. People had the mistaken notion that they made themselves leaders. After Korah failed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/image_13-1-300x203.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":28462,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-moses-accept-aarons-excuse-for-not-eating-the-sacrifice\/","url_meta":{"origin":21114,"position":3},"title":"Why did Moses accept Aaron’s excuse for not eating the sacrifice?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In Leviticus 10:16-20, I understand that Moses was upset with Eleazar and Ithamar because they didn't eat the sin offering as they were instructed to.\u00a0 However, I don't see why Moses was satisfied when Aaron told him that they did burnt offering and sin offering on the same day\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27747,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-an-implied-fact-as-authoritative-as-a-direct-statement\/","url_meta":{"origin":21114,"position":4},"title":"Is an implied fact as authoritative as a direct statement?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: All of the passages: Psalms 147:5; Romans 11:33-36; Deuteronomy 33:27; Psalms 145:3; Isaiah 40:28; Psalms 40:5; Psalms 92:5-6; Job 5:8-9; Job 11:7-9; Job 9:10-12; Job 26:14; and Psalms 106:2 imply that God is infinite except for Psalms 147:5 where it explicitly states God's understanding is infinite.\u00a0 Does this mean\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":88934,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/strike-the-rock\/","url_meta":{"origin":21114,"position":5},"title":"Strike the Rock?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 26, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The children of Israel were desperate for water and were crying out to Moses, \"Why have you brought us out here to die of thirst?\" God told Moses to take his rod and \"strike the rock,\" and \"water will come out of it, that the people may drink\" (Exodus 17:3-6).\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/tissot-moses-strikes-the-rock-491ed5-small-229x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21114\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}