There are two different places called "Meribah" in the exodus route: The first is at Rephidim before they got to Sinai. It is here that God instructed Moses to strike the rock to bring forth water. (page 119) The second Meribah is at Kadesh Barnea where Moses sinned in striking the rock and taking glory for himself (page 180). We are reminded of this incident in several other places in Scripture, such as..
Psalm 106:32-33
They angered him at the waters of Meribah, and it went ill with Moses on their account, for they made his spirit bitter, and he spoke rashly with his lips.
Compare Moses' blessing of the tribes with Jacob's blessings of the tribes (see pages 93-94 or Genesis 49). We noticed that when blessing the tribe of Levi, Moses relates that the Levites cared more for the keeping of the Word and the covenant than they did for their families. This illustrates the devotion of the Levites toward God and their duties.
God gives a great blessing to the tribe of Levi.
“Bless all his skills, O Lord, and be pleased with the work of his hands.”
Isn’t this a blessing that every Believer should want? No matter what our skills are; manual labor, missionary work, office work, teaching, ministering, nursing, housework, heads of corporations, etc. shouldn’t we want all our skills to be blessed?
Colossians 3:23-24
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
The people are reminded again that God will drive out their enemies, so that they can live in safety in a land full of grain and new wine.
Deuteronomy 33:29
Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord? He is your shield and helper and your glorious sword. Your enemies will cower before you and you will trample down their high places.
Most often in Scripture when high places are mentioned, it refers to pagan altars. In subsequent readings, we will find that God instructs His people repeatedly to destroy the high places and every remnant of anything pagan. Some of the more modern versions of the Bible replace the phrase "high places" with other words, watering down the meaning. Can we make connections with "high places" in our lives today?
Scripture says that when Moses died “his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone.”
Sounds as if he was still healthy and strong. It's just that his time was up. His eyes must have been pretty strong to be able to see all that land from the top of Mount Nebo! Moses was able to “see” from the tip of the Dead Sea (Zoar) to way north of the Sea of Galilee (Dan and Naphalti).
Pretty impressive! But even more impressive than that is the following:
"...no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face..."
Now that's impressive!
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