The scenes at Kadesh (Num. 20) were almost forty years subsequent, and consequently involved another generation. The spirit of their complaint was quite the same however――chiding Moses most unreasonably, petulantly wishing they had died before the Lord as so many of their brethren who had fallen under God’s judgments in the wilderness since the unbelieving report of the spies and the consequent wrath of God upon the people. Sadly we must note here that this unreasonable and even cruel reflection upon Moses stirred his indignation, excited him unduly, and found expression in ill-advised words from his lips. The Lord had told him to take Aaron his brother, to gather the people together before the rock, and then _speak_ to the rock before their eyes and it should give forth water. When the eventful moment came, Moses, instead of saying――Ye have sinned against the Lord your God, yet in his mercy he will give you rivers of water from this rock upon the word of command from his servant――said as in the record――“Hear now, ye rebels, must _we_ fetch you water out of this rock”? In circumstances where man should be nothing and God all in all――man only a consciously unworthy instrument, and God the Supreme and ever to be honored Power, it was one of the sad infirmities of the best of men to put himself so prominently forward and thrust the Great God so ungratefully into the back-ground. Then, moved by the same excited passion, instead of speaking to the rock, he smote it with his rod, not once only but twice. Yet the Lord did not rebuke him with failure, but despite of his bad spirit, gave forth water abundantly. The rebuke upon both Moses and Aaron came shortly after in the form of an absolute prohibition upon their entering the land of promise. They had _so_ dishonored the Lord in this case at Kadesh that he must needs express his disapprobation by denying to both of them the long-desired consummation of entering the goodly land.――――If the Lord’s rebuke of Moses seem severe, let it be considered that his sin was very great because he had been admitted into so near communion with God――such communion as had never been granted to any other man. If the guilt of sin be as the light sinned against, we are not likely to overestimate the guilt of his. The Lord speaks of it as rebellion (Num. 27: 14). And manifestly his sin was so public as well as so flagrant that it became vital to the honor of God’s name and government to rebuke it unmistakably. The exclusion from Canaan fell sorely upon the heart of Moses. He prayed earnestly that God would reverse this decree, but in vain. The Lord shut off all hope, saying, “Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter” (Deut. 3: 23–27). Sorrowful are the words of Moses: “I must die in this land; I must not go over Jordan” (Deut. 4: 21).