17. We ask permission to pass through your country. We shall not go through the fields or vineyards; we shall not drink the water from the wells; we shall keep to the king's highway without turning to right or left until we have passed through your territory.
Numbers 20 narrates the death of Miriam, sister of Moses, and the lack of water for the community of Israel, who ends up generating a series of conflicts. Moses and Aaron go to the tabernacle to seek God's guidance, and he instructs Moses to speak to the rock to give the people water. However, Moses, annoyed by the complaints of the people, ends up hurting the rock with his rod, which displeases God. Below are five verses related to the topics covered in numbers 20:
Psalm 106:32-33: "With the water of the strife they made them angry, and badly succeeded Moses because of them. For they exacerbated their Spirit, so that he spoke hastily with his lips." This psalm refers to the episode narrated in numbers 20, in which the people of Israel complain about the lack of water and Moses ends up acting impulsively and hurting the rock with their stick.
Isaiah 48:21: "They had no thirsty when he took them through the deserts; he made water flow from the rock to them; he is striking the rock, and the water gushed." This verse refers to the time when the Israelites wandered through the desert and God, through Moses, brought water from the rock to satisfy the thirst of the people.
John 4:13-14: "Jesus answered, 'Those who drink from this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks from the water I will never have thirsty. On the contrary, the water that I will become a source of Water gushing for eternal life '". This verse refers to the living water that Jesus offers, which symbolizes eternal life and the full satisfaction of spiritual needs.
1 Corinthians 10:4: "And everyone drank from the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and this rock was Christ." This verse refers to the rock that was wounded by Moses so that the water would spark and satiate the thirst of the people of Israel in the desert. Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, makes a connection between the rock that satiated the physical thirst of the people in the desert and Christ, who quenches the spiritual thirst of all those who believe in him.
Revelation 21:6: "And said to me, 'It is done. I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. To whom I thirst I will give free drinking from the source of the water of life.'" This verse refers to the New Jerusalem, the heavenly city that God will create at the end of time. In this city, all who are thirsty will be able to drink free of charge from the source of the water of life, which symbolizes eternal life.
“O trabalho é tão sagrado como a oração”. São Padre Pio de Pietrelcina
