The Wrath of Man

Num 20:1 Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first month: and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there.
Num 20:2 And there was no water for the congregation: and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron.
Num 20:3 And the people chode with Moses, and spake, saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the LORD!

Dumb, stupid, carnal, self-centered whiney babies. That's a fair description of the Jews in the wilderness.

Miriam, sister to Moses and Aaron. Sort of the queen of Israel, national women's choreographer, dies in Kadesh. Did the people mourn? Did their hearts go out to the surviving family? No! They belly-ached AGAIN! How inconsiderate they were. How short their memories, how dark their hearts?

Listen to their reasoning: "Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the LORD!" Did you see that? Rather than endure a little deprivation, they wished that they had been swallowed up by the earth with Korah or consumed by the fire of the Lord like the 250 rebellious Levites. Apparently, they had no idea of their eternal abode in the place where the boogie man lives!!!

So, they chide Moses and Aaron about a water shortage, not considering their grief. Did they not know that Moses had saved their miserable carcasses several times from God’s wrath. Moses and Aaron respond with a little anger concerning the water that gets them in hot H2O with the Lord.

They smote the rock of Meribah 2 times rather than speaking to it as the Lord commanded. The result, Aaron is divested of his priestly robes and taken on to glory and Moses had to put up with the gripers for another few decades and then is not allowed into the Promised Land.

Can you blame the brothers for their anger against the Jews? "Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?"

Their anger with the people could have been excused, but it was the Lord they had
slighted by not honoring His word, not believing Him, not sanctifying Him in the
people's eyes.

“Be angry and sin not,” we are warned. They were angry, but they sinned in their anger. Remember that in our flesh dwelleth no good thing. The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. (James 1:20)

Don't let the sins of others mess with your relationship with God.