God is a Dick - Part III: The Water of Meribah
Of all the prophets of the Old Testament, Moses is, without a doubt, the most important. The Bible even says that “there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face.” (DEU 34:10 KJV) It’s odd, then, that god killed him for failure to follow instructions exactly.
While the chosen people of Israel were wandering the desert for 40 years because god loved them, they came to a place called Kadesh, in which there was no water for the people or their animals. As they usually did when things got tough, they turned on Moses and Aaron. The brothers alerted Yahweh to the problem, and he provided a solution. God said:
Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink. (NUM 20:8 KJV)
Neat trick. Moses, however, added a little flair and struck the rock twice with his staff. The water sprang from the rock as promised, but god took Moses and Aaron (who wasn’t even at fault for this) to task.
And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them. (NUM 20:12 KJV)
That’s kind of a bummer, but it doesn’t sound so bad. It doesn’t come across as a death sentence, but it was. By the end of that very chapter, god offed Aaron. He told Moses to take Aaron and his son to the top of mount Hor (insert childish giggle here). There he was to strip Aaron naked and put the clothes on his son, Eleazar. Once this was finished, Aaron died. One down, one to go.
With Moses, god takes his time. As the Bible says, “Revenge is a dish best served cold.” Uh… maybe that wasn’t the Bible. Anyway, Moses was mercifully allowed to continue wandering with his band of angry Israelites for another 50 chapters. At the very end of Deuteronomy, the last book of the Torah (or Pentateuch), god got even with Moses for his unforgivable rock-knocking. The great prophet, who had seen the burning bush, delivered the plagues, chatted directly with god and followed him through a wasteland for four decades was told to go to the top of the mountain of Nebo. There god showed him the promised land, and gave him a tour of all the wonderful places that lay on the other side of the mountain.
And the LORD said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither. (DEU 34:4)
Moses died on the spot at the relatively young age of 120. Just to make sure there’s no confusion about cause of death, the Bible even points out that “his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.” (DEU 34:7)
Let’s review. God rewards his chosen people by sending them out to wander the desert. He sends them to a place with absolutely no water. When Moses knocks on a rock instead of just talking to it as god had instructed, he and his brother (a mere bystander) are pronounced unfit to enter the promised land. God makes Moses strip his brother naked, and then he kills Aaron in front of his son while his son is wearing his father’s clothes. Yahweh continues to use Moses until the journey is at an end, and he becomes dispensible. He then shows him the promised land before killing him, just to rub salt in the wound. Dick.
~I AM~
July 11th, 2005 at at 1:35 am
Great post. If god hands out punishments like this to his best followers, I wonder how christians today think that they will receive any mercy.
July 11th, 2005 at at 9:05 am
Isn’t hitting what you’re supposed to do when something doesn’t work right the first time? A couple months ago, my computer wouldn’t turn on, so I whacked it a few times. If I’d been Moses, I totally would’ve kicked the rock. Maybe even shook it.
July 11th, 2005 at at 9:13 am
Besides, isn’t that what God does when He makes earthquakes?
July 11th, 2005 at at 10:02 am
I would have lifted the flap and blown inside it, then I would have blown in the cartidge. Oops. No, wait, that was how I “fixed” the old NES. Sorry.
July 11th, 2005 at at 10:58 am
Delta, remember, Moses was a Jew. The Christians would probably claim that was the problem.
July 11th, 2005 at at 11:46 am
I don’t remember Charlten Hesten (guns n’ moses) doing that in The 10 Commandments. They couldn’t have gotten it wrong. It’s Hollywood, and everyone knows Hollywood is run by jews, so they should have the Moses part down.
Why don’t Christians pick up on this stuff? They should realize God is all-knowing, so He would have known Moses wouldn’t get water out of a rock the correct way (everyone knows the correct way to get water out of a rock, duh!). Yet he punishes him for it anyway. What a loving prick. Every Christian I talk with about stuff like this has a different spin to put on it to somehow make it seem believable (to them, anyway). I couldn’t be this stupid if I tried.
July 11th, 2005 at at 1:56 pm
Haha, never knew about that. I can’t see how anyone could call this “all-loving.”
July 12th, 2005 at at 6:02 am
Did you know Moses is credited with writing the Torah… which means he wrote of his own death? When confronted with this question once, some conservative Jewish Rabbi’s simply said “he wrote as he wept” implying he forsaw his death and the few events afterward.
July 12th, 2005 at at 10:51 am
Nice series of articles. Minor point: I’m not going to investigate it, but I thought that according to the Old Testament, all those who fled Egypt were condemned to die because of the golden calf incident. Only their offspring were allowed to enter the promised land…
July 12th, 2005 at at 8:22 pm
I’ve reread Exodus 32 and 33, and I’m not finding that reference. Moses has 3,000 people killed immediately for the golden calf incident, but god just says that he will punish those that remain alive alive for their sins when he “holds them to account.” Maybe it reads differently in a different translation. I always use the King James. It’s considered the most accurate English translation.
July 16th, 2005 at at 4:20 pm
I remember it like zeno, although I don’t have a book in hand, but the 40 years in the desert was to kill off all of the sinners for something, maybe zeno has the sin wrong, but I think he has the right idea.
September 11th, 2005 at at 10:57 am
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