38 Years Later - Numbers 20

There is apparently a 38 year leap between the end of chapter 19 and the beginning of chapter 20. Now the people of Israel are close to entering the Promised Land and again are struggling in the desert because they are out of water, and instead of bringing it up to Moses, “hey we don’t have water, have any ideas about how we should get some?” It’s “why have ye brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there?” 40 years later and it’s the exact same story, I bet Moses was exhausted with it. And keep in mind that the Israelite’s have been eating manna for 40 years and they complain about that too, that they are tired of this miraculously provided food. Moses and Aaron go to the tabernacle to ask God what they should do, and God tells them to go to rock, and speak to it and “thou shalt bing forth to them water out of the rock.” This water is not only supposed to give water to all 3 million Israelites but also all their livestock. TB notes that the US Army Corp of Engineers estimate that a single day’s water rations for troops during combat operations, which there would be at most several hundred thousands of them, not millions, would be 11 million gallons, so this rock would have to put out significantly more water than that for just the people and animals.

Moses and Aaron go to the rock and here’s where the trouble starts, Moses is clearly tired of these people and tells them, “hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch water out of this rock?” It’s the word “we” that is the problem that we will see here shortly. Then instead of speaking to the rock, Moses hits the rock with the staff twice and the water comes out. God is apparently angry with Moses about the way that this went down because he tells Moses and Aaron, “because ye believed me not… therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.” They are barred from entering the promised land with the Israelites because of this apparent transgression. TB spent a lot of time hypothesizing why this single incident angered God to the point that that promise was taken away from him. He suggests that it might be because Moses forgot his place in the hierarchy of things and took credit for the miracle of the water by saying “we” instead of “God.”

I don’t buy that, I more identify with the IM’s question regarding this event, “was this one error enough to cancel out years off great faith, obedience, and devotion?” This is my question and the God that I know, love, and trust wouldn’t throw away all those years of faithful service because Moses got angry with an incredibly frustrating people and misspoke a few words. The IM goes on to say that “First, both Moses and the higher priesthood were taken from Israel because of the people’s unworthiness, not Moses’. Second, Moses was translated when his mortal ministry was finished. In other words, Moses was privileged to enter a land of promise far greater than the land of Canaan. He had finished his calling in mortality, and a new leader was to take Israel into the promised land. And, Moses was translated-hardly a punishment for sinning against God.”

Another reason why I think that Moses wasn’t allowed to take the people into Canaan and lead them in all their battles was the same reason why Joseph Smith wasn’t allowed to take the Saints to Utah, it had to be Brigham Young. If Joseph Smith had brought the people to Utah, there would have been a significant portion of Saints who were going because they loved Joseph, not because they had solid testimonies of the gospel. It was critical to the forward movement of the Church that only those who truly believed the gospel came to Utah and the only way to do that was for Joseph Smith to die. Seems bleak and macabre but in God’s perspective, Joseph went to a better existence because this life is just one step in the eternal process. Moses was not seen by the people as a military leader, and they had rebelled against this military leadership several times. There needed to be a change in leadership so the people followed Joshua and had a mindset shift about what the mission was. And we can tell by the words that the people use when they complain against Moses that so much of their anger was focused on him personally because he was the one who brought them out of Egypt, so there needed to be a mentality shift for the people who were about to go start conquering land in Canaan.

The path that the people were going to take to get to Canaan from where they were wandering in the desert had to first go through some other people’s territory and they first decided to go through Edom’s land to get there. Moses sent an emissary to the king of Edom to see if he would let them pass through their land. He uses some interesting language when addressing the king though calling them “brother.” This is because the people of Israel descended from Jacob, and the people of Edom descended from Jacob’s twin brother Esau, so by far back heritage, they were related peoples. Moses promises to stay on the highway, not eat any of their food or drink any of their water and not be a bother, if they let them pass through but the king of Edom says “no” and even sends out some troops as a deterrent.

Moses doesn’t push the issue because they are related and starts heading toward a generic mountain where God tells Moses and Aaron that it was Aaron’s time to die, so they go up into the mountain and they take Aaron’s son Eleazar and Aaron takes off his “garments” and puts them on his son. I assume that this means that some sort of ceremonial clothing for officiating in the priesthood ordinances. Aaron dies on the mountain and Moses and Eleazar come back down the mountain and “they mourned for Aaron thirty days, even all the house of Israel.” Just as a side note Miriam also died in the beginning of the chapter. TB notes how significant it is that Aaron got to pass down his priesthood responsibility to his son Eleazar, which is every father’s dream, and he contrasted that to Moses not passing his authority to his sons. He doesn’t offer any speculation as to why Aaron does and Moses doesn’t, but he did indicate that there was almost certainly some disappointment on Moses’ side. This made me feel better because I always get caught up thinking that everyone else has great kids who turn out well, but it seems like most families struggle and I don’t want that for them but it does make me feel better about my situation.