101 Myths of the Bible: how ancient scribes - Conscious Evolution TV

Myths of the Heroes 235
And I besought the LORD at that time, saying, O LORD GOD, thou hast begun
to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand: for what God is there in
heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy works, and according to thy might? I
pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly
mountain, and Lebanon. But the LORD was wroth with me for your sakes, and
would not hear me: and the LORD said unto me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more
unto me of this matter. (Deut. 3:23–26)
Furthermore the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, and sware that I
should not go over Jordan, and that I should not go in unto that good land, which
the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance: But I must die in this land, I
must not go over Jordan: but ye shall go over, and possess that good land. (Deut.
4:21–22)
So, Moses’s fate already had been determined before the incident at the rock. He
had been denied entry into Canaan and his action in striking the rock had nothing to
do with it. In fact, the entire story is a deliberately misleading account of a different
incident in which Moses acted blamelessly.
It seems that long before this incident in the Wilderness of Zin, there was another
water shortage in the Wilderness of Sin. Again the people complained, using some of
the very same words as they did in Zin.
And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of
Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched
in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink. Wherefore the people
did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said
unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the LORD? And the
people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said,
Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children
and our cattle with thirst? (Exod. 17:1–3)
In this version, Moses alone went to speak with God. And what was God’s solution?
That“thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people
may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel” (Exod. 17:6).