God had prepared Moses for his mission to deliver the Israelites from Egypt. Since his birth, Moses was well taken care of despite the hostility imposed by Pharaoh (Exodus 1:16). He was able to survive and brought up in the Egyptian court by the daughter of Pharaoh, learning all the skills and crafts of the Egyptians. He was truly an Egyptian prince (Exodus 2:10).
Exodus does not explain why Moses was sympathetic with the Israelite slaves. How did Moses know of his Hebrew origin? Exodus is silent about it.
The contradiction of God's character appears for the first time after He had picked up Moses to deliver the Israelites (Exodus 3:1-4:17). There is a mysterious verse leaving behind by the redactor of Exodus. It reads.
At a lodging place on the way the LORD met him and sought to kill him (Exodus 4:24).
Why did the Lord want to kill Moses after choosing him to be the Saviour of Israelites? The following text suggests that it was because Moses had never been circumcised (Exodus 4:25-26)! What a legalist! However, what Zipporah had done was sympathetic magic! Either way, this piece of text is really troublesome! Nobody is perfect and God should make do with the shortcomings of Moses. Furthermore, isn't God good at making good things out of bad things?
When Moses spent 40 days on Mount Sinai to get the 10 Commandments, the Israelites had become impatient and built a golden calf to lead them. Of course, God was angry and wanted to destroy the Israelites. God proposed to make Moses a great nation instead. But Moses did not seek his personal glory. He successfully dissuaded God from destroying the Israelites. Indeed, Moses had saved God from doing evil (Exodus 32:11-14). Moses should have scored high in staff appraisal. Why then was God so petty as denying Moses from entering the Promised Land?
And I besought the LORD at that time, saying,
'O Lord GOD, thou hast only begun to show thy servant thy greatness and thy mighty hand; for what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as thine?
Let me go over, I pray, and see the good land beyond the Jordan, that goodly hill country, and Lebanon.'
But the LORD was angry with me on your account, and would not hearken to me; and the LORD said to me, `Let it suffice you; speak no more to me of this matter.
Go up to the top of Pisgah, and lift up your eyes westward and northward and southward and eastward, and behold it with your eyes; for you shall not go over this Jordan.
But charge Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him; for he shall go over at the head of this people, and he shall put them in possession of the land which you shall see.' (Deuteronomy 3:23-28)
Numbers gives an account why the Lord was angry with Moses. It was the story of extracting water from the rock in Meribah. God told Moses to tell the rock to yield water. But Moses struck the rock instead. God was displeased. He said that Moses did not believe in Him (Numbers 20:8-12). Exodus tells the same story but God told Moses to strike the rock. Therefore, there was no mention of the anger of God over Moses (Exodus 17:5-6). The Numbers verse better explains why Moses was denied entry into the Promised Land. Was the redactor of Exodus unaware of this conflicting story line? This is another piece of problematic text to explore.
If I were Moses, what would I do? I had played my role but all my efforts and loyalty seemed to have gained me nothing. Worst of all, there would be no higher authority to appeal.
My God, are You doing me any good in denying my entry into the Promised Land? It is not fair!
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