Electronic Bible Stories From Exodus

This must have been a very trying time for Moses. When he had led the people out of Egypt he was eighty years old. He had expected to lead them right into the land God had promised to Abraham where he planned on spending the rest of his life in comfort. But now he had forty years to go; he'd be a hundred and twenty when they finally got there - if he lived that long.

Near the end of the forty years, God brought them to Kadesh to camp. Moses' sister Miriam died there and was buried. She was, of course, older than Moses.

But there was no water at Kadesh and the people stared whining and complaining to Moses again. "Oh, if only we had died when our brothers died. Why have you brought God's people into this terrible wilderness so that we and our animals can die here? Why did you take us out of Egypt where we had food to eat and water to drink?" After forty years they still hadn't learned that it was God who was leading them and had provided manna and water the whole forty years; they still blamed Moses for the problems they had brought on themselves by their stiff-necked, rebellious attitude.

Moses and Aaron went to the tabernacle and prayed about the situation and the glory of God appeared and God said to Moses, "Take your rod and with your brother Aaron gather the people together at the great rock and speak to the rock before the assembly and water will come out, enough for everyone and all their animals to drink."

So Moses took his rod and he and Aaron gathered all of the people before the rock. He said to them, "Listen you rebels! Must we bring water out of this rock for you?" He hit the rock twice with the staff and water came out in great abundance and all the congregation and their animals drank.

After forty years Moses was both frustrated and tired of dealing with these people who couldn't seem to learn. As a result, Moses had made a big mistake. Rather than speaking to the rock, as God had commanded him, Moses had struck the rock twice with his rod and had not spoken to it at all. But even more important, he had not given God the glory but had implied that it was he and Aaron who were giving them water.

God spoke to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not give Me the glory, taking it for yourself, you will not lead this nation of Israel when I take them into the land I've promised them." What a terrible thing that must have been for Moses after leading these troublesome people for forty years!

Moses was, however, a meek man, and he realized he had made a mistake. He accepted his punishment without trying to justify his actions, and, despite his disappointment, he continued to lead Israel. Before they left Kadesh, Moses sent a request to the king of Edom. The people of the nation of Edom were the descendants of Esau, the brother of Jacob, who was the ancestor of the people of Israel - God had renamed Jacob Israel.

The message read:

This letter is from your brother Israel,

You know all of the troubles that have befallen us: How our ancestors went down into Egypt, and we have dwelt in Egypt a long time. The Egyptians persecuted us, and our fathers.

When we cried unto the LORD, he heard our voice. He sent an angel, and brought us forth out of Egypt. Now we are in Kadesh, a city at the furthest border of your nation. Please let us pass through your country. We will not pass through your fields, or through your vineyards. We will not drink of the water of your wells. We will go by the king's highway, we will not turn to the right hand nor to the left, until we have gone completely out of your land.

The King of Edom sent back a message: "You will not pass through my land. If you try, I will come against you with my army."

Again Moses sent to the King, "Please let us come through, we will stay on the highway and will pay for any water we or our animals need to drink."

But again the King refused and sent a great army to block the way. So Moses led the people around the eastern edge of Edom. He didn't do this out of fear of Edom, but because he didn't want to fight people who were close relatives.

On the way they came to Mount Hor and God said to Moses and Aaron, "Aaron shall die here and join his ancestors. He shall not enter the land with the people because both of you did not follow my instructions on how to bring water out of the rock." Perhaps Aaron was involved in taking credit for bringing water from the rock, or, perhaps, he was being punished for making the golden calf years before. Whatever the case, Aaron must have done something wrong to merit this punishment.

God continued, "Bring Aaron and Eleazar to the top of mount Hor in the sight of all the people and transfer the garments of the high priest from Aaron to his son Eleazar." So Moses did so and Aaron died there and the people mourned him thirty days.

Then the people continued bypassing Edom. The way around was very difficult and they became discouraged. And what did they do? If you've read the whole story you can guess: "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die here in the wilderness? There's no food or water here and we loathe this manna we've had to eat for forty years!"

Immediately God sent poisonous snakes among them and they bit the people so that many died. They must have been learning a little, for they ran to Moses and said, "We have sinned; we have spoken against God and against you. Please pray that God will take away the snakes!"

Moses did pray and God told him to make a brass replica of a poisonous snake and put it on a pole so it could be seen from far away. Moses did what God commanded, and when anyone who was bitten looked at the brass snake he lived. Later some of the people of Israel sinned by making an idol out of the brass snake.

Moses would have been happy to pass through the lands on the way to the promised land without harming those peoples, but when the leaders of those lands saw over two million people and all their livestock approaching they had visions of being devastated, so they sent their armies to attack them. This is what happened to the next two countries, the Amorites and Bashan; they attacked Israel and Israel defeated them and took over their land, cities and villages.

The next country they had to pass through to get to the Jordan river, the border of the land God was giving them, was Moab. Moab tried a different strategy than the Ammorites and the leaders of Bashan had tried. Next we'll tell what they did.