February 20th

By your reading of the chapters in Numbers, what would you say it is that leads to the wilderness generation’s condemnation? What is it that leads to Moses’? (2) The book of Deuteronomy presents Moses’ last discourse before his death just outside the Promised Land. Under Moses’ successor, Joshua, Israel will enter in and take possession of the Land. Given that the compilers of the Hebrew Bible could have ended the core unit of the OT in any place—e.g. after the conquest of the Land—why is it, do you think, that they closed the Pentateuch (i.e. the first unit of the Bible that is comprised of the first five books) with the death of Moses? It’s kind of a let down, no? (3) In the chapters from Joshua and Judges that we read, we seem to enter a new golden age of conquest. But … things are not so simple. Yes Joshua is much like Moses. (Can you see how?) Nevertheless, a shadow hangs over the whole of what he does. How might the closing passage of Deuteronomy 34 guide our reading of all that takes place in the book of Joshua? What does the text really mean to say about the events of his generation?

Based on my reading of Numbers, I believe that the wilderness generation’s condemnation is a result of their lack of faith in God. Even as a reader I was getting annoyed by how many times they said “Oh, why did we ever leave Egypt!” The mere repetitiveness of this phrase combined with their complete and utter lack of trust in God was annoying to me, so it must have been infuriating to God, the one who delivered them from slavery and was actively attempting to bring them nearer to him. All the wilderness generation had to do was just accept God’s covenant and they would not have ran into issues, but they were unwilling to do this. This being said, there is a big difference between their grumblings and their disobedience. When they complained that they didn’t have food, water, and then meat, God was irritated, but he showed more mercy. However, when they flat out disobeyed God by attacking or not attacking what God told them to not attack or attack is what demonstrated that they were unwilling to listen to God, and thus was not willing to enter a covenant with him.

The Pentateuch ends with Moses dying because it is the end of an era. The Pentateuch has the recurring theme of the elect being selected by God and suffering so that others may be brought closer to God and redeemed. This all culminates in Moses, who arguably suffers the most out of all of the elect. On one account, Moses even pleads with God for death. This is because the people who he is leading are not receiving the divine message he brings to them and do not obey his commands, and thus God’s commands as a result. This is very stressful for Moses and represents his role as the elect. Moses’s death can be interpreted in many ways. One is that Moses failed to make his people trust in God. However, this was not mentioned earlier in Deuteronomy when God told Moses he would not cross the Jordan River when Moses requested this of him, so I don’t think this is the case. My prediction is that this is an act of mercy by God. On nearly every other account of Moses requesting something of God, God grants Moses’s request because it was in his best interest as well as Israel’s. Therefore, Moses and Israel are better off if Moses never crosses the River. I think this is an act of mercy because God perhaps does not want Moses to see the moment when God must have vengeance on the people. Moses did everything God asked of him, and therefore allows Moses to die before he essentially reverses everything Moses worked for.

The main difference between Joshua and Moses is that Joshua had Moses as a model before him. If you think of this in a real world context, you can see why there is a shadow over everything Joshua does. Say there are two people competing for a managerial position at a company. The CEO picks one person and ignores the other until the person he picks retires, and then promotes the second option. Joshua represents the second option, because God never appeared directly to him until it was time for Moses to pass the torch. Therefore, the end of the Moses era represents a step down to a sort of second choice. Joshua was not special in any way until Moses died, and only became special when Moses placed his hands on him.