When these Bible writers recorded their history, their sole purpose was to influence their own community. Their records were concerned with theology, rather than with historical precision.
It does not matter whether Moses was a real person or not. It does not matter if people were really led out of Egypt. Indeed, it is likely that the Israelites were hill dwellers of Canaan all the time.
The purpose of stories about Abraham, Moses, Joshua, and so on served the purpose of showing the community that God had given them the land they were occupying.
This intended lesson influenced the writer when he gave the reason Moses was not permitted to enter the land promised to Abraham. Before entering the Promised Land, the people had to wander in a deserted land until all doubters had died.
We can only surmise at the lessons intended for that ancient community. Perhaps they were meant to learn that only the unblemished and those who had genuine faith were permitted to cross into the Promised Land. For us, we can see a modern lesson, in which entrance to our future Promised Land is based on the same premise that one must be unblemished before God.
For the Christian, this state is available as a gift that is available only through faith in the unblemished life and death of Jesus Christ.
Doug
Moses's mistake
by highdose 14 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Doug Mason
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sooner7nc
Moses mistake was serving one mean spirited son of a bitch.
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WTWizard
God is capricious. You look at Tyrant David--who, despite murdering innocent people and doing things that resulted in others dying, he was looked at as favorable. That humanoid initiated force, threats of force, and fraud knowing what he was doing, to all the other nations--he would have made Bush look like the Prince of Peace for what he did in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet Saul makes one mistake, under pressure (that he was forced into), and Jehovah set him up for an adverse judgment.
The ultimate injustice is with Satan--who attempted to set mankind free of Jehovah's tyranny. Remember, Satan was given the job to look out for mankind, and protect mankind from any and all adversaries. Which Satan went above and beyond his call of duty to do--and look at what that Almighty Lowlife Scumbag did for that. That would be like getting fired and blackballed for saving your company from stagnation and certain oppression and always having to worry about going belly up, by getting co-workers to do something that would pull the company out of its rut.
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Jim_TX
Well, I see it like a boss once explained job performance.
"One awshit can wipe out many attaboys."
I think Moses got an 'awshit'.
Regards,
Jim TX
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Doug Mason
WTWizard,
I assume your reference to David relates to the book of Chronicles. The writers of that history, who were living at least 150 years after Babylon fell, were trying to influence their community when they wrote it, and their focus on David is shown by the number of chapters they devoted to him.
At the time, the Davidic monarchy had disappeared and the priesthood had taken over that authority. So for some local reason the writers of Chronicles manipulated the historical record to assert the Davidic heritage.
The example of their record of the King Manasseh illustrates their approach. Manasseh is the epitome of a sinner in the book of Kings while the writers of Chronicles made out he was a repenting sinner. This was the only way that the Chronicler could explain away the long reign by this evil king. So he invented a story of Manasseh's contrition. Likewise with his manipulation of the stories of David (whether he really existed was irrelevant).
"The Chronicler is not a historian in the strict western sense. To him Israel’s history was pregnant with spiritual and moral lessons, which he brought to birth through a kind of historical midwifery. He is not concerned so much with the bare facts of Israel’s history as with their meaning. If all valid historical writing is interpretative, the Chronicler’s is highly interpretative.." ("Old Testament Survey", page 542, Lasor, Hubbard, Bush).
Doug