It’s interesting to read the account of the last forty years from Moses’ perspective. While much of the story is just a matter of historical fact, how he views it personally is as unique as he is.
One point in particular stands out in this opening chapter: His outright blame of Israel for the fact that he won’t get to enter Canaan.
He says it directly: “The Lord was angry with me on your account, saying ‘Not even you shall enter there.’” In fact, he says it a few more times; Deuteronomy 3:26 and 4:21 repeat the exact same phrase in the exact same context.
The problem is that Numbers blames Moses for his own failure (which is ironic, considering Moses is the author of Numbers). Numbers 20 lays out the story, even including the line from God about how Moses and Aaron “didn’t believe God” and “won’t bring the assembly into the land.” That is one hundred percent on Moses.
So how do we make sense of this Biblical blame game? Scholars have struggled with it for a while, primarily because they have to piecemeal any argument they make.
For instance, the overwhelming opinion is that the punishment Moses refers to here is not him hitting the rock, but his desire to alter the plans for the spies’ incursion into Israel. According to Numbers 13, they were just to send men to spy out the land; the instructions were intentionally vague (Numbers 13:2).
But later on in that story, Moses asks the spies to bring back a report about the land, the people, the cities, and the fruit. He wants details, where God only allowed for a report.
And as we remember, it was those very details that caused the people’s “hearts to melt,” resulting in a forty-year march through the wilderness.
It’s also likely that the plan to spy out the land came from the people themselves. That’s what Deuteronomy 1:22 says, at least: “All of you approached me and said ‘Let us send men before us, that they may search out the land for us, and bring back to us word of the way by which we should go up and the cities which we shall enter.’”
If you’re following along at home, the way that Moses lays out the facts is as follows.
First, the people asked for spies to go into Canaan to see where to go.
Second, that request, although indicating a slight lack of faith, was agreed upon by God.
Third, Moses built on that request by asking for a more comprehensive report of the land.
Was he wrong in asking for more details? If so, there’s no indication anywhere in Scripture that God was angry with Moses on this point (at least, as far as I can see).
But this chronology is the only one that makes Moses’ statement make sense. He wasn’t able to enter Canaan, because of his own trust issues with the details, but he wouldn’t have asked for those if the people hadn’t wanted to spy out the land to begin with.
It’s confusing, to say the least. But it does show a little bit of what Moses had to deal with on a day-to-day basis. And, as we’ll find out in the rest of Deuteronomy, it’s not the last complaint he’ll have with these people.