Inerrant Lie #11

Another lie from "God's ineffable, inerrant word”:

Moses, like Abraham before him, doubted the LORD’s veracity. Moses' doubt is immediately apparent in at least two places in the Pentateuch Moses penned. The first is found in the book of Numbers, upon occasion of Hobab's (Moses' Midianite brother in law) intended return to Midian.

Moses is chagrined by Hobab's proposed departure, and pleads with him, "Leave us not, I pray thee; forasmuch as thou knowest how we are to encamp in the wilderness, and thou mayest be to us instead of eyes [Numbers 10:31]." This may seem sensible enough, at first blush, but in light of Moses' frank admission, two verses later, that the LORD is his navigator, it quickly becomes a mark of incredulity: "And they departed from the mount of the LORD three days' journey: and the ark of the covenant of the LORD went before them in the three days' journey, to search out a resting place for them [Numbers 10:33]."

Also recorded in Numbers: Moses exhorts the twelve spies he sent into the promised land-- three times (in outlining their mission prerogatives)-- to see the land; which the LORD had already told him was a good land, ("one flowing with milk and honey"): "what it is;... whether it be good or bad;... whether it be fat or lean [Numbers 13:18, 19 & 20]." Ironically, he tells a lie when he explains his reasons for sending the spies in.

In Numbers, Moses says it was the LORD's idea to send spies in: "And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them [Numbers 13:1 & 2]." In Moses' final recorded oration before the children of Israel, he says otherwise.

In Deuteronomy, Moses claims it was the people's counsel which compelled the surreptitious mission: "And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come [Deuteronomy 1:22 & 23]." Perhaps he simply forgot which lie he'd already told about the event, and accidentally told the truth in Deuteronomy. Either way, one of these versions of the tale is a lie if they both aren't.