The Adopted Son: The Story of MosesWillard, James Hartwell
Religion
The Adopted Son: The Story of Moses
Willard, James Hartwell
Bible stories -- Old Testament; Moses (Biblical leader) -- Juvenile literature
Aaron was appointed high priest and his four sons were made priests
to assist him in the services. The Sabbath or seventh day was to be
strictly kept, and various feasts and ceremonies were instituted.
Particularly the feast of the Passover was enjoined upon the
Israelites to commemorate God's mercy in passing over their homes
when the first-born of the Egyptians were slain.
Then the pillar of cloud, which, with the pillar of fire, had never
ceased to show the Israelites the way they were to go in their
journeys, rested over the Tabernacle, and at this sign that they were
to resume their march to the land of Canaan, the children of Israel
marched forth once more and in time came to Kadesh-barnea, near the
borders of the promised land.
Then a man was chosen from each of the twelve tribes to see what the
land of Canaan was like and to find the best way of entering it. They
were gone for forty days, and when they returned their accounts
differed. All agreed as to the exceeding fruitfulness of the land, in
proof of which they brought back a bunch of grapes so large that it
took two men to carry it. But only two advised an immediate advance
into the land. These were Joshua, the young general, and a man named
Caleb.
[Illustration: "A bunch of grapes that took two men to carry it."]
"A BUNCH OF GRAPES THAT TOOK TWO MEN TO CARRY IT."
The ten remaining messengers frightened the people by their account
of the giants and warlike tribes they would have to encounter and the
many dangers that would have to be met, and the people, fickle as
ever, believed these reports and again reproached their faithful
leader.
But their punishment was swift and severe. The ten messengers of evil
died on the spot, and God commanded Moses to tell the people that,
for their doubting and faultfinding, not one of them over twenty
years old except Joshua and Caleb should enter the land of Canaan.
Their children might do so, but they could never set foot in it. They
were to wander in the desert until they died.
After thirty-eight years the wandering nation, which during this time
had been fed with manna and so cared for by God that they were
neither footsore, neither did their clothes wear out, was again
encamped at Kadesh-barnea. In the interval great numbers of the
people had died, and here Miriam, the sister of Moses and of Aaron,
died and was buried. Water was again scarce, and the people, as
formerly, heaped reproaches upon Moses and Aaron, who asked God what
to do.
God told them to speak to one of the rocks and it would produce water
in plenty. Instead of doing exactly what they were told, Moses and
Aaron first rebuked the people and then Moses struck the rock with
his rod. An abundant supply of water followed, but for this act of
disobedience and this display of irritation, both of the brothers
were forbidden to enter the land of Canaan.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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