It was when the people of Israel were almost within sight of the Promised Land that Moses received the biggest disappointment of his life. He had been their prophet and leader from the beginning of their departure from Egypt right up to the very border of the land God had given them. It had been a difficult time, forty years of dealing with the fear and faithlessness of the people. There were so many crises during that time that he probably had forgotten, at least the incident must have been tucked away in his memory, how the people rebelled in the wilderness of Zin.

The whole congregation had stood before Moses and said, "Would that we died when our brethren died before the Lord! Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, that we should die here, both we and our …