I Spy

Deuteronomy 1:19-25

The reminiscing continues.  Moses rushes through the wilderness wandering to get to Kadesh Barnea.  He tells them,  Remember I instructed you check out this Amorite land... or land that is soon to be ex-Amorite land?  Go get it- God has already told you to claim it- what are you waiting for?  Get some swagger on, there's no reason to be worried, don't be discouraged either.

Then you talked to each other and come up to me and said- Ummm, Moses?  What say we send some spies to go ahead and map out our best plan of attack?  They can check things out and come back and report to us.

That sounded kosher to me, so I hand-picked a dozen of you with all twelve tribes represented.  When they came back, they said, "Yeah, this land is something special.  We're all for ending this whole wandering business. I mean, check out this fruit!"

This feels like more from the Greatest Hits of the Israelites collection.  There doesn't seem to be much different nuance in this retelling.  Moses also seems to be framing this in a self-serving way- especially for someone about to be left behind.

But I think we all tend to frame narratives this way.  We tend to make ourselves the center, inflate our own importance and downplay embarrassing shortcomings.  Even God's spokespeople aren't immune from the human tendency to sculpt their own public images.