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   Those were difficult and dangerous days four thousand years ago. For a nomadic   
   people like the early Hebrews, the greatest security was to belong to a large   
   and strong clan. And the most valuable possession was ownership of a vast area   
   of land, the more    
   land the better in a desert environment which did not easily yield support to   
   life. Thus it was that Abraham cleverly exploited, in the name of God, the two   
   most powerful sentiments which exist – the sociosentiment to belong to a great   
   and powerful clan,    
   guaranteeing security and happiness in this world as well as whatever form of   
   happiness there may be in the afterlife (though this seems to have been a   
   matter of little or, at least, of secondary interest to the early Hebrews or   
   Jews) and, secondly, the    
   geo-sentiment to have a safe and secure homeland. And just to sweeten the pot   
   a little bit, that “promised land” was generally advertised as a country   
   “flowing with milk and honey. [26]   
      
   Any student of history knows that the Jews maintained control over Israel for   
   not more than six hundred years of their four thousand year history, and they   
   had a sizeable settlement in Israel for not more than fifteen hundred years.   
   As for the milk and    
   honey, that is surely debatable, but no greater exaggeration than the   
   declaration by Eric the Red that his newly discovered country was “GreenLand”.   
   And finally, despite a possible increase in virility that may have accrued   
   from circumcision of male    
   children, [27] the Jews have remained a rather small minority group, most   
   certainly not numbering as many as “the dust of the earth”. [28] Nevertheless,   
   sentiment does not rely on facts to gather momentum. A new religious sect   
   arises almost every day    
   proclaiming the end of the world, and each such new sect seems to weather   
   quite well the failure of that particular prophesy. Rather, some say, the   
   faith of the adherents tends to increase by virtue of the lie as “faith   
   generally has no locus standi in    
   reason”. Surely the Jews have proven this point by clinging steadfastly to   
   their religion and by laying down, even in this 20th Century, not just a   
   historical but also a divine claim to the land of Zion.   
      
      
      
   5                       The Water of Meribah   
   And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,   
      
   Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy   
   brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth   
   his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou   
   shalt give the    
   congregation and their beasts drink.   
      
   And Moses took the rod from before the Lord, as he commanded him.   
      
   And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock; and he   
   said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?   
      
   And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and   
   the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts   
   also.   
      
   And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to   
   sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not   
   bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.   
      
   Numbers 20:7-12   
      
   An Appointment from God   
   Human beings in general have an unfortunate habit of believing everything they   
   read in the newspapers, and they have an even more unfortunate habit of   
   believing everything they read in the Bible. Of course, the vast majority of   
   the Christians and Jews    
   never really bother to read the whole book from cover to cover. Mostly they   
   tend just to believe what they are told that the “Holy Bible” says. And they   
   are incredibly receptive to the blasphemous lie which they've been told about   
   the nature of the Bible    
   – that it is a book of unerring accuracy. [29]   
      
   But can modern woman and man really accept as truth all of the far-out stories   
   in the Bible? Certainly, the more science develops and archaeology uncovers,   
   the harder it is to believe all of that fantasy about a six-day period of   
   creation and a God Who    
   takes a rest on the seventh day, [30] about the sun standing still in the sky   
   for thirty-six hours so that the Hebrews could completely annihilate the   
   Amorites, [31] about Jesus going up a mountain to have a talk with two ghosts   
   and being witnessed by    
   Peter, James and John who somehow could recognize those two phantoms as Moses   
   and Elijah, [32] about a beast rising out of the sea with seven heads and ten   
   horns, [33] and on and on and on.   
      
   Judging by how easy it still is to befool the common people with a little   
   religious jargon, a clever opportunist in Bible days must have found no   
   difficulty at all in gaining recognition and power by claiming a special   
   appointment from God – particularly    
   if that appointment seemed to have occurred with some element of change or   
   novelty. In the case of Jesus, the dramatic event which established his   
   authority was his baptism by John allegedly accompanied by a “voice from   
   heaven” saying, “This is my    
   beloved son in whom I am well-pleased”. [34] With Abraham, his claim to have   
   sealed a Covenant with God may or may not have been unique in style and form,   
   but the content of that Covenant was a work of genius (as displayed by its   
   ability to bind Jews    
   still today, some four thousand years later, to the dogmatic and superstitious   
   religion of their ancestors). And certainly not by accident, it was that very   
   Covenant which established Abraham's leadership as a “father of many nations”.   
   [35] Finally, for    
   Moses, his right to rule was founded on the specific charge to lead the   
   Hebrews out of Egypt and into the land of Israel, which charge as related by   
   Moses, was given to him by the “God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God   
   of Jacob” speaking from a    
   burning bush which was not consumed. [36] Strangely, not even one of the three   
   patriarchs, not even Moses claimed his mandate by virtue of the will of the   
   people. So far we have examined the case of Abraham. Let us now look more   
   closely at the historical    
   figure of Moses.   
      
   Moses – Jew or Gentile   
   According to the Bible, [37] Moses was born a Hebrew, son of a prominent   
   leader of the tribe of Levi. His brother was Aaron and his sister was Miriam,   
   both of whom were respected as religious teachers or prophets among the   
   Hebrews. Unfortunately, the    
   King of Egypt, in whose country the Hebrews were at that time enslaved, had   
   begun to fear the growing size and strength of the Hebrew race, and he had   
   ordered that all male Hebrew babies should be drowned. According to the story,   
   Moses' mother kept him    
   hidden for three months (somehow and for some reason neglecting to perform the   
   customary circumcision when the child was eight days old), and afterwards left   
   the baby in an “ark of bulrushes” in the “flags by the river's brink”. Along   
   came the Pharaoh's    
   daughter who found the ark and immediately recognized the uncircumcised baby   
   of three months as being a child of the Hebrews. But nevertheless, she   
   accepted him as her own son despite the orders of her father. Then we are told   
   that the Pharaoh's daughter,   
    at the suggestion of Moses' sister who had been watching the ark and baby   
   from nearby, appointed the mother of Moses to be his wetnurse. In this way the   
   Bible explains how Moses was raised as an uncircumcised Egyptian prince,   
   though really he was a true-   
   blue Hebrew.   
      
      
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