I hope these Legos illustrate how I might have lied to you in the past.

OK, I might owe an apology to some folks. Sometimes, on very rare occasions, I'm known to throw out some obscure trivia. Much more rarely, my factoid proves to be wrong.

I don't intentionally lie; I just sometimes remember things...differently.

Anyway, today saw another installment in the brilliant Blogging the Bible project over at Slate.com. The writer, who is writing blogs about his attempt to read the entire Bible, is now on Numbers.

When I was getting my highly practical Religious Studies minor at Missouri, I focused a lot on the Torah and the Tanakh (aka, Ye Olde Testament). But I can't say I've read Numbers, and there's an important piece of Biblical trivia hidden in there.

Some of you may know that Moses didn't make it to the Promised Land, despite his intense work to get the Israelites there. For some reason, I was convinced that he was prohibited by God because he had committed murder.

In case you don't remember that part of Exodus, here's a visual reminder from one of my favorite Biblical resources:



But no, killing a slaver wasn't the problem. It was a much, much more serious transgression.

Moses and Aaron were asked by God to speak to a stone so that it would release water for the thirsty Israelites. Instead, Moses just Ike Turners his way to the watery goodness:



That's it. His lack of faith and inability to follow God's specific orders earned him a lifetime of desert exile. Tough luck, Mo.

Here's a summary from another site:

Moses was not perfect. Like any man, he had his flaws and his moments of weakness, and the Bible faithfully records these shortcomings. In fact, Moses was not permitted to enter the Promised Land because of a transgression (Deut. 32:48-52). Moses was told to speak to a rock to get water from it, but instead he struck the rock repeatedly with a rod, showing improper anger and a lack of faith (Num. 20:7-13).

So there you have it. Sorry if I ever told you wrong. And I hope we all learned a valuable lesson today. Stoning, killing, committing genocide? The Old Testament God can let these things slide. Heck, he can require them.

But hitting a rock with a stick? Unforgivable.