Moses made them up?
2Ti 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
When the Holy Spirit blocked Moses from crossing the Jordan river into Palestine with his people, it was so that God could show the world that Moses and the old covenant had no power to take anyone into heaven -- into the true Promised Land.
At Meribah's waters, Moses had vented a brief moment of arrogance. In his exasperation, he implied that he, personally, was the guide that would lead the House of Israel into the Pomised Land of Palestine.
But neither he, nor his Law had that kind of power. God, alone, was leading those tribes out of Egypt.
This fact had to be highlighted in the Law to show what this journey was leading to -- that the true exodus from captivity would be above ministers and above church law. It would be based entirely in Jesus Christ.
God allegorized this when He told Moses at the waters of Meribah, "Because you did not believe that I, myself, could proclaim my holiness in the eyes of the sons of Israel, you shall not lead this assembly into the land I am giving them." (Num.20:12).
The reference, of course, is prophecy because it relates to the future. It speaks of the Jewish rejection of the idea that God could come in person and proclaim His own holiness to eyewitnesses in Israel.
The Law of Moses refused Jesus when He appeared, and in that rejection lost its authority to lead.
Because he was serving God in biblical metaphor, Moses had to live out the whole metaphor. And it was a metaphor, because while Moses may not have been allowed to touch the soil of Palestine, he had no trouble being chosen for the kingdom of God in heaven.
We know for certain that this is true because when the transfiguration of Jesus occurred on Mt. Tabor, Moses was there with him -- proof that he had been resurrected. (Mt.17:3). So the injunction was brief.
An interesting aside here is that while Moses was resurrected, David was not permitted that honor. Peter, speaking on the day of Pentecost, told those assembled before him, "Brothers, no one can deny that the patriarch David himself is dead and buried: his tomb is still with us...for David himself never went up to heaven..." (Acts 2:29-34).
While David was rejected, Moses was chosen. In that choice, he was granted entrance to the true Promised Land. The land that he was not permitted to enter was merely an allegorical country that God had formed to display His holiness before men.
The rescue God initiated cannot be accomplished by any man-made theology. Jesus did it himself. God has redeemed us in person outside of the Law of Moses. This is what God was preparing the world to see when He chastised Moses at the waters of Meribah.
God has called every shepherd to account by taking all the sheep from them and putting Himself alone at the head of the flock. Ezekiel said that God would do this because the shepherds were serving themselves instead of the people they led.
"Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them, 'Shepherds, the Lord God says this: Trouble for the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves!"
" Shepherds ought to feed their flock, yet you have fed on milk, you have dressed yourselves in wool, you have sacrificed the fattest sheep, but failed to feed the flock. You have failed to make weak sheep strong, or to care for the sick ones, or bandage the wounded ones. You have failed to bring back strays or look for the lost. On the contrary, you have ruled them cruelly and violently. "
"Therefore I am calling the shepherds to account. I am going to take my flock back from them and I shall not allow them to feed my flock. In this way the shepherds will stop feeding themselves. I shall rescue my sheep from their mouths. I am going to look after my flock myself and keep all of it in view."
"I shall rescue them from wherever they have been scattered during the mist and darkness. I shall bring them out of the countries where they are; I shall gather them together from foreign countries and bring them back to their own land. "
"I myself will show them where to rest. I shall look for the lost one, bring back the stray, bandage the wounded and make the weak strong. I shall be a true shepherd to them." (Ez.34).
It was this call in the faith of Jesus Christ that returned the 10 missing tribes of Israel to God and made them the underlying framework of the Christian Church.
They have all returned to Jerusalem in fulfillment of Jeremiah's prophecy, and there they have erected their thrones in front of the city's gates. (Jer.1:15).
In short, it is a MISTAKE For Christians to apply anything of the old covenant to themselves. Christians are bound to the new covenant Christ gave us, nothing else. His Gospel contains ALL the laws we need to be concerned with.