ספר שמות

Moses had lived in an atmosphere so different from that of his ‎people, being attached to G’d, whereas his people were mired in ‎the deepest mud of an apparently hopeless purely physical ‎existence, that while he was consumed with fear and awe of G’d, ‎they were forever consumed with fear and awe of Pharaoh. Moses ‎was forever consumed with the knowledge of the greatness of the ‎Creator, observing how all the phenomena in the universe ‎meticulously obeyed the will of their Creator, that he could not ‎understand how the people would fail to believe the words of the ‎Creator to him that He would redeem them from their misery. ‎The gulf between Moses’ and the people’s relations to G’d is best ‎demonstrated in Exodus 19,21 when G’d told Moses to go down ‎from the Mountain and to warn the people once more not to ‎approach too closely to the edge of the Mountain. He had done so ‎already once, and could not imagine that anyone would require a ‎second warning that their lives would be in danger if they ‎disobeyed. He told G’d (verse 23) that the people could not ‎disobey Him seeing that they had been warned already. Similarly, ‎he could not imagine that having told the people in His name ‎that He would forthwith take them out of Egypt that they would ‎not believe the message. Having been challenged by the people ‎with the words: “may G’d judge who of us is more righteous, we ‎who do not believe the tidings or you who insists that in spite of ‎an initial reverse G’d is true and will keep His word,” (Exodus ‎‎5,21) he turned to G’d in frustration at the lack of faith by the ‎Jewish people. [not because he did not believe G’d’s ‎promise. Ed.] Moses could simply not understand that ‎there is a human being who could doubt the word of G’d.When Moses asked G’d a question which sounded as if he ‎himself had developed doubts about the success of his mission, ‎the real thrust of his words was: “why did You, G’d give the ‎people such a strong evil urge that that they do not believe Your ‎promise?” The Talmud, B’rachot 32, using somewhat ‎different words, uses a similar approach in interpreting Moses’ ‎question. In the above cited question, Moses also added that he, ‎personally, could not stand having to watch his people’s misery ‎for another minute, so that he failed to see why G’d had sent him ‎at a time when the people were clearly not ready to be redeemed ‎seeing that they lacked the necessary merit.‎ ‎