Both Abraham and Moses are considered men of deep faith, and both have strong devotion to the Hebrew God. Other than simple time period differences or differences in the events that they lived through, there is a difference in their initial faith and willingness to serve God's call. Abraham is a man of incredible devotion to God. He rarely, if ever, argues with God, and he is always willing to do what God tells him to do. There might be times when he takes matters in to his own hands, but he is still going to where God called him. Abraham's faith and devotion to God is so deep that he unquestioningly took his son, Isaac, up a mountain to be sacrificed. God eventually supplies an animal to be sacrificed, but Abraham was willing to let his long awaited for son die instead.

On the other hand, Moses is not as quick to obey God's commands. A good example of this is when God appears to Moses in the burning bush. God tells Moses that he is being called to help free the people of Israel from their Egyptian masters. Moses argues against God and claims that he won't be an effective enough communicator to deliver God's message to the Egyptians. Unlike Abraham, Moses struggled with taking God at his word and doing things exactly the way that God said to do them. A good example of this is in Numbers 20. God told Moses to speak to a rock in order to get water to spring forth from the rock; however, Moses struck the rock with his staff instead. As punishment, God would not allow Moses to enter the promised land.

7The Lord said to Moses, 8“Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.”

9So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence, just as he commanded him. 10He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” 11Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.

12But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”