Moses Excluded from Promised Land

Deuteronomy 3

            A couple of things stood out for me in the last portion of chapter 3, when Moses recounts his exclusion from inheriting the promised land

            The first thing I noted was Moses’ bitterness, how he blames his loss on the Israelites, “because of you the Lord was angry with me.” Moses is only human and we shouldn’t expect perfection from him, but it is stunning that he doesn’t—at this moment, at least—take any responsibility for his own disobedience. He’s only human, and that means he’s just like us. Something I notice is how hard it is to take responsibility for our own mistakes and failures. Even our apologies are marked by it, “I’m sorry, but…” But there were extenuating circumstances, but I didn’t mean to, but you made me do it. A true confession owns the sin humbly and contritely.

            The other thing that stood out was Moses’ deep sense of loss at not being able to enter the promised land. He had given 40 years of his life to God’s project, but he would not see the successful ending of it. I think that’s a common experience. We invest ourselves in all sorts of things at work, in our families, and we run out of time. When I left my last church, we had just launched a number of new initiatives, not least of which was a new approach to confirmation, and it was wrenching to know that I wouldn’t see them through to fruition. I think the book of Hebrews. After a long listing of Old Testament figures who had lived by faith, the writer says, “These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised” (Heb 11:39). That’s the hard part of living by faith: in this life we may never see what that Lord has been up to, we may never see how He will work out all things for the good of those who love Him (Rom. 8:28). Still Hebrews goes on and says that this is so “since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect” (Heb. 11:29).

            A couple of weeks ago, I dropped the word eschatologically on this blog. Eschatology is the study of the last things, and to think eschatologically means to think with Christ’s return, the resurrection of the dead, and the final restoration in the forefront of our minds. If in this life we live only ever in the shadow of the cross, if we don’t see how the Lord will work things out, if we wonder why we aren’t blessed and suffer loss, eschatological thinking reminds us that the Lord isn’t done with us yet, that even should we die in our troubles He’s not done with us yet. Eschatological thinking is thinking by faith, in God’s timeframe, with confidence that God is ultimately faithful. And that confidence is grounded in what the Lord has already done, namely, giving His Son into death for us and for our restoration. He has been faithful, and He will be faithful, in His time and in His way.