Poor Moses! Having come so far, having gone through so much, only to be left out of the fulfillment of the promise made to Abram many centuries earlier: “To your descendants I will give this land” (Genesis 12:7, NKJV).
Read Deuteronomy 34:1-12. What happened to Moses, and what did the Lord say about him that showed what a special man he was?
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“In solitude Moses reviewed his life of vicissitudes and hardships since he turned from courtly honors and from a prospective kingdom in Egypt, to cast in his lot with God’s chosen people. He called to mind those long years in the desert with the flocks of Jethro, the appearance of the Angel in the burning bush, and his own call to deliver Israel. Again he beheld the mighty miracles of God’s power displayed in behalf of the chosen people, and His long-suffering mercy during the years of their wandering and rebellion. Notwithstanding all that God had wrought for them, notwithstanding his own prayers and labors, only two of all the adults in the vast army that left Egypt had been found so faithful that they could enter the Promised Land. As Moses reviewed the result of his labors, his life of trial and sacrifice seemed to have been almost in vain.” — Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, pages 471, 472.
Deuteronomy 34:4 says something very interesting. “This is the land of which I swore to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’” The Lord was using language almost verbatim from what He had said over and over to the patriarchs and to their children, about giving them this land. Now He was repeating it to Moses.
The Lord also said that “I have caused you to see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there” (Deuteronomy 34:4, NKJV, emphasis supplied). There’s no way that Moses, standing where he was, could have seen with normal vision all that the Lord has pointed him to — from Moab to Daniel to Naphtali, and so forth. Ellen G. White was clear: it was a supernatural revelation, not only of the land, but of what it would look like after they had taken possession.
In one sense, it would almost seem as if the Lord had been teasing Moses, rubbing it in: You could have been here had you simply obeyed me as you should have, or something like that. Instead, the Lord was showing Moses that despite everything, even despite Moses’ mistake, God was going to be faithful to the covenantal promises that He had made with the fathers and with Israel itself. As we will see, too, the Lord had even something better in store for His faithful but flawed servant.
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