No Mo, You Can’t Go! | Sunday, February 19, 2023

Then the children of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the Wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh; and Miriam died there and was buried there. Now there was no water for the congregation; so they gathered together against Moses and Aaron... And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Take the rod; you and your brother Aaron gather the congregation together. Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water..." (Numbers 20:1–8)

When even a great man of God is barred from the Promised Land, we learn that God's faithfulness and His purposes run deeper than the details we can see.

All Scripture, Even the Strange Things

We are in a transition period, moving from the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy into Joshua, from the wilderness toward the Promised Land, from the leadership of Moses to the leadership of Joshua. I have been a student and teacher of the Bible for more than two decades. I love the Scriptures, I believe the Bible is essential for life, and I am convinced that all we can and must know about God is contained in it.

Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:16 that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that the man or woman of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. All Scripture is God-breathed and essential.

And yet the Bible contains some strange things. What are the Nephilim of Genesis 6? What did Noah's son Ham do that got him into trouble? Why did Abraham lie about Sarah's identity? Why did God in Exodus 4 set out to kill Moses? Many of these things make more sense once we study them, but some remain head-scratchers. Today's passage is one of those riddles of the Bible.

Moses Cannot Enter the Land

As Moses hands the baton to Joshua, he closes out his forty-year ministry with a great song over Israel in Deuteronomy 32. Afterward we read his final exhortation:

Set your hearts on all the words which I testify among you today... For it is not a futile thing for you, because it is your life, and by this word you shall prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess. (Deuteronomy 32:46–47)

I love this. Moses tells the people to set their hearts on the word of God, for it is not vain or empty—it is their life. For Israel, success and prosperity were gauged by longevity, lineage, and legacy: a long life, a large family, and something to leave behind.

This should make us think deeply about how we measure success. Every one of us has standards—an academic degree, a corporate title, owning a company, a certain bank account, 401K, home, or car. Our society has its metrics. But what we value affects how we live, so it is vital that we have the proper metrics to measure what is truly prosperous, because in the end you want to have valued the proper things. Moses' final word is about orienting your life along the proper lines of value: set your heart to seek God in His word.

A Great Man Forbidden

Then God speaks:

Go up this mountain of Abarim, Mount Nebo... view the land of Canaan... and die on the mountain which you ascend... because you trespassed against Me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah Kadesh... yet you shall see the land before you, though you shall not go there. (Deuteronomy 32:49–52)

This is a head-scratcher. Moses was one of the greatest men who ever lived. A hundred and fifty years from now, almost no one will remember you or me—yet some 3,400 years later, billions still know something of Moses. He is in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11. He delivered Israel from Egypt and ordered them as a nation. The writings of Moses—Genesis through Deuteronomy—are the bedrock of our faith: creation, Noah, Abraham, the fall, the rescue from Egypt, the covenant, the Tabernacle, the law, the way to deal with sin. They are even the underpinnings of Western thought.

And yet this awesome man of God could not enter the Promised Land. If ever there were an exception clause for someone of the Exodus generation, it could have, perhaps should have, been Moses. But God says: go up Mount Nebo, see the land, and die outside of it.

This teaches a simple truth: God is consistent and remains true to His word and His will. If God determines and declares something, He will do it. He had promised Abraham's descendants this land four hundred years earlier, and He will fulfill it. But He had also declared that none of the generation above twenty who came out of Egypt would enter—and so Moses cannot go.

Why Mo Can't Go: Back to Numbers 20

To understand why, we go back to Numbers 20. The whole congregation comes to the Wilderness of Zin; Miriam, Moses' sister, dies and is buried there. There is no water, so the people gather against Moses and Aaron:

If only we had died when our brethren died before the Lord! Why have you brought up the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our animals should die here?... It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates; nor is there any water to drink. (Numbers 20:3–5)

By now Israel has wandered for nearly forty years, and they are still murmuring and complaining—something they were very good at. They blame Moses, telling him it would have been better to stay in Egypt and die there.

So Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and they fell on their faces. And the glory of the Lord appeared to them. (Numbers 20:6)

I have to acknowledge that Moses is a better man and leader than me. For nearly forty years he dealt with this generation's bellyaching, and at virtually every point he brings their issue to God. So often when I am bombarded by complaints and frustrations, I get on edge, upset, and lacking self-control—not immediately thinking, I need to bring this to God in prayer. Moses is a great example here.

The Rock Was Christ

Take the rod; you and your brother Aaron gather the congregation together. Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water. (Numbers 20:8)

This is familiar. Nearly forty years earlier, at Rephidim in Exodus 17, Israel thirsted, contended with Moses, and the Lord said:

Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink. (Exodus 17:6)

The lacks and challenges of life are often not novel; they recur. I believe God allows them to resurface so that we learn to continually bring them to Him in prayer. Jesus taught His disciples to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread" (Matthew 6:11). We are to seek God for provision continuously, and we will see that He is faithful—Jehovah Jireh, the Lord who provides.

What is special about this rock? Thankfully, the answer is not hidden. Paul writes:

They all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. (1 Corinthians 10:4)

The rock points to Christ in type. Jesus is the Rock who was struck, from whom flows living water for the thirsty. I think of His conversation with the woman at the well in John 4: "If you knew the gift of God... you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." And in John 7:37–38 He stood up at the feast and said, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink... out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."

Notice the difference. At Rephidim God said strike the rock; here He says speak to it. We can rely on God's faithful goodness, yet He rarely works the same way twice. He likes to call audibles, to change things up, to keep us guessing. That can be both a comfort and something that drives us crazy.

Moses Strikes the Rock

Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank. (Numbers 20:11)

There is a little song online that just goes, "Oh no, oh no, oh no no no..." That is what I hear in my head here. This is not what God said to do. Moses was supposed to speak to the rock; instead he spoke to the people—and harshly: "Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?" Then he struck the rock, not once but twice.

In His goodness God still brought forth water in abundance, which reminds us that God remains faithful even when we fall short and fail. But this was not what God commanded. Moses sinned, and there are always consequences when we sin.

You might think, Is this really that big a deal? Apparently, yes. At the end of his life God tells Moses he will die outside the land because he trespassed and did not hallow God before the children of Israel. When Moses struck the rock twice and angrily called the people rebels, whether he realized it or not, he was misrepresenting God to Israel. He was told to speak to the rock, not scold the people—and even if they deserved a scolding, that was not his to give.

My friend David Guzik says it well: "There are many reasons to explain the sinful reaction of Moses, but there are no adequate excuses." He was provoked, but he responded and sinned, as Psalm 106:32–33 describes: "They angered him also at the waters of strife... because they rebelled against his spirit, so that he spoke rashly with his lips."

How Are We Representing God?

If Moses sinfully misrepresented God, we must ask the convicting question: in what ways do we misrepresent God—to our families, on our school campus, in our workplace, our neighborhood, our community? When we are dishonest with an employer, how well does that represent Christ? When we lose our cool on the freeway, when we rant about the politics of someone we disagree with, when we put a cross-connection sticker right next to a "Let's Go Brandon" sticker—is that the right representation? You might say I'm meddling, but that is what the Holy Spirit does: He brings conviction.

There are consequences—sometimes eternal ones. How many are turned off to Christ by the bad witness of His followers? Consider the dust-up over the "He Gets Us" Super Bowl ad. People both inside and outside the church had issue with it. Non-Christians said the money could have been used better—which sounds like Judas chastising the woman who broke the oil on Jesus. Christians were angry about who funded it. You can debate the cost or the people behind it all you want, but you cannot argue with the primary message: Jesus loved the people that we hate. That is truthful.

Jesus taught that the greatest proof of my faith will be seen in how I love others: "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35). So what does my life reveal about my God? Is it love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? Or is it the works of the flesh in Galatians 5—hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition? How am I representing God?

The Heart of the Sin: Unbelief

Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them. (Numbers 20:12)

At the heart of Moses' sin was unbelief. Underline that: "because you did not believe Me." You can live for decades as a witness to God's faithfulness, trusting Him implicitly—and still, "let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." In a moment of unbelief, arrogance, and frustration, Moses slipped, fell, and misrepresented God. As a consequence, he and Aaron, like the rest of the Exodus generation, would not enter the land.

This is a hard, challenging story that seems unfair. But I learned long ago that when I come to something in the Bible I cannot fully understand, I fall back on what I do know and understand.

First, I can trust in the justice and goodness of God. If you have a desire for fairness, that comes from Him. Abraham asked, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" God's actions throughout Scripture consistently vindicate His goodness and justice.

Second, I can trust that God is working according to His perfect will, working all things together for good (Romans 8:28).

Third, there are things that appear unresolved in this life, but in the long run—especially the long run of eternity—God will reveal His goodness and power to resolve what seems unresolvable.

A Bigger Story Than the Promised Land

There is more going on than Moses dying alone on Mount Nebo. God's dealings with Israel and the land were always bigger than Israel and the land. He worked through Moses to deliver His people and make them a covenanted nation, and He would work through Joshua to bring them into the land. Why? God's aim was to get His people into the right place so He could work through them to bring redemptive blessing for all people. This goes back to Genesis 12 and the call of Abraham—God called a people to a place to bring a blessing for all peoples.

And Mount Nebo is not the last time we see Moses on a mountaintop. In Matthew 17, after Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up a high mountain:

And He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun... And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. (Matthew 17:2–3)

We get upset that Moses did not enter the Promised Land. But he did—and he saw something far greater than the land. The whole point of the Promised Land was to get the people of God into the place where God could work through them to bring blessing to all peoples: Jesus. So Moses stands on the mountain with Christ Himself, while the Father declares, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!"

We can get so focused on details and individuals, feeling things are unfair and unresolved, that we miss the greater thing God is doing in that moment. God is consistent and remains true to His word and will. We can rely on His faithful goodness even when we don't see all the details. Our failures and shortcomings do not short-circuit His sovereign power and will, as it was with Moses. In the end we can rest in His ability to fulfill His purpose, as Paul says:

Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6)

I don't know what challenges or lack you are facing—things that frustrate and anger us, that feel unfair and unresolved. Sometimes we need to step back and realize God is working something bigger than we realize in the moment, and He will complete that good work until the day of Christ Jesus.

Closing Prayer

God, I pray that You would help us to have that mindset and not lose sight of it. Teach us these things. Cause them to go deeply into our hearts, that we would think on them this week. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.