This prayer humbles me. How selfish my prayers seem, asking for more & more after all God has done for me? From this perspective, it seems out of line to think it harsh of God to deny Moses entry to the Promised Land. While I agree that he ably & faithfully served God & seemed to only make this one mistake during his ministry, compared to what God did, it seems churlish to focus on what God withheld from Moses rather than what He did for him. God kept him safe from pharoah’s wrath, He guided Moses every step of the way & provided signs to the Hebrews that legitimized Moses’ leadership, He parted the Red Sea & on & on.

As I work to relinquish control to God of my life, ministry & transformation into Christlikeness, I can understand better how just being in God’s presence & working so closely with Him to free the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt would be enough for Moses by the end. I like that Moses got to see the Promised Land at sunrise, too. I’d never caught that detail before. It’s as if God was letting Moses see that God would continue to be with His people in the new day after Moses died. Isn’t that something we’d all like? To know the legacy of God’s faithfulness that we got to participate in will continue when we’re gone?

Thank you, Ruth, for continuing to share your wisdom with others.

It occurs that it was a good thing for Israel, too, to “lose” Moses at this point. I mean, even Jesus went thru all this (I’m convinced personally that he originally expected to succeed — expected others would see what he saw so very clearly). But in the end, he not only accepted that he it would not all happen in his lifetime, but, as he says in John’s gospel, that it was “necessary that I go” for the disciples’ sake so that the Spirit would come. Getting ourselves out of the way– not just at the end, but all along the way — is extremely necessary. (Interesting that “inserting himself” — taking credit for water flowing from the rock, and failing in his task to be transparent to the God who had done it — was the error that resulted in Moses not entering the Promised Lane, maybe not as punishment but by way of correction and clarification?) But keeping ourselves out of the way is so difficult. We need so badly to see results, to get validated, and the temptation is so great to manipulate people and events to get outcomes *now*. And either to despair or start blaming when they aren’t forthcoming. Being rooted and grounded in God is necessary for … everything– for both our own benefit and for the benefit of those we serve, if new life is to come out of all this.
Thank *you* for all your writing.

So grateful to hear this! Thank you for writing.

I, too, think Moses was tired and that God’s invitation/instruction for him to take a look and then die there in God’s presence was a great grace. Indeed, “taking” the promised land was going to present another set of challenges with the need for huge leadership energy and I think he was over it…and God knew it. I also thing that tiredness, at different points in the leadership journey, can serve a wonderful function in helping activistic leaders to let go simply b/c letting go is so counter to our natures. God uses everything for good! Thanks so much for wiring.

Yes, for Moses and for all of us, death on the side of the mountain is not an ending, it is a beginning.

You. Are. Too. Kind! But thank you; I receive it. 🙂

I love your projections and perspective on this.