“That same day Adonai said to Moshe, Go up into the ‘Avarim Range, to Mount Nevo, in the land of Moav across from Yericho; and look out over the land of Kena‘an, which I am giving the people of Israel as a possession. On the mountain you are ascending you will die and be gathered to your people, just as Aharon your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people. The reason for this is that both of you broke faith with me there among the people of Israel at the M’rivat-Kadesh Spring, in the Tzin Desert; you failed to demonstrate my holiness there among the people of Israel. So you will see the land from a distance, but you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel.‘”-Deuteronomy 32:48-52
Verse 48 tells us that God instructed Moses to climb to the top of Mount Nebo because that is where he would be drawing his last breath upon this planet.
This is reminiscent of how Aaron the High Priest also died on top of a high place called Mount Hor about six months earlier.
In the Bible, great significance is always connected to dying on top of a high place.
Recall that the ancients believed the gods lived up in the mountain peaks and high places.
I have also mentioned a ton of times before that one of the earliest titles of the Lord that appears in Torah is EL SHADDAI which again means “God of the Mountain”.
Even TSUR from which we get the title “The Rock” does NOT mean a rock or a boulder.
It actually means a tall rocky cliff that towers over the valleys, cities and plains all spread out below it.
Ever wonder why altars to the gods were always created on top of the highest geographical point of any given area where a human population resided?
That’s because the people believed the closer one was physically to the sky, the closer one one was to the gods.
Along this same line of thinking, to die and be buried on the top of a high place meant you were being buried near the Lord who resided in the heavens.
So it is Hashem Himself who summons Moses to ascend to the very top of Mount Nebo because it was the highest point in Moab where the Israelites were currently camped.
Understand this was considered an incredible honor to be called by the Creator of the Universe to come to a high place near Him.
Unfortunately, there was another not so positive reason why God summoned Moses to the top of Mount Nebo before he breathed his last breath.
The Lord wanted to give him at least one sweeping view of the Promised Land…
…because he would never enter into it.
Verse 51 tells us the reason was because he along with his brother Aaron “broke the faith”.
The exact nature of the offense committed has been debated by scholars and rabbis pretty much ever since that fateful day out in the Wilderness when Moses struck that boulder in angry response to the Israelites’ grumbling that they needed water.
Recall that the Lord ordered Moses to speak to the rock and command it produce water.
Instead, Moses so was exasperated and in a rage that he angrily spoke to the people and STRUCK the rock with his staff.
Apparently, this action was such an affront to the Lord’s holiness, authority and sanctity that as a result the Lord decreed that Moses, the first and greatest mediator for Israel the world has ever seen, and the High Priest Aaron would never enter into the land of rest Hashem had prepared for His people.
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