“Adonai said to Moshe, “Climb this mountain in the ‘Avarim Range, and look out at the land which I have given the people of Israel. After you have seen it, you too will be gathered to your people, just as Aharon your brother was gathered; because in the Tzin Desert, when the community was disputing with me, you rebelled against my order to uphold my holiness by means of the water, with them looking on.” (This was M’rivat-Kadesh Spring, in the Tzin Desert.)”-Numbers 27:12-14
From verse 12, the contents of Numbers 27 suddenly switches its focus over to Moses and how he will now have to appoint a new leader over Israel since his last days on earth are fast approaching.
Recall that Moses had been forbidden from entering the Promised Land due to his mishap when he angrily struck the rock to bring forth water from it in response to the people’s grumbling.
And from a more practical perspective, Moses was now a very old man and far too old to be the leader of a huge population that was about to take over a whole country.
However, the Lord in His compassion, although He had barred Moses from entering the land would at least allow him to see the Promised Land.
We are told that God has Moses climb what I’m assuming was quite a particularly steep mountain (named ABARIM at the time) and it was from there we’re told that God allowed him to have nice sweeping view of the Chosen Land.
Later we’ll find out that the particular mountain Moses climbed also went by the name “Mount Nebo“.
Let’s take a look at verses 15-17.
Moshe said to Adonai, “Let Adonai, God of the spirits of all human beings, appoint a man to be over the community, to go out and come in ahead of them, to lead them out and bring them in, so that Adonai’s community will not be like sheep without a shepherd.”
Note in these verses it is Moses speaking to HASHEM and NOT vice versa.
We see Moses’ humbleness and compassion shine through as he now realizes he will no longer be able to lead the community and must now pass the torch on to a new leader whom God will choose.
Let’s take a look at the next set of verses:
“Adonai said to Moshe, ‘Take Y’hoshua the son of Nun, a spiritual man, and lay your hand on him. Put him in front of El‘azar the cohen and the whole community, and commission him in their sight.'”
God chose Joshua.
Out of all the men of Israel, why do you think God chose him to succeed Moses?
Well, first of all, he was one of the two scouts who remained faithful to God’s promises when the rest of Israel let fear and worry get the better of them.
And another reason was simply because Joshua served alongside and had been mentored by Moses, the mediator of Israel himself.
Understand that even though God told Moses that once he had seen the Promised Land, he was to be gathered to his people, Moses wouldn’t die just yet immediately after.
In fact, it will be some time before Moses finally breathes his last breath.
Remember, we still have the Book of Deuteronomy to get through.
And Moses still has many other instructions to hand down and he still has to partition the land out to each of the 12 tribes.
While writing today’s post, the great lesson or takeaway struck me instantly.
And it is this.
If you’ve been to Israel or if you’re planning to visit Israel soon, I want you to know this.
You should be grateful to the point where you’re crying tears of joy and gratitude!
Why?
Well, think about it.
Moses himself, the great leader of Israel hand-picked by HASHEM himself and…
…the man who was the sole mediator between God and the Hebrew people at this time…
…even he was unable to ENTER into the Holy Land.
God permitted him to see it but he wasn’t able to enter into it.
Now think about it.
If you are able to actually go inside God’s HOLY territory when the great Moses himself wasn’t permitted to do so, shouldn’t you be crying tears of gratitude?!
I know I was when I visited Israel last August of 2017.
There is one moment I’ll never forget.
I was on the plane courtesy of Korean Air headed towards the Holy Land.
And as part of our inflight entertainment, there was a TV channel we could access that displayed an electronic map showing us realtime exactly how close we were before reaching our destination
Well, once I realized we had literally flow into HOLY territory, I swear I almost lost it man.
Tears literally welled up in my eyes.
I repeat myself.
If you ever get a chance to visit Israel, remember, you’ve been given a privilege that Moses himself didn’t have when that great man walked this earth, and should be crying tears of gratitude.
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