Deuteronomy 34 (WEB)
The Israelites were led by Moses to the land promised to it by Yahweh. Moses remained on Mt. Nebo, only able to view it from the mountain I am standing on, because of his disobedience. From where I stand one can view the top of the Dead Sea toward the upper areas of the Galilee, across the Jordan River to the city of Jericho and the areas of Ai and Bethel.
Cold day here in Jordan.
We're here just a few feet down from the pinnacle of Mount Nebo.
And what we're looking at behind me is actually a view of the Promised Land that Moses had been promised, he took the people to…
Obviously, disobedience occurred.
Forty years later, he and a few others came in to this area here.
If you notice, look, the Dead Sea is over here to my right, your left.
That's the very top of it.
And that Dead Sea area has the place of Qumran and En Gedi and Masada, the great mountain down the way to the south.
And then over this area, there is the Herodian, where Herod the Great built a fortress and where he was buried.
And just moving north, then you have Bethlehem and Jerusalem above the hills there.
Right across from me, on the plain area across the Jordan, you have Jericho, maybe the oldest city in the entire world.
And moving on up into the hills of Judea and into what is called now the West Bank.
Moving up into the Galilee and on into the Golan.
This is a tremendous view of the place to which God had promised the people of Israel.
He told Moses, "Take the Israelites and take them there."
They were disobedient.
They failed to go in.
But even Moses was not able to go into the land of promise, because he failed God.
He did something that was rebellious against what God's will was.
And I think that teaches us a lesson.
And that is, even though God makes promises, those promises may be connected to obedience.
Not that God didn't love Moses.
He buried him personally here.
But he said, "You're rebellious, and so you do not enter into the promise that I gave you.
You do not enter into my rest."
And certainly after all those years with the Israelites, he needed some rest.
So with us, that may be the case.
God has made promises to us, and if we fail to follow Him, we may actually come short of what He intends for us, and we may not enter His rest either.
1Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is opposite Jericho. Yahweh showed him all the land of Gilead to Dan, 2and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, to the Western Sea, 3and the south, and the Plain of the valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, to Zoar. 4Yahweh said to him, “This is the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your offspring.’ I have caused you to see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.”
5So Moses the servant of Yahweh died there in the land of Moab, according to Yahweh’s word. 6He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth Peor, but no man knows where his tomb is to this day. 7Moses was one hundred twenty years old when he died. His eye was not dim, nor his strength gone. 8The children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the days of weeping in the mourning for Moses were ended. 9Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. The children of Israel listened to him, and did as Yahweh commanded Moses. 10Since then, there has not arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom Yahweh knew face to face, 11in all the signs and the wonders which Yahweh sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land, 12and in all the mighty hand, and in all the awesome deeds, which Moses did in the sight of all Israel.