Why Moses Was Forbidden From the Promised Land — The Real Reason

Welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a 30-minute walk through the Scriptures, teaching in-depth Bible truths that change people's lives. Now, here's your host, Les Feldick. Okay, let's get right back where we left off. I definitely am not going to make any announcements this time. We're going to go right straight into Deuteronomy 28 and down to verse 63. Now, if you remember last week, we were talking about the conditions of blessings or curses that God puts before the Israelites. If they would be obedient, He would bless them every which way. But on the other hand, if they would turn their back on Jehovah, if they would become disobedient, then He listed all the curses that would befall the nation of Israel. Now, then, if you come down to verse 63 in this same chapter, Deuteronomy 28, God continues to say, "...and it shall come to pass that as the Lord," or Jehovah, "...rejoiced over you to do you good, to multiply you, so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to naught," or to nothing, "...and you shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess." Now, remember, they're still sitting out here on the plains of Moab. They're still out here just east of the Jordan River and just east of Jericho. And these are in the final days of Moses' life. And he is passing this on now to the nation ere they go into Canaan. And then he says, verse 64, "...the Lord shall scatter thee among all people." Do you know what happened? Here, this is written almost 1500 B.C. And here we are almost 2080, 3,500 years, and it has come to pass to the exact word. All right, read on. "...and he shall scatter thee among the people, from the one end of the earth even to the other." Now, I don't know how many are acquainted with the author, James Michener, but in the foreword of his book, The Source, that he read or wrote several years ago, as he did the research for the book, The Source, which you remember was tracing Jewish families from all the way back. And, of course, Michener is great on research, no doubt about it. He doesn't even start a book until he actually lives in the area, usually. But in that foreword, if I remember correctly, he made the statement that as he researched that book, he found evidence of Jews in every culture around the globe, including, and this surprised me, including the Eskimos. Now, that I just, you know, and that's why I remember it so definitively, is because he mentioned it. I'm sure it was in Michener's foreword. But whatever, that's what the book said. They would be scattered from one end of the earth to the other. Now, verse 65, "...among these nations thou shalt find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest, but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind." Verse 67, can you imagine this? And I'm going to give you a statistic in a little bit that'll bear this out. "...in the morning thou shalt say, O would God it were evening, and the evening thou shalt say, O would God that it were morning." In other words, what were they doing? Oh, they were just wishing their life away. It wasn't worth living, see? All right, now I'd like to show you the other side of the coin again, the better part, and I'll skip over to chapter 30 here in Deuteronomy. Excuse me, Deuteronomy chapter 30, and again beginning right there at verse 1. "...and it shall come to pass," and I'd like to underline, I got the word when underlined, "...and it shall come to pass," when? "...all these things are come upon thee, the blessings and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind from where among all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee." Now, do you see what God is telling them before it ever happened? Because of their disobedience, because of their unbelief, they are going to end up scattered from one end of the earth to the other. But, He says, when that has finally happened, "...then I shall call them to mind among the nations wherein he hath driven thee, and shall return unto the Lord thy God, and shall obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, all thy heart, with all thy soul. Now, verse 3, "...that then," Oh, when Israel has finally gone the whole gamut of all the blessings and all the curses, then God is finally going to remember them, and He said, "...I will turn thy captivity, have compassion upon thee, and you will return from all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee." Now, we call this, then, the Palestinian covenant. It's still a part of the Abrahamic, but this is a Palestinian covenant, that the nation or that the area of Palestine, the land of Canaan, is still going to go back to the Jew. If only our politicians could understand this, that regardless of what they may try to do, regardless of how they may try to pacify the other nations of the Middle East, they might as well get it straight that God has mandated that one day the Jew is going to have her land back. Now, you have to know history. We know that after the destruction of the temple by Titus, the Roman general, not only did God permit the temple to be totally destroyed, but He permitted the nation of Israel to be dispersed again. That was an act of God. It was a sovereign act, whereby He scattered them into every nation of the world as we have seen them up until our own time. But, in our own time, what are we seeing? We're seeing God fulfill His Word. He's bringing them back, and they're going to have it. There's no one going to drive them into the sea. They're there for good because the book says they are. And so, the Lord says that He will bring them back, and we'll be looking more at that when we get into prophecy in another week or two. Now, I'd like to have you come on over with me then to Deuteronomy chapter 31. As I've mentioned now two or three times, this is in the final 30 days of Moses' leadership. And here we come to the very end. Deuteronomy 31, verse 14. Where the Lord said unto Moses, Behold thy day's approach, that thou must die. You know, I read these things, you know what I try to do? I try to put myself in their shoes. I mean, how would you feel if all of a sudden the Lord could just somehow speak to you and say, well, all right now, Les, get ready. You've got about three more days, and that's it. I'm going to bury you. Well, that was Moses. He was just as human as we are. And this is what God told him. And he's writing it before it happens. And he said, the day's approach, that thou must die. So, call Joshua and present yourselves in the tabernacle of the congregation. Now, remember, that's that same tabernacle we had drawn here on the board a few weeks ago. That I may give him a charge. And Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tabernacle of the congregation. And now verse 15, and the Lord. Now, remember, whenever this happens, it's because God is putting His stamp of approval on this very event. And so here again appears in the tabernacle the Lord in a pillar of a cloud, the same as it was above the tabernacle through their wilderness journey. And the pillar of the cloud stood over the door of the tabernacle. Now, not over the Holy of Holies here, but over the door. And the Lord said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers. This people... Now, watch this. This is God telling it before it happened. This people will rise up and go a -whoring. Now, the Bible uses that word quite liberally. And it's not so much, again, the physical as it is the spiritual. I always want to remember that adultery in the physical is that bringing together that which has no business being brought together. Now, in the spiritual realm, then what are you doing? You're bringing two religions together that have no business being together. In this case, it's Judaism or the Mosaic system and any kind of a pagan system. When they commingled them, it was a spiritual adultery. And God hated it. Now, it's no different today. When the Christian church, when the body of Christ begins to commingle with other doctrines, and here again, the New Age movement is going to come into the picture. You can't help it. When the true church begins to commingle with some of these New Age things, it's spiritual adultery. And God is going to judge it. He's not going to let it escape. Never forget that. And so now He says, they're going to go whoring after the gods. See, it's not a physical thing. It's spiritual. After the gods of the strangers of the land. In other words, what does God already know? They're not going to annihilate them. They're not going to destroy them. They're going to get soft-hearted. They're going to spare some. And one of them, of course, I think it was the Gibeonites, tricked them, made league with them by pretending they were something that they weren't. But by hook or by crook, the conspiratorial power of Satan working behind the scenes is going to cause Israel to do just what God says they will do. All right? And reading on, He says, they will forsake Me. They will break My covenant, which I have made with them. And then My anger shall be kindled against them. I will forsake them. I will hide My face and so on and so forth. Now I'd like to have you come all the way to verse 21. And it shall come to pass, the Lord says, that when many evils and troubles are befallen them, that this song shall testify against them as a witness, for it shall not be forgotten. Out of the mouths of their seed, for I know their imagination, which they go about even now, before I have brought them into the land which I swear. Moses, therefore, wrote this song. And that's, of course, what follows. Now, I told you I was going to give you a shocking statistic. I've shared it with one or two of my class in the last week or two. And I just read it in a national magazine. And again, I have to trust people who write these things that they know what they're talking about. But in the last 800 years, now that goes back to about 1200, in the last 800 years, one out of every two Jews have been murdered, have faced a violent death. Now, you think about that. In the last 800 years, 50% of the Jews on this planet faced a violent death. Now, like I say, that's hard to believe. But it was in a national magazine. And if somebody doubts me, well, you're right, and I'll tell you where it was. But nevertheless, God had foretold way back before they ever crossed Jordan that this is what was going to happen to them. Now then, I'd like to have you come all the way over to chapter 32. Chapter 32. Moses now quits his speech. He's given his song for Israel to remember. And now God says in verse 48, as he spake to Moses the self same day, saying, verse 49, Now get thee up into this mountain, unto Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, over against Jericho, the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession. He can look at it from Mount Nebo. But now in verse 50, And die in the mount whither thou goest up, be gathered unto thy people, as Aaron thy brother died in Mount Hor. Now that was back there, of course, in the book of Numbers. We skipped over some of that. Miriam as well. When Aaron thy brother was gathered unto his people. Now verse 51. After all that Moses has gone through, why in the world can't he lead them into the promised land? And he's not old so far as his activity is concerned. It says his eye wasn't dim. That's more than I can say. And his physical strength hadn't wavered. He still had everything going for him, I suppose, like a 40-year-old. So it wasn't because he was getting decrepit. But what happened? Well, let's read on. Because you trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the wilderness of Zion, and because you sanctified me not in the midst or before the children of Israel. Now then, he says in verse 52, you can see the land from Mount Nebo. They're going to go up here. Mount Nebo is just off here to the east of the Dead Sea a little ways. And so he's going to get a glimpse of the whole area which is now the land of Israel. He's going to get a glimpse of it. But thou shalt not go thither unto the land which I give to the children of Israel. All right, let's go back and see what happened. Let's go all the way back first to Exodus 17. Exodus 17. Because this has been one of the questions that has come up over the years. Well, why? What was it that kept Moses from going into the promised land? Well, it wasn't a big thing. It certainly wasn't worshiping an idol. It certainly wasn't being part of the golden calf or having any immoral activity. But it went deeper than that. Exodus 17. Now, in this chapter, of course, they have just come out of Egypt. They're out there in the desert, all those multitude of people and all their flocks and no water. No water. And they begin to murmur and complain. You remember the story. Now, verse 5. The Lord said unto Moses, Go on before the people and take with thee of the elders of Israel and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river. Remember when he had the Nile turned to blood. Take that shepherd's rod, take it in thy hand, and go. Verse 6. Behold, I will stand before thee upon the rock in Horeb, and thou shalt smite the rock with his rod. In other words, he was to strike it one time. And out of the rock there shall come water that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. Now, I've made the point over the last several weeks. All through. Now, you've got to turn to the New Testament a minute, don't we? Go to Corinthians. All through the Scripture, any reference to the rock, unless the text definitely indicates something else, that, of course, is possible. But whenever you have the rock, 1 Corinthians 10. 1 Corinthians 10. Verse 1. Where Paul writes, Moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea. So what's he referring to? Going through the Red Sea, the Exodus. They were all baptized unto Moses. Now, that's usually a half-hour lesson on the word baptism. This is not water baptism in any way, shape, or form. But the word indicates a placing. The placing of the nation of Israel under the leadership and the authority of Moses. Verse 3. And they did all eat the same spiritual food. The manna. Now, verse 4. And they did all drink the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual... What's the next word? Rock. Capitalized. That rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. Now, when Moses took that shepherd's rod and smote the rock, who was he smiting? Christ. Absolutely he was. Because, you see, it's the smitten Christ. Now, I have to look. No, I haven't, but I might not find it. A verse just comes to mind. It's in Isaiah. I think it's chapter 53. But what does it speak in Isaiah 53 concerning Christ? He was smitten. That's the word. He was smitten for our transgressions or whatever the case may be. Referring to the cross. Now then, as a result of the work of the cross... Did you find it over there, Pat? Well, tell me if you do. As a result of the work of the cross, what can God now pour out on the human race? Living water. See? It's living water. But how many times was he crucified? Once. And the book of Hebrews makes that so emphatic for this He did once. Never more than once. And the lesson is, those high priests did this over and over, but Christ entered in once. All right. Huh? Okay. Somebody found it. It's in Isaiah. I thought it was chapter 53. Isaiah 53. Okay. It's about where I thought it should be, but I'm glad you found it because we want to read it because I like the terminology. It's the same word. Isaiah 53, 4. Right. Isaiah 53, 4. Now, this whole chapter 53, of course, is a prophetic statement concerning the work of the cross. Now, I always have to qualify it. Do you think Isaiah knew and could picture the crucifixion as he wrote this? No way. Now, a lot of people like to say that he did or that the Old Testament believers saw the cross out there in the future. No, they didn't. But God had Isaiah write this so that after the fact, we could go back to it. And especially for benefit of the Jew, even today, the best place to start is Isaiah 53 and show to him that out of his Old Testament, God had the work of the cross in mind all the time. All right. Verse 4. For surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted when he was crucified. All right. So now if you'll come back to Exodus just a second, chapter 17 again. So he says, smite the rock and out of it will come water not only for all those millions of people but for all their livestock. In fact, as we pointed out, you see it wasn't shortly after that where that river of water coming out of that rock even though Amalek come and tried to make war over that water. All right. Now then let's go to the thing that brought Moses down and kept him from going in. We'll have to go to Numbers chapter 20. Numbers chapter 20. Now, of course, this is many years after they're coming out of Egypt and they're in their 40 years wilderness journeys and, of course, they're down in that area of the Sinai which is just that, it's wilderness and it's a lot of desert. Sometimes in the rainy season they may have the wadis full of water but usually it was dry and they had to depend on wells. But at this particular instance there was no water, no water. Now, again, with all that livestock, everything was crying and bellowing and bleeding for a drink of water. And verse 2 of chapter 20. And there was no water for the congregation. And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. And the people showed or began to complain with Moses saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord. Verse 5. Wherefore have you made us to come up out of Egypt to bring us into this evil place? It is no place of seed or figs or vines or pomegranates, neither is there any water to drink. And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tabernacle. And they fell upon their faces in the glory of the Lord appeared on them. And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, Now watch it carefully. Take thy rod, gather thou the assembly together, thou and Aaron thy brother, and smite, what? Speak. Underline that. Speak. Speak to the rock before their eyes. And it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock. And again remember this. Rock is Christ. So shalt thou give the congregation and their beasts drink. So Moses took the rod from before the Lord as he commanded them. And Moses and Aaron, verse 10, gathered the congregation together before the rock. And he said unto them, Now you can just about hear him, can't you? Hear now, you rebels. What's his attitude? He's angry. He is distraught with his people. And he says, Hear now, you rebels. Must we fetch you water out of this rock? What's the pronoun? We. Who's he leaving out? He's leaving God out. He's not saying, Now look, God has instructed me to speak to the rock and you're going to have all the water. That's what he should have done. But instead in his anger and in his wrath, he says, All right, you want Aaron and I to bring you water? Watch this. What does he become? I think he becomes personally arrogant. Now this is unlike Moses, the most meek man that had ever lived. But here in a moment of weakness, and listen, we can't condemn him. Because, you know, we'd have done the same thing. We would have run out of patience long before this. I would have blown my top. I know that. But here Moses finally reaches that breaking point and he lifted up, verse 11, lifted up his hand and with his rod he smote the rock the second time. Now, what was he destroying? The type. The picture. That Christ was smitten once. And after the finished work of the cross, how do we approach him? Not with another smiting, but by communicating. We beseech him. We talk to him. We ask him. The word in Romans 10, 13 is, Call upon the name of the Lord and thou shalt be saved. You see the picture? And Moses destroyed that. And so, verse 12. I mean, Moses had no more than done it. And he understood he'd never see the promised land. And look what it says. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because you, what's the word? Isn't that amazing? How it always comes down to that same one word, faith. What faltered? His faith. What faltered? His obedience. And isn't it the same with us? Oh, we can be so stalwart. We can be so strong. And yet, in a moment of weakness, what fails us? Our faith. Every time a sin besets us, what's the problem? A lack of faith. Because if we know what God has said to us, then we're not going to let these things befall us. But it's a lack of faith. And so he said, Because you believed me not to sanctify me, instead they did it themselves, in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given unto them. And this is the water of Meribah. Because the children of Israel strove or argued or complained with the Lord, and he was sanctified in them. So there is the whole idea now. I'd like to have you come back quickly. We've only got a matter of seconds left. Come all the way back to that last chapter of Deuteronomy now, where it says that Moses was 120 years old, and he died, and God buried him there in Mount Nebo. And what did I say at the end of Genesis? God buries his servants, but he never gives them a program. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick. Through the Bible is a partner supported ministry. If this program has been a help to your study of the Scriptures and you'd like to see others enjoy the teaching, your support would be greatly appreciated. Write to us at Les Feldick Ministries, 30706 West Lona Valley Road, or call 1-800 -369-7856. Remember, all programs are available in printed form, audio cassette, and videotape. Be sure to tune in next time to Through the Bible with Les Feldick.