Deuteronomy 3:23-29--Moses Forbidden to Enter the Land

Deuteronomy 3:23-29
English Standard Version

Moses Forbidden to Enter the Land
23 “And I pleaded with the LORD at that time, saying, 24 ‘O Lord God, you have only begun to show your servant your greatness and your mighty hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as yours? 25 Please let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan, that good hill country and Lebanon.’ 26 But the LORD was angry with me because of you and would not listen to me. And the LORD said to me, ‘Enough from you; do not speak to me of this matter again. 27 Go up to the top of Pisgah and lift up your eyes westward and northward and southward and eastward, and look at it with your eyes, for you shall not go over this Jordan. 28 But charge Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him, for he shall go over at the head of this people, and he shall put them in possession of the land that you shall see.’ 29 So we remained in the valley opposite Beth-peor.

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Moses doesn't seem to quite fess-up to the reason that he was kept out of the Promised Land here, but we know the story from earlier in the book of Numbers.  Moses had an anger issue that was probably exasperated by all the stress of leading the nation of Israel through the wilderness.  Yes, it is the anger that is an issue, but as we explained when studying the text in the book of Numbers, it was a failure of Aaron to help protect Moses from sinning, and this sin had implications in people understanding the gospel that the LORD was trying to give them in metaphor (we get that later from the New Testament).

Moses sounds like the person with anger issues that blames it on the victim because "he or she made me mad."  Here he says, "The LORD was angry with me because of you and would not listen to me."  I don't doubt that the LORD was actually upset about the grumbling and complaining, but the LORD was angry with Moses and would not let him enter the land because of Moses' sin which, as their leader, affected the entire nation.

Moses had an idea of the LORD that all he and the people needed to do was come back after giving God some time to "cool off" and say "I'm sorry" and that they wouldn't have to face the consequences that the LORD had spoken.  That's not how it works though.  Moses was trying to wiggle his way out of his punishment and the LORD said, "Enough" and that He didn't want to hear anything more on the matter.  We should not imagine this to mean that Moses lost his salvation, but that his sin needed to be judged among that of the rebellion of the generation that fell in the wilderness and that Moses' sin was no "little" sin--he was warned and God even gave him others to go with him to help control his temper and he did not listen to them.

God did allow Moses to look into the Promised Land from a mountain on the border of Canaan so that he could see all the land to the North, South, East, and West that was promised to Abraham and his descendants, including what we call the Promised Land which is only a portion of the land of covenant, but the "Promised Land" belongs specifically to the twelve tribes of Israel.  God also used this time to appoint a new leader that would take the nation of Israel into the Promised Land, though if we were paying attention in Exodus and Numbers, we would have figured out that Joshua was one of only two viable candidates because everyone was going to die in the desert (even Moses and Aaron) except for Joshua and Caleb and we've seen Joshua as the one that always went to the Tabernacle with Moses and continued in prayer there even after Moses left.  It has seemed obvious that God has been preparing him for this and has gifted him with the spiritual gifts necessary to lead this people at this time, yet that doesn't mean that the job will come easy to him.

We're now pretty much at the point that was the end of the book of Numbers.  Everything else in the book of Deuteronomy is Moses' last sermon to the people before he dies and his charge to the people to be obedient and not disobedient.  Specifically, he wants to make sure that this new generation knows the Law and is careful to keep everything in it so that they will not incur its curses and will receive its blessings.