Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: Numbers 18-20.
We have just fast-forwarded 39 years, and we find that most of the adults forbidden to enter the promised land have now died.
Sadly, we now find that Moses and Aaron are now banned from entry as well because of Moses' striking the rock, rather than speaking to it.
I found my fingers unwilling to type as I was trying to understand this scene. The Israelites have been driving this man crazy for decades, and now, because he responded out of clear disrespect to Yahweh, he is banned from the Promised Land.
Certainly, a man of Moses stature, and many years of walking with God, understands that God's precepts are to be followed to the letter.
I suppose, after scratching my head for a good while, this is an example for us that the Law is completely unlivable. The whole purpose of the Law was to point out the sin in people's lives, and point to their desperate need of Messiah.
Perhaps, God is showing us that even His man Moses couldn't keep in his favor.
I think of Moses standing on a hill in Moab looking at the Promised Land. What must have gone through his mind?
I then reflect on my life, and wonder what good gifts God has forbidden of me because of my conscious acts of rebellion.
It's nothing to keep me from moving forward in my sanctification journey, but it is something to ponder.
