Moses Sees the Promised Land

Deuteronomy 34
:10 And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses,
    whom the Lord knew face to face,

    There is no doubt that Moses was a mighty leader. He stood when no one else would. He followed after God even though he was raised in the palace of the mightiest nation on earth. He returned after killing an Egyptian and stood before the king demanding the release of the very people that helped build Egypt. He had his doubts and misgivings but he took them to God and God allayed his troubles. He led about 2.5 million people out of Egypt through the Red Sea while the Egyptian army was hot on their heels. He received the commands of God so the people could love God and prosper. He stood for God when even his brother succumbed to the people's unbelief. He believed God. He was meek to God and His instructions, therefore God talked to him as friends would talk. It wasn't by Moses' great powers that the Children of Israel were delivered from Egypt but by the mighty power of God. Moses was the one who believed to see God's great works come to pass. It is never by our great powers that we see God work but by the power of God within us. God took care of those people.

Deuteronomy 2
:7 For the Lord thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand:
he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness:
these forty years the Lord thy God hath been with thee;
thou hast lacked nothing.

God is talking to the people-for forty years they have not lacked anything! God has taken care of them in every situation. God took care of them so well that their clothes didn't wear out neither did their feet swell (Deuteronomy 8:4).

The majority of Numbers and Deuteronomy are the laws that God commanded the people to follow. God gave Moses instructions for the Children of Israel to follow in order for it to be well with them and that they would prosper. We will see that when they remembered His commandments and followed His instructions they did very well. Their prosperity was not by their works but by the hand of God. I exhort you to read all of Numbers and Deuteronomy. It will give you foundation for human relations-how we are to treat each other and what to do if altercations arise.

Deuteronomy 6
:1 Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments,
    which the Lord your God commanded to teach you,
    that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it:
:2 That thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all his statutes
    and his commandments,
    which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son's son,
        all the days of thy life;
    and that thy days may be prolonged.
:3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it;
    that it may be well with thee,
    and that ye may increase mightily,
        as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee,
    in the land that floweth with milk and honey.
        [the only two foods that man does not have to work for,
            just gather-he doesn't have to sow and reap]
:4 Hear, O Israel:
    The Lord our God is one Lord:
:5 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart,
    and with all thy soul,
    and with all thy might.
:6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
:7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children,
    and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house,
    and when thou walkest by the way,
    and when thou liest down,
    and when thou risest up.
:8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand,
    and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
:9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house,
    and on thy gates.
:10 And it shall be, when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land
        which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob,
    to give thee great and goodly cities,
        which thou buildedst not,
:11 And houses full of all good things,
        which thou filledst not,
    and wells digged,
        which thou diggedst not,
    vineyards and olive trees,
        which thou plantedst not;
    when thou shalt have eaten and be full;

    That is our God! He takes care of His people.

Matthew 6
:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God,
        and his righteousness;
    and all these things shall be added unto you.

Canaan is a rich and fertile land. This is the same land which God had told Abraham to live in. During the seven years of famine Abraham's descendents; Jacob and sons, moved to Egypt. Since they had left others had settled the land. God said the land belonged unto the children of Israel. All they had to do is obey God and He would help them push the trespassers out.

Deuteronomy 8
:1 All the commandments
        which I command thee this day shall
    ye observe to do,
        that ye may live,
        and multiply,
        and go in and possess the land
            which the Lord sware unto your fathers.
:2 And thou shalt remember all the way
        which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness,
    to humble thee,
    and to prove thee,
    to know what was in thine heart,
        whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.
:3 And he humbled thee,
    and suffered thee to hunger,
    and fed thee with manna,
        which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know;
    that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only,
        but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.
:4 Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee,
    neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.
:5 Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that,
        as a man chasteneth his son,
        so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee.
:6 Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God,
        to walk in his ways,
        and to fear him.
:7 For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land,
        a land of brooks of water,
        of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills;
:8     A land of wheat,
        and barley,
        and vines,
        and fig trees,
        and pomegranates;
        a land of oil olive,
        and honey;
:9     A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness,
        thou shalt not lack any thing in it;
        a land whose stones are iron,
        and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.
:10 When thou hast eaten and art full,
        then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God
            for the good land which he hath given thee.

I am ready--lets go!

Look at the list of sustenance that God is going to supply for them! All he asks is for them to obey His commandments.

Here is our promised land.

Philippians 4
:1 Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for,
        my joy and crown,
    so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.
:4 Rejoice in the Lord alway:
    and again I say, Rejoice.
:5 Let your moderation be known unto all men.
    The Lord is at hand.
:6 Be careful for nothing;
        but in every thing by prayer and supplication
            with thanksgiving
    let your requests be made known unto God.
:7 And the peace of God,
        which passeth all understanding,
    shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
        [keep--to mount guard as a sentinel(post spies at gates); figuratively, to hem in, protect]
:8 Finally, brethren,
        whatsoever things are true,
        whatsoever things are honest,
        whatsoever things are just,
        whatsoever things are pure,
        whatsoever things are lovely,
        whatsoever things are of good report;
        if there be any virtue,
        and if there be any praise,
    think on these things.
:9 Those things,
    which ye have both learned,
        and received,
        and heard,
        and seen in me,
    do: and the God of peace shall be with you.

When we are at peace we can believe God, we can hear Him, we can be confident of His promises, we can see Him work in our lives.

Chapter 28 of Deuteronomy is another place where God lays out the abundance that will be supplied to them if they follow after His commandments. The first 14 verses describe the blessings that God will bestow upon them. The next 54 verses outline the consequences of disobedience.

To summarize, Moses received his inspiration, his encouragement and direction from God. The children of Israel as a group did not believe what he said, only when they got into a real mess did they turn unto the Lord for help. It was Moses who believed. God lets the disobedient generation receive their believing and lets them die there in the wilderness. They had believed they would be safer there then going into the Promised Land. God had to wait until a new generation grew up to believe then He could bring them into the land flowing with milk and honey. The next leaders are Joshua and Caleb which were the spies that believed that God would take them into the promised land. They are the ones who were privileged to lead them there.

Deuteronomy 31
:1 And Moses went and spake these words unto all Israel.
:2 And he said unto them, 
    I am an hundred and twenty years old this day;
    I can no more go out and come in:
    also the Lord hath said unto me,
        Thou shalt not go over this Jordan.
:3 The Lord thy God,
    he will go over before thee,
    and he will destroy these nations from before thee,
    and thou shalt possess them:
    and Joshua, he shall go over before thee,
        as the Lord hath said.
:4 And the Lord shall do unto them as he did to Sihon and to Og,
        kings of the Amorites,
    and unto the land of them,
        whom he destroyed.
:5 And the Lord shall give them up before your face,
        that ye may do unto them
        according unto all the commandments which I have commanded you.
:6 Be strong and of a good courage,
    fear not, nor be afraid of them:
        for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee;
        he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
:7 And Moses called unto Joshua, and said unto him in the sight of all Israel,
    Be strong and of a good courage:
        for thou must go with this people
            unto the land which the Lord hath sworn unto their fathers to give them;
        and thou shalt cause them to inherit it.
:8 And the Lord, he it is that doth go before thee;
    he will be with thee,
    he will not fail thee,
    neither forsake thee:
    fear not,
    neither be dismayed.
:9 And Moses wrote this law,
    and delivered it unto the priests the sons of Levi,
        which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord,
    and unto all the elders of Israel.

In chapter 34 of Deuteronomy, God shows Moses the promised land but he is not allowed to enter there because he didn't sanctify Him in the midst of the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh (Deut 32:51, Nu 20:1-13). After wandering in the wilderness for forty years Moses dies in the land of Moab and God buries him.

Deuteronomy 34
:1 And Moses went up from the plains of Moab
        unto the mountain of Nebo,
        to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho.
    And the Lord shewed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan,
:2 And all Naphtali,
    and the land of Ephraim,
    and Manasseh,
    and all the land of Judah,
    unto the utmost sea,
:3 And the south,
    and the plain of the valley of Jericho,
        the city of palm trees, unto Zoar.
:4 And the Lord said unto him,
        This is the land which I sware unto Abraham,
            unto Isaac,
            and unto Jacob, saying,
                I will give it unto thy seed:
                I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes,
                but thou shalt not go over thither.
:5 So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab,
    according to the word of the Lord.
:6 And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab,
        over against Bethpeor:
    but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.
:7 And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died:
    his eye was not dim,
    nor his natural force abated.
:8 And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days:
    so the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.
:9 And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom;
        for Moses had laid his hands upon him:
        and the children of Israel hearkened unto him,
        and did as the Lord commanded Moses.
:10 And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses,
        whom the Lord knew face to face,
:11 In all the signs and the wonders,
        which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh,
        and to all his servants,
        and to all his land,
:12 And in all that mighty hand,
    and in all the great terror which Moses shewed in the sight of all Israel.