Dear Church Family,

This is the time of the year I get very sentimental because we send off our high school graduates and welcome our little ones. This Sunday we will pray over our new parents and encourage them. Thank you for being a church filled with compassion for each other as we bear one another’s burdens.

I read this devotional by Chad Bird and thought it may encourage you:

Why Was Moses Not Allowed to Enter the Promised Land?

There are three reasons that are usually considered. Each of them reflects the biblical language in Psalm 106 and Numbers 20.

First, the action of Moses is highlighted. God told him to speak to the rock, but instead, Moses struck it twice.

Second, some highlight the character of Moses since he was irate with the people that day.

Third, the words of Moses are sometimes given as the reason, because he called the people “rebels” and said, “Shall we [himself and Aaron] bring water for you out of this rock….” (Num. 20:10). Some argue that Moses implied that he and his brother were the source of this miracle rather than God.

The Lord explained it to Moses and Aaron this way: “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them” (20:12).

Psalm 106 says that the Israelites “angered [God] at the waters of Meribah, and it went ill with Moses on their account, for they made his life bitter, and he spoke rashly with his lips” (vv. 32-33).

Pulling this all together, Moses did not trust God that day, did not treat him as holy, was embittered, and spoke rash words. As a result, it would not be Moses but Joshua who led the people into the promised land.

Many centuries later, Moses stood beside the new and greater Joshua, Jesus the Messiah, atop the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17:13). So, Moses did in fact make it to the land of promise, but only in Jesus.

As it was for Moses, so it is for us. Only in Christ are we, sinners like Moses, entering into the kingdom of God. Jesus and Jesus alone gets us there. And he gets us there solely by grace, for “the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).

Press On!
Mark

P.S. I decided to make a P.S. each week to remind you all to ignore any communications that seem to be from me asking for money or gift cards. It is a common scam out there.