Two men wandered through the wilderness with the Israelite children for forty years; one led them through the wilderness, the other would lead them into the Promised Land. Both had an assignment from God. One was to stop here(1), the other was to lead the people the rest of the way.
I must confess that on the surface this is one of the most perplexing incidents in Scripture for me. God’s hand was conspicuous on the life of Moses from his birth. God rescued him from the hand of Pharaoh as a little baby in a basket in the bulrushes. God prepared him for his assignment in the walled palace during his first forty years, and then took him to the wilderness pasture to continue his preparation for the next forty years.
Then God gave him one of the toughest assignments He has ever given any man – to shepherd His people out of Egypt and to shepherd Egypt out of His people. For forty years, Moses was the undershepherd of a nation without borders as they migrated through a tract of land small enough to traverse in eleven days. His assignment began with the intimidation of Pharaoh, the most powerful king on the face of the earth at the time, and continued with the insubordination of the Hebrew people, some of the most obstinate and ill-natured people one could ever encounter.
God accomplished through Moses some of the greatest miracles that have ever been performed, before or since that time - beginning with the plagues of Egypt and including the parting of the Red Sea, water that poured from rocks and food that came from heaven. God gave him authority over two million plus people, and through him established their form of governance, their military structure and national defense, their manner of worship, their means of conflict resolution and judicial overview, and their constitution – the laws of God. God Himself commended Moses by recording in His Word that there has never been another prophet like Moses; there has never been another man who has known God face to face.
God permitted him to hear and bear the brunt of more murmuring and complaints than any one should ever have to endure in a lifetime. On more than one occasion the mutinous crowd threatened to stone him. And for 1,262,303,990 seconds he faithfully and obediently followed God. But for about 10 seconds at Meribah, he disobeyed God and struck a rock.(2) And I have been struggling with the fact that because of that ten seconds of disobedience, God denied him the opportunity to lead the people into the Promised Land. After all, it wasn’t that severe of an action – he struck a rock out of exasperation with the people. If that is Moses’ punishment for what he did, I am toast; I have absolutely no chance!
But then God prompted me to go back to the burning bush and look at what He had originally told Moses to do. God told Moses to “lead My people out of Egypt.”(3) Just before that God had said “I have come to rescue them from the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own good and spacious land.”(4) God was going to lead them all the way, but Moses’ assignment was to lead them out of Egypt through the wilderness.
As he climbed Mt. Nebo, Moses had fulfilled his assignment; he had completed the task for which he had been called. And now instead of entering into the reward of the Promised Land, God had something far greater in store. God was allowing Him to enter into the reward of Heaven.
Twenty-five years ago today, the Lord permitted me to stand on the summit of Mt. Nebo – the very place that He led Moses that day. And from that site on a clear day, you can see all of the Promised Land to the Mediterranean Sea to its west; the land that God had promised His servant Abraham. God enabled him to see the land of His promise for the people before He took him home from the wilderness. God’s promise for Moses never included the Promised Land. God’s assignment for Moses concluded on the eve of its entry.
That realization has caused me to look at the wilderness experiences in my own life differently. Too often i make the mistake of looking past the wilderness, trying to see the Promised Land. i become discouraged when all i can see in every direction is wilderness. But what if my assignment is the wilderness? God has told me to go from my Egypt and go to a land that He will show me. What if that land is the wilderness? Will i be content if my promise doesn’t include the Promised Land? Will i be content to fulfill my assignment in the wilderness if that is God’s plan?
We don’t get to make the assignments – just ask Moses! We’re the servants; only the Master gets to make the assignments. Am I willing to follow Him all the way to Mt. Nebo, if that is where my journey is to end? Will I be content to walk according to His plan, even if that walk does not include the Promised Land? It’s one thing to be willing to journey through the wilderness; it’s quite another to be willing to journey in the wilderness especially when you are faced with the possibility that your journey may end there. Am I willing for it to end there, if God so intends?
Perhaps you have come to Mt. Nebo in your journey. One will say farewell here, and one will continue on. Whichever one you are, remember – God has led you in this journey. The same God who led you into this wilderness will lead you on and lead you out. But He determines the time and He determines the point of exit, just as He determined the point of entry. Moses trusted Him and experienced Him in ways that no man before or since has known Him. If you too will trust Him – completely, no matter where He leads – you too will experience Him in ways that very few ever will.
After all, the lesson of the wilderness is that He alone is God and we are to love Him with our whole heart and soul and mind regardless of the circumstance and regardless of where the journey leads. He wants us to know Him, know Him more and know Him more intimately because He is the God of Heaven and earth, the God of the Promised Land, and yes, even the God of the wilderness.
A special note: i have chosen to post this blog this week for two reasons. First, as i have already mentioned, today is the 25th anniversary of the day that i stood on the top of Mt. Nebo with my good friend and pastor, Dr. Keith Thomas. i will forever be grateful for that opportunity to join him on that journey and to join him in the journey of ministry for the nine years that followed. Second, the Lord called a dear friend and servant, Mike Hedler, home this past Sunday. i find myself thinking of how God enriched my life through both Keith and Mike. They’re both in glory – most assuredly catching up with one another – and most certainly they are both sporting the biggest smiles you’ve ever seen – because they’re in the presence of Jesus! They’ve both stepped from Mt. Nebo into the Promised Land!
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(1) Deuteronomy 34:1-7, 10 (NLT)
Then Moses went to Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab and climbed Pisgah Peak, which is across from Jericho. And the LORD showed him the whole land, from Gilead as far as Dan; all the land of Naphtali; the land of Ephraim and Manasseh; all the land of Judah, extending to the Mediterranean Sea; the Negev; the Jordan Valley with Jericho--the city of palms--as far as Zoar. Then the LORD said to Moses, "This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I told them I would give it to their descendants. I have now allowed you to see it, but you will not enter the land." So Moses, the servant of the LORD, died there in the land of Moab, just as the LORD had said. He was buried in a valley near Beth-peor in Moab, but to this day no one knows the exact place. Moses was 120 years old when he died, yet his eyesight was clear, and he was as strong as ever. …There has never been another prophet like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face.
(2) Numbers 20:1-13
(3) Exodus 3:10 (NLT)
(4) Exodus 3:8 (NLT)
Adapted from The Wandering Years, Ch. 61
Photo of Mt. Nebo from 1.4 km by Berthold Werner from Wikimedia