Deuteronomy
3:21 ¶ And I commanded Joshua at that
time, saying, Thine eyes have seen all that the LORD your God hath done unto these
two kings: so shall the LORD do unto all the kingdoms whither thou passest.
22 Ye shall not fear them: for the LORD
your God he shall fight for you. 23 And
I besought the LORD at that time, saying, 24
O Lord GOD, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy
mighty hand: for what God is there in heaven or in earth, that can do
according to thy works, and according to thy might? 25 I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good
land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon. 26 But the LORD was wroth with me for your
sakes, and would not hear me: and the LORD said unto me, Let it suffice thee;
speak no more unto me of this matter. 27
Get thee up into the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes westward, and
northward, and southward, and eastward, and behold it with thine eyes:
for thou shalt not go over this Jordan. 28
But charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him: for he shall
go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which
thou shalt see. 29 So we abode in the
valley over against Bethpeor.
Moses will not be
allowed to enter Canaan for his disobedience to God. He is to ascend Mount
Pisgah, where Balak demanded that the heathen prophet, Balaam, curse the
children of Israel and he could not. See Numbers 23:14 and context. Moses’
disappointment at not being permitted to enter the Promised Land is a common
theme in Deuteronomy. See previous comments amended for usage here;
“Going back to Deuteronomy 1:37 remember that God was
angry with Moses. Moses will refer this again in chapters 4 & 34 as it is
the great disappointment of Moses’ earthly life. Here is what I said
previously. The desert of Zin and Kadesh are different locations than the
wilderness of Sin and Rephidim mentioned in Exodus 17 although both are called
Meribah because of the griping of the Israelites.”
Numbers
20:1 ¶ Then came the children of Israel,
even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first month:
and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there.
2 And there was no water for the
congregation: and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against
Aaron. 3 And the people chode with
Moses, and spake, saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died
before the LORD! 4 And why have ye
brought up the congregation of the LORD into this wilderness, that we and our
cattle should die there? 5 And wherefore
have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place?
it is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates;
neither is there any water to drink. 6
And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door
of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they fell upon their faces: and the
glory of the LORD appeared unto them. 7
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 8
Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy
brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth
his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou
shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink. 9 And Moses took the rod from before the LORD,
as he commanded him. 10 And Moses and
Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto
them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock? 11 And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his
rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the
congregation drank, and their beasts also. 12 And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron,
Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of
Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I
have given them. 13 This is the
water of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with the LORD, and he
was sanctified in them.
Sufficient water for a
large number of people was always going to be a problem. But, God would and did
provide for them. Still, Moses and Aaron were told to speak to the rock in this
passage but they elected to do something more dramatic and strike the rock.
Paul tells us that that Rock was Christ. Perhaps this is a metaphor or perhaps
God allowed Himself to be bruised for the transgressions of the Hebrews as a
type of His sacrifice for all mankind to come.
1Corinthians
10:1 ¶ Moreover, brethren, I would not
that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and
all passed through the sea; 2 And were
all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3 And did all eat the same spiritual meat;
4 And did all drink the same spiritual
drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock
was Christ.
Let’s recall another
incident where the rock was to be struck and not merely spoken to.
Exodus 17:1
¶ And all the congregation of the
children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys,
according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and there
was no water for the people to drink. 2
Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that
we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye
tempt the LORD? 3 And the people
thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said,
Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our
children and our cattle with thirst? 4
And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people?
they be almost ready to stone me. 5 And
the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the
elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine
hand, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before
thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there
shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the
sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he
called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the
children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD
among us, or not?
Psalm
78:15 He clave the rocks in the
wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths. 16 He brought streams also out of the rock, and
caused waters to run down like rivers…20
Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams
overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people?
Psalm
105:41 He opened the rock, and the
waters gushed out; they ran in the dry places like a river.
By the way, the
wilderness or desert of Zin was along by the border of Edom.
Numbers 34:3 Then your south quarter shall be from the
wilderness of Zin along by the coast of Edom, and your south border shall be the
outmost coast of the salt sea eastward:
The wilderness of Sin was
between Elim and Sinai.
Exodus 16:1 And they took their journey from Elim, and
all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin,
which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after
their departing out of the land of Egypt.
The argument is also made that
both are the same location which is a contradiction of what the Bible clearly
says in the list of wanderings in Numbers 33:12 and 36.”
While in chapter 4 Moses noted;
Deuteronomy
4:21 Furthermore the LORD was angry with
me for your sakes, and sware that I
should
not go over Jordan, and that I should not go in unto that good land, which the
LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance: 22
But I must die in this land, I must not go over Jordan: but ye shall go
over, and possess that good land.
And in chapter 34 it was recorded, probably by Joshua;
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.
In Deuteronomy 1:38 Moses noted that he
was given permission to impart his authority to Joshua, to lead the Israelites
into the Promised Land.
Numbers
27: 15 ¶ And Moses spake unto the LORD,
saying, 16 Let the LORD, the God of the
spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation, 17 Which may go out before them, and which may
go in before them, and which may lead them out, and which may bring them in;
that the congregation of the LORD be not as sheep which have no shepherd.
18 And the LORD said unto Moses, Take
thee Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay thine
hand upon him; 19 And set him before
Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation; and give him a charge in
their sight. 20 And thou shalt put some
of thine honour upon him, that all the congregation of the children of Israel
may be obedient. 21 And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest,
who shall ask counsel for him after the judgment of Urim before the
LORD: at his word shall they go out, and at his word they shall come in, both
he, and all the children of Israel with him, even all the congregation. 22 And Moses did as the LORD commanded him: and
he took Joshua, and set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the
congregation: 23 And he laid his hands
upon him, and gave him a charge, as the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses.
A spirit, lowercase s,
is the mind, the heart, the talents, the animating part of who we are, that
which allows us to act in the world. The God of the Bible is the God of the
spirits of all flesh as it says in Numbers 16. This spirit, it is
suggested, goes back to God at death and is eternal according to Solomon’s
great question.
Ecclesiastes
3:21 Who knoweth the spirit of man
that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth
downward to the earth?
As per Moses’ request
God now ordains Joshua to lead the children of Israel after Moses’ demise. “
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