Year in the Bible Week 11

Moses Shown the Promised Land by Benjamin West (1801)

Moses would never see the promised land. He begged God to reconsider, just like he begged for mercy in the wilderness, but this time God did not change his mind. After forty years of imperfect obedience, Moses would have to be obedient yet again, and would have to let the crossing of the Jordan be led by the one God chose, and it wasn’t him. The telling of this story from generation to generation reminded Israel that we need to always seek God’s plan above our own, even though it can be painful.

Over and over this week we’ve read about God’s promise to defeat forces much larger than the Israelites, in order for his plans to come to fruition. Their obedience does not earn this blessing, but the blessing can only happen if they are obedient! Kings tremble in fear of the nation that travels with their God among them, and the Israelites had forty years to bind together, train together, and grow. They could have gone directly to Canaan from Egypt in eleven days, and if they had obeyed God strictly he might have cleared that path for them. We will never know. Instead, we get the journey represented by the map below:

The nation sits across the Jordan from Jericho, and this week is all Deuteronomy, recapping he defining moments of the nation with Moses as leader. At the end of this week Joshua will take his place. They’ll be crossing the river soon!

Next Sunday, March 22, seems like a good time to celebrate our progress as we move past the Pentateuch. I suggest a hybrid physical/zoom meetup at 6pm on the 22nd,where we can spend an hour together. There are about fourteen of us, and some of us don’t know what each other looks like! Let’s get on a video call and change that. Please let me know if you can do 6pm next Sunday, March 22. Thanks everyone!