"And Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And The Lord showed him all the land, Gilead as far as Dan, all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, the Negeb, and the Plain, that is, the valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar. And The Lord said to him, "This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, 'I will give it to your descendants.' I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there." (Deuteronomy 34:1-4 RSV)
Rarely will you ever hear preachers talk about Moses as someone who waited, then finally received the promise of God. Now yes, in the earthly sense, Moses did not receive the promise, for he did not get to go into the promised land that he had suffered, waited and wandered so long (40 years!) in the desert to receive. But lets consider this for a moment. What do you think both he, and we ourselves would've rather received at that moment; the promised land on earth, or the promised land of heaven? The answer is obviously easy, being heaven, as that great spiritual land is the full and perfect embodiment of every upright joy, satisfaction and pleasure that exists, and that is in God. So in that moment, while Moses had to die to the promise (in a sense), in dying to it, He gained the perfection of that promise- heaven, the greatest promised land of all. This means a couple of things for us, which are quite encouraging.
Firstly, God shows us that in order to fully believe and continue to hold on to the promise He gives us, we must not only keep the promise visually before us as a way to hold on to hope, but at the same time we must die to it, which means that we must recognise the fact that we don't have it just yet, and that we may have to go without it for a while. This is extremely hard, because it means we have to deny ourselves in the sense that, while we hold on to the desire in order to hope, we must at the same time deny the fulfilment of that desire for ourselves in the present. Again, this often can be agonisingly difficult, and none of us are perfect here. In fact in these times, when we're called to die to ourselves, it seems that God shows us just how weak we are, just how insufficient in ourselves, and just how sinful we are in order to humble us, and to get us to rely on spiritual things, rather than earthly things, and until we realise that His grace really is sufficient for us. Nevertheless, the Lord is patient and merciful with us, who sympathises with us, and keeps His grace with us until we 'get it' enough to hang on in there through such painful and heartbreaking times. No doubt Moses had to keep a full vision of the promise with him through many years of leading a people of God who often complained, turned back to Egypt in their hearts, often tested God, and tested the grace Moses himself had been given by even coming against their own leader. Moses therefore faced many experiences of hardship and types of dying to himself along his journey towards the promise:
Heb 11v24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.
Moses was able to (by the power of God) accept disgrace, reject position and prominence (wow!) and accept being mistreated rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin because he always held the vision of the promise land before him. This wasn't always easy for him to though, and he obviously sinned big time when, instead of telling the rock to produce water for the people like God had commanded, he struck the rock twice (the rock being a type of Christ!) so that water would come out. But overall, Moses continued to follow Christ, and at the last received the greatest promised land of all.
Secondly, we must understand why the promised land was so amazing. Yes, there were some pretty special physical things about that land that Israel got to enjoy, but these in themselves could not satisfy if Christ had not been Israel's God, and in fact would've led them away from Christ. Instead of blessing, that land would've brought barbs to their eyes and thorns in their sides (Numbers 33v55). God knew this full well. He knew absolutely that if He had taken a people into the promised land that weren't really interested in believing in Him, and really wanted the world instead (as the previous generation of Israelites had wanted), then the promised land would've lost any and all of its significance, and really wouldn't have been the gift God intended for them. Yes, it's true, God does intend to take care of us, and it may be true that He wants to bless us with practical and physical things (after all- how many have houses? wives? husbands? jobs? how many work at what they love and have a passion for? how many have children? big families? Churches? fellowships? etc), and the promise he gives us may entail some or all of these things, however, they can only be a blessing to us, in the truest sense, if, in receiving them, we have already received Christ and His will for us in our lives beforehand. Thus, whether he knew it or not (no doubt he knew it though!), Moses, before he received the heavenly promised land, had already received so much of the riches of that land already. The true riches Christ values are those spiritual ones, and Moses had received a whole lot of them because of everything he had gone through. He was known as the most humble man on the planet! (Numbers 12v3). And goodness knows he had to become such a man in dealing with the often proud and selfish Israelites! He was non-violent, leaving behind the violence of his youth (when he thought such violence would advance God's cause). He was gentle, patient, faithful and persevering (and the only evidence you need for this is to read the entire history of his time with Israel!). Yes, the value of the ultimate fulfilment of the promise he received cannot be measured in value, but would Mose have been fit to receive it if he had been entirely earthly? Not in term of worthiness (by grace we have been saved), but in terms of whether Moses would've even wanted the promise of heaven if he had been too in love with the things of earth? Yes, there may be great practical and physical things to enjoy about the promise that God has given us, but we must realise that all the goodness of these things hinge on whether God has been able to fit us for them according to how He furnishes us and our lives with His Holy Spirit. Just like God went to great pains to design and furnish the tabernacle and the temple of God, so He does with us now, for we are the temple of God. When we are fully furnished, we'll be able to receive the promise of the Holy Spirit and all that God brings with Him!
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