I was a junior in college. It was Super Bowl night. I had been sick all weekend and had missed a ministry trip that I was supposed to lead. It was the first night I actually emerged from my rumpled bed to communicate with other human beings. I didn’t feel very attractive with my puffy eyes and red nose, or alert enough to carry on a conversation, but a new guy began to talk to me in the cafeteria.
I should have known that any relationship beginning with the pickup line, “I’m really attracted to your cognitive processes,” couldn’t amount to much; but, alas, I ignored the obvious (can I blame the cold medicine?) and jumped into a relationship with Jace (not his real name).
He was an Eagle Scout with the most adorable country accent I’d ever heard. The way he said my name was like running through a field of wildflowers or tumbling down a big hill and laughing all the way to the bottom. It was magical. We spent many afternoons by the university lake, swinging on “our” swing and talking. I just liked him so very much.
I woke up every morning, giddy with the knowledge that I would see him that day, unable to fully grasp this idea that he and I were dating. I just couldn’t believe that something so wonderful could happen to me.
My feet didn’t even touch the ground for a few blissful weeks, until he left me for a girl to whom I had introduced him, and they began to sit in that same swing that we had dubbed as “ours” and have their own lovely conversations by the university lake. I was devastated, but I had to lead a ministry trip that very weekend, so I prayed for strength as we set out on our trip.
One more thing: the girl that Jace was now dating was one of the students I was to lead on this trip. God, in His mysterious ways, somehow managed to have me not only going on a trip with this girl who was now dating my ex, but actually rooming with her for the weekend as well. And God did a lot of work in my heart and in my character and in my integrity that weekend.
I have to say, in hindsight, it was not a bad weekend. We got along great and really liked each another. She was mature enough not to rub it in my face, and I didn’t hate her for being with my ex. God just helped us to handle it beautifully. But I can look back now, so many years later, and see that God was developing strength in me, as well as chipping away at areas of weakness and really just making me more like He wants me to be.
I was reminded of this experience as I read Deuteronomy 3 recently. You may recall that Moses has this amazing track record of obeying God in tough situations. God calls him to lead approximately two million Israelites out of Egypt and toward the land that God has promised them.
These Israelites are not an easy group of people to lead. They are always complaining about how good they had it in Egypt compared to roaming around in the desert, even though they really didn’t have it so good in Egypt. They sometimes tend – like us! – to forget God’s goodness and all of the incredible ways He provides for His people.
And Moses is so faithful to intercede for them, whether they need food or water or whether they have really messed up and are about to incur the wrath of God. Moses is a fabulous leader, and God shows Moses and the people His glory in beautiful ways throughout this particular stage of their journey.
You may remember, though, that in one instance, when Moses asks God to provide water, God tells him to speak to a certain rock, and that water would flow from it. But for whatever reason, Moses decides to hit the rock with his staff instead.
In Deuteronomy 32:51, God says that when Moses hit the rock, he essentially broke faith with me in the midst of the people of Israel . . . and . . . you did not treat me as holy in the midst of the people of Israel.
The water still flows, but the consequence that God gives Moses is a severe one, indeed: He will not be allowed to enter the Promised Land. After all he goes through getting the people there, he won’t be allowed in.
Now, my opinion doesn’t really count here. God is God. I am not. He is Almighty. I am fragile. He is infallible. I constantly make mistakes. You get the idea. Even though this consequence may seem to us perhaps a tad too harsh, this is what God (in His perfection) gives Moses.
In Deuteronomy 3:24-26, though, we see Moses nearing the end of his life, and he comes to God to try to plead on his own behalf regarding this consequence:
“O Lord God, you have only begun to show your servant your greatness and your mighty hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as yours? Please let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan, that good hill country and Lebanon. . . .”
But what is God’s response? And the Lord said to me, “Enough from you; do not speak to me of this matter again.”
God does not budge from His initial ruling. Moses is guilty, and this is his consequence. And it rings so true to most of us who can remember when we were kids and we had similar conversations with our own parents. They told us not to do something. We did it anyway, and then we had to face the consequences. Sure, we begged and pleaded. We made excuses. But in the end, we, too, got the response of: “Enough. Don’t talk to me about this anymore.”
We may not understand why God’s ruling with Moses was so harsh, and Moses may not have completely understood it either, but God doesn’t actually end the conversation there. God tells Moses that he can go up to the highest peak of the nearby mountains and look out at the Promised Land. He can look, but he cannot enter it.
We see in verse 28 that God has a job for Moses: But charge Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him, for he shall go over at the head of his people, and he shall put them in possession of the land that you shall see.
Joshua is the one who is about to take the lead. Moses cannot enter into the Promised Land, but Joshua can. And God wants Moses to encourage and strengthen Joshua, to get him ready to go where Moses will not be allowed to go. This, too, has to be a tough situation for Moses. It almost seems as if God is adding insult to injury, to use a phrase with which we are all too familiar.
I have found in my own life – as with Jace and then leading the ministry trip with his new girlfriend – that God often does this. He sometimes seems as if He is heaping challenge upon challenge upon challenge on us. And we may be weary with the weight of it all, and we may wonder why. But if we trust God, and we lean in to Him, we may be able to look back at it years later and see how God worked in our own hearts through those times.
It isn’t easy, but God is working. And I think about that with Moses as well, obviously on a much more momentous scale. What God calls Moses to do in training and encouraging Joshua empowers Joshua as the next leader. It’s an important task. And Moses gets to be an integral part of it!
But it all boils down to trust. Moses must trust that the God who has raised him up as the leader of the people, the God who sent the plagues on Egypt until Pharaoh let the people leave, the miracles God has done in the desert – the parting of the Red Sea, the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night, the manna, the quail, etc. – this same God knows what He is doing in Moses. He knows what His plans are for Moses and for Joshua and for all of His people.
And that includes us today. If you find yourself in that precarious position of having to stop just short of a promise or a goal or a deep desire, you, too, can trust that God knows what He is doing. And you, too, can allow Him to work in your heart throughout it all.
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