Question: Why wasn't Moses allowed to enter the Promised Land?

Answer: Moses was not allowed into the Promised Land because he disobeyed God in a crucial scenario, and also because he represented the Old Covenant of the law.

Joshua (Yehoshu'a in the Hebrew, Yeshu'a/Aramaic, Jesus, the English derivative from the Greek) led the people into the new land because he is used by God in this instance to be a type of the Messiah Jesus, who is the mediator of the new covenant. It is through Jesus that we can enter into the promised land of eternal life (John 3:16).

God used Moses’ disobedience to disqualify him. In this instance, Numbers 20:1-12, the people again needed water and were complaining. God told Moses to speak to the rock (verse 8). Moses allowed his anger at the people to override God’s command and Moses struck the rock with his staff, just as he did at mount Horeb (Exodus 17:1- 6). The water gushed out because of God’s mercy toward His thirsty people, but because Moses did not speak to the rock as he was instructed, God forbad him to enter the Promised Land.

The real sin here was that Moses’ disobedience marred the parable God was constructing in His word. In the first rock splitting incidence, God told Moses to strike the rock. The rock itself represented the Messiah, who would be struck and wounded for our transgressions (Isaiah 53:5).

In the second incident Moses was told to speak to the rock instead of being told to strike it. This is because the Messiah would only be struck or crucified once, then after the atonement, we are to only call upon the Lord, or “speak to the rock” in order to receive salvation. We are saved by His grace and we cannot be justified by the law (Romans 3:20). This parable of the gospel was then disrupted by Moses, who as a representative of the law, symbolically could not speak to the rock in the dispensation he was under.

At the time poor Moses didn’t understand what he was designed to represent, and why his punishment was so severe, even though he begged God to forgive him and allow him to enter. He didn’t know he was part of a story that God was writing through the centuries and through the lives of the people that He had chosen to illustrate His plan of redemption for mankind.

I’m sure Moses understands now and is rejoicing with God in the Promised Land of Heaven.

Copyright 2020 by H.D. Shively

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