Thursday, November 12, 2009

Why?


Why Didn’t Moses Go Into The Promised Land?


Q. Why didn’t Moses get to go into the promised land? I heard a minister say God told him that he would go with Moses into the promised land and Moses declined to go without the children of Israel.


A. Moses was denied entrance into the Promised Land because he disobeyed God. (Numbers 20:1-12) The first time the Israelites needed water, the Lord told Moses to strike a large rock and water came forth (Exodus 17:1-7). The second time He told Moses to speak to the rock. But Moses was angry and yelled at the people and then struck the rock again, twice, and again water came out. So what was the problem?

The water was a foreshadowing of the Holy Spirit that the Lord promised to all who believe (John 7:37-39) and the rock was a model of Christ, who had to be struck (crucified) before the Spirit could be given. But after His death one only needed to ask to receive the Spirit. By striking the rock the second time Moses was violating the lesson the Lord was trying to teach us. Jesus only had to die once for us to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. After that all we have to do is ask to receive Him (Matt. 7:7-8) So this was more than a single act of disobedience on the part of Moses. It was in effect a denial of the sufficiency of the Lord’s death.















No comments: