Deuteronomy 34:4
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 offspring.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.”
Tag: When God Says NO!
In the above text we read that God showed Moses the Promise Land. He let him see it from the top of the mountain. Moses lead the nation of Israel on the other side of the mountain for 40 years. Now he was able to get right to the edge of the promised land and God said, “No!” God was not going to let him enter the promise land. Why?
Deuteronomy 32:50-52
And die on the mountain which you go up, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died in Mount Hor and was gathered to his people, because you broke faith with me in the midst of the people of Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, and because you did not treat me as holy in the midst of the people of Israel. For you shall see the land before you, but you shall not go there, into the land that I am giving to the people of Israel.”
God sometimes tells His best servants, “No,” at times. Notice Paul:
2 Corinthians 12:7-9
So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Notice what the writer of Hebrews says about Moses:
Hebrews 11:27
By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.
Moses was NOT disappointed that God said NO, because Moses was not really looking for “earthly land” or “earthly possessions.” Paul was not looking for a “healthy body.” Both these great men of God (perhaps the most famous in the Old and New Testament Scriptures), were simply looking for the grace that can be found in a relationship with God via Christ. Moses was looking forward to seeing Christ and Paul was looking both backward on what Christ had done and forward to when he would be with Christ. Faith looks for something unseen. Hope trust in the future of the Kingdom with God. That can’t be taken away. Moses was told NO but it did not disappoint because his eyes were on the real real prize. Disappointment only comes when we don’t experience what we hoped for. If we hope for the earthly we will always be disappointed. To those hopes God does say NO. But, if we hope for the heavenly, we can’t be disappointed, because God has promised and always says YES to Him.
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