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Deuteronomy Chapter
Three
Deuteronomy 3
Chapter Contents
The conquest of Og king of Bashan. (1-11) The land of
Gilead and Bashan. (12-20) Moses encourages Joshua. (21-29)
Commentary on Deuteronomy 3:
(Read Deuteronomy 3:)
1-11 Og was very powerful, but he did not take warning by
the ruin of Sihon, and desire conditions of peace. He trusted his own strength,
and so was hardened to his destruction. Those not awakened by the judgments of
God on others, ripen for the like judgments on themselves.
Commentary on Deuteronomy 3:12-20
(Read Deuteronomy 3:12-20)
This country was settled on the Reubenites, Gadites, and
half the tribe of Manasseh: see Numbers 32. Moses repeats the condition of the
grant to which they agreed. When at rest, we should desire to see our brethren
at rest too, and should be ready to do what we can towards it; for we are not
born for ourselves, but are members one of another.
Commentary on Deuteronomy 3:21-29
(Read Deuteronomy 3:21-29)
Moses encouraged Joshua, who was to succeed him. Thus the
aged and experienced in the service of God, should do all they can to strengthen
the hands of those who are young, and setting out in religion. Consider what
God has done, what God has promised. If God be for us, who can be against us,
so as to prevail? We reproach our Leader if we follow him trembling. Moses
prayed, that, if it were God's will, he might go before Israel, over Jordan
into Canaan. We should never allow any desires in our hearts, which we cannot
in faith offer up to God by prayer. God's answer to this prayer had a mixture
of mercy and judgment. God sees it good to deny many things we desire. He may
accept our prayers, yet not grant us the very things we pray for. It God does
not by his providence give us what we desire, yet if by his grace he makes us
content without, it comes to much the same. Let it suffice thee to have God for
thy Father, and heaven for thy portion, though thou hast not every thing thou
wouldst have in the world. God promised Moses a sight of Canaan from the top of
Pisgah. Though he should not have the possession of it, he should have the
prospect of it. Even great believers, in this present state, see heaven but at
a distance. God provided him a successor. It is a comfort to the friends of the
church of Christ, to see God's work likely to be carried on by others, when
they are silent in the dust. And if we have the earnest and prospect of heaven,
let these suffice us; let us submit to the Lord's will, and speak no more to
Him of matters which he sees good to refuse us.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Deuteronomy》
Deuteronomy 3
Verse 8
[8] And
we took at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites the land
that was on this side Jordan, from the river of Arnon unto mount Hermon;
On this side Jordan — So
it was when Moses wrote this book; but afterward when Israel passed over Jordan
it was called the land beyond Jordan.
Verse 9
[9] (Which Hermon the Sidonians call Sirion; and the Amorites call it Shenir;)
Sirion —
Elsewhere called Mount Gilead, and Lebanon, and here Shenir, and Sirion, which
several names are given to this one mountain partly by several people, and
partly in regard of several tops and parts of it.
Verse 10
[10] All
the cities of the plain, and all Gilead, and all Bashan, unto Salchah and
Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
All Gilead —
Gilead is sometimes taken for all the Israelites possessions beyond Jordan, and
so it comprehends Bashan; but here for that part of it which lies in and near
mount Gilead, and so it is distinguished from Bashan and Argob.
Verse 11
[11] For
only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead
was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine
cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the
cubit of a man.
In Rabbath —
Where it might now be, either because the Ammonites in some former battle with
Og, had taken it as a spoil: or because after Og's death, the Ammonites desired
to have this monument of his greatness, and the Israelites permitted them to
carry it away to their chief city.
Nine cubits — So
his bed was four yards and an half long, and two yards broad.
Verse 14
[14] Jair the son of Manasseh took all the country of Argob unto the coasts of
Geshuri and Maachathi; and called them after his own name, Bashanhavothjair,
unto this day.
Unto this day —
This must be put among those passages which were not written by Moses, but
added by those holy men, who digested the books of Moses into this order, and
inserted some few passages to accommodate things to their own time and people.
Verse 15
[15] And
I gave Gilead unto Machir.
Gilead —
That is, the half part of Gilead.
To Machir —
That is, unto the children of Machir, son of Manasseh, for Machir was now dead.
Verse 16
[16] And
unto the Reubenites and unto the Gadites I gave from Gilead even unto the river
Arnon half the valley, and the border even unto the river Jabbok, which is the
border of the children of Ammon;
Half the valley — Or
rather to the middle of the river: for the word rendered half signifies
commonly middle, and the same Hebrew word means both a valley and a brook or
river. And this sense is agreeable to the truth, that their land extended from
Gilead unto Arnon, and, to speak exactly, to the middle of that river; for as
that river was the border between them and others, so one half of it belonged
to them, as the other half did to others, Joshua 12:2. The same thing is expressed in the
same words in the Hebrew which are here, though our translators render the
self-same words there, from the middle of the river, which here they render,
half of the valley. There the bounds of Sihon's kingdom, which was the same
portion here mentioned as given to Reuben and Gad, are thus described, from
Aroer, which is upon the bank of the river of Arnon, and from the middle of the
river, and from half Gilead, even unto the river Jabbok, which is the border of
the children of Ammon.
Verse 17
[17] The
plain also, and Jordan, and the coast thereof, from Chinnereth even unto the
sea of the plain, even the salt sea, under Ashdothpisgah eastward.
The plain —
The low country towards Jordan.
The sea of the plain — That is, that salt sea, which before that dreadful conflagration was a
goodly plain.
Verse 18
[18] And
I commanded you at that time, saying, The LORD your God hath given you this
land to possess it: ye shall pass over armed before your brethren the children
of Israel, all that are meet for the war.
You —
Namely, the Reubenites and Gadites.
All that are meet — In
such number as your our brethren shall judge necessary. They were in all above
an hundred thousand. Forty thousand of them went over Jordan before their
brethren.
Verse 23
[23] And
I besought the LORD at that time, saying,
I besought the Lord — We
should allow no desire in our hearts, which we cannot in faith offer unto God
by prayer.
Verse 24
[24] O
Lord GOD, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty
hand: for what God is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy
works, and according to thy might?
Thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy
greatness — Lord, perfect what thou hast begun. The
more we see of God's glory in his works, the more we desire to see. And the
more we are affected with what we have seen of God, the better we are prepared
for farther discoveries.
Verse 25
[25] I
pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that
goodly mountain, and Lebanon.
Let me go over —
For he supposed God's threatening might be conditional and reversible, as many
others were.
That goodly mountain — Which the Jews not improbably understood of that mountain on which the
temple was to be built. This he seems to call that mountain, emphatically and
eminently, that which was much in Moses's thoughts, though not in his eye.
Verse 28
[28] But
charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him: for he shall go over
before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou
shalt see.
He shall go over — It
was not Moses, but Joshua or Jesus that was to give the people rest, Hebrews 4:8. 'Tis a comfort to those who love
mankind, when they are dying and going off, to see God's work likely to be
carried on by other hands, when they are silent in the dust.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Deuteronomy》
03 Chapter 3
Verses 1-11
So the Lord our God delivered into our hands Og also, king of
Bashan.
Mastery of formidable enemies
See--
1. How they got the mastery of Og, a very formidable prince.
2. He was very stout and daring; he came out against Israel to battle
(Deuteronomy 3:1). It was wonder he did
not take warning by the ruin of Sihon, and send to desire conditions of peace:
but he trusted to his own strength and so was hardened to his own destruction.
Those that are not awakened by the judgments of God upon others, but persist in
their defiance of heaven, are ripening apace for the like judgments upon
themselves (Jeremiah 3:8). God bid Moses not fear him
(Deuteronomy 3:2). If Moses himself was so
strong in faith as not to need the caution, yet it is probable the people
needed it; and for them these fresh assurances are designed, “I will deliver
him into thine hand.” Not only deliver thee out of his hand, that he shall not
be thy ruin; but deliver him into thy band, that thou shalt be his ruin, and
make him pay dear for his attempt. He adds, “Thou shalt do unto him as thou
didst unto Sihon”; intimating that they ought to be encouraged by their former
victory to trust in God for another victory; for He is God, and changeth not.
2. How they got possession of Bashan, a very desirable country. They
took all the cities (Deuteronomy 3:4), and all the spoil of
them (Deuteronomy 3:7); they made them all
their own (Deuteronomy 3:10), so that now they had
in their hands all that fruitful country which lay east of Jordan, from the
river Arnon unto Hermon (Deuteronomy 3:8). Their conquering and
possessing of these countries was intended not only for the encouragement of
Israel in the wars of Canaan, but for the satisfaction of Moses before his
death; because he must not live to see the completing of their victory and settlement,
God thus gives him a specimen of it. Thus the Spirit is given to them that
believe, as the earnest of their inheritance until the redemption of the
purchased possession. (Matthew Henry, D. D.)
Review and prospect
Is it not remarkable that good causes and good men should meet
with constant opposition? We are now perusing the history of a journey which
was undertaken by Divine direction, and again and again we come upon the fact
that the journey was from end to end bitterly opposed. Were this matter of
ancient history we might, in a happier condition of civilisation and in a
happier mood of mind, dispute the theory that Israel travelled under Divine
direction and guidance; but this very thing is done today in our country, in
all countries, in our own heart and life. Never man, surely, went to church
without some enemy in the form of temptation, suggestion, or welcome in other
directions, seeking to prevent his accomplishing the sacred purpose. He who
would be good must fight a battle; he who would pray well must first resist the
devil. This makes life very hard; the burden is sometimes too heavy; but the
voice of history so concurs with the testimony of conscience, and the whole is
so corroborated by the spirit of prophecy, that we must accept the discipline,
and await with what patience God Himself can work within us the issue of the
tragic miracle. Is there no compensatory consideration or circumstance? The
Lord Himself must speak very distinctly in some conditions and relations of
life. “And the Lord said unto me.” That is how the balance is adjusted. In the
one verse, Og, king of Bashan; in the next verse--Jehovah. Thus the story of
our life alternates--now an enemy, now a friend; now the fight is going to be
too severe for us and we shall certainly fall, and now the Lord of hosts is in
the van, and kings are burned by His presence as stubble is burned by the fire.
What was the Divine message? It was a message adapted to the sensitiveness of
the circumstances: “Fear him not; for I will deliver him, and all his people,
and his land, into thy hand:” Get rid of fear, and you increase power. He who
is strong in spirit is strong all through and through his nature; he who is
only muscularly strong will fail in the fight. The brave heart, the soul alive
with God--that will always conquer. Let us live and move and have our being in
God. What was the consequence? We read the story in the fourth verse: “And we
took all his cities at that time, there was not a city which we took not from
them, threescore cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.”
Opposition to God always means loss. There is no bad man who is successful. Do
not let us interpret the word “successful” narrowly and partially, as if it
were a term descriptive of mere appearances or momentary relationships. In the
partial acceptation of the term the proposition will not bear examination; but
in discussing great spiritual realities we must take in the full view; and,
fixing the attention upon that view, the proposition remains an indestructible
truth--that no bad man is really prosperous. He has no comfort. He eats like a
glutton, but he has no true enjoyment; out of his bread he draws no poetry, no
thought, no fire; it is lost upon him, for he is an evil eater. In his apparent
wealth he is miserably poor. If it could be proved that a man can oppose God
and be truly happy, the whole Christian kingdom would be destroyed by that
proof, the word of the Lord, as written in the Book, is against the
possibility. But what became of Og, the king of Bashan? We read in the eleventh
verse, “Behold his bedstead,” etc. What an ending! How appropriate! How bitter
the satire! Og, king of Bashan, came out to fight the people of God; a few
verses are written in which battles are fought and cities taken, and at the end
the bedstead of Og is nearly all that remains of the mighty king of Bashan!
This is worthless fame; this is the renown that is pitiable. But there is no
other renown for wicked men: they will leave a name in history, but a name the
children will laugh at; they will leave behind them a memorial, but the
memorial itself shall be an abiding sarcasm. The Lord turneth the counsel of
the wicked upside down; the Lord will laugh at the wicked man and have all his
devices in derision. His bedstead will be remembered when he himself is
forgotten; he will be spoken of in the bulk and not in the quality; he will be
measured like a log; he will be forgotten like an evil dream. The righteous
shall be had in everlasting remembrance. Who would be wicked? Who would oppose
God? Who would not rather coalesce with the heavens, and pray that the Spirit
of God would work in the human heart the miracle of reconciliation with things
eternal and celestial? (J. Parker, D. D.)
King Og’s bedstead
Why did not the Bible give us the size of the giant instead of the
size of the bedstead? Why did it not indicate that the man was eleven feet
high, instead of telling us that his couch was thirteen and a half feet long?
No doubt among other things it was to teach us that you can judge of a man by
his surroundings. Show me a man’s associates, show me a man’s books, show me a
man’s home, and I will tell you what he is without your telling me one word
about him. Moral giants and moral pigmies, intellectual giants and intellectual
pigmies, like physical giants or physical pigmies, may be judged by their
surroundings. That man has been thirty years faithful in attendance upon
churches and prayer meetings and Sunday schools, and putting himself among
intense religious associations. He may have his imperfections, but he is a very
good man. Great is his religious stature. That other man has been for thirty
years among influences intensely worldly, and he has shut himself out from all
other influences, and his religious stature is that of a dwarf. But let no one
by this thought be induced to surrender to unfavourable environments. A man can
make his own bedstead. Chantrey and Hugh Miller were born stonemasons, but the
one became an immortal sculptor, and the other a Christian scientist whose name
will never die. The late Judge Bradley worked his way up from a charcoal burner
to the bench of the supreme court of the United States. Yes, a man can decide
the size of his own bedstead. Notice furthermore, that even giants must rest.
Such enormous physical endowment on the part of king Og might suggest the
capacity to stride across all fatigue and omit slumber. No. He required an iron
bedstead. Giants must rest. Not appreciating the fact, how many of the giants
yearly break down! Giants in business, giants in art, giants in eloquence,
giants in usefulness. Let no one think, because he has great strength of body
or mind, that be can afford to trifle with his unusual gifts. King Og, no
doubt, had a sceptre, but the Bible does not mention his sceptre. Yet one of
the largest verses of the Bible is taken up in describing his bedstead. So God
all up and down the Bible honours sleep. Adam, with his head on a pillow of
Edenic roses, has his slumber blest by a Divine gift of beautiful
companionship. Jacob, with his head on a pillow of rock, has his sleep
glorified with a ladder filled with descending and ascending angels. Christ,
with a pillow made out of the folded up coat of a fisherman, honours slumber in
the back part of the storm-tossed boat. One of our national sins is robbery of
sleep. Walter Scott was so urgent about this duty of slumber that, when
arriving at a hotel where there was no room to sleep in, except that in which
there was a corpse, inquired if the deceased had died of a contagious disease,
and, when assured he had not, took the other bed in the room and fell into
profoundest slumber. Those of small endurance must certainly require rest if
even the giant needs an iron bedstead. Notice furthermore, that God’s people on
the way to Canaan need not be surprised if they confront some sort of a giant.
Had not the Israelitish host had trouble enough already? No! Red Sea not
enough. Water famine not enough. Long marches not enough. Opposition by enemies
of ordinary stature not enough. They must meet Og, the giant of the iron
bedstead. Do you know the name of the biggest giant that you can possibly
meet--and you will meet him? He is not eleven feet high, but one hundred feet
high. His bedstead is as long as a continent. His name is Doubt. His common
food is infidel books and sceptical lectures, and ministers who do not know
whether the Bible is inspired at all or inspired in spots, and Christians who
are more infidel than Christian. You will never reach the promised land unless
you slay that giant. Kill doubt, or doubt will kill you. Another impression
from my subject. The march of the Church cannot be impeded by gigantic
opposition. That Israelitish host led on by Moses was the Church, and when Og,
the giant, he of the iron bedstead, came out against him with another
host--things must have looked bad for Israel. Moses of ordinary size against Og
of extraordinary dimensions. Besides that, Og was backed up by sixty fortified
cities. Moses was backed up seemingly by nothing but the desert that had worn
him and his army into a group of undisciplined and exhausted stragglers. But
the Israelites triumphed. The day is coming. Hear it, all ye who are doing
something for the conquest of the world for God and the truth, the time will
come when, as there was nothing left of Og, the giant, but the iron bedstead,
kept at Rabbath as a curiosity, there will be nothing left of the giants of
iniquity except something for the relic hunters to examine. (T. De Witt
Talmage.)
The last of the giants
We, in our warfare, have many giants to contend against. As we go
through our wanderings there are many places waste and wild as the tangled
brakes and rugged rocks of Argob, in the land of Bashan. We have our
wildernesses of temptation to pass over. In those wildernesses are many giants bigger
than Og, more terrible than Anak, vaunting with greater insolence than Goliath
of Gath. Perhaps you have conquered many of them. Is it so? Do they lie smitten
and vanquished at your feet? Envious man, have you bound envy hand and foot and
put him without your house and home? He is not dead, only chained. Beware lest
in some unguarded moment he should be freed, and lead you captive with the
accumulated power of long repose and the increased caution brought about by his
former defeat. Is the evil spirit of anger vanquished which was formerly of
such gigantic proportions? Or does it still rise at will from its bedstead to
which, in prosperous sunshine, when nothing crosses us or thwarts us, it
voluntarily retires? Is it bound there, or does it merely lie there in hiding,
with no cords of religion to compel its slumbering inactivity? There are also
Bunyan’s giants, some dead, some living--giants Pope and Pagan sadly disabled,
giants Maul and Slaygood also disabled--giant Despair, still living in his dark
dungeon with Mrs. Doubting his terrible wife. Giant Despair tells men and women
to kill themselves, tells them God will never forgive them, shuts them up in
his grim castle, and how can they escape? Those pilgrims found a key called
“Hope.” With Hope in the breast adversity may be borne. The giant of Lust is a
mighty giant also. And of all other giants the most dangerous to some natures.
Many a sinner and some saints have found this the Og which has been last
vanquished. God says, “Fear not.” Will you fear when your Maker tells you not
to fear? Shall we not rather go and do our best against the sin that still
struggles in our souls and would fain bring us to destruction? (S. B. James,
M. A.)
Thou hast begun to show.
Revelation always new
“Thou hast begun.” That is all He can do. Always beginning, never
ending that is the mystery and that is the glory of the Divine revelation. When
we come to see that all things are but in the bud, and can never get out of it,
we shall begin to see the greatness of God. How pitiable is the condition of
the man who has worn out anything that has in it real life, poetry, meaning,
and application to the affairs and destinies of life! We must not take our life
line from such vagrants. We must be made to see and feel that everything has
eternity in it. We shall be real students and worshippers when we say about the
moors so desolate, and the sea so melancholy, and the forest even in December,
“Lo! God is here, and I knew it not; this is none other than the house of God,
and this is the gate of heaven.” We should be wiser if we were not so clever.
If we could consider that all things are yet in plasm and beginning and outline
and suggestion, we should remit to a longer day the discussion and the
settlement of questions which now constitute the mystery and torment of our
intellectual life. A beautiful period of life is that in which a man begins to
see the shaping of a Divine purpose in his own existence. Some can remember the
time when the meaning of words first came really to the mind. What a light it
was, how content was the brain; the whole mind rose up and said, “This is
something really gained, and can never be lost.” A similar sensation comes to
men who live wisely. In their childhood they did not know what God meant them
to be, so they proposed many things to their own imagination; then early life
came, and things began to settle into some kind of hazy outline; then manhood came,
with all its experiences and with all its conflicts, and at last there was, as
it were, a man’s hand building the life, putting it into square and shape and
proportion, and flushing it with colour. Then we began to see what God meant to
be the issue of our life. He made us great, small, strong, weak, rich, poor;
but if we have lain in His hands quietly, gently, obediently, and lovingly, we
see that poverty is wealth and weakness is strength. A holy thought of this
kind has sanctified the whole purview and issue of life, so that men can now
say, “That is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.” When the
Lord undertakes the outbuilding and shaping of a life, none can hinder it. “O
Lord God, Thou hast begun to show Thy servant Thy greatness.” Throughout the
Bible God is never represented as a dwindling quantity. God, in other words,
does not grow less and less, but more and more. When our imagination is
exhausted God’s light has already begun to shine. Age after age has come and
has written upon its record these words, “He is able to do exceeding abundantly
above all that we ask or think.” God has always reserved to Himself the use of
the instrument of education which we call surprise. We have never anticipated
God. When we have gone out early in the day it has been by the assistance of
His light. If He had not kindled the lamp we could not have taken a step upon
our journey. God surprises us with goodness. We think we have partaken of the
very best He can give us, and, lo! when we have drunk again of the goblet of
Divine love we say, “Thou hast kept the good wine until now. It is in that
spirit of hopefulness, in that everlasting genesis, we must live; then we shall
be young for ever. (J. Parker, D. D.)
I pray Thee, let me go
over and see the good land that is beyond Jordan . . . But the Lord . . . would
not hear me.
Man’s sin and God’s will
When we read the history of a nation as we do in the Old
Testament, we cannot but be struck by the extent to which a nation depends upon
its representative men. Its ambitions, virtues, and hopes may be what you
please, but they must find visible embodiment and capable instruction in some
great and commanding personality. One lesson of the opening chapter of
Deuteronomy is that nations, as a rule, are not very sympathetic with those on
whom the burden of their affairs is laid. They heap responsibilities upon their
leaders, and leave them to carry weights beyond human strength. They hardly
think of their limitations as men like themselves, who, besides the public duties
which they discharge, have a spiritual life of their own to care for, a
conscience of their own to keep right with Goal a spiritual ladder to climb,
individual convictions, and a soul to save. They do not consider that God is
looking on at the trial of a strong but weary spirit, while men may be doing
their best to make the trial to turn out to his hurt. This passage shows us
this great man in the last year of his life. The dying of Moses had been
extended beyond the common measure of humanity, and his experience had been as
various as his life had been prolonged. He had seen the courts of Pharaoh; he
had dwelt in the tents of Midian for forty years, and for forty years more he
had never escaped from the pressure of the tens of thousands of Israel. He knew
the worry of his public position, and he knew also the awful message of God.
The greatest figure in the Old Testament, as far as we can judge greatness, his
heart was most deeply pledged to his people, and the promise God made to them.
The day was long passed when he had identified himself with Israel for weal or
woe. At the close of his long life--with the wonderful experience of what God
had done lying behind him--what was the thought that rises to Moses’ lips? It
is that all this has only been enough to awaken hope--“O Lord God, Thou hast
begun to show Thy servant Thy greatness and Thy mighty hand.” The mysterious
name of God, which our Bible translates, “I am,” has been rendered by some
scholars, “I will be; I will do what I will do. It is My very nature to be a
God of unimaginable promise, doing for those who look to Me far more than they
can ask or think.” I believe that rendering is as legitimate as the more
metaphorical one. At any rate, this is the conception of the Divine nature
which experience has enforced upon Moses. At the end of his long life he can
only feel that God has begun to show His greatness. If he is sure of anything,
it is that God can do more and will do more than He has done yet. His very name
is a name of promise. Now, that is a worthy spirit with which to come to the
close of one’s life. Death is a decisive end for us--the close of all our work
on this scene. But if we have been in the company of God and learned to know
Him, we will not measure His work by anything we have seen. Though our strength
is spent, He has no more than indicated His purpose and excited His people’s
interest and hopes. When St. Paul was ready to die he wrote to Timothy, I have
finished my course. But if he had been able to see what we see now, would he not
have exclaimed, as Moses did, “O Lord, Thou hast begun”? There is a famous
passage in Latin poetry in which the founder of the Roman race is taken to the
end of the world and shown the fortunes of posterity. The grand figures of
later history pass in magnificent procession before his eyes. But what Moses
felt was far better than any such vision. He had faith that the work which had
been so much to him was in God’s hands, and that though his part in it was all
but over, God’s was only beginning. It is easier to apply this consideration to
New Testament times. When the last of the Apostles died, what had God done in
the world? He had kindled His little sparks of light here and there in the
darkness of heathendom. But the whole framework, the whole spirit of society
were pagan. A society like that in which we live, in which there is an
instinctive recognition of Christ as final moral authority, in which children
are baptized in His name--such a society was beyond the Apostles’ vision, and
perhaps beyond their conception. The Lord had more to do for the world than
they had seen. It is the same now. Generation after generation passes, men grow
old and grey and die in the work of the Lord, yet that work is ever beginning.
We see the authority of Christ extending even in Christendom. We see the
application of His will becoming more constant and thorough. They grow old, not
to be pessimists, not to lose hope in the world because their own eyes are dim
or their natural force abated, but with their hearts young within them; eager
and interested in what God is doing; sure that the best is yet to be. Moses,
with this noble faith in God’s purpose, offered passionate prayer to God--“I
pray Thee let me go over and see the good land.” We can hardly imagine the
interest of Moses in Canaan. It was the land of the fathers--Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. It was the land God had chosen as the inheritance of Israel. It was
the goal of forty years’ wanderings. It was at length, for the second time, and
after a faithless generation had perished in the wilderness, within their
sight. It was not God’s will that Moses should live to see the conquest of
Canaan. There are people so deeply interested in the evolution of things--as to
what practical applications electricity will be put, what Socialism will do in
the way of reconstructing society, what will be the position of Christianity
and the Church, what will become of the Chinese and Turkish empires--that they
can pray to be kept alive to see the end. And if they are not they may leave the
world with a keen sense of disappointment. What was the sin of Moses? At first
sight it seems very strange. Moses has this testimony given him in the
Bible--that he was meek above all men. Yet he was not always meek. He was hot
and hasty in his youth when he slew an Egyptian, and the sin of his youth
flared up one fatal moment as he struck the rock. At last his sin found him
out, and excluded him from the Holy Land. I can imagine someone feeling that in
this matter Moses was hardly dealt with, and that the inexorableness of God is
painful to contemplate. No doubt it is meant to impress us that way. Believe it
in time, all young men and women. There are good things, the best things, the
only things you will one day care for, that sin makes impossible; a single bad
action can forfeit hopes that you will never be able to redeem. It can draw an
invisible line round about you--a line invisible to everyone except God and
you--that you cannot cross. Moses is presented here to us learning one of the
hardest of all lessons--the acceptance of God’s will as it is determined by our
own sins. Often our repentance is no better than a desire to escape the penalty
of our faults. But our hope lies in accepting, not in rebelling and struggling
against, the consequences which God has attached to our sins. To learn
humility, to learn that God knows the discipline which is best for us, to learn
to walk softly and accept as His will restrictions and losses which our sins
have brought with them--that is the secret for restoring the soul. Rebellion
does no good. Unbelieving despondency does no good. What is required is that
the punishment of our sin be recognised as what it is, and taken as God’s will
for our good. It is never pleasant, how could it be? The most awful thing in
the world, it has been said, is the unpardoned sin, and the next is sin which
has been pardoned. To accept the punishment of our iniquity is to have
experience of both of these, and we need it to make us hate sin as we should.
For remember, though Moses’ prayer was not granted, we are not to Suppose that
his sin was not forgiven. It is striking that in the New Testament Moses
appeared in glory and talked with Jesus of the death He should accomplish in
Jerusalem. Thus all the limits which sin had imposed upon his life had
vanished; thus he saw how far the grand work of God had progressed. Thus his
mind still looked forward to the great event in which that great work should be
consummated in the death of Jesus on the Cross. Moses talked of that, for that
was his hope as it is ours. It is not true that the consequences of sin are
immutable. If that were so there would be no Gospel. By God’s will they abide
for a time, but there is a world in which curse shall be no more. It is not
true that the limitations of sin and its deformities are seen even in heaven.
But God’s answer to Moses’ prayer did not end with His refusal. “Charge Joshua,
and encourage him, and strengthen him, for he shall go over before this people,
and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see.” The natural
effect of despair is that we lose heart. We lose interest in our work when the
accomplishment of it is a thing in which we have no interest. We are not going
to be there, why spend ourselves as though we were? To speak like that is to
forget that the work is not ours. It is God’s. Our interest is not to be
limited as if it were a private concern of our own. It is a mark of true
goodness when a man can admire and encourage his successor, and keep up his
interest and hope in the common cause, though active participation in its
affairs has become impossible for him. We sometimes see men who have been great
leaders retire with a bad grace. They looked askance at those carrying on their
work. They are more ready to be critical and sulky than to cry, “Well done.”
They are under no obligation to encourage their successors! Over against this
set these words of God to Moses, “Charge Joshua.” Possibly there are some whose
own sins have inflicted losses which are very hard to bear. We might have entered
the land of promise. We might have been men and women infinitely different from
what we are--brighter, happier, richer in our souls. Well, what does God say
after our disappointments? He says what He said to Moses: Do not be selfish, do
not sulk; do not let your disappointments, bitter as they are, cast a shadow
over your family or over the church. Digest it in solitude. But beyond
everything, get above Pisgah and see the goodly mountain of Lebanon, and then,
with the glory of that prospect on your face, turn to those whose hearts are
cold within them, whose spirits are broken, and cherish and encourage and
strengthen them. Tell them what God has prepared for those who love Him, and
rejoice with them that they will inherit the land which you have only seen from
afar. (J. Denney, D. D.)
Moses unanswered
1. Our first consideration is that the case before us does not
disprove God’s willingness to hear and answer prayer.
2. Our second consideration is that God does not always answer in
just our way. The two things which Noses wanted were these--
3. Our third consideration is that no prayer is true prayer unless it
is offered in the filial spirit. Some supplications are unfilial in their
presumptuous boldness. Other supplications are unfilial in their servility. (Homiletic
Review.)
The prayer which God denied
I. Observe that
Moses here calls his own sin to remembrance. The plank which broke beneath
one’s weight is not apt to be kept as a sacred relic or treasured with fond
affection. The place associated with some sin whose memory makes us blush, or
some blunder so foolish as to be worthy only of an idiot, is not a place which
we delight to revisit. Therefore it is the more remarkable that when Moses, in
life’s latest hour, reviews God’s mercy to His people, he should not pass over
the one great blunder and sin of his own career. But with the finger of
transparent honesty he touches the sorest spot in his memory.
II. Observe why God
denied Moses’ appeal.
1. We must not forget that what Moses sought from God was a temporal,
not a spiritual blessing.
2. Perhaps, too, God may have refused the appeal of Moses because it
humbled him and made him feel his complete dependence on God’s grace to save
him.
3. It may be, too, that the Divine refusal was only a part of the process
by which God was fitting Moses for a better inheritance than Canaan. When the
denial of his prayer was first made there were yet two years before him ere his
earthly pilgrimage should end. Into those two years God was crowding the final
work of preparation of His servant. Said Beethoven once of some famous musical
composer, “He would have been a great musician if he had only been terribly and
mercilessly criticised.” (Bp. Cheney.)
The petition of Moses to God
Here Moses teacheth us how to pray. He beginneth first and telleth
God that He hath begun to show him favour; and well might Moses so say, for he
was no sooner born but the Lord began to show him His greatness, in saving him
when he was cast into the river, etc. If all that the Lord hath done for him
till this time be considered he had great cause to say, “O Lord, Thou hast
begun to show Thy servant Thy greatness.” Herein Moses in some part showeth
himself thankful for that he had received, trusting thereby to entreat God to
continue His benefits and loving kindness towards him, which is a thing which
pleaseth God. He is not like one who sitteth in his door and sooth one day by
day come by him and salute him, and yet taketh no acquaintance, so that if he
stand in need of him, either he knoweth not where he dwelleth; or else, because
he is not acquainted with him, he is abashed to ask anything of him. Moses is
not such a one, but he is acquainted with the Lord, who so often passed by him;
and therefore lie now saith, “Thou hast begun,” etc. Next, Moses challengeth
all the idol gods, and telleth them, that amongst them all there is not one of
them that can do like his God. So God, when He is opposed and set against His
enemies, is then most glorious, and confoundeth them all (Psalms 89:6). Now, Moses proceedeth in
his prayer, saying, “I pray Thee, let me go over,” etc. Here Moses prayeth like
one of us, who are always craving, but never hath respect to the will of God,
to say, “Thy will be done.” What is this mountain Lebanon? Surely Moses meaneth
the place where the temple should be built, and God honoured; for after that
Joshua had quietly possessed the land of Canaan, he only builded a tabernacle (Joshua 18:1) wherein to call upon the
Lord. Now it followeth in the text, “But the Lord was angry with me,” etc. So
soon as Moses changed his prayer God turneth from him, and will not hear him;
so soon we make God to forsake us, if we do not according to His will. Moses
showeth the cause why God would not hear him; although he were a great man, and
in high authority, yet he is not ashamed to confess his fault. So we see that
where sin is, there prayer is not effectual; so that if we will hope to receive
by prayer anything at God’s hands, we must first remove and take away the cause
of our hindrance, which is sin, before we can receive the thing we pray for.
God, when Moses had prayed, did not grant his request, but was angry with him;
but lest Moses should be quite discouraged, He straightways mitigated His
anger, and biddeth him be content and speak no more unto Him of that matter.
God doth not bid him that he should not pray any more unto Him, but that he
should pray no more for that thing. First, God biddeth him to be content; as if
He should hat e said, Although thou mayest not enter into the land, yet I will
content thee otherways. Thus God would have us, in what estate soever we be, to
be content with our calling, for it is His appointment. God is so merciful
that, though we are not able to pray aright, yet He considereth our prayers,
and turneth all to the best for our good; not granting our request many times,
but a better thing than we do desire of Him. Who, then, will offend so merciful
and loving a Father? Let us, seeing God is so merciful unto us, take heed that
we abuse not His mercies, lest in so doing we provoke Him unto judgment. Now,
God hath told Moses that he shall not go into the land, He beginneth to teach
him how he shall do to see it, and biddeth him go up into the top of Pisgah,
and cast his eyes eastward, and westward, and northward, and southward, and
behold it, etc. As a bird stayed with a little string, or a strong man in
swimming held back by a small twig, so a little sin stayeth this great captain,
that he cannot come within the land of Canaan. First, God is angry with him,
and envies him altogether, as though he were not worth so much as go up to the
mount. Thus we may see how one of the least sins is able to turn from us all
the goodness and all the favour which God beareth to us. After, God commands
Moses to go up to the mount. Here, Moses obeyeth God’s commandment; but if he
had been like many a murmuring man he would have denied to go up to the mount,
saying, What banquet is this to me, but a dainty dish set before one forbidden
to eat? But Moses had rather die than anger the Lord again when He had bid him
be content. This we may learn of Moses, to be content with our calling, whether
we have little or much; for God contented Moses as well with the sight of
Canaan as those who possessed it. So when God hath not ordained us to see great
substance, as He hath some of our brethren, yet because we should not be
discontent He will give us as much pleasure at the sight of them in others as
though we ourselves enjoyed them. Many things might Moses have objected which
might have hindered him from going up the mount; for surely it must needs be a
grief to him, when he considered that great pain which he had taken in bringing
them through the wilderness, and conducting them forty years together; and now,
when he had no farther to go, but even over Jordan, to be taken away then; and
another, which never took any pains, possess all his labours: this, I say, must
be a great and intolerable thing to flesh and blood; for when one hath laid a
foundation and another comes and builds upon it, surely he will think himself
hardly dealt withal. Such is our nature; and yet, notwithstanding all this,
Moses is content. He knoweth that God doth him no wrong, but is just and
merciful also. He blesseth all alike, as Jacob’s children were blessed (Genesis 49:1-33). Moses, so long as he
was upon the plain ground, could not see the type of heaven; but when he was
upon the mount he saw it before he came to heaven itself. So let us even now
scale the mount as Moses did, that we may see and consider those joys; which
thing shall serve to reclaim our hearts from earthly matters. As Peter went up
the mount to see Christ’s glory, and Moses went up the mount to see the land of
promise, so let us ascend from these earthly things to the contemplation of
heavenly. Now, Moses is in his prospect as David was in his tower. Here he must
prepare himself to die, while he is looking upon the land which so long he hath
been in coming to. Who would not have grieved at this, that, after so long as
forty years’ travel in hope to possess it, he should now in the end be content with
a sight of it, and so vanish away! Yet Moses, for all this murmureth not, but,
like Job, taketh it patiently. And as he was upon the mount where God vanished,
so here he is upon the mount and vanisheth away himself; as it appeareth (Job 24:6). So good rulers are taken away
in a time when death is least suspected. As Lot was taken away before the
people of Sodom knew, as is showed (Genesis 19:10); so we see that when our
time is come, and our glass run out, that neither our riches, nor our wits, nor
our friends, nor anything that we have in this world, can carry us any further.
No, no more than Moses could go over this Jordan. (H. Smith.)
The good land that is beyond Jordan
It is there, a seer has seen it; and God gave him words to paint
the vision for us. A good land; glorious in beauty, yet homelike; familiar in
every form and feature, but still a transfigured world. It is the hope that
lights the way of the wilderness--the hope that we may one day behold the
glories of a creation which has been “delivered from the bondage of corruption
into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.” None believe that the present is
final. Men, dreaming of a delivered humanity, have dreamed, too, of a delivered
world. A world, a home to dwell in, not cursed as this is, with all its
prophetic beauty--a world without wastes, marshes, lava floods, blights,
famines, plagues--a world that will fit a redeemed, as this fits a fallen,
nature--a world whose paths shall be, the pathways of angels, whose sun shall
be the face of God. In Egypt, man’s toil is the prominent feature; man made its
fertility: in Canaan, God’s bounty is the prominent feature; “It drinketh water
of the rain of heaven.” Egypt is the field in which a man, by the low form of
labour, might exist amply; Canaan the home in which a man, by joyful concert
with God, might nobly live.
I. It was a land,
a good land, the slope of that goodly mountain, even Lebanon, which Moses
looked upon; it was a land of promise, which God had prepared. Canaan was in a
sense the heaven of Israel’s hope; the more heavenlike, perhaps, because it was
so fair a feature of our world; because it was a home in which a man, a family,
a nation, could nobly dwell. A would behind the veil is the instinctive belief
of every human spirit; a world, with all the attributes of a world like this,
in which all the promises of this fractured creation shall be realised, wherein
no hope shall be frustrated, no cord of association broken, which has been
consecrated by holy communion here. This is man’s vision, inseparable, too,
from his condition here. Imagination! we may say; blank dreams, no more! and
pass it by. Imagination surely! but who inspired the imagination? Who but the
Being who is the Maker of the reality, which He has kept for ages before the
imagination of the world? I accept imagination here as a witness to reality.
The wise here are the wise for ever, for to be wise is not simply to know;
wisdom takes cognisance of what is common to the two worlds. Nothing which has
been truly, reverently learnt will need to be unlearnt. The faithful students
of God’s hand in the visible are learning to know His mind through the whole
sphere of the invisible; they are familiar here with the things which the
angels desire to look into; and pass at once from the training school of the
Spirit into the inner circle, the elect spirits which are next the throne. “A
goodly land beyond Jordan.” A real, substantial, homelike world.
II. The images
which are employed by the sacred writers as most expressive when they are
treating of heaven are all borrowed from the higher forms of the development of
man’s social and national life. All that society on earth aims at and misses,
the grand order of human relations, the majestic procession of human
activities, of which, marred and crippled as they are on earth, the wisest and
noblest have not ceased to dream, shall there be realised, with Christ the King
visibly in the centre of it, and the angels attendant to watch the actors and
applaud the results.
III. That good land
beyond Jordan had some heaven-like feature herein; it was to be the theatre of
the highest and holiest human association, under conditions most favourable to
the most perfect development, and in an atmosphere of life which God’s
benediction should make an atmosphere of bliss. This is joy, this is glory, to
dwell nobly, purely, faithfully with men under the smile of God. (J. B.
Brown, B. A.)
Heaven upon earth
We take the words of Moses before us as appropriate to indicate
the earnest aspiration of the Christian heart after “the rest and the
inheritance of the saints.”
I. Now observe,
this cry may be, after all, merely sentimental, and in such a case it cannot be
too strongly condemned. One of the great dangers to which we are exposed in the
religious life, in our songs and prayers and utterances, is that of cherishing
high, forced, fictitious emotions, and of going altogether beyond our real
feelings. What we want is holy feeling, transmuted into Christly living and
Christly service. The prospect of a bright life beyond should have the effect
upon us of making the present life very happy.
II. Again, this cry
may be the result of maturity and ripeness, and then the spirit prompting it is
bright and beautiful. I see one who is a great sufferer. It has pleased God, in
the order of His inscrutable Providence, to lay him aside from the activities
of life for months, or even years. And the sorrow has been sanctified. He has
not sought relief in cherishing a stoical spirit or by looking to earthly
sources, but with a full consciousness that suffering is wisely and graciously
designed, he has looked upwards and has found in God almighty strength. Despite
adverse influences, he has been moving onwards towards the haven of eternal
rest. And thus he has become ripened and matured, thoroughly weaned from earth;
his heart has long been in heaven, his treasure lies there, and fittingly he
longs for the hour of full release, and cries, with a chastened spirit, wholly
resigned to the Divine will and full of expectant hope, “I pray Thee, let me
go,” etc.
III. And now let us
specially notice that there is an aspiration after heaven which may be fittingly
cherished at any and every stage of life: even aspiration after those moral
excellences which constitute the perfection of the heavenly life.
1. Heaven is “the good land,” for it is free from sin. Then be it
ours to desire heaven’s purity, and even here to break away from the
enthralment of evil.
2. Heaven is “the good land,” for it is the realm where there is
realised in all its perfection the vision of God. Then be it our desire to have
granted unto us here this vision; let us seek, through Divine help, to become
possessed of a heart right loyal to the Divine will, in which evil passions and
desires have been dethroned, and in which has been set up the spiritual kingdom
of God; that so, being renewed and sanctified, God may even now be apprehended
by us. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
3. Heaven is “the good land,” for it is the realm of light. Endless
progression in knowledge characterises its inhabitants. Then be it ours to cry
for “more light” here, and to seek the influences of the Revealer of truth,
that under His guidance we may “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ.”
4. Heaven is “the good land,” for it is the land of rest and
peace--rest from sin, rest from temptation, rest from care, rest from harassing
and perplexing doubt; calm, unruffled, perfect rest. Then let us see if we
cannot get an earnest of this even whilst we sojourn in this world, by
accepting the gracious invitation of Him who has said, “Come unto Me all ye
that labour,” etc.
5. And heaven is “the good land,” for it is the land where prevails
concord and love. No note of discord is heard there, no strife of parties
prevails there; unity and love reign, and shall reign there eternally. Be it
ours to aspire here after this characteristic of the heavenly life. Let us
avoid all narrowness and exclusiveness, and cherish the spirit which finds
expression in the benediction--“Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus
Christ in sincerity.” Whatever lack of charity others may show towards us, let
there be no lack of this on our part towards them. (S. D. Hillman.)
Longings for the land
I. Moses’ desire
to enter.
1. It was strong and deep; the strongest desire of his soul in regard
to anything earthly, is our longing for the heavenly Canaan as vehement as his
for the earthly?
2. It was a holy desire. There was nothing carnal in it; nothing of
self. It was the desire of a holy man for a share in the fulfilment of the
Divine promise.
3. It was a patriotic desire. Canaan was his true fatherland, though
he had never dwelt in it.
4. It was a natural desire. Though brought up in ease, for now eighty
years he had been a dweller in tents in the wilderness, a man without a home.
How natural that he should be weary of the desert, and long for a resting
place!
5. It was a desire connected with the welfare of his nation. Israel
was to be blest “in that land of blessing, and he desired to see his nation
settled in the Lord’s land.
6. It was a desire connected with the glory of God. He knew that God
was about to choose a place wherein to set His name, and to show His glory. He
had once before pleaded, “Show me Thy glory”; and what could be more desirable
in his eyes than that he should see the manifestation of this glory, and
witness the mighty power of God in the land which he knew was to be the centre
and stage of all these?
II. His arguments
(verse 24). The first part of his argument is, “Thou hast showed me the
beginning, wilt not Thou show me the end? It is natural, even in man’s works,
when we have seen the beginning, to desire to see the end, and to expect that
he who has shown us the one will show us the other. Moses feels as if he would
be tantalised, almost mocked, by not seeing the end. He argues that God’s
willingness to show him the beginning is a pledge of His willingness to show
him all. We may all use this argument. Thou, who hast forgiven me past sin,
wilt Thou not forgive all present and all future sin? (Philippians 1:6.) The second part of his
argument is, that to stop here would leave so much undiscovered of His
greatness and mighty hand, that, for the sake of the glory to be unfolded and
the power to be revealed, he might expect to be allowed to enter. So great is
the undiscovered glory of God, and so desirous is God to reveal it to us, that
we may use this argument with Him respecting anything we desire. The third
argument looks at the very little already seen--only a glimpse. Moses pleads
this little, and because of it asks to enter Canaan. He had seen much of God’s
power, yet he speaks as if it were little; not as if undervaluing the past, but
still feeling as if it were comparatively nothing. So all that we have tasted
hitherto is small. It is in the ages to come that He is to show the exceeding
riches of His grace; and hence we may call the past a little thing, and use it
as an argument with God.
III. God’s answer.
It sounds stern; yet is the answer of wisdom and love.
1. The anger.
2. The refusal.
3. The prohibition.
IV. God’s
condescending grace. Entrance is denied, but a full vision of the land is
granted (verse 27). He strains His purpose (if one may speak so) as far
as possible, without breaking it. The actual request is denied, but something
as like it and as near to it as might be is accorded. What a favoured child
does Moses seem, even in this very scene of apparent sternness! O love that
passeth knowledge! O condescension of God, to what depths of indulgent
tenderness wilt Thou not stoop!
1. What one sin can do. One sin cost Adam Paradise; one sin costs
Moses Canaan. In the case of Moses it is the more startling, because it is a
forgiven sin, and he is a forgiven sinner. His sin is forgiven, yet it leaves a
stain behind it; it traces a testimony to its unutterable evil on the person of
the sinner.
2. What God’s inflexibility is. He cannot change. He cannot call that
no sin which is sin; nor that a small sin which is a great sin; nor that a
private sin which was a public sin. His purpose is not the easy, pliable,
changeable thing which ours is. He is the God only wise, only righteous, only
mighty, and is therefore above all such vacillations.
3. What the grace of God is. Many waters cannot quench it, nor the
floods drown it. To what lengths it will go in order to pardon a sinner or to
bless a saint! (H. Bonar, D. D.)
Consolation
There are many things in a man’s life which he desires; but these
may come and go, and yet leave the real life of the man little touched. But
there are few men who have not had once and again in their life, certainly once
at least, some great object on which they set their whole heart--some vision
that towered over all others, as Lebanon now did to the eye of Moses--some
ideal, some supreme good, that kindled their brightest and most impassioned
hours.
I. What God
refuses to grant. Take a man who has set his heart on some plan of life. It may
have been one of ambition. He has worn himself out to attain it. Every line of
his life converges to it; but at length comes his Waterloo, and he is dethroned
for ever. It may be some creation of learning or genius. He has brooded over it
in chaos, he has gathered slowly all the materials, he is about at last to
shape them by the skill and vivify them with the light of the soul within him;
but the fire grows dim, and at last dies out, and the great design and the
yearning desire stand apart for ever. It is unachieved, and he carries the
broken plan to the grave with him; he himself is cut down, while the harvest of
his life is left to waste ungathered in the darkening fields. Or it may be some
post of honour and influence. But when the time comes to seize it another steps
in, and you are left empty handed. Then, too, there are higher visions--visions
of the moral and spiritual order--left unfulfilled. Who has not felt times,
say, of conversion, when there rose upon the soul the sweet Divine dawn of
Christ’s salvation, trembling over its calmed waves and revealing transcendent
worlds of beauty; or of revival, when at a new turn on the road some heavenly
vision met us and blessed us with “a joy unspeakable and full of glory”; or of
comfort, when hope sprung immortal out of some dark grave beside which we sat
crushed and alone; or of a strange strength front on high, when we had almost
altogether perished? Such seasons have been; but see how some failing to pass
over the temptation that crossed unexpectedly our path, some mean passion
laying its arrest on our onward march, some looking away from the great
Lebanons of nearness to God, and fellowship with the very death and
resurrection of Christ, kept us from our last crowning step; and the supreme
attainment of our lives was, on this side the grave at least, lost for a while,
it may be for ever.
II. Why God refused
to grant the prayer of Moses.
1. The sin of Moses.
2. It was the last stroke of God’s chisel that Moses needed to clear
away his last infirmity.
3. It lifted Moses to a nobler elevation of character--more
unselfish, more Divine.
4. It was an opportunity such as Moses never had before of honouring
God, in the midst of disappointment, before all.
IV. What, because
of refusal, God the more grants.
1. A larger outpouring of grace into the heart of Moses. Grace of
forgiveness, grace of restored joy of God’s salvation, grace of broken bones
rejoicing, grace of fresh communion.
2. The speedier crossing the Jordan of death into the life
everlasting. (Prof. W. Graham, D. D.)
God’s refusal of desire
1. Natural to wish to enter Canaan as an object of curiosity, of
which he had heard so much; still more as an object of hope, which had been
promised so long with every enhancement. This animated the people to leave
Egypt, and encouraged them in the desert. This was the end, the recompense of
their toils for forty years, and now they had nearly reached it. How painful to
miss the prize when the hand was seizing it--to have the cup dashed even from
the lip!
2. Yet the desire was refused. God sometimes refuses the desires of
His servants, even the most eminent. He does this in two ways.
3. Sometimes He does it in love. What is desired might prove
dangerous and injurious. In many cases must a wise and good parent distinguish
between wishes and wants! A child may wish for liberty, and want restraint; for
a holiday, and want schooling; for dainties, and want medicine. Here the parent
must act, not according to the wish, but the welfare of the child. How much
better for the Jews had God turned a deaf ear to their importunity! Who knows
what is good for a man in this life? No one but God--the good God.
4. He sometimes refuses in anger. Wrath is incompatible with love;
but anger is not: anger may even flow from it. Though Christians cannot be
condemned, they may be chastened: and the law of the house is, that if the
children obey not, He will visit with the rod. Hence those saved eternally may
fall under present rebuke, and be refused many things on which they set their
heart. By such conduct Providence teaches submission to His people, and the
evil of sin to others.
5. Yet his desire was partially indulged. The command to get on the
top of Pisgah was not to tantalise him, but to be a mitigation of the severe
sentence. The preservation of his sight fitted him for the gaze--the prospect
showed him how worthy the country was of all that had been said about it; and
would give him high views of the truth and goodness of God in His covenant with
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. With this also was the influence of Divine grace
which satisfied hint and made him content with his condition. While his mind
was raised to things above, in type and emblem, to a better country, into which
he was immediately to enter--and there would be no want of Canaan. Thus in
judgment God remembers mercy, and though He cause grief yet will He have
compassion. (W. Jay.)
The long journey
1. We learn from this, first of all, that one sin may shut us out of
heaven. Moses had committed a sin long ago; since then he had done God good
service, yet that sin was not forgotten, it shut him out of the promised land.
Sin always brings its own punishment, at some time or other, and in some way or
another. Some sins, like some seeds, grow up and bear their bitter fruit very
quickly. Others lie hid for a long time, but they bear fruit.
2. Learn next, that doing good does not atone for a past sin. “All
our obediences,” says an old writer of the Church, “cannot blot out one sin
against God.” When we have forgotten our sins, God remembers them, and though
not ill anger, yet He calls for our arrears. If Moses died the first death for
one fault, how shall they “escape the second death for sinning always”? Do not
think that the old sins of your past lives are of no importance because you may
have been living decent lives of late. “I pray thee, let me go over, that I may
see the good land that is beyond Jordan.” Some of us, who have wandered these
many years in the wilderness, long very eagerly for that “rest which remaineth
for the people of God.” Many a one is tempted sometimes, when the sorrow is
very sharp and the road very tempted sometimes to say, “I pray Thee, let me go
over, that I may see the good land that is beyond Jordan.” Wishing for Paradise
will not take us there. For us all there is a work to be done, and a given time
to do it in. A quaint old writer tells us that “God sends His servants to bed
when they have done their work.” Our journey through this world must be one of
watching, of fighting, of praying, and of waiting, and when that is over our
Master will give His beloved sleep. When the American saint and hero
“Stonewall” Jackson was dying, he said, “Let us cross the river, and rest under
the shade of the trees”; so may we one day hope to cross the river of death,
and to see the good land that is beyond Jordan, and to rest under the shadow of
the Tree of Life, “whose leaves are for the healing of the nations.” (H. J.
Wilmot Buxton, M. A.)
The request of Moses
I. In regard to
the prayer itself, it may be remarked--
1. That the desire it expressed was a very natural one. He had been
looking forward, it may be, to years of honourable service and rich enjoyment,
and he might mourn in the cutting off of his days, that he was to go to the
gates of the grave, and say, as Hezekiah did under like prospects, in the
sadness of his heart, “I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord in the land of
the living. I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world.”
2. The desire expressed was a benevolent one. It was dictated by his
regard to the welfare of the people. It was a desire that he might be spared to
assist in effecting their settlement in the land of Canaan, and in establishing
such order as might promote their prosperity as a nation there.
3. The desire expressed may be regarded as a pious one, as having
been prompted by devout affection. What he had already seen had convinced him
that there is no god in heaven or in earth that could do according to His works
and according to His might; but he felt that there were wonders yet to be shown
in the introduction of His people into the promised land and their
establishment there, which might fill his mind with increasing admiration and
joy in beholding them.
II. We proceed,
then, in the second place to notice some of the reasons for which, as we may
conceive, this prayer of Moses was denied. These may have been such as the
following--
1. To mark the Divine displeasure with a part of his conduct.
2. To convey a lesson of reproof and instruction to Israel. “The Lord
was wroth with me,” says Moses, “for your sakes.” There was displeasure, then,
with their conduct, as well as with that of Moses, manifested in his removal.
And God, by taking him away, might design to tell them that they were not
worthy of such a leader.
3. It was in order to satisfy in another manner, and more fully, the
affections and desires which were expressed by His servant. The prospect of it
showed him how worthy the land was of all that the Lord said concerning it. The
reality exceeded, we may conclude, all that imagination had pictured. But there
was more in the vision enjoyed than the gratification of a natural
curiosity--there was what satisfied benevolent and pious affection. He saw the
end of his cares and toils for the people attained, and the truth and goodness
of God in His covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob vindicated. And the
vision with which he was favoured may have been, as it were, the seal of his
own reconciliation to the God whom he had offended, who now came to take him to
a more glorious recompense than if he had been spared to reign there for long
years over the tribes of Israel. And may we not conceive that when he saw the
good land that was beyond Jordan he knew that he saw in type and emblem the
better country--that is, the heavenly, which lies beyond death’s dark river.
The patriarchs who before sojourned in it as in a strange land showed that it
was thus regarded by them, and the same faith by which they walked dwelt in him
who recorded their history. (J. Henderson, D. D.)
Holy ardour after a heavenly state
I. From what
principle does this desire after a heavenly state arise?
1. From having formed a right estimate of the present world. He has
passed through the world not as a cynic. He has mixed in the world’s society,
he has tasted some of its pleasures, he has acquired some of its riches, he has
enjoyed some of its esteem; yet, by the grace of God, he has been taught to see
that “vanity of vanities” is inscribed “on all the world calls good or great”
2. From having realised the blessings of true religion.
3. From strong faith in the unspotted honour and integrity of Him who
has promised this good land to us. The Christian believes what God has
graciously revealed of this heavenly state.
II. What are the
evidences of your truly desiring a heavenly state.
1. Earth loses its attraction.
2. Religion assumes its personal importance. “Let me go.”
3. There will be a restlessness of desire while absent from the Lord.
They feel that this is not their rest.
4. Death will lose its terrors.
III. Let me now urge
you, by some appropriate motives, to aim at the attainment of this holy ardour
after a heavenly state.
1. Be convinced that it is attainable. Oh, how many Christians there
are who stop short of this holy state of mind! They seem to be quite satisfied
if they can but arrive at heaven, and never manifest any anxiety to attain that
perfection which is the great preparation for its enjoyment.
2. Be assured also, that this state is desirable. It is desirable
that you should be thus dead to this world and alive to that which is to come,
on several accounts.
Ardour after the heavenly Canaan
If we take this prayer in its spiritual sense we shall find in it
much to elevate our hopes and views beyond the passing scenes of time, and to
fix them on the more permanent realities of that eternal world to which we are
all quickly approaching. “I pray Thee,” says Moses to God, “let me go over and
see the good land.” The words of this prayer imply a strong desire, a heartfelt
eagerness, on the part of the person uttering them, to see the good land, and
not alone to see it, but to enter it and enjoy its pleasures.
I. Now we are
naturally led to the inquiry, from whence arises this feeling in the
Christian’s heart--this eagerness to see the good land? I should say, from his
having taken a proper estimate of the world. The Christian has been taught to
look above it and its low concerns to nobler objects, to heaven and heavenly
things, as the supreme object of his ambition and as his incorruptible and
undefiled portion.
II. Now, what
proofs have we that we are desiring this “good land,” this better and heavenly
country? If we are looking forward to be with God in heaven we are now
endeavouring--
1. To sit loose to the things of this world.
2. Another proof of our earnestly seeking this heavenly country is,
that we are now making religion our chief concern, that it is the most
important matter we have at heart, that our worldly engagements, of what nature
soever they may be, are all secondary to the interests of the soul.
3. Another evidence that we are advancing towards the heavenly Canaan
is that sin is becoming a matter of habitual distaste to us. (Dr. L. F.
Russell, M. A.)
The refusal
Disappointment--the very word has an unpleasant ring; but who is
fully able to describe the painfulness of the reality which this word
indicates? Just picture to yourself a traveller making his preparations in
another portion of the world to visit his dearest friends once more before he
dies. For years he has been making his arrangements with the utmost
carefulness; at the appointed time he has embarked with all his property, and
he has safely managed through the greater portion of his journey, though most
dangerous. But suddenly there rises up a violent storm that makes the masts and
tackling crack, the flail craft, though in view of the desired haven, sinks to
the bottom, and the wanderer, who came expecting rest within the circle of his friends,
finds but a grave down in the gloomy depths. “How sad a picture!” you exclaim.
It is no sadder, we reply, than the reality of many lives on earth. The public
life of Moses, as Israel’s lawgiver and guide, is, as it were, a picture set
within a flame of two great disappointments. The first is the occasion when, on
slaying the Egyptian, he fancies that his brethren should acknowledge him as
their deliverer, and finds himself most cruelly betrayed; the second, when he
sees be is refused an entrance to the promised land.
I. There kneels in
prayer a godly man to whom, as we can see at once, such intercourse with God is
not a duty merely, or a habit, but a pleasure and delight. Must we now picture
Moses in the stillness of the tent of witness, or in the boundless temple of
creation, or in the solitude of waking night? It is enough for us that he now
ventures, all alone with God, to place upon his lips the prayer that had been
already lying heavily upon his heart for days and weeks, and he receives the
answer which you know so well, but which produced, upon a heart like this, such
an amount of grief. Well may we, first of all, speak of dark dealing in God’s
providence. For who is he whom we now see driven from the throne of grace with
such inexorable severity? Is it a wicked man, to whom the wise king’s words
apply in all their force, “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law,
even his prayer shall be an abomination”? Nay, but it is the special favourite
of God, who often could succeed, by powerful intercession, in averting from a
hundred thousand guilty heads the sword of justice when it had been raised to
smite. What does he ask, that he thus stirs the wrath of Him to whom he speaks?
Some special recompense, perhaps, for years of toil; or possibly, release from
that most arduous post which he approached with such reluctance. Nay; he merely
asked for a free entrance, a short stay, in the evening of his life, in that
inheritance which God had promised to the fathers. How was that prayer
expressed? Was it with an excessive urgency, unsteady faith, in an uncourteous
tone? Nay; he himself is not afraid to own that he but asked a favour as a
guilty one; and it is quite impossible to listen to his prayer without
perceiving there the spirit of profound humility and the most hearty gratitude
Are there not many who have had such an experience as Moses underwent? A lovely
prospect smiled on you, a pilgrim on life’s path; it seemed to you a very
Canaan of terrestrial luxury; then you put forth your strongest efforts to
attain that height and call the treasure yours. Alas! you see the palm trees of
Canaan, but it is not permitted you to rest beneath their shade. Where would I
stop, even if out of the book of each man’s life I wished to do no more than
indicate the chief among the sealed-up pages bearing the superscription
“Unanswered prayers”? Verily, the Lord did not without good reason say of old
that He would dwell in the thick darkness.
II. But is it
really He, the only wise, the gracious one, the God unchangeable in
righteousness, who dwells in this darkness? Before you hesitate to answer this
in the affirmative, look back a moment from the valley opposite Bethpeor, where
the conclusion of this chapter places you, to Kadesh, which you know so well.
Such a refusal, which, viewed in itself, seems almost quite inexplicable,
harsh, at once appears in another light, when you have heard not merely what
the heart of Moses says, but also what his conscience tells. We know full well
there is a thread--often, indeed, invisible, yet natural, and such as none can
break--which forms a bond between our conduct and our destiny; and if the
history connected with each one of you were accurately known to us, it would be
far from difficult to prove that God has really good reason for the choice He
makes of such steep paths for some. At one time, weak in body, you pray vainly
for recovery of health and strength, and you exclaim, “How dark my path!” But
did you not, in younger days, employ your powers, when they were fresh, as
instruments of sin? May not your present suffering, besides, be a sharp thorn
that must remind you, through the flesh, how deeply you once fell Or yet again,
some wretched father may be now beseeching God to bring his lost son back into
his arms and to the home of God--but all in vain; the blinded one holds on in
the broad path that leads to death. But have you ever thought upon the time
when your own mother vainly urged you to forsake the sinful path? and have you
also said within yourself, “I am but punished now, in my own family, for sins
committed in my youth”?
III. But our sphere
of contemplation tends to widen out on every side. It is not merely to the
previous history of Moses, but also to the needs of Israel, that we must look
to find the true solution of the enigma connected with the firm refusal to
accede to his request. If we mistake not, the providence of God becomes
apparent here after His righteousness; and when we take a step still further in
advance, we find that we can readily extol Him for a wise arrangement in His
providence. Moses was but a man; it is impossible that one man should do
everything; it must, too, be acknowledged that he was more fitted to guide
Israel through the wilderness than lead them into Canaan. When we so rashly
raise a loud complaint because our prayers remain unanswered, do we not far too
frequently forget that we are here not for ourselves, but with and for each
other; and that He who makes provision for the wants of all, without respect of
persons, frequently must quite withhold something from one, that the fulfilment
of his wishes may not turn out for another’s injury? How much more lightly
would our disappointments press on us had selfishness less influence; and what
a multitude of instances does history afford in which God often, in His wisdom,
gave no answer to men’s prayers--at least, delayed His answer--so that in what
saddens us there might be found a germ of what would work for others’ good.
IV. But someone may
reply, it surely must have saddened Moses’ heart to think that he had been
incited to the sacrifice of his own personal, legitimate desire for Israel’s
benefit. Such an objection might be called a fair one, if the man of God,
through what he was deprived of, had been really too great a loser in the case.
But just as many a hard, uncomely shell often conceals a kernel of the sweetest
fruit, so it is with God’s chastisements; the very rods employed in smiting
drop with blessing from the Lord. He is deprived of--yes, Canaan; and that word
means--does it mean everything? No, in the eye of faith it is not everything;
it merely seems so to the mind of Moses now. Canaan is--and how could it be
otherwise?--his earthly ideal; but ideals seldom gain by being realised, and
even the Land of Promise offers no exception to the melancholy rule that there
is far more pleasure in desire than even in the actual enjoyment of prosperity.
But will it be impossible to forfeit Paradise even in Canaan? Shall sin be
unknown there? Shall death have no dominion there? Does it make such a mighty difference
to one like Moses whether death takes place on Nebo or, a few months later,
upon Zion hill? for surely to such minds and hearts the whole earth is a land
of sojourning, where all is strange. Has he been thinking of the daily cross he
must expect, because within the first few weeks he only looks upon sad scenes
of blood and tears, and afterwards finds out that Israel has certainly changed
for the better as regards their dwelling place, but not in heart? Many an
earnest prayer for longer life is utterly refused, that so the eye, closed ere
the day of evil comes, may not perceive the misery to follow us.
V. We place
ourselves upon the stand point of the world to come, and then the blessing in
disguise appears to us as an eternal ground of gratitude. But do you not yet
feel convinced, with us, that Moses has received the punishment of his offence
wholly within this present life, and that the temporary loss has been
abundantly made up by God in heaven? Well may we rest assured that all the
friends of God will have much cause for gratitude in heaven, but more
especially for this--that He has said so often, in this world, through His
strong love, “No more of this!” But do we not begin to find this out even on
this side of the grave? Many of you, in silent admiration, must acknowledge
that the principle of everlasting joy would never have been drawn out in your
hearts had not the Lord been pleased to lead you through this world by paths
where pains and crosses are familiar things. But the poor heart, that has been
cured of lusting by the sorrow it has felt, finds constantly, in overwhelming
measure, how the All-sufficient One, in a most wondrous way, makes up for what
He has Withheld by giving us Himself. (J. J. Van Oosterzee, D. D.)
The desire of Moses
The east side of Jordan had been conquered, Moses and the people
had experienced the nearness and help of Jehovah; and Moses had exhorted Joshua
to press on Without fear. It was then that--
I. The desire to
enter Canaan awoke anew in the heart of Moses--
1. A prayer, coloured by deep emotion, came from his heart like a
forest stream breaking its way through a narrowing ravine, and then dashing
over the falls.
2. Was it possible that the man of God should cry out for what lay
behind in a conquered desire? The power of earthly hopes over the heart must be
remembered. Moses remained Moses--and his heart remained a man’s heart, which
only conquers after fresh struggles, which relinquishes hope only when the
Highest unmistakably strikes through these hopes and uproots the desires of the
heart.
3. It was the hour of conquest where joy filled the hearts of the
Israelites. Was it not natural, then, that the old desire should awaken amid
this outburst of joyful hope? and that his tongue should utter that of which
his heart was full? The words of the prayer show that “the goodly mountain and
Lebanon” were before his eyes; and it was in view of them that he again prayed
and must again submit.
II. Moses’
reception of the answer to his prayer.
1. We all understand this fluctuating of the human heart. “By the
grave we stand in silence and sow the seed of tears.” But the Easter sun rises,
and in its brightness flowers bloom on the graves. Easter bells ring. In this
Easter gladness sorrow is stilled and the heart finds peace. It conquers
through Him who has swallowed up death in victory.
2. Yet does sorrow never return? We must remember that grace leaves
the heart a human heart still. “Grace blameth not thy sighing, but makes it
still and pure.” The heart still retains its deep emotions, desires, love,
hope, longing, and sorrow; and it would be an evil day for men when tears did
not bring relief, nor the words of the tongue express the emotion of the heart.
3. When a fervent desire or deep sorrow fills the believing heart it
finds relief in prayer--which sometimes bursts forth like a pent-up stream. So
it was here with Moses. He entered on this conflict in prayer, and his heart
found rest only when the clear answer came.
4. The poet is right when he thinks such conquest impossible on the
plane of the world. “The heart that here in sorrow sails by a storm-swept shore
gains peace, but on that morrow when it shall beat no more.” But it is
otherwise in the kingdom of God. Moses, in his words to the people, showed that
he had overcome and attained to rest. In his heart he was victorious when he
was led by God in His answer to his prayer to the sepulchre of his earthly
hopes. His heart did not break--the foaming waves and jagged rocks did not
wreck his faith. We almost hear the words, Not my will, but Throe be done.
III. Are such
decisive and unmistakable answers, such as this given to Moses, given from on
high now?
1. Answers in view of which all questionings and grievings cease, all
petitions withdrawn, and prayer ends in submission, thanksgiving, and victory.
2. Not precisely as they came to Moses, who lived in such close
communion with the Invisible, since only thus in that time could Divine
Revelation progress; nor as in later times to the apostle (2 Corinthians 12:9). To the apostles
as instruments of revelation the eternal world came nearer than to ordinary
men.
3. Yet even to ordinary Christian men there come indications and
messages from above which cannot be misunderstood. Not every day--not always
when we desire, but in the events of life, in the ordering of circumstances, in
the indications of the end of life drawing near, answers are often given as
clear and definite as in the words, “Let it suffice thee,” etc. And he who
understands God’s Word and has hid it in his heart, like Moses looks steadily
towards Pisgah. The spirit overcomes and looks toward the earthly Canaan, but
only to leave it. Let the heart turn, let the eye look upward to the Canaan
above! (W. Granhoff.)
Unanswered prayers
I remember many years ago one Sunday afternoon I sat in an upper
room by the side of a coffin in which lay the body of a dear child--no matter
whose child. A small boy came to me with a deep feeling, and, showing how far
sometimes children penetrate into the deep mysteries of life and spiritual
things, said to me: “Uncle, I want to ask you something.” I said, “Well?” Said
he, “Does God always give us what we ask Him for.” And I hardly knew what to
answer, and I said. “Why do you ask?” Said he, “Because I asked Him to spare my
dear little cousin, and He didn’t do it, and I do not know what to think about
it.” The child touched bottom. We have all had the same difficulty. I said to
him, “Suppose that your father should send you off to boarding school, and
should say to you, as he bade you good-bye, ‘Now, if you want anything, just
ask me for it, and I will send it to you.’ You do not suppose that he meant to
say that he would send you anything that would not be best for you? Now, God
says, ‘Ask, and it shall be given you’; but He does not say that He will give
us anything that is not best for us.” And I said, “Does that help you any?” And
he said, “I think I see.” Now, that is just as far as I have ever been able to
go--“I think I see.” But do you not see that right here is the very privilege
of praying to God? Why, if God should give us everything we ask Him for, the
very best and wisest of us would almost be afraid to pray. How many times good
people have prayed for certain things, and they did not get them. Many years
afterwards they saw that it would have been a thousand pities if God had given
them what they asked for. When we shall climb the shining steeps of heaven, and
from the light of the eternal world look back on this enigma of human life, we
shall have nothing for which to praise God more than for not having given us everything
for which we asked Him here on earth. He knows how to give. He sees what is
best. So what first may seem one of the greatest discouragements may be a
blessing in disguise. (J. A. Broadus, D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》