Stopping Short
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? -Deuteronomy 3:24
This was the beginning of a prayer that Moses made to God. Notice that Moses says that God has begun to show him His greatness. At the time of this prayer, God had already given Israel a pair of great victories over their enemies: they had begun to see the goodness of God, and how He was bringing them in to the promised land.
Moses was stopped short
His prayer continues as he asks God to go into the promised land with the people; but he was stopped short. Not on account of his own wickedness, but because of the people’s disobedience: “But the LORD was wroth [angry] with me for your sakes, and would not hear me” (Deuteronomy 3:26).
But the people had been in this position before. Exactly 40 years earlier, to be precise.
On their first chance, the people stopped short
If you recall, God had shown the people many signs, wonders, and miracles in delivering Israel from Egypt, and leading them through the desert. But they came to the brink of the promised land and stopped short out of fear.
However, on the second try, some 40 years later, they were faced with a different threat: appeasement.
They were satisfied with only a foretaste of God power
If you recall, God had already given the people two military victories on the safer side of the Jordan river, before you enter the promised land. And so, some of the people saw that the land that they had currently taken was good too, and didn’t see any reason to go over to the promised land.
Wherefore, said they, if we have found grace in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants for a possession, and bring us not over Jordan. -Numbers 32:5
This time, the people were not hindered by fear, but instead, by indifference. And Moses had seen this rebellion before, and he wouldn’t have a single word of it. He quickly rebuked the tribes that wanted to stay back:
And wherefore discourage ye the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the LORD hath given them? Thus did your fathers, when I sent them from Kadeshbarnea to see the land. -Numbers 32:7-8
Furthermore, the danger for the people was very real. The last time they rebelled and refused to go into the promised land, the entire generation wasted away in the desert for 40 years, until the next generation of Israelites came forth.
Now it was their turn to go up into the promised land, and when Moses heard the new proposal of the people, he not only wouldn’t hear it, but he somberly warned them of what had happened to their parents, those that had rejected God’s guidance in the previous generation:
And, behold, ye are risen up in your fathers’ stead, an increase of sinful men, to augment yet the fierce anger of the LORD toward Israel. For if ye turn away from after him, he will yet again leave them in the wilderness; and ye shall destroy all this people. -Numbers 32:14-15
Those are grave words indeed. Thankfully, they listened to Moses’ words on the second time around.
Don’t be satisfied with only a foretaste
Certainly a lesson can be learned from all of this. While it is a sin to be fearful to go and fight for God’s best, and reach out and grab hold of His blessings; it is equally a sin to sit down and become appeased with what God has done for us in the past. We ought not to let mere foretastes of God cause us to miss out on the main course!
The apostle Paul was one person who never let past instances interfere with His present goals. He was continually marching forward toward God’s calling:
But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. -Philippians 3:7-14
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