And Jehovah said to Moses, Get thee up into this mount Abarim, and see the land that I have given unto the children of Israel.
Moses is near the end of his life. God tells him to climb a mountain in the Abarim range and look across at the land He is giving Israel. He will see it. He will never set foot in it. The command holds two things at once: a closed door, and a personal invitation from God Himself.
Verse 14 names the reason: what Moses did at the waters of Meribah. One writer describes what happened:
Verse 14 points to one of the worst things Moses ever did. There the Lord charges him with an offence like the one the Israelites were guilty of at the same time. "Hear now, you rebels," said Moses; "shall we bring water for you out of this rock?" Then, instead of speaking to the rock, he struck it twice with his rod of power and judgment. The rock had already been struck once before, at God's command, and God meant that striking to be "once for all." (Num. 20, Ex. 17.)
The ban went further than the loss of his role as leader:
Moses must not go over Jordan. It is not only that he cannot officially bring the people over, but he cannot even go himself. Such was the ruling of the government of God.
The same verse that shuts him out also calls him up. From that height God showed him more than Israel would ever hold:
But on the other hand, grace shines out with uncommon brightness. God's own hand leads Moses to the top of Pisgah. From there he sees the land of promise in all its magnificence — not merely as Israel later held it, but as God had given it at the first.
Discipline and love ran at the same time. The view also spared him what entering the land would have forced him to watch:
God could not pass over the fault of Moses without weakening the authority of law. There was surely righteousness in the ways of God. But this did not in the smallest degree hinder the perfectness of His love to Moses. It was part of His government to chasten his fault: His grace to Moses remained entire. The ways of God made it impossible for Moses to enter the land. Had he entered, what grief it would have been for him to see the unfaithfulness of God's people, their slighting of His law, their imperfect conquest of the enemy.
One writer adds a second reason, drawn from Moses' place in Israel:
Besides the question of disobedience, there is another reason that Moses could not lead Israel into the land. Moses was the lawgiver. Law cannot bring God's people into the inheritance God has for them, even with the help of the priesthood that the law provided. It was Joshua who led Israel into their land, for his name means "Jehovah is Savior."
Commentators differ here. Another writer holds that Moses "does not represent the law here" (F. W. Grant). He reads the change of leaders another way: Christ present in person gives way to Christ working by His Spirit.
The next verse adds the words "gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother was gathered." That is a death sentence. It does not take back God's blessing:
Moses loses Canaan by speaking rashly with his lips. But does that change God's intention to bless him for ever? Is it not instead the occasion for proving that "His mercy is from everlasting to everlasting toward those who fear Him"? It may well be necessary to chasten Moses, and to hold him up as an instance of a rebellious saint. Even so, this cannot make God "alter the thing that has gone out of His lips." We afterwards see Moses on the mount of glory, with the Lord, at the transfiguration. … It greatly steadies us to see that the Lord chastens the one He loves, and He loves to the end. It is His saints whom He chastens.
Moses hears that he is about to die. His first recorded concern is not for himself:
Elsewhere we read of him pleading to be allowed to enter the good land, until God told him to speak no more of this matter. Here the LORD tells him to climb Mount Abarim to see the land, and then die. At once he prays — not for himself, but that "the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh" would "appoint a man over the congregation."
- Cause. God told Moses to speak to the rock; he struck it instead. That one act cost him the land. God's government does not overlook the failures of His most honoured servants.
- Limit. The lawgiver could bring Israel through the wilderness, but not into the inheritance. That work waited for Joshua, whose name means "Jehovah is Savior."
- Gift. The same command that barred him carried him up the mountain to see the land as God gave it, not merely as Israel would later hold it.
- Guarantee. Chastening touched his path, never God's purpose to bless him. The man shut out of Canaan later stands with Christ on the mount of transfiguration.
- Response. Hearing he must die, Moses asked God to appoint a man over the people, not a reprieve for himself.
And when thou hast seen it, thou also shalt be gathered unto thy peoples, as Aaron thy brother was gathered,
God tells Moses to climb the heights and look across at the land He has given Israel. Then he must die. The same chapter had just secured an inheritance for five daughters; now it shuts the promised land to Israel's own leader. Two questions press. Why does one failure cost so much? And what is left for a servant who may look but never enter?
The sentence on Moses has a reason behind it: Meribah, where he struck the rock. Commentators read it as God holding His servant to the consequence of his own act.
The Lord reminded Moses why he could not go over Jordan. He had rebelled against the word of the Lord at Meribah. He struck the rock in anger instead of speaking to it. Moses must therefore submit to the governmental results of his own failure. Such a lesson should speak deeply to the people of God today. We should learn to bow to God's governmental dealings.
The verse does not simply say "you shall die." It places Moses with those who went before him. Writers here separate what Scripture says of the body from what it may say of the person.
The Old Testament often says that a person "slept with his fathers" and "was buried with his fathers." These expressions refer to the body only, and follow each other in natural order. The sleeping body was buried. The expression "gathered to his people" may have a larger meaning. Perhaps it shows that the one who died had joined his forefathers in the unseen world.
Moses will end as Aaron did, outside the land. Beyond his personal fault, commentators see something fixed in the position Moses held.
The Lawgiver had brought them to the end of the wilderness, to the edge of their promised possession. But in the purposes of God, the Lawgiver could do no more than this. We are looking at Moses in his official character as the lawgiver. The law's representative could never bring God's people into the land of promise. That was impossible, because of what God's ways with men are, and because of what the law in itself is.
"See it" is not a taunt. Commentators read the command to look as kindness running beside the refusal.
Moses must not go over Jordan. It is not only that he cannot officially bring the people over; he cannot even go himself. Such was the ruling of the government of God. But on the other hand, grace shines out with uncommon brightness. God's own hand leads Moses to the top of Pisgah. From there he sees the land of promise in all its magnificence — not just as Israel later held it, but as God first gave it.
Some writers trace this further. Long after his death, Moses does stand in the land.
On the Mount of Transfiguration the Lord Jesus Christ appeared, and Moses appeared there with Him. There he stood in the land. He saw it in the company of Christ in glory. Was that not far better than if in Israel's day he had crossed the Jordan? He said not one word about it now; he could only speak about Christ. He got a far better thing than his heart could have conceived or his lips could have asked for.
The striking thing here is Moses' reply. He hears that he must go up and die, and he asks nothing for himself.
We notice, in passing, how absorbed Moses is here in the welfare of Israel. Elsewhere we read of his pleading to be allowed to enter the good land, until God told him to speak no more of this matter. Here the Lord tells him to go up Mount Abarim to see the land and then die. At once he prays — not for himself, but that "the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh" may "appoint a man over the congregation." This is very beautiful. He set self aside in nearly the same way once before, when he prayed, "please blot me out of your book that you have written."
- Verdict. God tells Moses to see the land and then be gathered to his people. He closes Canaan to Moses the man, not only to Moses the lawgiver.
- Reason. God names it — Meribah. He held His servant to the outcome of his own act, and we are to bow to such dealings, not argue with them.
- Limit. The failure was not the whole reason. The lawgiver's own position could take Israel to the edge of the land and no further.
- Grace. Inside the refusal, God's own hand leads Moses up to see the land as He first gave it. Israel would never see that much by entering.
- Glory. Later Moses stood in that land with Christ in glory, and spoke only of Him. He got a better answer than the one he asked for.