Never making it into the Promised Land

But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.” 

Numbers 20:12

Moses didn't make it into the Promised Land. It's true. He didn't physically go into the land that was promised in that moment to the Israelites.  He stood at a high place and peered into what had been promised, but he didn't make it in. His disobedience kept him out and he died. It's recorded in Deuteronomy.

Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo...There the Lord showed him the whole land...Then the Lord said to him, “This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.”     And Moses the servant of the Lord died there in Moab, as the Lord had said. He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is. Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone. The Israelites grieved for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the time of weeping and mourning was over.

 Deuteronomy 34:1-8 

Moses did not physically enter the promised land, but I say he did make it in.  Moses' made it in the Promised Land in the hearts and souls of the people he led out of Egypt.  His departure left a void - left a crack in the community. Joshua didn't fill it. Joshua couldn't fill it. No one could. It was a Moses-shaped crack that was to be held by the community.  

I suppose that's partially why God hid his frame (his body) so that no one would demand to physically hold him.  We are to hold the space of the leaders before us in our hearts and souls, by living out and practicing what they have taught us. That is how they move forward with us.  Each and everyone of us is made up of the people who have poured their lives into ours, in the seasons that they have been with us.  We have the wonderful task of holding the space that was crafted and molded by them, even when they are gone.   That's how we honor them. That's how we hold them even when they have departed. 

There's something else though.  Moses was not kept from THE Promised Land.  

After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.  

Matthew 17:1-3

Thousands of years later, Moses is seen on the Mount of Transfiguration, as a vision from God.  God had not forsaken Moses. While the physical, geographical Promised Land was out of his reach, he was enveloped in the eternal Promise! Israel went on.  Israel never forgot him. They were changed forever by him.  They held the space that he had crafted within their hearts and stepped into the Promised Land.

Although we may not go into the geographical Promised Land, we are not removed from the Promise! And although we lose people, we can trust in the Promise of redemption, restoration and reconciliation! Not just trust in it, but live into it!