Why didnt moses enter the promised land

Get In Touch Menu. No products in the cart. Why did Moses not enter the Promised Land? Jason D'Ambrosio January 24, Share on facebook. Share on twitter. Share on pinterest. Why did Moses not enter the promised land with his people?

Imagine leading a group of people through the wilderness for decades only to not be allowed to reach the intended destination. This article will explore why he and Aaron everyone forgets Aaron missed the opportunity to continue on to the land of milk and honey. Why did Moses not enter the promised land? At some level, every time we fall as humans it is a faith issue.

But, understanding the steps that actually got us into the trouble is helpful. So why were Moses and Aaron punished?

This is because both of you broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin and because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites. Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance; you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel.

After 40 years of wandering and God providing every step of the way, they faced a situation where water was scarce. The Israelites became angry and turned on both Moses and Aaron. There was no water for the congregation, and they assembled against Moses and Aaron. Why did you make us come up from Egypt, to bring us into this wretched place? It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, nor is there water to drink! However, the greater the person, the more exacting are the standards God sets.

Moses was not only a leader but the supreme role-model of the Israelites. Seeing his behaviour, the people may have concluded that anger is permissible — or even that God was angry with them, which He was not. Joseph Albo and others including Ibn Ezra suggest that the sin lay in the fact that Moses and Aaron fled from the congregation and fell on their faces, rather than standing their ground, confident that God would answer their prayers.

Abarbanel makes the ingenious suggestion that Moses and Aaron were not punished for what they did at this point. Rather, their offences lay in the distant past. Aaron sinned by making the Golden Calf. Moses sinned in sending the spies. Those were the reasons they were not privileged to enter the land. To defend their honour, however, their sins are not made explicit in the biblical text. Their actions at the rock were the proximate rather than underlying cause a hurricane may be the proximate cause of a bridge collapsing; the underlying cause, however, was a structural weakness in the bridge itself.

First he should have given them water, showing both the power and providence of God. Only then, once they had drunk, should he have admonished them. Difficulties, however, remain. Could he not forgive Moses? Third is the tantalising fact that, on a previous occasion in similar circumstances, God had told Moses to take his staff and strike the rock: precisely the act for which for Rashi and many others he was now punished:.

They are almost ready to stone me. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will stand before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.

It is with the deepest trepidation that one hazards a new explanation of so debated a text, but there may be a way of seeing the entire episode that ties the others together and makes sense of what otherwise seems like an impenetrable mystery.

Did Adam have a book? Rather, it teaches that the Holy One, blessed be He, showed Adam in advance , each generation and its interpreters, each generation and its sages, each generation and its leaders.

One of the most striking features of Judaism is that it is not centred on a single figure — a founder — who dominates its entire history. To the contrary, each age gave rise to its own leaders, and they were different from one another, not only in personality but in the type of leadership they exercised.

First came the age of the patriarchs and matriarchs. Then came Moses and his disciple Joshua. With Saul, monarchy was born — though even then, kings were not the only leaders; there were prophets and priests as well. Then came elders, sages, masters of halakhah and aggadah. Chatam Sofer in one of his Responsa Orach Chayyim, 12 notes that though the Nasi was a scholar, his role was as much political as educational and spiritual.

He was, in fact, a surrogate king. The Middle Ages saw the emergence of yet more new types: commentators, codifiers, philosophers and poets, alongside a richly varied range of leadership structures, some lay, some rabbinic, others a combination of both. Leadership is a function of time. Satan should not play trick on. Lord, please make me to know that you are our Almighty God.

Thank you for the well written answer but why is the scripture not referenced in this commentary? This post does reference the Scriptures. It does that by providing hyperlinks identifiable as blue, underlined text that lead directly to online versions of the passages that are quoted. Throughout this blog it is my practice not to reference the Scriptures by chapter and verse, since the chapter and verse divisions were added to the Bible centuries after it was written and they are often misleading about the structure and literary character of the biblical books.

Instead, I reference by key phrases that are linked to the fuller text of the Bible online. The free study guides that are available through this blog see link at the top of the page enable people to approach the Bible not through chapters and verses but through natural literary structures. The second post is the first in a four-part series, and all the posts in the series may be of interest.

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There are different possible answers suggested. Some say it is because Moses struck the rock instead of speaking to the rock, as God had commanded Others say it was because Moses took credit for the miracle, saying "shall WE bring water for you.