Moses and Joshua - Num 27:18-19

The original Korean text: http://blog.naver.com/stevision/50025357031

 

If a man has lived 120 years and has done a lot of work for God, he must now quietly step down. God said to Moses that he would die not to enter Canaan because he had carried out God's commands in a fury before people of Israel. Moses besought God to allow him to die after crossing the Jordan and treading the land of Canaan. But God took Moses' life after he led Moses to a high mountain and showed him Canaan, the other side of the Jordan.

 

Before Moses died, God appointed Moses' servant Joshua as the leader of Israel, that is, as Moses' successor. God had Moses end his life on this side of the Jordan, and had Joshua cross the Jordan with God's people and take possession of Canaan.

 

Was it only as a punishment that God forbade Moses to step on the land of Canaan? Or isn't there an ulterior purpose on that? If Moses died after crossing the Jordan, the leadership of Moses' successor, Joshua, would be severely damaged. The conquest of Canaan is harder than the life of 40 years in wilderness. God worked a miracle to make the Jordan divided and to make a road appear in the river bed, before Joshua who undertook an important task, as he divided the Red Sea before Moses who was to live with the people of Israel in the wilderness for 40 years. God let Joshua and people of Israel know that he was with Joshua as he had been with Moses before. Seeing that God uses Joshua as he has used Moses, Israelites are completely obedient to Joshua. God did not want Joshua to be ignored by the people because of the fame and influence of Moses, a deceased man.

 

The punishment of God is often for the benefit of the individual and the church. Because he is a loving God, the God takes the future of the individuals and the church into account even when he punishes them. This is God's profound wisdom.

 

Are you a Christian? And do you feel that your road of life has been blocked by God's punishment for a long time? Then it's a misunderstanding. Everything has its time. God already forgave you long ago (when you repented), and he is now looking for the best time to open your road of life.

 

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