All Is Not Lost

“And the LORD said unto Moses, Get thee up into this mount Abarim, and see the land which I have given unto the children of Israel. And when thou hast seen it, thou also shalt be gathered unto thy people, as Aaron thy brother was gathered.” (Nu 27:12-13 AV)

I always read this as the LORD’s way of reminding Moses of his failure.  I don’t know why.  This is not God’s character.  I assumed that He required Moses to look upon the land of Canaan and remind him he could not go in because of the rebellion at the rock of Meribah.  Again, that does not seem like the God we know.  As far as He is concerned, our sin is as far as the east is from the west.  When our sin is forgiven, it is forgotten.  If that is the case, then what else could be going on here?  Why would the LORD required Moses to look upon the land that he could not enter because of his rebellion at Meribah?  Maybe this is more of grace than it first appears.

We make more of our failures than God does.  If we are not careful, we may assume our failures will completely undo all that we have accomplished for the LORD.  We may go down the path of thinking that leads to total self-abasement and destruction.  We will assume the wrong we did far and above cancels out the right that we did.  Our race is not a mere solo.  We are not only running with ourselves and against ourselves.  It is also a relay race.  Our race is as much a solo marathon as it is a team effort.  Our lives intertwine with others.  They affect others.  We cannot accomplish the goal alone.  It requires the input and race of others.  The most grueling of all races that I ever participated in was the annual Klondike derby.  It was a race with a group of boys pulling or pushing a homemade dog sled through an obstacle course where our outdoor skills were tested.  The course was laid out over a half-mile.  It was a timed course.  Have you ever tried to run with heavy boots and serious winter gear on?  Not an easy thing to do.  Sometimes, a team member would not plan quite right.  He may have skipped breakfast.  He may have overdressed.  Maybe he stayed up way too late around the campfire and told spooky stories.  We had a plan.  When we rotated the ‘dogs’.  When one got tired, he would drop off and a rested ‘dog’ would take his place.  Regardless of the outcome, what encouraged us was seeing the finish line.  Even if we were the last ‘dog’ to rest, we had a part in getting there.  We may have not been our best, but seeing the result made our failures a bit more easy to manage.

 I think this is what the LORD was trying to show Moses.  Perhaps Moses didn’t know how close he had gotten the children of Israel to the prize.  Could you imagine Moses passing away not realizing how close he had gotten the children of Israel?  He might have thought his entire ministry was waste because he hadn’t accomplished a primary goal of entering Canaan.  It is important that we look beyond our mistakes and see that the LORD was able to use us far more than we may have, at first, realized.  Sure, Moses could have felt bad about not taking the children of Israel the last half-mile.  But considering where they came from, Moses accomplished far more than he may have realized.  If not for the peek over the mountain top to see just where he was.  Years ago, we had this very sweet family in our church.  They were unique, to say the least.  They lamented their children were not as far in their spiritual life as other children.  What they failed to consider was the background from which they came.  Those with whom they were comparing, came from solid homes.  They came for broken homes and severe abuse.  The parents trusted Christ and married.  Their children trusted Christ and abuse never entered the home.  It isn’t about getting from point ‘A’ to ‘Z’ without passing all the letters.  The distance between point ‘A’ and ‘B’ is the same as ‘O’ and ‘P’.  We have all failed.  The comfort we can take is that despite our failures, the LORD used us to go forward.  Maybe not as far as we hoped, but forward we went.  And, that my dear brothers and sisters, is the hope of  generations to come.  By God’s grace, you advanced the flag.  Stop looking at the hiccups along the way and look over that mountain.  Because of your labor, you advanced the future all that closer than it otherwise may not have been.