Moses didn’t make it. What chance do we have?

When God descended upon the mountain in thunder, lightning, smoke, and the sound of a trumpet, all of Israel trembled. And they said, do not let God speak to us, lest we die. The people stood far off from God while this one man comes along, Moses, who draws near to the thick darkness where God was. He walked into the smoke of the mountain and spent 40 days and 40 nights in the presence of God. Moses was a meek man. The Scriptures describe him more meek than anyone on earth. And he was trusted by God to ultimately deliver the law of God to His people. I mean, let's just think about that for a moment, how huge that is. Moses was so close to the Father. And these are encounters with God that many of us only dream about. And yet, this Moses made a mistake. And because of that mistake, he was not allowed into the Promised Land. God said, I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there. Because in a moment of frustration, Moses said to the people, hear, you rebels, shall we bring water from this rock for you? And he struck the rock with his staff twice. And in that moment, he was disqualified. Now, that is so difficult to think about. I mean, we have to ask ourselves, what about us? I mean, you may think to yourself, like I have thought to myself, Moses was much more spiritual than I, and I'm also gonna make mistakes, maybe even bigger mistakes than Moses. So what chance do I have to enter the Promised Land? God calls us to be obedient to His commandments, and yet at the same time, the ones through whom He gave the commandments could not keep the law well enough to enter the Promised Land. Based off Moses' obedience, he was disqualified, but it was not the end. After Moses, God sent another for Israel. Joshua would ultimately lead Israel into the Promised Land, and this person Joshua is translated Joshua in our English Bibles, but it's actually the same name as the Messiah in Hebrew: Yeshua. Do you see where this is going? Moses could only take Israel so far. But only Joshua could walk them over the perimeter into the Promised Land. Moses, who was truly sent and used by God, could only take them so far. And Yeshua can bring you over the perimeter of the Kingdom into its gates. John 1:17 says, for the law was given through Moses, Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Now, this is the moment that people start getting this wrong sometimes because they walk away with this verse thinking that God is telling them to pin the law of God versus the grace of God, that they now need to pick the law of God or the grace of God. And this is what has happened in many denominations. They have jumped on one of these perspectives. Well, the truth Is way more nuanced, for the Bible says through Paul that the law is holy, righteous, and good because it shows us how God wants us to live. And at the same time, we can praise God that Joshua, Yeshua, had come so we may have that which Yeshua gave us grace and truth so that we can enter the Promised Land. Because I don't know about you, but even though I love the law of God, I want to please my Father, I also have come to realize that I make mistakes at times, and that if this relationship with Him was going to be completely based off how well I do today, That's very shaky because I'm not reliable, but Yeshua is. His obedience is perfect, unlike mine. And if I could rely on the fact that He's gracious and has truth in and through His life and has come to make a sacrifice that covers where I have faltered, then I can have Peace. See, we see that both God's desire for our obedience and His grace towards our struggles can exist at the same time. Just because He calls us to be obedient doesn't mean that we forget about the fact that we need His grace so much for when we aren't. And just because He has grace doesn't mean that we can just grab a hold of that grace and not care about our obedience. and the way we live. I want to submit to you that not only have we all struck and pierced Jesus because of our iniquities, but that's also what Moses did. In 1 Corinthians 10:4, Paul writes about this, and he says, Israel all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them. And the rock was Christ. Remember that Moses was bringing forth water from a rock for Israel so that their thirst can be quenched. And it was Israel's complaining that eventually frustrated Moses to the point where he said, you rebels, shall we bring water forth from this rock for you? Striking the rock twice. And here Paul tells us that that rock was Christ. Well, what does this all mean? So we are seeing that Moses, who represents the law of God as it was given through him, strikes the rock that represents Christ. Moses strikes Yeshua because this is what would happen at Yeshua's crucifixion. See, it's an allegory. The condemnation of breaking the law is what humanity has faced, and that condemnation is death, separation from God. But the condemnation of breaking the law, death, was placed upon Yeshua. He was struck With our lawlessness. He was struck with Moses' lawlessness. Therefore, eventually, even Moses needed the grace of Christ, and he received it. Yeshua, in His own ministry, brought Moses to the Mount of Transfiguration, where Moses met the grace of Yeshua face to face. Moses was on Mount Sinai with the Father, and here he is on the Mount of Transfiguration with Yeshua. And so while Moses may not have entered that physical Promised Land, Moses did see the spiritual Promised Land. He saw the face of Yeshua. And so we are also at times going to feel like Moses. Trying our best to obey God, yet making a mistake. Or like Peter, trying his best to follow his master Yeshua, and then making a mistake. In Peter's case, not once or twice, but three times. But what is most important is what happens when we make a mistake. In both Moses and Peter's cases. they repented. They asked God to renew them, to save them, to deliver them. They recognized that they cannot save themselves. Their obedience is not perfect, and because it's not, how could they face the perfect one, the one whom is good? They realized that only God could save them, and so I want us today to be reminded that Only God can save us. Lift up your head. Repent of your sin, for a spiritual Promised Land awaits through the One that came to save Moses, you, me, and all who call on Him. And Moses knew that this was needed. That's why he said, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, From your brothers, it is to him you shall listen. So what did Yeshua tell us? Next week, we're going to look at someone who came to Yeshua and asked him, "What is the greatest commandment? What is the most important thing that we should know?" And we're going to see what he has. To say today, I want to pray for you. I want us to come to this realization of what we have learned: Moses is precious, and Yeshua is our Savior. Lord, we repent, and we ask that You would help us to see ourselves in the mirror, to see how much we need Yeshua as Savior to take us over the. perimeter into the kingdom. Lord, we cannot do this on our own. And we repent where we have thought otherwise, where we have acted otherwise, where we have pointed a finger unrighteously in pride. Help us, Lord, to be made new from the inside out by Your Spirit in humility so that we can be humble. And Lord, I thank You so much, my Lord, that Where we have made mistakes, just like Moses or Peter, You come and You forgive us when we repent. And You make a way where there is no way. Yeshua, I thank You that even those of us who have made terrible mistakes, who may feel terror, who may feel like You could never forgive us for what we've done, I thank You. That You say if we come and we ask for forgiveness, that You are faithful, that You are righteous to forgive us. Lord, I pray for those who do not know You, or those who say they know You but who don't know how deep Your love and Your grace runs. I pray that You would make that manifest to them now with the sound of my voice. I thank You, Yeshua, for dying for us on the cross. In the name of Yeshua, amen. Thank you so much for joining me. Comment below about this, any questions, anything that you've been wondering about, and join me next week as we discuss the greatest commandment. From the perspective of our Messiah.