One of the greatest lessons we can ever learn—as Moses eventually did—is that failure is not final.
Earlier in our studies, we thought about God’s Yes actually being a No. The people harassed Him into giving them meat like the good old days when they “sat by the pots of meat” in Egypt (Ex 16:3). But in fact they were the bad old days, weren’t they. They had forgotten the slave master’s lash and the exhausting brick-making. The enemy of our souls wants us to have selective memories which remember and forget all the wrong things. Imagine remembering with fondness Pharaoh’s hospitality and forgetting the faithfulness of God! When someone starts saying things like “My unbelieving friends at work are more understanding than the Christians,” watch out! Egypt-itis is sure to end badly. I’m so glad it’s the other way around with the Lord. David said, “Do not remember the sins of my youth,…according to Your mercy remember me, for Your goodness’ sake, O Lord” (Ps 25:7). God sends our sins away into Forgetful Sea, then sits us down at His Table of Love. But at the end of Deuteronomy 3, we have God’s No that actually became a Yes. Moses pled with the Lord to let him cross over with the people, but, he writes, “the Lord was angry with me on your account, and would not listen to me. So the Lord said to me:…Speak no more to Me of this matter’” (3:26). But with God, grief is never the end of the story for His people. He trades “beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness” (Isa 61:3). Moses would make it into the Promised Land alright (Mt 17:3), seeing the Man of Galilee resplendent in Kingdom glory. In this life, Christians can afford to be disappointed, because our Jesus will more than make it up to us when we “appear with Him in glory” (Col 3:4).