End of yearly Torah cycle pondering: Why didn't Moshe get into the Promised Land?

 

AT THE END OF EVERY YEARLY STUDY, I like to ponder some of the highlights. For instance, do you all remember that YHWH gave Moshe the Ten Commandments a total of THREE times? 

 

The first time, it was verbally, with apparently "all the people" getting to experience the power of God first-hand.

 

Exodus 20: 18 All the people experienced the thunder, the lightning, the sound of the shofar, and the mountain smoking. When the people saw it, they trembled. Standing at a distance, 19 they said to Moshe, "You, speak with us; and we will listen. But don't let God speak with us, or we will die." 20 Moshe answered the people, "Don't be afraid, because God has come only to test you and make you fear him, so that you won't commit sins." 21 So the people stood at a distance, but Moshe approached the thick darkness where God was. (CJB)

 

The second time (and YHWH told them He would do this, in Exodus 24:12) was in Exodus 31:18, which says: "When he had finished speaking with Moshe on Mount Sinai, ADONAI gave him the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God."

 

Then a THIRD time, we see this happening in Exodus 31: "ADONAI said to Moshe, 'Cut yourself two tablets of stone like the first ones; and I will inscribe on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.'"

 

Wow! What patience our Creator has exhibited, time and time again! I've often wondered if our Heavenly Parent wasn't secretly thinking that dealing with humans was like trying to herd cats... 

 

First, He gave the Ten Commandments verbally; then He wrote them on two tablets of stone and basically handed them to Moshe so he could teach the people. And then He had to deal with it a THIRD time because Moshe had broken the tablets in a fit of anger (Exodus 32:19-20) when he saw that his people had made a golden calf while he was with YHWH on Mt. Sinai (when they had, in essence, broken their covenant with God!).

 

And after that, YHWH told Moshe to cut the tablets himself and bring them to Him for inscription...

POOR MOSHE! The things he had to accomplish! ...And then, in the end, he didn't even get to enter the Promised Land of Israel! (However, I'm guessing he has been relishing his "eternal body" and "forever life" in the Presence of the Holy One - which is the ULTIMATE "Promised Land!")