Promised Land

So the Israelites at that time didn't know anything else.

They had never been to the promised land.

They knew nothing about it.

So even though they were enslaved and oppressed, it's the only thing they'd ever known.

So when I was in Jerusalem, I also went to Jordan and literally wandered around in the very same wilderness that it talks about in the Bible.

And then we went to Mount Nebo.

Mount Nebo is where the Israelites went right before they were able to go to the Promised Land.

From Mount Nebo, they look out and they can see the Promised Land across the Dead Sea.

Have you ever been afraid to try something that looks scary? You might want to push pause on this episode and talk about your answer.

Well, today we're talking about 12 spies who were sent to look at the promised land and what they saw was scary.

We'll get to that in a minute, but first let's go back in the Bible to Genesis chapter 12.

In Genesis chapter 12, God had promised Abram that he would bring him to a new land.

So he, Abram, built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him.

So, Moses and the Israelites had heard and knew the promise that God had given their ancestor Abraham.

And now here they are, not far from that promised land.

They're in the desert, but God's slowly moving them towards that promised land.

Deuteronomy chapter 28 says, was Moses' sermon, the whole book of Deuteronomy is Moses' last sermon to the people.

They're getting ready to go into the promised land.

They are camped on the plains of Moab, which is east of the Jordan River, and they're getting ready to cross the Jordan River to go into the promised land.

They were supposed to do that 40 years earlier, but they didn't go in when God told them to go in.

And now here they are 40 years, fast forward 40 years, and Moses is 120 years old.

He's preaching his last sermon to these people.

And he's getting ready to go up to the mountain to die.

And they're getting ready to go into the promised land.

Do you remember this story? I think it's in Joshua, perhaps, where the people of Israel cross the Jordan River.

And it's as they're going into the Promised Land, I believe.

And I may get the setting wrong, but I believe this is what's happened.

And they set up their stones of remembrance.

And so these discoveries They don't prove every theological claim made about Israel, but they do demonstrate that ancient Israel and the Davidic dynasty are not simply modern inventions.

You understand, the original promised land that God gave Abraham, the only time Israel inhabited all of that land was during the reign of David and Solomon.

And so that's why we talk about the Davidic dynasty all the way up in the north.

And, of course, many other things.

To claim otherwise is really to confuse the modern organization of a movement with ancient origins of the people that it represents.

And so if you look at the story here from ancient Israel to the modern-day state of Israel, I want to follow that history a little further.

You know, according to the biblical record, Israel became a nation, entered the Promised Land, established a monarchy, and made Jerusalem its national and spiritual center under King David.

And then, of course, Solomon later built the first temple in Jerusalem.

Every single aspect throughout Genesis, the Pentateuch is fulfilled in Joshua, even to that extent that Joseph's bones are going to be buried

in the Promised Land.

And so we're seeing that with this covenant, of course, there are certain things that we may not have talked about now, like the signings or the rock under the terebinth, which you see being a continuous reminder, it's a continuous witness to them.

Or we may not have gone on to expound about Joshua writing this in the book of the law or that statement that is indeed him ratifying the covenant that is being made.

They receive the Ten Commandments, the law at Mount Sinai.

Now, the journey from Mount Sinai to the Promised Land was only about a few weeks.

And they get there after a few weeks.

They send a few spies in to scope out the land with milk and honey.

And Moses is dead.

Moses gets old and dies.

Not only that, Moses actually was disqualified from the promised land.

Many of us can think about leaders that have failed.

What I was saying twice when you couldn't hear me is that I was apologizing for I stopped reading the Geneva Bible at Deuteronomy 2. eight, nearly five weeks ago.

And I was sharing that I think unconsciously, I couldn't bear to keep reading because we know that Moshe, who is summing up the journey right now in these chapters for the children of Israel as they are on Mount Nebo in now Jordan, preparing to enter the promised land, cross the Jordan River and enter the promised land, We know he's going to die and he's going to die being fully able to visually see the Holy Land, but not able to cross with the children of Israel and take possession of it and settle in it.

And that just seems very heartbreaking.

I mean, what a character Moshe has turned out to be in all of world literature.

And he's not a sadist.

But when And usually the rabbis, you know, when I have questions about this, they give me answers that are satisfying to me.

But I can't process the death of Moshe being forbidden to enter the promised land because it does seem harsh and it does seem punitive and unnecessary.

So I'll bring you back the answers that I get from the rabbis if I'm honored to get an explanation from them.