Deuteronomy 3:23-26
At that time I pleaded with the LORD: O Sovereign LORD, you have begun to show to your servant your Greatness and your strong hand. For what God is there on heaven or on earth who can do the deeds and mighty works you do? Let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan -the fine hill country and Lebanon. But because of you the LORD was angry with me and would not listen to me. “That is enough,” The LORD said. “Do not speak to me any more about this matter…”
In Exodus (3:1-10) God appears to Moses, through an angel, in a burning bush, and speaks - out loud - to him, for the first time.
In Exodus 3:11 Moses starts arguing with him. (seriously? - come on!)
Right from the start, Moses argues, reasons, and pleads with the LORD. There are number of different reasons for all that “back-talk”. Usually it has something to do with some outrageous sin the Israelites have committed. But not always. He throws himself facedown on the ground and pleads, petitions, argues, implores, reasons, disputes - over and over again.
And YAHWEH listens. He relents. He changes his mind.
Over 40 years, God speaks with Moses, face to face. And Moses is a true servant of God. It’s a relationship that seems almost incomprehensible to me in this time and this place.
And yet, in the end, when Moses is begging God to allow him to go into the promised land…
God says no.
Final word.
No.
The funny thing is, I can't find any solid explanation as to why. The story in Numbers 20:1-13 Doesn’t give me much to go on. The reason for God’s anger is vague, with no clear cause/effect correlation. And here, in Deuteronomy, Moses blames the Israelites. (That’s a whole other blog!)
It makes me wonder about God.
Who is this God who I can approach boldly, honestly, freely? A God who I can lay my life and heart out before. A God who is close, who listens, who is swayed by my petitions and even changes His mind. And yet, sometimes, even when my intentions are as pure as I can possibly make them, my arguments are as sound as they can be, for reasons that I can’t comprehend …
He says no.
It makes me wonder about myself.
What if I were convinced that I could pray hard enough, long enough, discipline myself and my intentions enough, and do everything just right. What if I thought that I could work at “it” and myself diligently, and could figure out just what would make God happy, avoid anything that would make him angry, and be good enough - and then - he would answer all my prayers and petitions with a “yes”…
It makes me wonder.
