From Moses to Joshua; From Wilderness to Promise Land

In Deuteronomy 34, we see in the first four verses where God took Moses upon the mountain to allow Moses to see the Promise Land, but not enter it. It was because of Moses' disobedience of striking a rock with his staff instead of speaking to the rock to yield water that caused God to punish Moses by not allowing Moses to enter the Promise Land. Here, we see the old generation and thinking come unto it's timely death and a new leader and a new generation getting ready to take what God had promised them. In the remaining verses within chapter 34, we now see that Moses had died at 120 years old with his physical health and vision still intact. It is in these scriptures that we discover that the Lord buried Moses to the point where nobody knew where Moses was buried. I find this very interesting that the Scriptures explicitly state that Moses was buried, but nobody knew where he was buried.

Even though the Scriptures does not state why God buried Moses in this fashion, I feel deep within me that the reason God buried Moses in this fashion was to break a spirit and mentality of nostalgia and yearning and worshipping the past. This was the generation that saw their forefathers constantly yearning to go back to the strongholds and familiarity of Egypt. One has to wonder if the grave of Moses was discovered, would the Israelites attempt to bring back the past or hold the body of Moses as a sacred idol of totemic proportions? This thinking was clearly seen in Isaiah where the Nehustan (a serpent made out of Gold remembering the times of Moses in Egypt before Pharoah) was broken because the people wanted to worship a mighty work of the past and yearn back to the past when God wanted to take them to the next stage of His promises. Just as Moses died and Joshua took over, old movements of God come into pass and a new move of God comes shortly thereafter. It was God's will for Moses to enter the Promise Land but Moses failed the test. In the Promise Land a new work and a new way of God's sovereign move was going to take place. Moses showed by striking the rock for water instead of speaking to the rock to receive water that Moses was not open to new moves of God.

We see this today in the modern church, the Moses that lead a past movement are still trying old stories of camp meetings years ago, old traditions, country gospel singings, and old methodologies in an attempt to reach people when God wants to do a new thing on earth to become victors and conquerors. Where Moses did not complain about the passing of the old into the new, many of the leaders of the older movements of God have complained and have risen up against the new moves of God led by the modern day Joshua's. To them, the leaders of today can not ever be as "gifted" and more "anointed" as their contemporary heroes known to them as "great men of faith". If this was in discussion to the anointed son and daughter of a famous tent evangelist, the mentality spoken would be "He does not have near the anointed power of God that his daddy had." Therefore, the daddy is used as the measuring stick and benchmark instead of the God that blessed the legacy and heritage of that family. Where these followers of God in the past movement (in some cases, they follow the move itself instead of the God that brought the movement), do everything to preserve the music, messages, mentalities, methodologies, and ministry of their great men of faith, they have forgotten that they were once the Joshua generation that took a risk by entering into a promise land that the Moses mentality before them could not enter. In fact, the nostalgia of these past moves act as a soma to either cope with or deny that these transitions are taking place. In fact, we see in the transition from the prophet Elijah to the prophet Elisha that when Elisha appeared, many were still out looking for Elijah thinking that God might have dropped Elijah on top of the mountain alive somehow. Elisha was here to fulfill his calling and the people were still yearning for Elijah to come back and thinking that Elijah would eventually come back.

After Moses died, Joshua and the Israelites went through a grieving and mourning period for thirty days, it was in this time of transition where Joshua took over and the Israelites remembered and laid to rest the works of Moses and prepared themselves for the new work of Joshua. Joshua, already prepared and blessed by God through the commandments laid forth by Moses, transitioned into his role as the leader. If you look at the scriptures in the book of Joshua, we see that God acknowledges the death of Moses and commands Joshua to get the people ready to cross the Jordan to enter in the Promise Land. It is clearly seen that the old works of Moses were now being replaced by the new miracles of Joshua. Even though the leaders and the movements changed, the Word from the Lord did not change. In fact, the Lord told Joshua to keep the commands from the Lord given to Moses as they entered the Promise Land and conquered the enemies of God.

In Joshua chapter three, we see that Joshua prepared the people by ordering them to consecrate themselves for the crossing of the Jordan river. It was the next morning where Joshua led the Israelites through the Jordan river by asking the priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant to walk first. When the priests walked into the Jordan river, the river went to the near flooding state it was in during harvest season to being stopped miles away on both sides and the riverbed began to dry up allowing a solid path for the people and the animals to cross over. In the Jordan River, the priests with the Ark of the Covenant stood there holding the Ark until all the people and their possessions completely crossed over to dry ground. Here, Joshua made a memorial in the middle of the river with twelve stones signifying this event as a memorial to the miracle of God. It was after this crossing of the Jordan that God's chosen people began their quest for conquering the enemies and possessing the land that God promised them. Throughout the rest of the chronological Old Testament, the Israelites constantly struggled with defeating the enemies in the Promise Land. Much of this was due to the fact that the Israelites did the exact opposite of what Moses told the Israelites not to do, that was to intermingle and intermarry with the peoples. We still saw a people that God removed their ancestors from Egypt yearn for a nostalgia of the Egypt way of sinful living.

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