a look back at moses' last look at a land he would never enter? If you look carefully, you will see the dead sea at a distance
pastor bob speaks about grace at mt. nebo
our jordanian guide points toward the dead sea and a land moses could only see from a distance
"memorial of moses" (thank God his body and tomb was never found!)Today we drove from Aqaba on the Red Sea through Mt. Nebo and arrived at the Dead Sea Marriott, where we will stay overnight. On the way here we stopped at Madaba and visited a church that commemorates an old map of Palestine made in Mosaic, a portion of it being still displayed on the floor of the church.
On the way here we passed by several important Biblical sites, including the tell which is reported to be the first place where the Israelites stopped before entering the Promised Land (already without Moses), called Shittim. We were reminded constantly about events recounted to us in the Book of Numbers, including the constant grumbling of the people of Israel against their leader, Moses, including those led by Moses' own sister, Miriam.
God struck the people and Moses asked God with serpents and Moses asked God to heal them. That's when God instructed Moses to build a bronze serpent and tell the people that anyone who looked at that serpent would be made whole. This was a precursor to what would happen with Jesus Christ, just as Moses lifted the serpent in the desert, said Jesus, the Son of Man must also be lifted up. These events took place in this very region upon which we were traveling. We understood much better why the people inclined to complain -- the terrain is rough, water is sparse, the elements are unforgiven, Moses had to fight wars and the people grew tired of the same food day and again.
Finally, Moses was exasperated with the people and instead of talking to the rock he struck it. God was angry at Moses and because of that He didn't allow him to enter the Promised Land. We visited the Catholic site on Mt. Nebo that commemorated Moses death and burial somewhere on this site.
Our guide also gave us an insight from the Bedouin culture of these parts. He said that it is customary for the bedouins to struck the rocks to release the water. According to him, God wanted to make it abundantly clear to the people that this was a miracle, not a result of a well-known practice. Because Moses was upset at the people, he disobeyed God.
On top of the area of the church commemorating this event in the life of Moses, Pastor Bob read the story and reminded all of us that we all at one point or another have disobeyed God deliberately and that it is only by the grace of God that we live and get to serve Him. We sang the first stanza of amazing Grace together then quietly spent a few moment with the Lord, in prayer, in quiet meditation, or looking at the Dead Sea somewhere in the distance, trying to imagine what it was like for Moses to stand there. We were all even more thankful for the grace of God in our lives.
Pastor Ivanildo C. Trindade
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