Did Moses lose his inheritance because he did not enter Canaan, if he gained heaven? Let God show us our boundaries so that we do not carry burdens that we cannot and were not meant to carry. It seems that Moses’ ways, when he repeatedly took matters into his own hands, created more harm than good. Jesus references this habit in Matthew 19, where he speaks of Moses instituting divorce.

Moses struggled with carrying the unbalanced weight of outcome on his back. He killed an Egyptian and then had to run for his life, because he thought that he could save Israel in his time, his way. After God freed them His way, Moses was killing himself with the burden of single handed leadership. He could not naturally delegate authority, and release outcome. Were it not for his father-in-law, Jethro, Moses would have worked himself into an earlier grave.

In Exodus 32:27-29, did Moses lie to the people? Did he again take matters into his own hands, and order people killed? Did he then congratulate the murderous men by telling them that they had ordained themselves for God, when God had not given them any command to kill anyone?

Did Moses convince the people that God had sanctioned his bloodbath? When he went back to God piously offering to sacrifice himself, God told him that people’s personal choices created their consequences.

Back in Exodus 23:20-32, God told the people that He would create panic among those who had been squatting on Abraham’s land for generations, so that they would leave before Israel arrived. He told Israel to destroy the gods – not the people. Was the Israelite practice of genocide created because of Moses’ lie?

In Genesis 32:35, we read of the consequences that the people activated because of their choice. This seemed to be the natural consequence that God built into the good/evil ways of being. So did Moses lie?

When Moses finally struck the rock instead of speaking to it, as God had told him, again using self-directed violence instead of following God’s way, God told Moses that he would not be able to go into the Promised Land. Would Moses have created more bloodshed than he had already built into Israelite culture if he had been allowed to go into Canaan?

Do we see how well-intentioned spiritual leaders, who have been genuinely called and equipped to lead, can create such a mess by doing things their way instead of God’s way?

And yet, Moses gained heaven. Look at God’s amazing grace. He sees beyond our actions to our hearts. What amazing grace.

Jesus came to show us God’s way of being: For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world, through Him, might be saved. John 3:17.

And as they crucified Him, He looked with love at them all, and He said “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do”.

Seek God’s ways like the Baereans; verify always whether the things that you are taught are truly His ways. Acts 17:11

God’s way is love: 1 Corinthians 13.