Map of ancient Israel
Boundary of Promised Land
Israel east of the Jordan River
12 Tribes of Israel
Map Promised Land of Canaan
Map View from Mount Nebo
Map View from Mount Nebo
View from Mount Nebo
Mount Nebo has the highest summit on the plateau, at 2,300 feet elevation, or 710 meters. That’s an especially good vantage point to view what is now Israel and Palestinian territories since the Dead Sea is about 1,400 feet below sea level, or 430 meters. That’s more than a kilometer above the Jordan River Valley, about three-fourths of a mile.Why God didn't let Moses into Promised Land
Scholars debate why God reacted wouldn't let Moses into the Promised Land of Canaan. Two popular guesses:- God told Moses to merely speak to the rock, but Moses angrily hit it with a stick—twice. Also, Moses seemed to take some credit for the miracle when he said “Do we have to bring water from this rock” (Numbers 20:9). As in God and Moses, the tag team? Some scholars say God’s complaint about Moses and Aaron in Numbers 20: 12 and 24 seem like an overreaction to what the men did.
- So, another guess is that the writer didn’t want to report what really happened. Instead, he wanted to protect the reputation of the men.
Notes
- Mountains east of the Jordan River. It includes Mount Nebo and extends south.
- Across the Jordan River from Jericho.
- It’s unclear where Mount Hor was. There’s a long tradition that connects it to Jebel Nabi Harun (Mountain of Prophet Aaron), roughly a day’s walk south of Edom’s capital city of Petra. Some scholars say that mountain was well inside the country of Edom, which is where the Israelites were forbidden to go. Another contender is Jebel Madurah. It was about a two-day walk northwest of Petra. The mountain is southwest of the Dead Sea, along what would have been the border of the Promised Land and Edom.
- Literally “the waters of Meribah-kadesh.” Meribah means to fight, argue, complain, rebel. Kadesh is a location. Scholars most often identify Kadesh, also called Kadesh Barnea, as the spring-fed oasis at Tel el-Qudeirat, on Egypt’s side of the border with Israel. Another contender is Ain Qadeis, also on Egypt’s side of the border. Bible writers put the location in different deserts: Zin Desert (Numbers 20:1) and Paran Desert (Numbers 13:26). Some theorize there were two Kadesh oases. West Kadesh and East Kadesh. Not many scholars seem to buy into that. The story of Moses disobeying God, as reported in Exodus, says Moses named the site “Pushy Complainers,” or literally in the Hebrew name, “Massah Meribah.” Massah means to test or to get pushy.
Acacia Grove camp
Map Plains of Moab, staging ground for invasion of Canaan
Plains of Moab
12 Tribes of Israel
12 Tribes of Israel
Map of the 12 Tribes of Israel
West of the Jordan River
Desert road to Promised Land
Scouting North Canaan
Scouting North Canaan
Scouting North Canaan
Scouting report
Men scouting north Canaan in the Promised Land came back with a mixed report.
27Here’s the report they gave: “We went where you told us to go. This is certainly a land where milk and honey flow like rivers. We picked this fruit there. 28The people who live there have strong defenses and large cities protected behind walls. We saw some descendants of the giant Anak. 29Amalekite people live in the Negev. Further north, Jebusites and Amorites live in the central hill country. Along the seacoast is where some Canaanites live. Others live alongside the Jordan River"...
31Other scouts who had gone with him pushed back, “We can’t beat these people. They’re too strong for us.” 32These men gave a terrible report about what they saw. They told the Israelites, “The land we just explored is too big for us. If we tried to conquer all the people there, they would put us in the ground. These are huge people we’re talking about. 33That’s not all. We saw the giant Nephilim, ancestors of the giant Anak. Looking up at them, we felt like grasshoppers. And looking down at us, they felt we looked like grasshoppers, too." Numbers 13
Too frightened to obey God
Terrified, the people refused to go any further, God or no God.
So, God put them in timeout for a generation, 40 years. One year for every day the scouts had been gone.
The only adults from that generation who would get to step on the Promised Land where the only two scouts who advised going into the land and taking it from the people, Joshua and Caleb:
29"You’re going to die in the badlands. All the men in your armies—everyone age 20 and older who complained about me—dead. 30There’s no way I’m going to let you go into the land I promised you. The only exceptions are Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun. 31I’ll bring your children there—the ones you said I’d let your enemies take for themselves. Your children will see the land you turned down. 32But you? You’re going to die in the desert badlands. "
Two-week walk in 40 years
It was 240 miles, 380 km, from Mount Sinai to Jerusalem, also known as Mount Zion. That's about a two-week walk through a lot of wasteland.
But it took Moses and the Israelite ancestors of today's Jewish people, 40 years.
They weren't that slow. They were that stubborn and stuck in their own heads. They had a habit of doing what they wanted instead of doing what God said.
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