Deuteronomy 3:23-26 And I sought the LORD at that time, saying,… I. OBSERVE THAT MOSES HERE CALLS HIS OWN SIN TO REMEMBRANCE. The plank which broke beneath one's weight is not apt to be kept as a sacred relic or treasured with fond affection. The place associated with some sin whose memory makes us blush, or some blunder so foolish as to be worthy only of an idiot, is not a place which we delight to revisit. Therefore it is the more remarkable that when Moses, in life's latest hour, reviews God's mercy to His people, he should not pass over the one great blunder and sin of his own career. But with the finger of transparent honesty he touches the sorest spot in his memory. II. OBSERVE WHY GOD DENIED MOSES' APPEAL. 1. We must not forget that what Moses sought from God was a temporal, not a spiritual blessing. 2. Perhaps, too, God may have refused the appeal of Moses because it humbled him and made him feel his complete dependence on God's grace to save him. 3. It may be, too, that the Divine refusal was only a part of the process by which God was fitting Moses for a better inheritance than Canaan. When the denial of his prayer was first made there were yet two years before him ere his earthly pilgrimage should end. Into those two years God was crowding the final work of preparation of His servant. Said Beethoven once of some famous musical composer, "He would have been a great musician if he had only been terribly and mercilessly criticised." (Bp. Cheney.) Parallel Verses KJV: And I besought the LORD at that time, saying, |
    |