Deuteronomy 3:23

"And I besought Jehovah at that time, saying, O Lord Jehovah, thou hast begun to show thy servant thy greatness, and thy strong hand: for what god is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy works, and according to thy mighty acts? Let me go over, I pray thee, and see the good land that is beyond the Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon. But Jehovah was wroth with me for your sakes, and hearkened not unto me; and Jehovah said unto me; Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter. Get thee up unto the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and behold with thine eyes: for thou shalt not go over this Jordan. But charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him; for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land thou shalt see. So we abode in the valley over against Beth-peor."

"What god is there ...?" "These words do not prove that the writer believed in the real existence of heathen deities."[21] On the other hand, as Harrison said, "Moses is here making clear his conviction of the supreme power of God as the one and only true deity, but at the same time acknowledging that the worship of pagan gods was a possibility."[22] People should not misunderstand Moses' mention of those pagan gods. The worship of such so-called "gods" was everywhere in the land of Egypt, and all over the world of that period. After witnessing the triumph of Jehovah over all the pagan gods of Egypt, Moses could have had NO faith whatever in the reality of any such "gods." "There can be no doubt about the genuine monotheism of Moses."[23]

"Thou shalt not go over this Jordan ..." One's heart goes out on behalf of Moses here. His experience is like that of many of the rest of God's servants who behold the sun of life sinking upon their efforts while the great achievements they had hoped to finish are yet incomplete. Moses, like many another, was compelled to learn that God buries His workmen, but His work goes on. "All people must share the sense of incompleteness which belongs to the human condition."[24]

Evidently, Moses hoped to enter Canaan. He knew, of course, that God had already told him that he had forfeited this right, but he sought a change in God's mind. The terse words of this passage have the meaning of, "No! Moses; my decree is unalterable."[25]

"For your sakes ..." The best way to understand this is that God's impartiality regarding the sins of men would have been compromised by allowing Moses a special privilege. All Israel had been forbidden to enter Canaan because of the people's sin, and Moses also had been forbidden to enter because of his sin. It could not have been viewed by all the people as righteous if God had simply permitted Moses to enter despite the Divine prohibition. That God truly loved Moses is indicated by the fact of his being permitted to view the whole expanse of Palestine from the top of Pisgah. Also, when Jesus took his apostles upon the slopes of Hermon for the transfiguration, Moses indeed entered Canaan, and stood on that "goodly mountain" with the Lord himself, and that was a far more wonderful thing than had been denied to him in this chapter.

"Get thee up unto the top of Pisgah ..." Harrison tells us what a wonderful view of the entire Holy Land is possible from such a vantage point:

"From this vantage point can be seen snow-capped Hermon to the north, the Dead Sea, the Negeb, and other areas of western Palestine. This Pisgah was that same mountain the crest of which was called Mount Nebo in Deuteronomy 34:1, which is opposite Jericho, most likely the mountain now called Jebel Osha."[26]

There are many typical resemblances between Moses and the Lord Jesus Christ, but we do not believe that "for your sakes" in this chapter is a reference to anything done vicariously by Moses for Israel's benefit. This cannot take away the typical excellence of the Great Lawgiver as the unsurpassed O.T. type of Christ. Nevertheless, we fail to be impressed with what appears to us as a forced comparison as in the following quotation:

"`For your sakes ...' This prefigures Our Lord according to the flesh; Moses could not enter the land. He had to come under the Divine wrath on account of the people and endure, as it were, the suffering of death for their sakes."[27]

"Beth-peor.." mentioned here is located in the vicinity of Mount Peor (Numbers 23:28). "The name means `house of Peor,' no doubt derived from a temple of the Moabite god Peor."[28] This location was no doubt near to the site of the shameful defection of Israel at Baal-Peor, as recorded in Numbers 25-26. It was from this area that the initial entry into Canaan occurred.

Near the end of this chapter (Deuteronomy 3:27), God commanded Moses to view all of Palestine in all directions from the top of Pisgah. Recent studies regarding the laws and customs of those times show that by this action of Moses' viewing of the promises land, "Moses was here invited to take actual possession of the promised land on Israel's behalf. The legal transfer of property took place when the purchaser looked it over."[29] Phillips also declared that, "This method of the transfer of land was also found in Roman law."[30] It is also a deduction of his that we have further evidence of this legal device in the temptation of Jesus (Matthew 4:8f), when Satan showed Jesus all the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them, offering them to Christ in return for Christ's worshipping him. This would mean that it was actually a sale, quid pro quo, that Satan there attempted to make. If such conclusions as these are allowed, they would also change the interpretation that men have been following for generations in the parable of Luke 14:18, in which the excuse-maker said, "I have bought a field and must needs go out and see it." This has always been considered an idle and paltry excuse, being in fact a totally unnecessary thing, but Phillips' view is that the man was actually in the process of "taking legal possession"[31] of his purchase. It is a minor point, of course; because, even if that had been the case, it was no legitimate grounds for his turning down an invitation like the one he had received.