Thoughts on Repeated Errors
And the Promised Land:
The Promised Land is Not for Everybody
The “Promised Land” (Genesis 12: 7)! Since
childhood and all his life, Moses had heard
about it and dreamed of it. He was attached
to it and was looking forward to it. But unlike Abraham who
saw it and lived in it, Moses never saw it till on his death bed
and would never experience it, all because of one repeated
error.
At the beginning of his career, Moses was enough attached to
it that he took the side of an aggressed fellow Hebrew, but the
wrong way: he let his anger kill the aggressing Egyptian (Exodus
2: 12) which cost him his privileged position as Prince of Egypt
and sent him on a 40 years’ leadership retreat in the desert.
Then, while leading Israel towards Canaan, he repeated a
similar error: he let his stress express itself in striking a watergiving
rock twice, and with anger (Numbers 20). The consequences
of keeping to that error of expressing stress in a
wrong way was the cause for his not being able to experience
the Promised Land more fully: “You will see the Promised
Land, but you will not go there” (Deuteronomy 32: 51-52).
Moses did enjoy a full earthly pilgrimage during which he
experienced the divine blessing of seeing God at work every
step of the way; and the promise of greater rest was eventually
fulfilled by his experiencing the Heavenly one in his death. Yet,
his dream of experiencing more of earthly Canaan down here
was not all fulfilled as he had wished, all because of one
repeated error.
Our Repeated Errors have Consequences.
The repeated error each one of us do in dealing with our life
challenges can take many shapes: for some it is a relational or a
social pattern, or a mode of being (such as dishonesty, laziness
or overworking), while for others it can be an addiction or the
repeated neglect of their physical health. The “Promised
Land” (i.e., what you dream of experiencing in the future) also
takes various shapes for each of us: another birthday or
another Christmas, an event or a trip, the wedding of a child
or the birth of a grandchild.
For all of us, the experience of life is always cut short: life is
always an unfinished business. Also for all of us, life is rich: like
Moses, we can enjoy what we have of pilgrimage years by
noticing God’s care to us through them in every way, and by
being assured by faith of God’s promise of greater ultimate
rest. But be careful! Take action! Remember that our repeated
error can cut our experience of a fuller earthly life shorter
than it otherwise could be. The privilege of life will not be
extended to you further than it was for Moses. Repeated
errors have their consequences.
With Love,
Pastor Sam
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