Deuteronomy 3 - God's Perfect Mercy and Plan

I love God's appointment of Joshua and Moses' plea to God to allow him to see the promised land because it shows so many aspects of who God is. Moses wouldn't have even asked God for mercy if he didn't know that God wasn't merciful and forgiving, however, God uses this moment to show that people in leadership positions are held to a much higher standard when it comes to representing who He is. Simply misrepresenting God as angry when God was not angry was enough to have a punishment stick without forgiveness. Leaders need to be extremely careful with protecting the truth about God and teaching it to others.

God also used this moment to teach that God's justice and plan are perfect no matter the person. Moses was considered one of the closest men to God throughout the entire Bible, yet even he was able to receive no for an answer from God in prayer. If Moses was able to receive this answer with humility and without bitterness, then surely we should be able to do it as well if God has other plans for us. He moved right on to training Joshua to pick up where he was to leave off in delivering God's people to the promised land.

God has no favoritism and that includes us. Just because we are the chosen people of God and the elect gives us no right to boast in ourselves and especially no right to expect any special treatment from God in this life. The Israelites and covenant-breaking Jews of Jesus' day should be a perfect example of what not to do with the title of "God's chosen". Humility is one of the greatest virtues modeled by Christ and we don't even deserve that model in itself. So we should be trying endlessly to emulate that model.