Deuteronomy Diamonds

I have been enjoying Deuteronomy almost as much as I didn't enjoy Numbers.
Here are a few of my favorite snapshots so far.

Deut. 3:23-29- Ok. Moses told the Israelites how he plead with God to please let him cross over and see the land. Moses said, "But the LORD was angry with me on your account, and would not listen to me." (He lets them know that it was their fault that he got so mad and hit the rock twice instead of speaking to it the second time like the LORD had commanded.) Then the Lord said to him, "Enough of that! Speak no more to Me of this matter." He told Moses to go up to the top of Pisgah and look around with his eyes, because he was not going to cross over the Jordan to The Promised Land.
Then God told him to support Joshua and encourage and strengthen him, because Joshua was going to lead the people and cause them to inherit the land.

I have a problem with this. It just doesn't seem fair. Time after time, Moses interceded for the people when the Lord said that He was going to destroy them. But when it was Moses' turn to be chastised, where was His intercessor?
But then, again, God knew something Moses didn't know. Years later, Moses would get to be at the top of a mountain in the Promised Land, with Elijah and Jesus, when Jesus was transfigured before His disciples, Peter, James, and John. And he wouldn't have to climb to the top to get there.
Fairness is relative.
God is just.
God is good.
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Chapter 6:10,11,12-Moses tells the Israelites that God is going to fulfill His promise to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and give them 'large and beautiful cities which they did not build, houses full of all good things, which they did not fill, hewn-out wells which they did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which they did not plant-when they have eaten and are full-then beware, lest they forget the LORD who brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.'

And we know the rest of the story. They did forget Him. They went after the other gods in the land. I think about the song that we sing...something about seeking His face and not His hand. God really wants to give His children His hand. I mean, we'd die if we saw His face, so He wants to give us things that represent the goodness of His face. Can we be a recipient of His blessings and continue to seek His face?
It seems He is willing to risk losing us in order to be who He is.
He is generous.
He wants to give.
Why do we need to be sold back into bondage in order to seek His face?
Why can't we be blessed and continue to seek His face?
I believe it is possible or He wouldn't keep trying to do so.
I hope He will never have sorrow over His generosity to me.
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6:23-"Then He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in, to give us the land of which He swore to our fathers."

There is no mention of what took place between the getting out of bondage and the bringing into the land of Promise. The wilderness--forty years of it--is between the deliverance out of and the coming into.

God never lost His focus in the midst of the working out of His plan.
He planned to bring them out.
He planned to bring them in.
He got it done.
So He does with us.
He brings us out of darkness...into His marvelous light.
Sometimes it takes awhile.
Some of it may be up to us.
Will we trust His leading?
Will we obey?
We can do it our way,
or His way.
But He will get it done.
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7:9-"Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments..."

It is pretty amazing to think that if I obey God and love Him that a thousand generations will be affected by His faithfulness and mercy.
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7:22,23-"And the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you little by little; you will be unable to destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. But the LORD your God will deliver them over to you, and will inflict defeat upon them until they are destroyed."

Like salvation, God was giving them the Promised Land.
Like sanctification, God would give it to them a little at a time, to make sure that what was theirs was really theirs.
My Bible notes say here that deliverance is a life-time process.
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Moses, you are 'The Man.'
I hope I get to meet you soon.