Promised Land

Pinchas

Num. 27:12–16 “God told Moses, ‘Ascend these heights of Abarim and view the land that I have given to the Israelites. When you have seen it, you too will be gathered to your kin as your brother Aaron was…And Moses spoke to Adonai saying, ‘Let Adonai, God of the spirit of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation who will go in front of them and who will bring them out and who will bring them in, so that Adonai’s congregation won’t be like sheep without a shepherd.…’”

            Moses is ordered to climb the heights in order to look at the land he will not be permitted to enter. In front of him is the goal he has striven for over four decades, with terrific effort, and he must have felt bitter disappointment since he will not go into the Promised Land. While Moses had been told before that he would not enter, the knowledge has now become concrete before his eyes. He knows that his greatest desire will remain forever out of reach. Yet, he finds the strength to accept this, and the grace to plead for a new leader for his People.

            All of us have dreams for which we strive, often over many years of effort. Our 21^st century society seems to have reinforced this goal-oriented behavior, whether it is the mad dash for the “best” pre-school, the almost maniacal pressure on high school students to achieve academic success in their AP classes so that they can have a hope of getting into the “best” colleges, and to our self-imposed demands to excel in our careers. Every step along the way, we seem to aim ourselves toward some ultimate goal: our own versions of reaching the “Promised Land.”

            Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of reaching the Promised Land as well, meaning a time when racial and economic justice would be a fact of all of our lives. He knew he would not reach that Land, but like Moses, he knew that he could not stop his efforts to see that others reached that destination.

            Our individual “Promised Land” remains unknowable, and we can never be certain that it is really attainable. The best plans of each of us go awry. Man plans, God laughs. How can we cope with our inability to achieve what we had hoped for? By his grace, acceptance, and concern for the welfare of others, Moses teaches us here to understand that the “Promised Land” is not really the goal. What we are, who we are, and how we deal with life, with its disappointments as well as its triumphs, is the true measure of a life well lived.