Over glasses of whiskey, we talked about local politics and the Bible. I encouraged everybody to read the book of Deuteronomy during this Lent season because Jesus answered Satan's temptations with quotations from it. Therefore, we should follow the footsteps of our Saviour to know this Law book better. Meanwhile, I brought up the question of why God did not allow Moses to enter the Promised Land. I myself was not able to think up a reasonable enough reason to convince myself.
Erminia is always better than me in her faith in God and men. Without any effort, she immediately came up with the view that God had exempted Moses from extra efforts and troubles in the Promised Land and took him directly into heaven. It was not bad at all for Moses, though he might not appreciate God's good will in his earthly life. In view of all the murmurings, disputes and challenges over his leadership during Exodus, life would not be easy for Moses once the Israelites had entered the Promised Land. To spare him from the anticipated toil in the Promised Land, God denied Moses his entry for his good. Our faith tells us that God will always arrange the best things for us. Therefore, denying him entry into Canaan was the best for Moses.
But that doesn't reason well. Moses had faced a lot of troubles during Exodus. With God's supports, Moses weathered through them all. The same should apply in the Promised Land. There was no good reason for God to withdraw His supports for Moses once the Israelites entered Canaan.
Another idea popped up while I was eating my BigMac before the workshop tonight. Since Moses is a pre-figure of Jesus, perhaps his dying outside the Promised Land can find a correspondence in the life of Jesus. Let me explain a bit about this typology. There are many parallel elements between Moses and Jesus to qualify him to be a pre-figure of Jesus. First of all, Moses was brought up in an alien place, the Egyptian court. Jesus was the Word made flesh, living in an alien place. Moses was "betrayed" by a fellow Hebrew and Jesus was betrayed by Judas. Consequently, Moses returned to deliver his fellow Hebrews and Jesus redeemed us all. In Transfiguration, we see clearly that Moses represented the Old Law and Jesus is the giver of the New Law. Therefore, we can say that Moses and the Joseph in Genesis are "types" of Jesus in the Old Testament. Thinking along this line, I may argue that Moses dying outside the Promised Land pre-figured Jesus dying outside Jerusalem. I wonder if I have read too much into the text.
Verbum Domini #37 discusses the literal and spiritual sense of a piece of text. The literal sense is clear. God did not allow Moses to enter Canaan. What about the spiritual sense? According to The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church II, A, 2 and Verbum Domini #37, the spiritual sense is subdivided into 3 senses which deal with the contents of the faith, with the moral life and with our eschatological aspiration. I suppose the interpretation Erminia proposed belongs to "our eschatological aspiration". I don't know to which sense my typological interpretation belongs. By elimination, it is not the moral sense. Can it be the content of Christian faith? I am not sure. Anyway, enough is enough. It is impossible to exhaust the meanings of a piece of Biblical text in one go. I think I should proceed to Deuteronomy 4.
Dear Lord, who can fathom Your wisdom? I pray that You continue to illuminate my senses and make my heart glow. Amen.
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