The Promised Land

Moses was a Hebrew superhero. If you were a good Jewish kid, growing up you wouldn't have action figures of Batman or Spiderman instead you'd have your talking, action pose Moses! He was the hero of his people for leading them from captivity in Egypt to freedom in the Sinai Desert. It sounds like a bum deal, but it wasn't, for the first time in years, the Hebrews were finally able to experience true freedom. These people had been promised a land, and it was Moses who was supposed to lead them out from Egypt into this Promised Land. However, as you read Exodus, you find out that the people are really stubborn, and aren't interested in following God. What happens, he decides to let the entire generation die before he leads them into their inheritance. Among this generation, of course is Moses.
In the final chapter of Deuteronomy, the final book written by Moses, it details this anticlimactic story of God taking Moses up on Mt. Nebo, and showing him all of the Promised Land. When he gets done showing Moses the land, I can almost imagine Moses asking God, "It's so beautiful... When do we go?" And God having to tell him, "well that's just the thing... you won't be going there." Moses dies on Mt. Nebo presumably looking out over the Promised Land.
But that isn't the end of the story...
Fast forward close to two thousand years and you have some crazy rabbi from Gallilee walking around The Promised Land teaching people according to the Law of Moses. He's teaching them about resurrection, some kingdom of God, he's even stirring up trouble with the guys who are meant to be upholding the righteous Law of Moses. He even claims to be the very son of God, teaching that faith in him brings salvation. He takes a few of his closest buddies up on a tall mountain in the Promised Land and the craziest thing happens... The rabbi turns bright white and out of two clouds appear two different super heroes, Elijah and Moses, not the one with movable arms and voice activated action poses, but the real one... the one from two thousand years before. The guys following their rabbi ask him if they should build a tabernacle for them, but before the can even get the who question out they hear like thunder shaking the sky, "THIS IS MY SON; WITH WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED. LISTEN TO HIM!" They look up and only their rabbi was there. It's easy to wonder what these disciples are thinking, but what about Moses? He is standing face to face with the very Son of God having a conversation, then next thing Moses knows he's gone. I often find myself wondering if he realized that the Promised Land he was told he'd never enter into was exactly where he was standing. I like to imagine that after this scenario plays itself out that Elijah looks at Moses and says, the Promised Land is something else huh? Only for Moses to come back with something like, "THAT WAS THE PROMISED LAND? I was so focused on Jesus I missed the very same Promised Land I spent my life trying to get to."
When Moses died he had no doubt that he'd never see the Promised Land and yet God's faithfulness to Moses brought him back from the dead in the middle of the promised land... to see his Messiah or annointed one. Not only did God show himself faithful with the land, but also with showing him the man who would change history. It is a beautiful thing.