Promised Land Lost to Moses?

The Leadership of Moses 

(From an address given as part of a BYU Lecture Series by Robert J. Matthews, at the time of the Ramses II exhibit, 18 December 1985 and also found in his Book, A Bible, A Bible, pages 54 to 68 by the same author. Bro. Matthews was former Dean of Religious Education at BYU, a former Timpanogos Temple President and very instrumental in giving us our updated scriptures & study helps that were published in 1980. Only a very small part from his book is given here).

In the Old Testament Moses is mentioned 657 times; in the New Testament, 65 times; in the Book of Mormon, 26 times; in the Doctrine and Covenants, 21 times; and in the Pearl of Great Price, 29 times. This is a total of 798 times. The Pearl of Great Price contains writings of three of the greatest prophets who ever lived. That Moses is one of them (the other two are, of course, Abraham and Joseph Smith) illustrates how important he is to Latter-day Saints.

We cannot help but wonder if it was a difficult thing for Moses to give up the splendor and prestige of the palace to live in the desert with the sheep.

Paul, as recorded in the book of Hebrews, says more about Moses. Note that Moses, according to Paul, made a conscious and deliberate choice to serve the Lord.  (Hebrews 11:23-27).

Since Moses was prince of Egypt and was educated "in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," could it be that perhaps one day in the royal archives he came across the writings of Abraham and of Joseph and there read this prophecy of Joseph? If so, he would have read about the precise circumstances of his being in the Pharaoh's household; he even would have read his own name and also the name of his brother, Aaron. All of this would have been rather impressive to a bright young man.

The Bible informs us that Moses, while in Midian for forty years, became the son-in-law of Jethro and the keeper of the sheep; but this record is silent about any spiritual activities of Moses during this period. In fact, it says only that Jethro was the priest of Midian. However, from modern revelation we learn that it was Jethro (a descendant of Abraham through Abraham's wife Keturah and thus a non-Israelite) who ordained Moses to the Melchizedek Priesthood (D&C 84:6).

This was done through a priesthood line outside of Israel. We are accustomed to thinking of ancient priesthood holders such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Ephraim, and so on, but here we learn that others also had the holy priesthood of God.

As the modern missionary effort spreads the gospel wider across the earth, it may be a great plus in the presentation for it to become known that Moses, the great prophet of ancient Israel, obtained the priesthood not through the house of Israel, but through another Semitic lineage.

It was a struggle to get Israel out of Egypt, but it was an even greater struggle to get Egypt out of the Israelites. The geographical change was not as difficult as the cultural and personal changes needed in the people's thinking and habits.

Three months after crossing the Red Sea, the Israelites were camped in the approximate area of Mount Sinai (which is probably the same mountain on which Moses had seen the burning bush), and the Lord gave Moses instructions relative to receiving the Ten Commandments and giving the people the fulness of the gospel.

We note also that the people were troubled at the thought of their coming into the presence of God, and they said to Moses, in effect, "You deal with God, we'll deal with you"-"but let not God speak with us, lest we die" (Ex. 20:19).

This last condition is a very telling commentary on the spiritual state of the Israelites. They did not want to come up to the presence of God. This was a symptom of a spiritual malady and deficiency that eventually led them to reject the gospel, and as a consequence the Lord gave them the Law of Moses and a lesser priesthood instead of the gospel and the Melchizedek Priesthood. This whole concept has been greatly misunderstood by biblical scholars and even by some of our own Church members, because it is not clear in the Bible.  However, it has been made clear in the Joseph Smith Translation and in the Doctrine and Covenants.  (See JST, Ex. 34:1-2; JST Deut. 10:1-2; also D&C 84:19-27.)  

When Moses came down from the mount after forty days, he saw that the people had built a golden calf to worship. They said they were not even sure Moses was ever coming down from that awful, smoking mountain. When Moses saw the calf and the revelry, he threw down the tablets of stone and broke them. These contained the Ten Commandments and the fulness of the gospel, including the ordinances of the Melchizedek Priesthood.

Thereupon the Lord told Moses to make a new set of tablets and come up again to the mount. He did so and received the Ten Commandments again, but in place of the higher law the Lord gave him the law of carnal commandments, which functioned under the Aaronic, not the Melchizedek, Priesthood. One of the major differences in these two laws is that the gospel and the Melchizedek Priesthood will prepare a person to be brought into the presence of God, while the Law of Moses and the Aaronic Priesthood, by themselves, will not.

Furthermore the Melchizedek Priesthood is connected with the ministry of Jesus Christ and the beholding of the face of God; the Aaronic Priesthood is connected with the ministry of angels.

The Joseph Smith Translation makes all the difference in our understanding what happened in the wilderness and what the difference was between the first and second set of tablets.

No one can understand these things properly without the help of the revelations given to the Prophet Joseph Smith as indicated above.

This leads us to another question concerning the life of Moses: Why was he not permitted to enter the promised land? The scriptures suggest that the reason was the Lord's anger with Moses because the latter took credit for getting water from the rock and didn't follow the Lord's directions properly (Num. 20).

However, I think there is a much better and more fundamental reason. I assume the event at the rock really happened, but that does not really seem to be the reason why Moses did not go into the "good land" (Ex. 3:8). After all, Moses represented the Melchizedek Priesthood and was a man who could stand in the presence of God. I gather from reading D&C 84:20-24 that the Lord was angry not with Moses, but with the children of Israel. They did not deserve Moses any longer, so Moses was translated and taken to heaven.

Now, I have been to Israel several times, and it is a remarkable place; but it seems to me that being translated would be even better than entering that ancient promised land. Besides, if the Lord was too angry with Moses to let him go into the promised land, it seems strange that he would yet be pleased enough with him to take him into heaven. Moses was given the greater blessing of being translated, and I suppose that under such circumstances he may have felt properly repaid for missing the Israel blessing.  Furthermore, we know that Moses needed to be translated so that he, with Elijah, could lay on hands to confer the keys of the priesthood on Peter, James, and John on the Mount of Transfiguration.