Mount Pisgah

"I don't know why, mom, but my pancakes aren't coming out right."

I don't know either, but we go over the recipe. 2 cups a/p flour, 2 tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. baking soda, 1/2 tsp. salt, 2 Tbls. sugar (sift dry ingredients). 2 cups buttermilk, 2 eggs, 1/4 cup oil (add to dry ingredients).

"Yes, I've got all those ingredients, but I just used regular milk..."

"You can use regular milk, but you did sour it first didn't you?"

"Sour the milk?"

"Yes. Put one tablespoon of either vinegar or lemon juice per cup of milk in the milk and sour it."

"Oh—no I didn't."

"Well, the baking soda means you need the sour milk..."

Sometimes it's the little things that make the difference in the outcome.

***

Here you have God speaking to Moses. Moses climbs the mount and looks over into the Promised Land. Moses so wanted to enter the Promised Land, but this is what happened:

Deuteronomy 34:1 "And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And Jehovah showed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan... Deuteronomy 34:4 And Jehovah said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither.

Deuteronomy 34:5 So Moses the servant of Jehovah died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of Jehovah. 6) And he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab over against Beth-peor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day."

Moses did not get to enter the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their offspring, because of an unthinking error Moses committed back at the waters of Meribah:

Numbers 20:10 "And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; shall we bring you forth water out of this rock? 11) And Moses lifted up his hand, and smote the rock with his rod twice: and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their cattle.

12) And Jehovah said unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed not in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them."

In a fit of anger, Moses not only spoke to the rock as he had been instructed, but he also struck the rock, which was not part of his instructions.

It is interesting that such small things can make a large difference. God honored Moses before the people by blessing them with water from the rock, but because of his disobedience Moses (and Aaron) still had a price to pay.

Hebrews 11:13 "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14) For they that say such things make it manifest that they are seeking after a country of their own. Hebrews 11:16 But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God; for he hath prepared for them a city."