I. Without the promised land, what was the life of Moses? What was the life of the people? In reading the Scripture account, the general impression is of a very weary, hard-worked life for Moses; much disappointment, vexation, and trouble; hard work and little thanks for it. And it is true. His martyrdom when he lost his throne, his forty years of daily self-abasement in the wilderness, didend for him in this fierce, patient penalty of leading a mean people on the way to greatness, with all the present pain and nothing to compensate for the pain, saving only the feeling within of stronger life day by day for himself, clearer sight of God, a calmer heart, a greater self-mastery, with the sweetness of such liberty in his soul; and, next, the certainty of working with God, which made all the labour, all the suffering, the joy of the champion for the King he loved; and, lastly, the promised land, the blessing of Abraham coming true, the sweet conviction of victory and peace.
II. The promised land first and the Messiah, the King, who was to reign over them in the promised land these two thoughts were the daily joy and hope of every Israelite who was not a traitor. And the bitter accusation of treason brought against them by the psalmist was, "Yea, they thought scorn of that pleasant land." The Israelite in the wilderness looked on the promised land with exactly the same present feeling that a man now looks forward to success in his profession. There was to be no change whatever in them, only change in their circumstances. We shall never live life truly till we have got our going homeinto the same practical, true groove that they had.
E. Thring, Uppingham Sermons,vol. ii., p. 424.
References: Psalms 106:24. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Waterside Mission Sermons,2nd series, p. 193.Psalms 106:44; Psalms 106:45. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxxii., No. 1886.