What Does Deuteronomy 3:23 Mean?

(23) Here begins the second section according to the Jewish division, called “And I besought” (*vaeth channân*)*.* (23-28) **And I besought the Lord at that time.**—Two things Moses is recorded to have asked *for himself *in the story of the exodus. The first is written in Exodus 33:18, “I beseech thee shew me thy glory;” the second is before us here. “O Lord GOD (Adonai Jehovah), thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness and thy mighty hand . . . I pray thee let me go over and see the good land beyond Jordan.” It would seem that Moses desired not so much to view the land (which, indeed, was granted him), but to see the greatness of Jehovah manifested in the conquest, as he had seen it in the victories over Og and Sihon. While we cannot allow for a moment that “the old fathers looked only for transitory promises” (see Notes on Deuteronomy 5:16; Deuteronomy 22:7), yet it is impossible not to feel in this prayer of Moses the pressure of the veil which hung over the unseen world before *the *coming of our Saviour, who “brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel.” Moses evidently did not realise that he might see the works of Jehovah and His glory still more clearly in the other world.