Deuteronomy 4:21
“Furthermore Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I should not go over the Jordan, and that I should not go in to that good land, which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance;”
What does Deuteronomy 4:21 mean?
Moses is reminding the Israelites that even he, their greatest leader, faced consequences for his failures, and that this happened because of their own struggles as a community. When Moses struck the rock in anger instead of speaking to it as God commanded, his disobedience cost him the chance to enter the promised land alongside the people he'd led for forty years. By sharing this honestly with them, Moses teaches a hard but important lesson: no one is exempt from accountability, and our choices ripple outward to affect those we love. It's a humble acknowledgment that leadership doesn't shield us from the weight of our decisions, and it calls the Israelites to take their own faithfulness seriously as they prepare to enter the land without him.