My journey to Nebo did not require 40 years in the wilderness but nearly 40 hours in or between airports. I left Seattle and traveled through New York and Paris before arriving in Ammon Jordan. The next morning we visited the sites of near Ammon. The bus drove us to the top of Mount Nebo. I have been on lots of mountains, and I always enjoy the view from the top. But this time I looked out and saw Bible lands. There was a lot to take in. From the place where I stood there was so much history spread before me. To the south was the dessert where the Israelites had wandered, longing for a Promised Land. The view faced west. I saw the Dead Sea. I saw the Jordan River where God would part the waters for his people to claim their promised inheritance. I saw Jericho where the walls came tumbling down. I saw the hills of Jerusalem where God’s people lived and eventually Christ would die. I couldn’t see Galilee or the Mediterranean coast, but it was out there, not all that far away.
I remember the feelings I had as I took it all in. I felt the confidence that this story is real. It happened in a real place that I can see with my own eyes. It was tangible. As I thought about the great acts of God that had happened there, I felt a rush of awe. I got excited to go see all that stuff up close. I felt assurance of God’s faithfulness. He led his people in such patient ways in the lands in front of me. I felt longing for our eternal Promised Land. I imagined the excitement on the plains of Moab as the Israelite prepared to follow the Ark through the river. I felt the closeness of the return of Christ. After taking in the view and gathering for worship we walked to a nearby restaurant and enjoyed more excellent middle eastern food. It was a fantastic way to start a tour of the holy lands.
That was my experience on Mount Nebo. Moses had a different experience. Moses went up that mountain to view the land and to die (Deuteronomy 32:49-50). This is the Nebo promise. It is a promise that includes both the bitter (die) and the sweet (view the land).
The best promises this side of the Jordan are Nebo Promises. The vow we take at marriage is for better or for worse. Bittersweet is expected. The sweetness of a newborn baby is met with the bitterness of the pain that this life will endure. The sweetness of success, memories, and excitement that you experience at your child’s graduation are met with the bitterness that they have grown up and you will never get those years back. Nebo Promises guarantees both the bitter and the sweet. A Nebo promise is not a broken promise but a promise that lives in brokenness.
Nebo is the experience of being torn. It is a tension between death and life, bitter endings and new beginnings, reward and punishment, success and failure, God’s faithfulness and our faithlessness, victory, and defeat, hope and disappointment. That is all there is this side of the Jordan.
Jesus gave Nebo Promises. John 16:33 is a clear example, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
If we insist on only receiving the sweet, we will be blindsided by the bitter. If we fixate on the bitter, we will no longer taste the sweet. The challenge is not to resist the Nebo Promise but to accept it, to learn to related to both the bitter and the sweet in faith.
Now it is your turn to climb the mountain and take in the view of the Nebo Promise. What bitterness and sweetness do you feel in the moment or see on the horizon? How will you respond? While we remain on this side of the Jordan, embrace the Nebo promise with the bitter and the sweet. In the place of our pain is a fresh glimpse of God’s promise. Soon we will cross the Jordan and enter the land.