The Lord gave Moses one last task to do. Remember the situation, Moses knows that he will not be allowed to enter the Promised Land, yet he carries out this task faithfully. We have a habit of getting all upset if it looks like we are going to miss out on some blessing or benefit here on earth. Instead of getting upset we would do well to adopt the attitude that Moses had.
So what was the difference Moses? The difference is that he had an eternal perspective. He saw his life and how it fitted in with God's great plan. Time and time again he had intervened in prayer for the Israelites because he saw their salvation as the key issue, not his own personal advancement. So the fact that he personally would not go into the Promised Land was not as important to him as we might think. In our self-centred, self-fulfilment oriented world we can learn a lot from Moses.
Paradoxically adopting such an attitude will actually bring us greater fulfilment. As Jesus said, he who loses his own life for the sake of the kingdom will find it. We will also find that it saves us an awful lot of stress.
Moses sent an army into battle. Among those killed was Balaam.
There are also things that are very difficult to take. Moses is angry (his temper was a problem to him) because the commanders had not killed the women. We can understand upto a point his contention that it was the women who had led the Israelites astray (though the Israelites did not have to give in to the temptation), but then Moses says they should kill all the women and the boys, but could save the virgin girls for themselves.
So what can we say? Well one thing is that it was Moses not God who commanded this, beyond that it is difficult to say anything other than that it is very difficult. The following links might be helpful Is God a Moral Monster and Hagiographic Hyperbolic Interpretation
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