The key to the wilderness generations downfall within the Book of Numbers is solely their ungratefulness. They were ungrateful of God freeing them of slavery from Egypt and setting them on a path to a land which was “flowing with milk and honey.” Blessed as God’s Chosen People, their inability to acquire meat and have complete control over their land lead them to their “grumbling,” which God heard every word of. Their punishment for impatience and ungratefulness was that God’s Chosen People would never experience the full potential and fulfillment upon the land that God promised. Even after God blessed the Israelites with freedom, some began to worship another god that was a product of the Moabite religion. This is a complete disregarding act of the first of the Ten Commandments, and the most important. A representation of the conditions to be one of the elects is displayed by Moses’s situation. Moses suffered for his people. His only issue was trying to justify their ungrateful complaints. He stated that God was angry with him and he would not enter Jordan. This was a big action, for even mankind’s most loyal servant of God would even stray from his path.
The closing of the Pentateuch with the death of Moses is a very symbolic action. For a long time Moses lead the Israelites, with God choosing him as an elect, and Moses’s death was the end of that journey. His death was the rebirth of a new generation, but the new generation was not going to be a part of God’s Chosen People.
The closing passage of Deuteronomy 34 was the implication that the time of elects, whom had a direct relationship with God, was over (besides Jesus Christ). For example, Joshua felt the presence of God through Moses, not directly. The generation was punished by wandering for 40 years, but the generations before that have all dealt with God and have had the 10 commandments displayed for them allows the generations of the future to have the basis of their culture/religion established. God left the future generations of the Israelites to establish whatever was left for themselves, which lead to violence and conflict, but they always had a special connection to their religion unlike any other culture.
Maximus Schalit Theology Blog 
I agree that what lead to the wilderness generation’s condemnation was their ungratefulness of all God had done for them. I like your point of Moses’s death symbolizing the birth of a new generation, but I’m a little confused as to how you arrived at them not being a part of God’s Chosen People. Could you tell me how you arrived at that conclusion?
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I liked your analysis, but also think that Moses’ death wasn’t just him bearing the brunt of God’s condemnation because he sometimes justified the people’s ungratefulness, but because he, also, lost faith in God at times. Do you believe he deserved to be punished as he did?
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I was a bit confused with why you think that the new generation is not a part of God’s chosen people. I think further explanation and analysis could have made your thought stronger. Other than this part I thought your insights were very well thought out and described.
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