I’ve never been the best with road trips. I get antsy and impatient, but I still know to never pester the driver, because they are doing all of the hard work and it’s for something good in the end. The wilderness generation didn’t seem to understand this, because they complained and complained and complained. All the steps of their journey were plagued by them doubting God’s ability to deliver them to the Promised Land and groanings that their lives were so much better back in Egypt… where they were slaves (melodramatic much?) So I think it is pretty clear why they were condemned to never see the Promised Land, they weren’t willing to trust in God. God himself puts it in pretty clear words saying:
“I pardon them as you have asked. Yet, by my life and the Lord’s glory that fills the whole earth, of all the people who have seen my glory and the signs I did in Egypt and nevertheless have put me to the test ten times already and have not obeyed me, not one shall see the land which I promised on oath to their ancestors. None of those who have spurned me shall see it.”
So that is pretty clear why they were not given the chance to enter the Promised Land, but why not Moses. I think it might harken all the way back to when God told him to strike the stone for water in the desert and in his doubt he struck it twice. I think this shows that because he also doubted, he also cannot enter into the Promised Land.
So why close the Pentateuch before they reached the Promised Land? I think this all has to do with the pattern of reestablishing Communion that is being established. It marks a cutoff from Israel’s dependence on other nations and attachments before they can fully begin the next phase of this reestablishment of communion. God has established his covenants and his laws within the pages of the Pentateuch and now it is Israel’s turn to deliver on their side of the promise.
Finally, there are indeed many elements that relate Joshua to Moses. A river dries up for him so that they may cross, he is told to remove his sandals on holy ground, and so on. Yet Deuteronomy closes saying that “Since then no prophet has arisen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face” clearly implying that Joshua, nor anyone else, can compare to what Moses did. This may call us to look at Joshua and his generation not as new “leaders” of their destiny, but rather those called to carry out what has been set before them. They are the generation sent to fulfill the promises of Moses with the threat of a terrible curse waiting should they fail.
Introduction to Theology: Charlotte Spraul 
I agree with your comment on how even though Joshua is like Moses in many ways, he, and all the future leaders of Israel, will never live up to Moses’s Legacy. I also feel like this passage points to the fact that since there hasn’t been anyone that close to God, Israel is more likely to stray from God as we saw in Joshua. I find your view on why Moses was also unable to enter the promised land to be very interesting. Even though Moses walked so closely with God he still doubted him from time to time. Do you think that Moses carried that doubt with him throughout the wanderings, or do you think he came to fully trust in God?
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