After every other plea had been rejected, Moses turned to his nephew Elazar — the son of his brother Aaron — and threw himself at his feet. "Elazar, my brother's son," Moses said, "implore mercy for me, as I once did for your father Aaron."
This was not an idle comparison. Moses reminded Elazar of a specific moment when Aaron himself had faced annihilation. "The Lord was wroth against Aaron to destroy him," Moses recalled, quoting (Deuteronomy 9:20), "and I prayed for Aaron too." When the crisis of the golden calf threatened to consume Aaron along with the guilty, it was Moses' prayer that saved him. Now Moses was calling in the debt — not for gold or power, but for a prayer.
The appeal to family loyalty is devastating. Moses was the greatest prophet who ever lived, the man who spoke with God face to face. And here he was, prostrate before his nephew, begging for the same mercy he had once shown Aaron. The mighty intercessor needed someone to intercede for him.
When even this failed to reverse the decree, Moses made his final, most reduced request: "Lord of the universe, if none of this can be changed — let me at least see the land with my eyes." And to this, at last, God said yes. "Go up to the top of Pisgah and lift up your eyes" (Deuteronomy 3:27). Moses would see everything — the land, the mountains, the river — but only from a distance. His eyes could cross the Jordan. His feet could not.