Even though he was 120 years old, he could still climb Mount Nebo to the top of Pisgah across from Jericho. From there he could see the Promised Land (v1-3). God graciously allowed him to see the land, we have been reminded that his eyesight was good, and he could see all the land as far as the Western Sea, which I assume is the Great (Mediterranean) Sea. That was some distance!
Moses accepted his punishment from God that he wasn’t to cross the Jordan and enter the land, but he was allowed to view it. God spoke (v4) and reminded him as to the promise given to his forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We often want guidance, but God gave Moses absolute assurance when He said, “This is the land….” There was no doubting as to the exact location, and Moses was allowed to see it all even though he could not enter it.
This must have been an amazing experience for Moses, The LORD gave him a unique viewing of the whole of the land. It didn’t stop there, because he died there. He had seen the beautiful land here as promised by God, but he entered an even more wonderful place in eternity with God. No more worries about the stubborn people he had faithfully led for forty years, no more cares and concerns as to how they were going to manage to drive out the occupants of Canaan, but perfect rest and peace with His LORD.
Most of us would like kind words to be said of us when we pass on but, even though he was a great leader and man of God and many things could have been said to describe him, perhaps the most poignant is how he was described at the beginning of verse 5- “Moses, the servant of The LORD….” He was a humble man. “Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth”. (Numbers 12:3). On several occasions he had said that he wasn’t a man of ability to do what God told him to do, but the highest position we could have is to be ‘a servant of God.’
Moses died there in the land of Moab (v5-8) and The LORD buried him there in the valley opposite Beth Peor. No-one knows his grave. It is amazing that God actually buried him and never told anyone where. All this was according to God’s promise. We place headstones on graves, and many visit the graves of their loved ones and, in itself, there is nothing wrong with that in remembering loved ones who have passed on. The problem lies with making it into an icon and a memorial, something to be ‘worshiped’. Some have said that Satan wanted them to use the body of Moses as something to be idolised and worshiped, and that was why God buried him in a secret place.
There is an interesting verse in the letter of Jude (v9) where Michael the archangel contended with the devil over the body of Moses. Some suggest that it was Michael who actually buried him on God’s behalf. Michael was victorious and said, ‘The Lord rebuke you” to the devil. I really don’t know what that was about, save to say, that it may well have been connected with what I said in the previous paragraph, wanting to get the people to idolise the body of Moses.
As was their custom, they mourned for Moses for thirty days.
Moses was 120 years old when he died, and he was not a decrepit old man. He was full of vigour and had undiminished eyesight. The fact that he climbed a mountain and could see the whole of the Promised Land, just before he died, proved that. It is worth repeating that he spent 40 years as a ‘somebody’ a prince in the palace of Egypt; forty years as a ‘nobody’ tending sheep in a remote part of the desert; and forty years showing how God could use a ‘nobody’.
Moses life of service was over. God had used him greatly and taken him to Himself. Even though he was a ‘fit’ man, bodily, his time was finished, and God was going to use another. Moses handed over his mantle willingly and conveyed great encouragement on Joshua, his successor. He laid his hands on Joshua (v9). This was the usual mode of blessing and displaying that the person receiving it was blessed and commissioned by God. Joshua was a worthy recipient, “He was full of the spirit of wisdom.”
Moses was unique and we read that ‘there has not been a prophet like him since’ (v10-12). No-one else knew The LORD face to face as he did, and no-one else had been used by The LORD with signs and wonders before all people, including those in Egypt, Pharaoh himself, all Israel and its people by power and terror performed by God through Moses. Moses had been faithful to walk with his God. He claimed no special abilities but spent time with God. He trusted in God to go with them and even pleaded with God not to judge the people when they sinned, offering himself. He was a man of prayer and even compared to Jesus Christ (Hebrews 3:1-6), but of course, fell short. There may have been great leaders, but none so unique as Moses who combined prophet, priest, ruler and judge, not until The Lord Jesus Christ, the greatest of them all.
God didn’t want them to worship Moses, but we must worship our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ, who came to redeem us by shedding His blood, so great a cost to rescue us from a bondage far worse than that of Egypt, the bondage of sin. We worship a risen Lord, not one who remained buried, but is alive today and wants to live and rule in our hearts. One who has gone before us to prepare a place for us, not like the Promised land where there was sin death and sickness, but a place in heaven for eternity, where we will live with Him in perfect joy and peace for ever.
