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more fully re-stated, to Israel the laws and ordinances of God their King. His last record
was "a song" of the mercy and truth of God (Deuteronomy 32); his last words a blessing
upon Israel (Deuteronomy 33). Then, amid the respectful silence of a mourning people,
he set out alone upon his last pilgrim-journey. All the way up to the highest top of
Pisgah the eyes of the people must have followed him. They could watch him as he
stood there in the sunset, taking his full view of the land - there to see for himself how
true and faithful Jehovah had been. Still could they descry his figure, as, in the shadows
of even, it moved towards a valley apart. After that no mortal eye ever beheld him, till,
with Elijah, he stood on the mount of transfiguration. Then indeed was the longing wish
of Moses, uttered many, many centuries before, fulfilled far beyond his thinking or
hoping at the time. He did stand on "the goodly mountain" within the Land of Promise,
worshipping, and giving testimony to Him in "Whom all the promises are yea and
amen." It was a worthy crowning this of such a life. Not the faithful steward of
Abraham, Eliezer of Damascus, when he brought to his master's son the God-given
bride, could with such joy see the end of his faithful stewardship when the heir entered
on his possession, as this "steward over God's house," when on that mountain he did
homage to "the Son in His own house."
But to Israel down in the valley had Moses never so preached of the truth and
faithfulness of Jehovah, and of His goodness and support to His people, as from the top
of Pisgah. There was a strange symbolical aptness even in the ascent of the mount,
4,500 feet up, which is "rapid" but "not rugged."^57
Standing on the highest crest, the prospect would, indeed, seem almost unbounded.
Eastwards, stretching into Arabia, rolls a boundless plain - one waving ocean of corn
and grass. As the eye turns southwards, it ranges over the land of Moab, till it rests on
the sharp outlines of Mounts Hor and Seir, and the rosy granite peaks of Arabia. To the
west the land descends, terrace by terrace, to the Dead Sea, the western outline of which
can be traced in its full extent. Deep below lies that sea, "like a long strip of molten
metal, with the sun mirrored on its surface, waving and undulating in its further edge,
unseen in its eastern limits, as though poured from some deep cavern beneath." Beyond
it would appear the ridge of Hebron, and then as the eye traveled northwards,
successively the sites of Bethlehem and of Jerusalem. The holy city itself would be
within range of view - Mount Moriah, the Mount of Olives; on the one side of it the gap
in the hills leading to Jericho, while on the other side, the rounded heights of Benjamin
would be clearly visible. Turning northwards, the eye follows the winding course of
Jordan from Jericho, the city of palm-trees, up the stream. Looking across it, it rests on
the rounded top of Mount Gerizim, beyond which the plain of Esdraelon opens, and the
shoulder of Carmel appears. That blue haze in the distance is the line of "the utmost
sea." Still farther northwards rise the outlines of Tabor, Gilboa, the top of snow-clad
Hermort, and the highest range of Lebanon. In front are the dark forests of Ajalon,
Mount Gilead, then the land of Bashan and Bozrah.
(^)