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CHAPTER 4 : Death And Burial Of Moses.
DEUTERONOMY 3:23-29; NUMBERS 27:15-23; DEUTERONOMY 34
ALL was now ready, and Israel about to cross the Jordan and take possession of the
Promised Land! It was only natural - one of those traits in the history of the great heroes
of the Bible, so peculiarly precious, as showing in their weakness their kinship to our
feelings - that Moses should have longed to share in what was before Israel. Looking
back the long vista of these one hundred and twenty years - first of life and trial in
Egypt, then of loneliness and patient faith while feeding the flocks of Jethro, and, lastly,
of labor and weariness in the wilderness, it would indeed have been strange, had he not
wished now to have part in the conquest and rest of the goodly land. He had believed in
it; he had preached it; he had prayed for it; he had labored, borne, fought for it. And
now within reach and view of it must he lay himself down to die?
Scripture records (Deuteronomy 3:23-26), with touching simplicity, what passed
between Moses and his Heavenly Father.^55 "And I entreated grace from the Lord at that
time, saying: Lord Jehovah, Thou hast begun to show Thy servant Thy greatness and
Thy strong hand. For what God is there in heaven or in the earth which doeth like Thy
doings and like Thy might? Oh, that I might now go over and see the good land which
is on the other side Jordan, this goodly mountain and the Lebanon! And Jehovah was
wroth with me on account of you, and hearkened not unto me. And God said to me: Let
it now suffice thee^56 - continue not to speak to Me any more on this matter."
The deep feelings of Moses had scarcely bodied themselves in the language of prayer.
Rather had it been the pouring forth of his inmost desires before his Father in heaven - a
precious privilege which His children possess at all times. But even so Moses had in
this also, though but "as a steward" and "afar off," to follow Him whose great type he
was, and to learn the peaceful rest of this experience, after a contest of thought and
wish: "Nevertheless, not my will, but Thine be done." And it was the good will of God
that Moses should lay himself down to rest without entering the land. Although it came
in punishment of Israel's and of Moses' sin at the waters of Meribah, yet it was also
better that it should be so - better for Moses himself. For on the top of Pisgah God
prepared something better for Moses than even entrance into the land of earthly
promise.
And now calmly, as a father setteth his house in order, did Moses prepare for his
departure. During his life all his thoughts had been for Israel; and he was faithful even
unto the death. His last care also had been for the people whom he had loved, and for
the work to which he had been devoted - that Jehovah would provide for His
congregation "a shepherd" "who may lead them out and bring them in" (Numbers
27:16, 17). Little else was left to be done. In a series of discourses, Moses repeated, and
(^)