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Deuteronomy Chapter
Thirty-four
Deuteronomy 34
Chapter Contents
Moses views the promised land from mount Nebo. (1-4) The
death and burial of Moses, The mourning of the people. (5-8) Joshua succeeds
Moses, The praise of Moses. (9-12)
Commentary on Deuteronomy 34:1-4
(Read Deuteronomy 34:1-4)
Moses seemed unwilling to leave his work; but that being
finished, he manifested no unwillingness to die. God had declared that he
should not enter Canaan. But the Lord also promised that Moses should have a
view of it, and showed him all that good land. Such a sight believers now have,
through grace, of the bliss and glory of their future state. Sometimes God
reserves the brightest discoveries of his grace to his people to support their
dying moments. Those may leave this world with cheerfulness, who die in the
faith of Christ, and in the hope of heaven.
Commentary on Deuteronomy 34:5-8
(Read Deuteronomy 34:5-8)
Moses obeyed this command of God as willingly as any
other, though it seemed harder. In this he resembled our Lord Jesus Christ. But
he died in honour, in peace, and in the most easy manner; the Saviour died upon
the disgraceful and torturing cross. Moses died very easily; he died "at
the mouth of the Lord," according to the will of God. The servants of the
Lord, when they have done all their other work, must die at last, and be
willing to go home, whenever their Master sends for them, Acts 21:13. The place of his burial was not
known. If the soul be at rest with God, it is of little consequence where the
body rests. There was no decay in the strength of his body, nor in the vigour
and activity of his mind; his understanding was as clear, and his memory as
strong as ever. This was the reward of his services, the effect of his
extraordinary meekness. There was solemn mourning for him. Yet how great soever
our losses have been, we must not give ourselves up to sorrow. If we hope to go
to heaven rejoicing, why should we go to the grave mourning?
Commentary on Deuteronomy 34:9-12
(Read Deuteronomy 34:9-12)
Moses brought Israel to the borders of Canaan, and then
died and left them. This signifies that the law made nothing perfect, Hebrews 7:19 It brings men into a wilderness of
conviction, but not into the Canaan of rest and settled peace. That honour was
reserved for Joshua, our Lord Jesus, of whom Joshua was a type, (and the name
is the same,) to do that for us which the law could not do, Romans 8:3. Through him we enter into the
spiritual rest of conscience, and eternal rest in heaven. Moses was greater
than any other prophet of the Old Testament. But our Lord Jesus went beyond
him, far more than the other prophets came short of him. And see a strong
resemblance between the redeemer of the children of Israel and the Redeemer of
mankind. Moses was sent by God, to deliver the Israelites form a cruel bondage;
he led them out, and conquered their enemies. He became not only their
deliverer, but their lawgiver; not only their lawgiver, but their judge; and,
finally, leads them to the border of the land of promise. Our blessed Saviour
came to rescue us out of the slavery of the devil, and to restore us to liberty
and happiness. He came to confirm every moral precept of the first lawgiver;
and to write them, not on tables of stone, but on fleshly tables of the heart.
He came to be our Judge also, inasmuch as he hath appointed a day when he will
judge all the secrets of men, and reward or punish accordingly. This greatness
of Christ above Moses, is a reason why Christians should be obedient and
faithful to the holy religion by which they profess to be Christ's followers.
God, by his grace, make us all so!
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Deuteronomy》
Deuteronomy 34
Verse 1
[1] And
Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of
Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the LORD shewed him all the land of
Gilead, unto Dan,
And Moses went up —
When he knew the place of his death he chearfully mounted a steep hill to come
to it. Those who are well acquainted with another world, are not afraid to
leave this. When God's servants are sent for out of the world, the summons runs
go up and die! Unto Dan - To that city which after Moses's death was called so.
Verse 2
[2] And all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land
of Judah, unto the utmost sea,
All Naphtali —
The land of Naphtali, which together with Dan, was in the north of Canaan, as
Ephraim and Manasseh were in the midland parts, and Judah on the south, and the
sea, on the west. So these parts lying in the several quarters are put for all
the rest. He stood in the east and saw also Gilead, which was in the eastern
part of the land, and thence he saw the north and south and west.
The utmost sea —
The midland sea, which was the utmost bound of the land of promise on the west.
Verse 3
[3] And
the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto
Zoar.
The south —
The south quarter of the land of Judah, which is towards the salt sea, the city
of palm-trees - Jericho, so called from the multitude of palm-trees, which were
in those parts, as Josephus and Strabo write. From whence and the balm there
growing it was called Jericho, which signifies, odoriferous or sweet smelling.
Verse 4
[4] And
the LORD said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto
Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee
to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither.
I have caused thee to see it — For tho' his sight was good, yet he could not have seen all Canaan, an
hundred and sixty miles in length, and fifty or sixty in breadth, if his sight
had not been miraculously assisted and enlarged. He saw it at a distance. Such
a sight the Old Testament believers had of the kingdom of the Messiah. And such
a sight believers have now of the glory that shall he revealed. Such a sight
have we now, of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, which shall cover the
earth. Those that come after us shall undoubtedly enter into that promised
land: which is a comfort to us, when we find our own carcases falling in this
wilderness.
Verse 5
[5] So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according
to the word of the LORD.
So Moses the servant of the Lord died — He is called the servant of the Lord, not only as a good man, (all such
are his servants) but as a man eminently useful, who had served God's counsels
in bringing Israel out of Egypt, and leading them thro' the wilderness. And it
was more his honour, to be the servant of the Lord, than to be king in
Jeshurun. Yet he dies. Neither his piety nor his usefulness would exempt him
from the stroke of death. God's servants must die, that they may rest from
their labours, receive their recompense, and make room for others. But when
they go hence, they go to serve him better, to serve him day and night in his
temple. The Jews say, God sucked his soul out of his body with a kiss. No doubt
he died in the embraces of his love.
Verse 6
[6] And
he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor: but no
man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.
He — The Lord, buried him
either immediately, or by the ministry of angels, whereof Michael was the chief
or prince.
Of his sepulchre — Of
the particular place where he was buried: which God hid from the Israelites, to
prevent their superstition and idolatry, to which he knew their great
proneness. And for this very reason the devil endeavoured to have it known and
contended with Michael about it, Jude 1:9. God takes care even of the dead bodies
of his servants. As their death is precious, so is their dust. Not one grain of
it shall be lost, but the covenant with it shall be remembered.
Verse 7
[7] And
Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim,
nor his natural force abated.
His eye was not dim — By
a miraculous work of God in mercy to his church and people.
Verse 8
[8] And
the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days: so the
days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.
Thirty day's —
Which was the usual time of mourning for persons of high place and eminency.
'Tis a debt owing to the surviving honour of deceased worthies, to follow them
with our tears, as those who loved and valued them, are sensible of the loss,
and humbled for the sins which have provoked God to deprive us of them.
Verse 9
[9] And
Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his
hands upon him: and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as the
LORD commanded Moses.
Wisdom —
And other gifts and graces too, but wisdom is mentioned as being most necessary
for the government to which he was now called.
Upon him —
And this was the thing which Moses at that time asked of God for him.
Verse 10
[10] And
there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew
face to face,
Whom the Lord —
Whom God did so freely and familiarly converse with.
Verse 12
[12] And
in all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror which Moses shewed in the
sight of all Israel.
Moses was greater than any other of the
prophets of the Old Testament. By Moses God gave the law, and moulded and
formed the Jewish church. By the other prophets he only sent particular
reproofs, directions and predictions. But as far as the other prophets came
short of him, our Lord Jesus went beyond him. Moses was faithful as a servant,
but Christ as a son: his miracles more illustrious, his communion with the father
more intimate: for he is in his bosom from eternity. Moses lies buried: but
Christ is sitting at the right-hand of God, and of the increase of his
government there shall be no end.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Deuteronomy》
34 Chapter 34
Verses 1-4
The Lord shewed him all the land.
Unrealised visions
The great parable of Israel’s wanderings has one of its
profoundest applications in the death of its two great leaders: men above all
others entitled to enter the land of promise; neither falling in battle nor
dying a natural death; both doomed to die by the sentence of Jehovah whom they served,
and under whom they were leading the people.
I. The unrealised
hope of human life. Every life is a pilgrimage seeking its goal in some Canaan
of rest. We picture it, struggle for it, and sometimes seem on the verge of
realising it. We “see it with our eyes”; but, in the mysterious providence of
life, are “forbidden to go over.” Our purposes are broken off, we are
disappointed, and resent if faith prevent not. Learn--
1. Success is not the chief nobility of life.
2. The chief blessedness of life is capability of service.
3. It is a blessed thing to die when the work has been so far done
that it justifies the worker, demonstrates his character, vindicates his
nobleness; so that he is not ashamed to leave it for completion; so that his
friends are proud of its unfinished fragments.
4. The formal denial of our hopes may be the means of perfecting our
character.
5. If in our service we have sinned against right methods and tempers
of service, sinned against Him whom we serve, it is well that His disapproval
of our sin should be manifested.
6. The prohibition comes with manifest mitigations.
7. God honours His faithful servant by Himself preparing his
sepulchre.
8. God fulfilled His promises and the hopes of His servant in a
deeper and higher way than he anticipated.
II. The visions
which may inspire human life, its unrealised hopes notwithstanding. To men who
live greatly, God gives visions through this very idealism of life, which are
glorious inspirations and strength; visions of a great faith and a bright hope;
of rest through the toil, of triumph while they fight, of heavenly perfection
and blessedness. Many glorious visions had been given to Moses. Who knows, but
to his lofty soul Canaan would have been a disenchantment. Many of our realised
hopes are. In the better country, no shortcoming, no disappointment. Canaan may
suffice for a suggestive prophecy; only God’s heaven can be a satisfactory
fulfilment. A great thing for faith to climb on heights to survey the heritage
of God. And the nearer Jordan, the more glorious the prospect. The goodly land
is revealed. All earthly lights pale before the great glory, all things here
seem little and unimportant in that great blessedness. (H. Allon, D. D.)
Pisgah; or, a picture of a life
I. Life ending in
the midst of labour. The farmer leaves his field half ploughed; the artist dies
with unformed figures on the canvas; the tradesman is cut down in the midst of
his merchandise; the statesman is arrested with great political measures on his
hand; and ministers depart with many schemes of instructive thought and plans
of spiritual usefulness undeveloped.
1. There should be cautiousness as to the work pursued. A sad thing
to die in the midst of unholy labour.
2. Earnestness in the prosecution of our calling. Time short.
3. Attention to the moral influence of our labour, both on ourselves
and others. We should make our daily labour a means of grace; every secular act
should express and strengthen those moral principles over which death has no
power. All labour should have but one spirit--the spirit of goodness.
II. Life ending in
the midst of earthly prospects. If men die amidst prospects of good they never
realise, then--
1. Human aspirations after the earthly should be moderated.
2. Human aspirations after the spiritual should be supreme.
III. Life ending in
the midst of physical strength.
1. Death at any time is painful--painful when the physical machinery
has worn itself out; when the senses are deadened, the limbs palsied, and the
current of life flows coldly and tardily in the veins. But far more so, when it
comes in the midst of manly vigour and a strong zest for a prolonged existence.
2. Does not this view of life--ending in the midst of important
labour, bright earthly prospects, and manly strength--predict a higher state of
being for humanity beyond the grave? (H. P. Bowen.)
The top of Pisgah
Moses, the servant of the Lord, now takes his last journey. He has
been more or less a pilgrim all his life, and his last journey is in perfect
harmony with all his previous ones, for it is taken “at the commandment of the
Lord.” Throughout his life the society of his God had been his delight. To
dwell with God had been the refreshment of his life; and God seems to say to
him, “That which has been your joy and refreshment in life, shall be your
peculiar privilege in death. I have known you face to face in life; and now you
shall die alone with Me, face to face with your God.” This thought holds good
in another respect. Everything in the career of Moses had been done in absolute
obedience to God. The whole life of Moses was a carrying out of the Divine
commands. So is it now. God says to him, “Go up and die”; so,
characteristically, he went up and died. His act of dying was one of
intentional obedience. But before he died God granted him a marvellous sight.
“The Lord showed him.” His eye had not become dim, but, may be, God gave extra
power to the old eye that had been looking for one hundred and twenty years,
and such power that he could look north, south, east, and west, and view the
whole land. And what a panorama stretched out before him. “He saw the smiling
green meadows at his feet, between which the Jordan swiftly flowed, and to the
right his eye glanced along the valleys and woods, and the bright waving
cornfields, that stretched away into the dim distance where rose the purple
snow-crowned hills of Lebanon. To his left he saw the mountains swelling like
mighty billows of the sea all struck into stillness. And perhaps, as he looked
upon them, some angel voice whispered in his ear, ‘There will stand Jerusalem
the city of peace. There shall be the temple where, for ages and ages, Jehovah
shall be worshipped. And see, yonder among the hills on that little speck in
the landscape, a Cross shall one day stand, and the Son of God shall die to
save the world.’ And across the beautiful land he might perhaps catch some dim
sight of the blue Mediterranean, or at least have discovered where the white
mists hung above its waters.” And then, sweetly emblematical as it seems to me,
beneath were the sullen waters of the Dead Sea. Oh, when God takes a man to the
top of Pisgah he looks down upon the waters of death. This was the vision that
greeted the eyes that had not yet become dim. Then, having had this view of the
land, Moses the servant of the Lord “died according to the word of the Lord,”
or, as the Rabbis say, “at His mouth.” God took the old man, wrinkled with age
but simple in spirit as a child, and sang his lullaby and kissed him to sleep.
What followed has never yet been fully revealed. A veil hangs thickly over the
scene of the burial of Moses, but there is the fact recorded that God buried
him. “Oh,” you say, “what a quiet funeral.” Yes, the more the honour of it. I
believe that, as the vision of Canaan melted away, the vision of God’s face
appeared, and he who had known his Lord face to face now knows what it is to
behold His glory without a veil between. There you have the setting of our
little text. Pisgah was at once the climax and the close of a character and a
career. In one sense it is terribly sad, and concerning Pisgah’s top it may be
said, “Behold the severity of God.” He who has high honour put on him by God
shall find that there is something in the other scale. Just because of the
perilous position of honour to which God had raised Moses, that sin of his,
when, in a moment of impatience, he struck the rock twice, is visited with the
severe sentence, “Thou Moses, shalt not pass over the Jordan into the land.”
Pisgah’s top has also, I believe, dispensational teaching in it. It was
absolutely necessary that Moses should not cross over Jordan. Had he done so
the whole allegory of Scripture would have broken down.
I. Pisgah’s top
makes a beautiful illustration of spiritual life. What was Pisgah? It was an
eminence in the wilderness from which might be seen the full extent of the
salvation of God. When God brought His people out of Egypt, He did so in order
to bring them into Canaan; and I believe that Canaan is intended to represent
the life of the believer on earth, with all its privileges and all its joys and
all its combats too. It is for the child of God to get a full view of the good
land into which God brings him, a bird’s-eye view of the whole of God’s grand
salvation. But how is this to be done? This is a most important question. I
believe that there are two absolute essentials, and the first is this: if you
would see the whole of the land you must get up on to the heights of Scripture.
If your Bible is a neglected book you cannot see the whole length and breadth
of the land. It is God’s Pisgah, and you must get up to the top. One half hour
with God and His Book, and the power of the Holy Ghost will give you a grander
view of God’s salvation than all the experience that you can hear. And the
second absolute necessity is solitude with God. Moses did not get the vision
when he was in a mob. He got it when he was alone. It is not enough for us to
have a critical knowledge of Scripture. “Spiritual wisdom “is needed. I would
sooner accept the interpretation of some pauper woman in the workhouse, if she
is full of the Holy Ghost, than the interpretation of the ablest critic who has
not the “spiritual” wisdom. We need revelation as well as elevation. It is not
enough for us simply to be on Pisgah’s top. God must do for us what He did for
Moses. “And the Lord showed him.
II. Do you not also
think that Pisgah may serve as a prophecy of the dying hour? Moses was lost to
the camp. I hear them say one to another, “He is going; he is going. He has got
beyond our reach now.” They cannot see him. He is high up there. Have you known
what it is to stand by the side of a dying one who has got so far that he
cannot speak to you? He has become unconscious of all surroundings. As far as
you are concerned, he has gone. Yes, and perhaps Israel was saying, “Poor
Moses! We pity him in having thus to die”; and whilst they were pitying him he
was seeing visions of God. I dare not speak dogmatically, but I do say that
there is a consensus of evidence that cannot be put on one side that the dying
very often do see far more than the living. We often say of a departing one,
“Oh, he is practically dead now, for he is unconscious.” Yes, he may be
unconscious to those standing round the bedside, but oh, how conscious of God.
Oh, how conscious of a spiritual environment! I do not know whether Moses had a
thought about the camp which he had left. I do not suppose that he had. He was
looking at that which God showed him. The spiritual world is not a mere
unsubstantial dream. No, it is real, and round about us all are the hosts of
heaven. After all, Pisgah’s top was only the starting point for the upward
flight. It seems high up to us because we are dwelling down in the plain of
Moab. But when Moses was on the top of Pisgah he was only just on the
“departure” platform, not the “arrival.” From Pisgah’s top I view my home, then
take my flight. The sight of Canaan did not long linger on his eyes. Lebanon
melts away. The Dead Sea becomes a mist. The rolling fields of golden corn
become indistinct. Canaan vanishes. Another vision comes; and the man of God is
face to face with his Lord. O child of God, so shall it be with thee. If thou
diest in the Lord’s embrace, thy head on His breast, thou mayest see much in
that dying hour. But thou shalt see more afterwards. (A. G. Brown.)
The frontier of the promised land
Each of us is a Moses, not as regards mission, glory, or virtue,
but as regards this last feature of his career. We are all standing on the
frontier of a promised land which we shall not enter.
I. Yes; we are on
the frontier, on the threshold, at the very door of a land of promise, and we
shall die before entering it. Reason is made for truth, and seeks it; but who
is there that knows all he would know? Ignorance has reached this point: in its
instinctive regrets it stands still, gazing mournfully upon mysteries which it
cannot penetrate, upon depths of knowledge of which it has an instinctive
perception, but which it cannot fathom. Science has reached this point: all
science ends in a final effort which it fails to accomplish, in a final secret
which it is inefficient to discover, in a final word which it is unable to
utter. Unbelief has reached this point. Remember the sceptical astronomer who
endeavoured daily to explain the first movement of the planets without
admitting that they had been set in motion by a Divine hand, and, who dismissed
his pupils day after day, bidding them “come again tomorrow”! Faith, too, has
reached this point. Faith which knows that it cannot be changed into sight, and
that “no man hath seen God,” that “none knoweth the Father but the Son,” that
“great is the mystery of godliness,” that even the angels tremble as they look
into it. Yes; reason and faith behold a promised, land stretching out before
their eyes, but ever do they hear the stern and mighty voice saying, Thou shalt
not go over thither.
II. And what of
happiness? Is it not true that we are always on its limits? The desire for
happiness is natural; more than this, it is lawful, it is religious. Every
individual entertains it, notwithstanding his experience of life. We see it
sometimes near, oftener at a distance; but this world is so fashioned that we
are unable to cross the border and enter it.
III. Without peace
there can be no true happiness. Who is there that has not dreamed of a life of
peace, harmony, and love? But no; the machinery of life seizes upon us;
competition lays a barrier across our path; we have rights which we must
defend, for the sake of those we love, if not for our own; we must adopt as
ours the maxim of Paul: “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live
peaceably with all men.” In the very domain of religion, we are called to
defend our faith, to stand out against the calumnies of intolerance; we would
gladly pray and communicate with all, but we are repulsed; we long for an
asylum of peace and rest, and the terrible voice is heard, “Thou shalt not
enter into it!”
IV. This state of
things influences the whole of our existence, the progress of our soul, the
entire labour of our life. Where is the man who brings all his enterprises to a
successful issue, or realists all his plans? Where is the man who attains a
perfect equilibrium in his desires, faculties, sentiments, and duties? Where is
the man who, in a moral and Christian sense, realises his ideal? How many
unfinished tasks! The world is full of them. Death comes and prevents their
completion. When we examine ourselves, how far we are from sanctification!
Alas! the perfect fulfilment of the plans of life, and of the progress of the
soul, is a promised land, concerning which each of us is told, “Thou shalt not
go over thither!” Who is He that, of all the human race, alone has entered His
promised land? Who? Jesus. In Jesus Christ we are enabled to march towards the
goal, to increase in knowledge and faith, in happiness and peace, to achieve
greater works, and to progress on our way until the last stage of the journey
be reached--eternity. (A. Coquerel.)
I have caused thee to see
it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither.
Comfort amid failure of hopes
There must have been in Moses’ mind, when he thought over his
life, a strong consciousness of the opportunities of inward and spiritual
culture which God had opened to him even in and through the failure of his plan
of life. In his repentance and confession of personal sin he had come nearer to
Jehovah than ever before, and now, as the result of all, a patient, loving
confidence in God; a deep distrust of himself; a craving for inner purity more
than for any outward glory; a pure, deep love overrunning with gratitude for
forgiveness, which had deepened with every deepening appreciation of the
sin,--all this was filling his heart as he went forth with God, pondering the
failure of his life. And this same richness of comfort has come to many a man
out of the failure of his hopes. You come up to the certainty that you are not
going to accomplish that which you once meant to do, that you might have done
if you had not wilfully sinned. You take your last fond look on the Canaan of
accomplishment which you are not to enter. You say, “I shall never do what I
dreamed of doing,” but at the same time there rises up in you another strong
assurance,--“God has done In me what I do not see how He could have done except
out of my broken hopes and foiled endeavours.” You are not glad that you have
sinned; you are sure all the time that, if you could have stood sinless, some
nobler character would have been trained in you, but you never can think of
your sin without feeling alongside of it all that God has done for you through
it. The culture of penitence is there, the dearer, nearer sense of God, which
has come from so often going to Him with a broken heart, the yearning for an
hourly dependence on Him, the craving, almost agonising knowledge of the
goodness of holiness, which only came to you when you lost it, the value of
spiritual life above all visible and physical delight or comfort, and a
gratitude for forgiveness which has turned the whole life into a psalm of
praise or a labour of consecration,--these are the cultures by which God bears
witness of Himself to numberless lives that have failed of their full
achievement. But take another thought. The whole question of how much Moses
knew of immortality is very indistinct, but it is impossible to think that in
this supreme moment his great soul did not attain to the great universal human
hope. It must have come to him that this which seemed like an end was not an
end; that while the current of the Jewish history swept on without him, for
him, too, there was a future, a life to live, a work to do somewhere, with the
God who took him by the hand and led him away. And here must always be the
final explanation, the complete and satisfying explanation of human failures.
Without this truth of another life there can be no clearness; all is dreary
darkness. A man has failed in all the purposes of his life. What is there left
for him? He dwells upon the culture which has come to him in and from his
failure; but what of him,--this precious human being, this single personal
existence, the soul, with all its life and loves? Is that indeed, just thrown
aside like a dead cinder, out of which all the power has been burnt? Then comes
Christ’s troth of immortality. Not so! This failure is not final. The life that
has so fallen short is not yet done. It has been tried and found wanting. But
by its own consciousness of weakness it is made ready for a new trial in a
higher strength. (Bp. Phillips Brooks.)
Moses and the promised land
There are in history few characters whose grandeur equals that of
Moses, and I know not whether the Old Testament contains an account more
sublime or more touching than that of his death. Nearly a century had passed
since, in the palace of Pharaoh, where he had grown up in the midst of the
delights of Egypt and of royal splendour, the thought of the oppression of his
people had seized upon his soul to give him no more repose. At last he reached
the goal, so long desired, of all his thoughts. The promised land was there
before him, and the waves of Jordan alone separated him from it. The promised
land! Oh, how often he called for and contemplated it beforehand in his
solitary dreams during the long nights of the desert, when, under the starry
heaven, he conversed with Jehovah! From the silent summit of Mount Nebo the
overworked old man directs his eager looks before him and in every direction:
he sees all the country from Gilead to Dan; there stretches out Jericho, the
city of palm trees; there the rich palms of Naphtali, of Ephraim, and of
Manasseh; there Judah; there, beyond, towards the distant horizon, the
Mediterranean Sea. Yes, it is certainly the Promised Land; but--he is forbidden
to enter it! For a moment his heart bends under its load of anguish; but,
losing sight of himself, he thinks of the future of Israel; he contemplates with
emotion those places in which God will establish His sanctuary, those valleys
from whence there will issue one day the salvation of the world; on the north
the distant mountains of Galilee; on the south, Bethlehem, Moriah, and the hill
where the Cross in which we glory was to be erected. Then, having embraced with
one last look that land, so long desired, Moses bows his head and dies. From
this grand scene there flows for us a grand lesson. Whoever you may be, have
you not dreamed here below of a promised land; have you not desired it, have
you not thought to reach it, and has not a voice been heard telling you also:
“Thou shalt not enter it at all!” I want to inquire today why God refuses us
what we ask on earth; I want to plead His cause, and justify His ways. Yes, we
all dream here below of a promised land. There is not one of us who has not
expected much of life, and not one whom life has satisfied. Do not trust
appearance, do not depend on the outward joy, the absence of care painted on so
many countenances. All that is the mask--underneath is the real being, who, if
he is sincere, will tell you what he seeks and what he suffers. Is the promised
land which you seek that renewed earth where righteousness will dwell? Is it
the reign of the Lord realised among men? Is it God loved, adored, holding the
first place in hearts and minds? Is it the Gospel accepted, the Church raised
up again, souls converted, the Cross victorious? Well! need I say it to you?
You will not possess that promised land here below, although in the ardour of
your faith you had thought to enter it. You had thought by some certain signs
to discover in our epoch a time of renovation; you had seen the shaken nations
throw off their sleep of death, the Church rise up at the voice of God, and
awake to the feeling of its magnificent destinies; you had seen the Holy Spirit
descending, as on the day of Pentecost, and inflaming hearts. Thus, in the
primitive Church, believers expected on the ruins of the heathen world the
triumphant return of Christ. Yes, it was there that the promised land was.
Alas! the world has continued its progress, the kingdom of God does not come
with show, the work of the Spirit proceeds mysteriously and in secret, and,
whilst that brilliant vision of a renewed earth moves before your troubled
eyes, a voice murmurs in your ear: “Thou shalt not enter it!” Yes, let us not
flatter ourselves. Those are seldom met with in our days who, devoured by
hungering for truth and righteousness, long ardently after the reign of God. You
had dreamed of a grand and beautiful existence on earth, for it was not towards
vile pleasures that your nature carried you. God had given you talents,
brilliant faculties, the knowledge of everything that is noble and fair. With
what joy you bounded forth on your career! How all good causes appealed to you!
Every day was to render you both better and stronger. To know, to love, to act,
was your aim. All those enchanted ways opened before you, covered with that
haze of the morning through which one predicts in spring the serene clearness
and the heat of a fine day. The promised land was there in your eyes; you
contemplated it with eager looks, you were going to enter it. All at once
misfortune came, disease broke your strength, your property vanished from you,
you were obliged to begin to gain by the sweat of your brow your daily bread;
crushing cares have come to overwhelm your heart and blight your hopes;
selfishness and the harshness of men have given you bitter and cruel surprises,
and whilst others got before you in the race and ran towards the prospects of
happiness which remained closed to you, the austere voice of trial murmured in
your ear: “Thou shalt not enter it!” You had, my sister, dreamed on earth of
the happiness of shared affections; the course of life appeared to you pleasant
to follow, supported on a manly arm and a loyal heart. What joy to be able
every day to pour your thoughts and your affections into a soul which would
comprehend yours! The promised land was there to you; and now, you are widowed,
and you go, a solitary one, in that path, the asperities of which no one
smooths in your case. Or, what is much worse still, you have seen infidelity,
falseness, and, perhaps, a cold indifference penetrate between you and the
heart of him whose name you bear. To others God has spared that trial. You have
seen a joyous family circle form around you--you have prepared for life the
children whom God gave you. With what happiness have you followed the first
intimations of intelligence in them, with what anxiety their temptations and
their sufferings, with what gratitude their victories and their progress! At
last you had almost attained your object. They were ready for the struggles of
life; all that a vigilant love could sow in their hearts you had shed abroad.
It was to you the promised land. Alas! how lately was it true. But a day
came--a day of anxiety and fearful forebodings, ending in a reality still more
frightful. From your desolated abode a funeral procession has passed, and today
it is in Heaven that your wavering faith has to seek an image which floats
before your troubled eyes. Shall I remind you of those works--long pursued with
self-denial, with love--at the end of which you gathered unsuccess and
ingratitude, and have seen your best intentions misunderstood and calumniated?
Vain desires! barren illusions! the world cries to us, and in the name of its
selfish philosophy it preaches to us forgetfulness and dissipation. But do you
desire that forgetfulness? No, it is better still to suffer and to have known
these desires, these affections, these hopes; it is better to bear about with
one these holy images and sacred recollections; the torment of a soul which
believes, and of a heart which loves, is better than the stupid and base
frivolity of the world. It is better, O Moses! after forty years of fatigue and
of suffering, to die in view of the coasts of Canaan than to lead in the
palaces of Egypt the stupid and shameful servitude of pleasure and of sin! And
yet before that rigorous law, which closes to us here below the promised land,
our troubled heart turns trembling to God; we ask Him, that God of love, the
secret of His ways which astonish us and now and then confound us. “Why?” we
say to Him, “why?” We shall never here below fully know the cause of the ways
of God. There are, particularly in suffering, mysteries which go beyond all our
explanations. Nevertheless it is written that the secret of the Lord is with
them that fear Him. Let us try then to explain something of it. If Moses does not
enter into the promised land, it is certainly, in the first place, because
Moses sinned. What! you will tell me, could God not forget the faults of His
servant? So long as Moses remains on earth he will undergo the visible
consequences of his transgression in former times. As he sinned in presence of
the people, it is in presence also of the people that he will be smitten. Now,
that is what we have a difficulty in comprehending today. Today the sentiment
of God’s holiness is effaced. God is love, we say with the Gospel, and forget
that the Gospel never separates His love and His holiness! We forget it in face
of Gethsemane, in face of Calvary, in face of those sorrows, without name,
which remind us that pardon does not annihilate justice, and that Divine righteousness
demands an expiation. Yes, God is love; but have you reflected on this, that
what God loves before everything else is that which is good? Can God love His
creatures more than He loves goodness? That is the question. Our age resolves
it in the sense which pleases its feebleness. God, it tells us, loves before
everything His creatures; and saying that, the whole Gospel is reversed; for it
is evident that if God loves His creatures more than He loves what is good, He
will save them, be their corruption and their incredulity what they may. Then
heaven is assured to all--to the impenitent, to the proud, to the rebellious,
as well as to penitent and broken hearts. This is not all. If God can thus
place what is good in the second rank, can He not put it there always? What
becomes, then, of holiness? What are we told of His law, since that law gives
way when He chooses? I go further. What are we told of redemption, and what
does the Cross of Calvary say to us, if you efface the idea of a sacrifice demanded
by Divine justice? But admit, on the contrary, with Scripture, that God loves
what is good before everything; that holiness is His very essence; and you will
see that, if face to face with sinners, His name is love, face to face with
sin, His name is justice; that suffering willed by Him is inseparably united
with evil. You asked why life did not keep its promises to you--why your
dreams, your plans of happiness were pitilessly destroyed--why, in presence of
the promised land, an inexorable voice came to you: “Thou shalt not enter it!”
Scripture answers you--because you are sinners; because this earth, which evil
has defiled, cannot be for you the land of repose and of happiness; because God
would warn you and prepare you to meet Him. You asked, O ye redeemed by the
Gospel, why after having believed the pardon of God, His love, and His
promises, you were treated by Him with rigour which confounds you? Ah it is
because God, who made you His children, would further make you partakers of His
holiness; it is because He would that the suffering attached to your earthly
life should remind you every day of what you formerly were, and of what you
would be without Him. Thus, at all times, God acts towards those very ones who
have most loved Him. Ask Moses why he does not enter Canaan. Does he murmur?
does he complain? does he accuse Divine justice? No; he bows his head and
adores. Ask Jacob why his hoary hairs go down with sorrow to the grave. Does he
accuse God? No; he remember, his deceits of a former time, his conduct towards
Isaac, his perfidy towards Esau. Thus He accomplishes the word, that judgment
commences at His own house. Thus God reminds those whom He has pardoned and
saved, that if they are the children of a God of love, they ought to become the
children of a holy God. But in refusing us, as Moses, admission here to the
promised land, God has yet another aim--that of strengthening our faith. Let us
suppose that it had been given us to realise our desires on earth, to see our
designs accomplished, our sacrifices recompensed, to gather here, in a word,
all that we have sowed. What would soon happen? That we should walk by sight
and no longer by faith--pleasant and easy course, where every effort would be
followed with its result, every sacrifice with its recompense. Who would not
like to be a Christian at that price? Who would not seek that near and visible
blessing? Ah! do you not see that the selfish spirit of the mercenary would
come, like a cold poison, to mingle with our obedience? Do you not see that our
hearts, drawn to earth by all the weight of our happiness, would soon forget
the invisible world and their true, their eternal destiny? What would the life
of faith then become; that heroic struggle of the soul which tears itself from
the world of sight in order to attach itself to God? What would that noble
heritage become, which all believers of the past have transmitted to us? Now,
God expects from us better things. That is why He refuses you here below the
repose, and the peace, and the sweet security of heart, and those joys in which
you would like to rest; and why, when the world has caused to pass before you
that promised land of happiness which enchants and attracts you, His inexorable
voice says to you: “Thou shalt not enter it.” But, know well, He does not
deceive you, for true repose and true happiness still await you. Ah! better to
die on Mount Nebo, for God has reserved for thee a better heritage, a promised
land into which thou shalt enter in peace. There, sin is no more; there, pure
voices proclaim the glory of the Lord; there, His sanctuary is reared in light
ineffable and in an ideal beauty; there, repose on the bosom of Infinite Love
all those who, like thyself, have combated for righteousness; there, God
reigns, surrounded with the multitude without number of His worshippers. Close
thine eyes, O wearied pilgrim, thou wilt open them again in light, in the
celestial Canaan, on the holy Sion, in the heavenly Jerusalem! Lastly, if God
refuse us, as He did Moses, what we should have liked to possess on earth, it
is that our heart may belong to Him, and be given to Hint forever. I think I
hear your protestations. You answer me: “Yes, faith and holiness can be taught
in that rude school; but is it right that God should obtain love in this way?”
And you add: “Should we have loved Him less if He had left us those treasures
which His jealous hand so soon carried off from us Should we have loved less if
our heart, instead of falling back sadly upon itself, had been able to bloom
and breathe freely in all the confidence of happiness?” Less! ah, we are
witnesses to it. Today, if what we have lost could be returned to us; if
our youth, our life, our hopes could be born again today, there would
not be words in the language of men to testify to Him our gratitude and our
love. I understand you; but take care, you have said, “today,” and you are
right; for yesterday, alas!--for formerly--when you possessed those treasures,
when your life was happy, where was that gratitude, that love, which should
have overflowed? On that earth, blessed and decked with all your joys, did you
think God Himself was misunderstood and treated as a stranger? Did you reflect
that His cause was forgotten, His Gospel attacked, His Church feeble and
divided? Did you think of those thousands of souls groaning under the burden of
ignorance, of misery, and of Sin Did you ask for the earth where righteousness
dwells? No; in order to reveal all that to you there was need of sorrow. We
have seen how God educates us; we have seen how He prepares us for the promised
land, which is not here below but in heaven. Happy the one who does not wait
for the blows of trial in order to steer his course to it; but, happy, also,
the one whose bonds trial has broken, and who has entered upon the journey
home. (E. Bersier, D. D.)
Verse 5
So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died.
-
The death of Moses
I. the greatest of
men are but instruments in God’s hands, and He can afford to lay them aside
when He chooses. Let this thought--
1. Dispel fears for future of Church of God.
2. Abate personal pride.
3. Calm fears for loved ones.
II. The time and
manner of each man’s removal from earth are fixed by God.
III. When God
removes His servants from earth it is that He may take them to heaven.
IV. Until God calls
us away, let us be diligent in doing good.
V. God frequently
gives intimation to men that He is about to call them to Himself.
VI. God will remove
all difficulties in our heavenward journey. (Preacher’s Monthly.)
The death of Moses
I. The best must
die.
II. The best may
die in the zenith of their greatness.
III. The best may
die when apparently indispensable.
IV. The best may
die where they little expect.
V. But all die
when and where God decrees. (R. A. Griffin.)
The death of Moses
There is nothing more sublime in the history of Moses than the
story of his death. Tried by a worldly standard, it seems a poor and shameful
ending of such a life. Who so fit, we might ask, to lead the children of Israel
into the promised land as he who had, for their sakes, defied the wrath of
Pharaoh, who led them out of Egypt, and shared with them the wanderings of the
wilderness? Who is the nobler man? he who rejoices in the fulfilment of his
hopes, or he who knows how to endure, and see the fruit of, disappointment?
I. The perils of a
call to service.
1. There are perils in its graces. Godly men will transgress just
where they seem most secure, will yield to the temptations against which they
seem to be best armed. In a moment the old nature flashes up; the sin of a
moment startles out of the self-complacency of many years.
2. There are perils belonging to the gifts of a high calling. Those
are not to be envied who are most richly endowed, and can do most for men. They
have to be constantly warned against pride and self-sufficiency; to be often
chastened and humiliated for relying on their gifts instead of on the Giver.
3. There are perils incident to the fulfilment of a high calling.
II. God’s earnestness
in the accomplishment of His will. Was Moses startled after he had spoken his
rash words to the people, and smitten the rock in his anger? shocked to think
that he had been so easily led into sin, and that his sin was great in that he
had not sanctified God in the eyes of the children of Israel? If so, the words
in which the Lord rebuked him must have fallen blessedly upon his ears. Our
first foolish thought is the wish to bide our sin from God; our second wiser
thought is to rejoice that He has seen and marked it, for He alone can put our
sins away. Our first foolish impulse is to offer our excuses and plead that we
be not chastised; our second wiser impulse is that of the spiritual man within
us, which welcomes all the fatherly discipline by which we may be purged. Our
first foolish thought is to blame the responsibilities of our position, and
even to desire to be relieved of them; our second wiser persuasion is that
responsibilities are the honours of heaven, and that it is cause of gratitude
when God will make us worthy to fulfil them. (A. Mackennal, D. D.)
The death of Moses: what do we think about it
“We must needs die.” So spake the widow of Tekoah. But why must we
needs die? Why is it that after so many years of healthy, vigorous life the
signs of feebleness, decay, and coming dissolution show themselves? There is,
so far as we know, only one satisfactory answer: it is God’s will.” “It is”
appointed unto men once to die.” The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away.”
But the death of Moses was not the result of decayed powers and the infirmities
of old age. He was equal to his work, and if spared, would soon have completed
it, for the people, whose leader the Lord had appointed him, were now on the
borders of the promised land. There was only the Jordan to cross. Why, then,
should God, just at this point, have taken him away?
I. In the death of
moses we have witness to the severity of God. “God is love.” That is His
nature, but it is qualified by justice, righteousness, and faithfulness.
“Behold,” says Paul, “the goodness and severity of God.” He is Father, and in
all His ways most fatherly. But He is also King, and is most kingly too. God is
not to be trifled with. His laws cannot be disregarded with impunity. Sin ever
is, and must be, punished. Bless His name, there is forgiveness with Him. Our
sins may not shut us out of heaven. They may not prevent us from enjoying the
life to be, with its unsullied glory. But they do hinder the enjoyment of the
present. They haunt us like an ugly dream. The scars they have left are ever
painful. You cannot sin with impunity. Sin is what clings to a man and curses
him. It is not like a coat you can put on and take off at your pleasure. It is
poison which, if it don’t kill, will pain you for years. Or it will act in the
same way in which it acted in relation to Moses. It prevented him from entering
Canaan, and so there is many a sweet land, many a happy experience we might
enter upon, but our sin--in imprudent act or speech--prevents.
II. In the death of
Moses there is witness to God’s desire that men should put their trust, not in
man, but in Him. The book from which our text is taken ends as no other does,
either in the Old Testament or in the New. It closes with a high eulogium upon
Moses. We do not know whose hand wrote the eulogium; but we doubt not it
expressed the universal feeling of Israel after his death. If he had been
spared to bring them into the land, there might have been the temptation to
enthrone the creature in place of the Creator, and to their great peril they
might have placed in the man that trust which ought to be put in God and in Him
alone. This they could not do without inflicting great self-injury. Let them do
it, and they would be sure to reap vexation, disappointment, and misery. But by
the removal of Moses just at the very time when they probably felt they could
so ill spare him, they were taught the salutary lesson that their trust should
not be put in man, but in God. It is only the confidence that clings to God
which is, without fail, rewarded. The mind of God is set upon men finding this
out for themselves, and as it is for their eternal interest so to do, by many a
painful providence He works out His will.
III. In the death of
Moses there is witness to the kindness of God. The Lord declared that Moses
should not enter the land, and He strictly kept His word. But He tempered His
severity with kindness. He would not tread the land, but he would be permitted
to see it. How very fatherly this was. Your child forfeits a certain privilege.
You won’t break your word and give it him. But in your fatherly relentings you
substitute some other privilege for it. Thus in His kindness dealt the Lord
with Moses. And if we project our minds into the future, his removal seems to
be all of kindness. He was now an old man, and his life bad been hard,
disappointing, and sad. Surely it was kind to call him home, to rest and to
blessedness beyond his utmost hopes, and to joys unspeakable and full of glory.
Death was to him not the call to destruction, but to a higher and better life.
As his Lord the Most High declared, he must die; as his Father, He “gathered”
him unto his people. There was another thing in connection with his death that
expressed the kindness, or the kindliness, of the Lord. We know we must die, and,
knowing this, we have the wish to die among our own; to be tended in our last
moments by our dearest ones on earth; and when all is over to be laid beside
our kindred.
“As
if the quiet bones were blest
Among
familiar names to rest.”
And
whilst this is true, it is also as true we have a wish that, should any of out
household be “sick unto death,” they should die with us. If you should hear of
your absent child being dangerously ill, your first thought would be to get him
home, and if too ill to be removed, you would then arrange to go to him and
nurse him, wherever he might be, until death relieved you of your sad but loved
charge. I heard a daughter say, not long since, speaking of her mother’s long
and fatal illness, “I am so thankful I was able to nurse her, and do everything
for her with my own hands all the way through to the end.” And when she spoke
the words it was quite evident the facts she stated gave her the deepest
satisfaction and joy. So Moses was well eared for in his death, for God, as a comforting
mother, took him into His own care, and laid him down to rest.
IV. In the death of
Moses we have witness to the glory of the grace of God. Shakespeare says of one
of his characters:--
“Nothing
in his life
Became
him like the leaving it”;
and with truth we might say the same of Moses. At the last he was
at his best. The forty years in Midian were doubtless all needed to prepare him
for his work on earth; the forty years of hard service and discipline in the
wilderness were as surely necessary to meeten him for the higher life and
service of heaven. But now, when they had come and gone, he was quite ready,
through God’s grace, and thus his death, so beautiful in its spirit of entire
self-abnegation, was a witness to the glory of that wonder-working grace. This
morning I went into my garden. The seeds sown a few weeks ago were showing
themselves in new life and form above the ground, “This,” said I, “is the sun’s
doing. How wonderful is the power of the sun! But I looked forward. There
should come a day when the plants around me should be ripe and ready for the
use of my family. The sun should thus do greater things--by augmented heat and
power it should perfect the life it had quickened. So is it with the grace of
God. It diminishes not, but increases as it shines upon the heart it has
quickened until perfection is reached; and so the end is better than the
beginning. (Adam Scott.)
The death of good men
The honourable character here given to Moses is equal to that of
angels, the highest order of creatures. As a servant he was faithful in all the
house of God (Hebrews 3:5). Having been faithful to the
death, he went to receive the crown of life. The memory of the just is blessed.
I. How the will of
God is concerned in our death.
1. The general sentence of mortality is fixed by God (Genesis 3:19; Ecclesiastes 12:7; Hebrews 9:27). It is the common lot of
all men.
2. Death receives its peculiar commission from God. It cannot strike
but by His order or permission. Life and death are in His hand.
3. The time is fixed by His will. All the care and skill of man
cannot prolong life for a moment.
4. The place where is fixed by His will. Some die by sea, others on
land; everyone in his place according to the will of God.
5. The means of death, natural, violent, or casual, are all under His
direction. What appears chance or accident to us is all certain and determined
with Him.
6. The manner and circumstances of our death are all determined by
the will of God. Some are taken away suddenly, and by surprise, others slowly
and by degrees; some with strong pain, others with great ease.
II. What sort of
obedience we ought to yield to the will of God in dying.
1. There are many things not inconsistent with this obedience to the
will of God.
2. Having seen what is not inconsistent with the obedience here
exemplified, let us next consider what it implies--
III. Why we ought to
yield the obedience that has been explained.
1. God is our supreme and absolute Lord, who hath an indisputable
right to our obedience, and we hold our life by no other tenure but His will.
2. Consider we are His servants, and contradict our own profession if
we die not according to His will.
3. Consider the example that our Lord hath given us in this. Should a
believer in Christ be backward to follow Him, or seek another road to heaven
than that which He hath taken?
4. Another reason why we should yield obedience to the will of God in
dying is, that God’s time is the fittest and best.
5. This is the finishing act of our obedience to God in this world;
it is but holding out a little longer, and then our work goes with us, and our
reward is before us (Revelation 14:13).
6. Dying with resignation to the good will of God will have the
greatest influence on those we leave behind us.
7. This is an act of obedience from which the chiefest favourites of
heaven are not exempted. Abraham is dead. Moses and the prophets are dead. We
are not better than our fathers who are dead.
Application--
1. If it be our duty to be obedient even unto death, how much more to
submit to all those evils that precede it!
2. If dying according to the will of God is so necessary an act of
obedience, it is an act of great goodness in God to spare us; to allow time to
prepare those who are not ready.
3. Here we may see that they finish a good life with an honourable
death who die in obedience to the will of God, and leave a grateful remembrance
behind them. Let us then be exhorted--
The death of Moses
I. The sovereign
of the world can carry on His purposes in it without the help of man. Moses was
taken away from Israel just at the time when he seemed most necessary to them.
How mysterious was this dispensation! And yet the occurrences of every day are
involved in almost equal mystery. Do we ask why He acts thus? To teach us our
nothingness and His greatness; to show the world that although He is pleased to
employ human instruments, He does not need them; to let His creatures see that,
even if the hosts of heaven should cease to obey His word, He could form other
hands to do His work, or accomplish His purposes without any instrument at all.
II. Sin is
exceedingly hateful in the sight of God, and He will mark it with his
displeasure even in His most beloved servants. Remember that one transgression
excluded the faithful Moses from Canaan; what then will be your doom, laden as
you are with so many sins, and so hardened in guilt?
III. The afflicted
servant of God is generally enabled to submit with resignation to the
chastisements of his heavenly Father. It is not indeed wrong to feel the smart
of afflictions. Insensibility under them is not only unnatural, but sinful, for
it subverts the purposes for which they were sent to us. Moses felt sorrow and
pain when he was forbidden to enter Canaan; and a greater than Moses had His
soul troubled at the thought of approaching suffering. Neither is it wrong to
beseech the Almighty to withdraw from us the chastisements with which He has
visited us. Moses besought the Lord that he might be allowed to go over Jordan;
and what was the language of the suffering Jesus? (Matthew 26:39.) We see no insensibility
here, no despising of the chastening of the Lord. We see, on the contrary, the
liveliest, the deepest feeling. But then this feeling is attended with a spirit
of entire submission.
IV. The death of
the servants of God, with all the circumstances connected with it, is ordered
by the Lord. Our Bibles tell us that He disposes of the meanest and smallest
concerns of our life; how much more then of life itself!
V. The people of
God may confidently expect from Him support and comfort in the hour of death.
In such an hour, flesh and heart must fail; the soul must need support; and
they who fear the Lord shall find all the grace and help they need. He who was
with Moses will be with them, as “the strength of their heart and their portion
forever.” (C. Bradley, M. A.)
The death of Moses
A cloud of mystery and awe envelops the death of this great
prophet and lawgiver. No other death recorded in Scripture approaches it or is
parallel to it. Through the mystery we feel that no other death would have been
so fitting; and why?
1. All his life Moses had been a solitary man, alone in the world,
with no one to share his great thought and responsibilities. He had lived alone
with God; it was fitting that he should die alone with God.
2. His had been an utterly humble, unselfish life; he had always
sacrificed himself for the good of the people; he left his greatness to join
his countrymen in their degrading servitude; he forgot himself to avenge their
wrongs.
3. Of every other great leader of Israel we read that “he was buried
with his fathers”--with loving, reverent hands laid in the sepulchre of his
fathers--and that a tomb was raised over him which recalled the memory of his
greatness through long generations. Moses, the greatest of them all--warrior,
statesman, poet--was buried far away from his brethren. No loving human hands
laid him in his last abode; the very place of it was unknown.
4. Moses is the noblest example of unselfish religion--of unselfish
love to God and man--to be found in the Bible, nay, I believe, in the whole
history of man. Such self-forgetfulness and unselfishness is never sad and
disappointed. Such a soul does not seek happiness; it finds happiness. It is
morbidness, it is self-introspection, which makes men melancholy and
disappointed. God and love are heaven. (E. J. Rose, M. A.)
The death of Moses
His thoughts would naturally be of two kinds. One class of them
would make him reluctant to die; the other would tend to reconcile him to
death.
I. He would be
unwilling to die because--
1. He had nearly, but not quite, accomplished a great work. Many a
patriot, many a philanthropist, many a leader of thought, has felt that life
was of value to him only as it enabled him to carry to completion, or to place
on a secure footing, the one work of his life.
2. He was still in the possession of health and vigour. The work he
had in hand was of the noblest order. He seemed to be the only man capable of
doing it. And he felt himself still adequate to its demands.
3. Think, too, of the prospect that lay stretched out before him, and
judge what death must have seemed to him at such a moment. Never had he seen
this earth so fair or so glorious. After all the toils and perils of the
wilderness, is he not to grasp the prize, the hope of which had so much
strengthened him to bear them?
4. Still more unwelcome would the summons be to quit the world thus
early, because it was a sign of God’s displeasure with him (Numbers 20:10-12; Deuteronomy 32:48-52). “The sting of
death is sin.” Moses knew that but for the displeasure of God he might have
continued to live, and might have died long hence under happier auspices.
5. He had to die alone.
II. Things that
would go far to reconcile him to death.
1. He had the favour and presence of God. His fault was forgiven.
Moreover, the presence of God was granted him.
2. His work, unfinished as it seemed, was really done. His successor
was already named and consecrated.
3. He is leaving all sorrow, especially all sin, behind him. To die
was, to him, gain.
4. He is about to enter a brighter world than that which he is
leaving. (B. P. Pratten, B. A.)
The death of Moses
I. A lonely death.
All death to a great extent must necessarily be so. There is only one Friend
who can go through the death valley, and if He is with us we may make it ring
with the voice of triumph.
II. A peaceful
death. Death always may be encountered without dread when heaven can be
anticipated without fear.
III. Probably a
sudden death. To the worldly man there is something peculiarly shocking in
sudden death; to the Christian it is often the reverse. How much is he spared!
Korniloff, the Russian general, who fell at the capture of Sebastopol, said it
was a pleasant thing to die when the conscience was quiet. But that can alone
be through the blood of Jesus.
IV. A death
preceded by pisgah glances. This is often the case with the truly good man.
Says Dr. Payson, when approaching the end of life: “The celestial city is full
in view. Its glories beam upon me; its breezes fan me; its odours are wafted to
me; its sounds strike upon my ears; and its spirit is breathed into my heart.
Nothing separates me from it but the river of death, which now appears as an
insignificant rill that may be crossed at a single step when God gives
permission. The Sun of Righteousness is gradually drawing nearer, appearing
larger and brighter as He approaches; and now He fills the whole hemisphere,
pouring forth a flood of glory in which I seem to float like an insect in His
beams; exulting, yet almost trembling whilst I gaze on this excessive
brightness, and wonder with unutterable wonder why God should thus deign to
shine on a sinful worm.” (G. Short, B. A.)
The death of Moses
I. According to
the warning of the Lord.
1. His death was long foreseen. Have not we also had many warnings?
2. It was exceedingly disappointing. Are we ready to say as to our
most cherished hope, “Thy will be done”? Are we holding our life’s dearest
purpose with a loose hand? It will be our wisdom so to do.
3. Apparently it was a severe chastisement. God will be sanctified in
them that come near to Him.
4. It seemed a great calamity. He had been tutored by a long
experience, chastened by a marvellous discipline, and elevated by a sublime
intercourse with God; and yet must he die.
5. It was a sentence not to be averted by prayer.
II. According to
the Divine appointment.
1. All the details of the death of Moses had been ordered by the
Lord.
2. According to an appointment which is very general amongst God’s
people. Most men have to sow that others may reap. Let us be content to do our
part in laying the foundation.
3. For a deep dispensational reason. The law may bring us to the
borders of the promise, but only Joshua or Jesus can bring us into grace and
truth. We also shall in life and death answer some gracious purpose of the
Lord. Are we not glad to have it so?
III. According to
the loving wisdom of the Lord.
1. By so doing he preserved his identity with the people for whom he had
cared. For their sakes he had forsaken a princedom in Egypt, and now for their
sakes he loses a home in Palestine are not we satisfied to take our lot with
the holy men and women who already sleep in Jesus?
2. He was thus released from all further trial. Do you grieve that
the battle is fought, and the victory is won forever? We also in our deaths
shall find the end of toil and labour, and the rest will be glorious.
3. He was relieved from a fresh strain upon him, which would have
been involved in the conquest of Canaan. He would have crossed the Jordan not
to enjoy the country but to fight for it: was he not well out of so severe a
struggle? You think of the clusters of Eshcol, but I am thinking of the sieges
and the battles. Was it so very desirable to be there? Would Moses really have
desired that dreadful fray
IV. The way in
which he died abundantly displays the grace of God.
1. After Moses had been well assured that he must die, you never hear
a complaint of it, nor even a prayer against it.
2. Most fitly the old man called forth all his energies to finish his
work. Is not this a fine fruit of grace? Oh, that we may bear it!
3. He did all that remained to be done, and then went willingly to
his end. As flowers before they shed their leaves pour out all their perfumes,
so let us pour out our souls unto the Lord.
V. According to
the divine favour. His death leaves nothing to regret; neither is any desirable
thing lacking. Failing to pass over Jordan seems a mere pin’s prick, in
presence of the honours which surrounded his departing hours. He now saw that
he had fulfilled his destiny, and was not as a pillar broken short. (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
The death of Moses
I. Entire
resignation to the will of God. We are making the voyage of life like
passengers in a ship Sleeping or waking, they are proceeding towards their
destined port; and will soon reach it, whether they shall have crossed a calm
or a stormy ocean. The zealous servant of his God and Saviour will be occupied
in his post of duty, committing the period of his removal to the appointment of
that providence which allows not a hair of his head to fall unnoticed to the
ground.
II. The full
exercise of faith and hope. Sinking nature, indeed, will tremble at the
prospect of dissolution, although faith may feel the support of the everlasting
arms: as he who stands upon a lofty tower may shudder at the depths below him,
although the battlements effectually prevent his fall. But if that God and
Saviour, whom by a deliberate act of faith he has chosen as his heritage, be
with him, he will feel no evil, though he walk through the valley of the shadow
of death. The higher the sun rises above the earth the more perfectly does it
scatter the clouds and darkness which have usurped the sky. And the more firmly
the hope of the Gospel is established within the soul, the more surely will it
be submissive to that decree which comes to remove it into the awful realities
of the invisible world--the more effectually will it triumph over the last
assault, in that confidence of hope which the grace of faith can alone bestow.
III. A resignation
thus arising from faith and hope enabled Moses to ascend Mount Nebo, and to die
in peace and comfort. He who passes a life of faith, and usefulness, and
holiness, like Hooker, will usually be permitted to adopt his language at the
approach of death. “I have long been preparing to leave this world, and
gathering comfort for the dreadful hour of making my account with God, which I
now apprehend to be near, and though I have by His grace loved Him in my youth,
and feared Him in my age, and laboured to have a conscience void of offence to
Him and to all men, yet, if Thou, O Lord, be extreme to mark what I have done
amiss, who can abide it? And therefore where I have failed, Lord show mercy
unto me; for I plead not my righteousness, but the forgiveness of my
unrighteousness, for His merits who died to purchase a pardon for penitent
sinners. I am at peace with all men, and God is at peace with me; from which
blessed assurance I feel an inward joy which this world can neither give nor
take away.”
IV. The dying
moments of Moses were distinguished by earnest zeal for the welfare of Israel
and the glory of God. (R. P. Buddicom, M. A.)
Loneliness in death
Moses had often been above before, and alone with God; so was
prepared for this loneliness in facing eternity. A mountain is at once a
natural scene and fit emblem of solitude.
I. His absolute
solitude in death. He dies in the very midst of robustness and vigour, and so
consciously feels the ties of life all breaking; and, with the sense of
separation from all that was seen and familiar, steps consciously into the
unseen and the unknown.
II. The real
solitariness in every death. In death men are, and ever must be, alone; because
of--
1. The senses that are lost. Dim eye, dull car, numbed touch,
inarticulate tongue, distance the dying from all around, however faithful and
loving.
2. The faculties gained keenness of intuition. There is an elevation
in the death of many a Christly one that as much separates them from the
living, as does the dimming of the senses by which they were wont to commune
with them.
Lessons--
1. Learn in life by occasional solitude to be independent of men.
Then, when in dying, human help is gone, there will be no sudden terrible
surprise.
2. Seek in life companionship with God in solitude. Then, having
often been alone with God before, loneliness with Him in death will be no
terrifying experience, but the repetition and consummation of some of the best
experiences of life. (U. R. Thomas.)
Saintset on Nebo
We have here a picture of how good men die.
1. They go to death. Not driven or dragged. Feel it to be a call from
God to go and meet Him, and, being prepared, go forth willingly and with joy.
2. They go up to death. Not a leap in the dark. They spring up into
life and light, holiness and heaven.
3. They go up alone to death. Have to leave nearest and dearest
earthly friends behind.
I. What would the
closing scene in the life of Moses teach him?
1. That his life, though faulty, had not been a failure. God accepted
it, and admitted him to the rest and recompense of the skies.
2. That though he had incurred the Divine displeasure, yet he had not
forfeited the Divine favour. We may suffer disadvantage all through life, and
loss at close of it by wrong-doing; but if we repent of the wrong, and are
restored to God’s favour, and retained in His service, He will still lead us
on, and take us by the hand at last, and give us an abundant entrance into His
everlasting joy.
3. That amid all his fears and anxieties he need not dread entering
upon the solemn and nearing future.
II. What does the
closing scene in the life of Moses teach us?
1. The incompleteness of human life.
2. The illusiveness of human life. We go in quest of rest and reward,
and we know we shall secure them if we are firm and faithful; but how the goal
we are seeking seems frequently to recede from us, and the prize we would
secure seems to elude our grasp!
3. The inscrutableness of human life. The unexpected and apparently
untimely departure of good and useful men fills us with wonder and dismay. We
looked for continuation and completion of service; but lo, we have seen,
instead, the deserted post and the vacant chair. (F. W. Brown.)
The last stage era long journey
I. Climbing the
mountain. Slowly he ascends the mountain, climbing alone, while the tear-dimmed
eyes of Israel watch his ascent. Up! Up! Up! he goes. Every step takes him from
those he loves. Every step carries him into a region of divinest mysteries. But
what thoughts surge and rush in his mind as he upward toils? He is leaving
Israel, the nation whose cradle he has tended, whose ill-humours and
impetuosities he has borne. Only God knows what he has suffered for those
people through these forty long years. If I ask any mother or father here about
the children they have lost, I shall be told that the child for whom they lost
most rest--the child for whom they sacrificed the most--was the one that got
most about their heart strings. So Moses finds, it is awful to tear himself
away at that Divine behest and leave them there, while he goes up yonder to
die. He is leaving his life work. It is an awful thing to feel that your life
work is done! How does Moses feel as he climbs those slopes? Someone else is
stepping into his place that now is his no more. God has superannuated him! Of
course, there are people who are not concerned about all this. They belong to
the regiment of the lazies! and a tremendously strong regiment it is. They know
nothing about these troubles. They know not the agony of leaving a Sunday
school class, or of being compelled to abandon preaching. Such people cannot
enter into the feelings of Moses at this time.
II. Viewing the
land.
III. The opened
eyes. Instead of dusky Arabs, he sees a company of white-robed angels, and his
ear begins to catch the music of their song. And old Jericho, which had seemed
common place enough, now seems larger, brighter than before. Its walls are
sparkling with jewels; its gates gleam pearly white; and the amethystine glory
comes streaming over its turrets. The land seems full of light, and joy, and
bliss. The angel band is swelling in numbers. The distant hills are radiant
with eternal light. The glory heightens. God is opening his eyes, and the
transient things of earth are giving way to the things which are eternal. There
stands the “city whose Builder and Maker is God.” His soul flutters as a caged
bird that struggles to get flee. And God is releasing that noble soul. The
physical senses are being supported by the spiritual. Insensibly God carries
him over the border. He knows not the moment when he ceases to be mortal, and
becomes like the angels of God. All the horror of the thing, which makes the
heart sick, he misses. He enters, at God’s bidding, a larger and more
satisfying life, by a path that is glorious with the Divine presence. With Him
conversing, he forgets that this is death.
IV. In memoriam.
Moses has gone, but in every generation God keeps up the succession of His
saints, who minister to Him here awhile in our sight, and then pass to the
higher ministries of Jerusalem above. (F. Denton.)
The death of Moses
Moses had endured to the full the loneliness which is the penalty
of greatness. His lofty spirit, austere and firm, like the granite peak of
Sinai, rose solitary, like it, above the lower heights, and was often swathed,
like it, in the separating cloud, the symbol of a present God. Now Miriam was
gone, and Aaron slept on Her, and all the old familiar faces were memories. The
summons to come up to Pisgah and die would not be unwelcome. He had lived
alone; alone he climbed the mountain, with natural force unabated, the people
watching him as he went up; alone he is to die,--a fitting close to such a
life. He had lived on the heights, he shall not die on the plain. He had lived leaning
on God only; God only shall be with him at last.
1. Note, then, the vision to the dying leader of the unattained
country, which had been his goal in all his work. How wistful and long would be
the gaze! The sublime and rigid self-repression of his life would not desert
him at the last; and we may well believe that regret at his own exclusion would
be swallowed up in thankfulness that the prize was so near and so rich. “Now
lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation,”
would be the voice of his heart. God did not show him the land to tantalise him
with the vision of what he had missed for himself, but to cheer him with the
assurance of what he had won for his people. Moses had his portion when he saw
the land, and was satisfied. That Pisgah sight has become the type of the large
visions of the future which God often gives to solace His faithful servants at
last. “There must be wisdom with great death,” and when the dust of conflict is
laid the prospect widens, and the cleared eye sees the goodly land to which the
devious marches have been leading more hopefully and truly than while yet
busied in looking to the dangers of the present, and picking firm ground for
the next step. All epoch-making men have the fate of Moses. They spend their
lives in leading rebellious and reluctant feet towards some fair ideal, and die
when apparently on the verge of realising it. In our own little lives the same
law holds good. “One soweth, and another reapeth.” Rarely does any man complete
his life’s purpose.
2. Note the solitary death and hidden grave. The lawgiver, whose
message was “The wages of sin are death,” does himself, in the very manner of
his own death, exemplify its two characteristics which smite most upon the
heart,--its mystery and its solitude. And the same lessons are taught by that
hidden grave. As, Thomas Fuller says somewhere, “God first buried him, and then
buried his grave.” Some say that the intention was to prevent idolatrous
reverence by the Israelites; but there is no sign that, amid all their
aberrations, they ever had any tendency that way. The graves of the patriarchs
at Hebron and of the kings at Jerusalem were left undistinguished, and
apparently little regarded. Some have thought that the mystery of his sepulchre
points to his resurrection, or translation, and have found confirmation in the
story of his appearance with Elijah at the transfiguration. But that is pure
imagination. Was the hiding of the grave a purpose of God’s, or simply a result
of his being laid to rest outside the promised land, which had no further
intention? He was not to enter it, not even in death. The bones of Joseph were
carried up thither, but Moses was to lie where he died, amid foreigners, of
course; then, years passed before Israel could again venture into Moab; and
even if any had ever known the spot, the knowledge would not be transmitted.
That lonely and forgotten grave among the savage cliffs was in keeping with the
whole character and work of him who lay there. Contrast that grave with the
sepulchre in the garden where Jesus lay, close by a city wall, guarded by foes,
haunted by troops of weeping friends, visited by a great light of angel faces.
The one was hidden and solitary, as teaching the loneliness of death; the other
revealed light in the darkness, and companionship in the loneliness. The one
faded from men’s memory because it was nothing to any man; no impulses, nor
hopes, nor gifts could come from it. The other forever draws hearts and
memories, because in it was wrought out the victory in which all our hopes are
rooted.
3. Note how soon the place of the leader is filled. A month finishes
the mourning. The new generation could not be expected to feel to him as to men
of their own time. To them his death would seem natural, and not difficult to
bear. He had lingered long, like some harder peak which survives the weathering
that crumbles softer rock around. But, none the less, the young life round him
would feel that he belonged to the past. It is the fate of all who outlast their
generation. New work called for new men. We cannot fancy the, lawgiver wielding
the commander’s sword, any more than Joshua grasping Moses rod. Smaller,
rougher instruments were best for the fresh phase of service. A plain soldier,
true and keen as his own sword, but incapable of the large revelations which
the spirit of the legislator had been capacious enough to receive, was the man
wanted now. So Moses goes home and takes his wages, and Joshua steps into his
place. The smaller man completes the mighty torso which the greater man left
half hewn. God has all sorts of tools in His great tool chest. Each is good for
one bit of the work, and is put away when that is done, and all are wanted
before it is finished. The greatest has his limitations and his period of
service. There is but one name which endures forever. Moses dies on Pisgah, and
Aaron on Her; but Christ lives forever, and is able to lead all generations,
and finish God’s work.
4. Note that, after all, the place of the great leader remains empty.
We do not know when the last words of Deuteronomy were written; but the lower
down they are brought, the more significant is their witness to the
unapproachable superiority of Moses. After-ages looked back to him as the
high-water mark of God’s communications to men, and found none in all the long
series of kings, priests, psalmists, or even prophets who had stood so close to
God, or heard such messages from Him, or wrought such deeds by Him. Others had
but developed his teachings or restored his law. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Verses 6-12
He buried him, but no man knoweth of his sepulchre.
The burial of Moses
I. God will have
no one, living or dead, to stand between His creatures and Himself.
II. God wishes men
to see something more left of His servants than the outward shrine.
III. God takes the
honour of His servants into His own keeping.
IV. God would teach
men that he has a relation to His servants which extends beyond their death.
V. God would teach
men from the very first that His regard is not confined to any chosen soil.
VI. The seeming
failure in a true life may have at last a complete compensation. (John Ker,
D. D.)
Divine burial
The same God that, by the hands of His angels, carried up the soul
of Moses to his glory, doth also, by the hand of His angels, carry his body
down into the valley of Moab to his sepulchre. Those hands which had taken the
law from Him, those eyes that had seen His presence, those lips that had
conferred so oft with Him, that face that did so shine with the beams of His
glory, may not be neglected when the soul is gone. He that took charge of his
birth, and preservation in the reeds, takes charge of his carriage out of the
world. The care of God ceaseth not over His own, either in death, or after it.
How justly do we take care of the comely burials of our friends, when God
Himself gives us this example! (Bp. Joseph Hall.)
The burial of Moses
Never had any man a more wonderful burial. No human hands assisted
at it. It was not left for the winds to cover with the dust of the mountain the
stalwart form of the eagle-eyed leader; nor for the dew and the rain to moisten
it; nor for the sunshine to waste and bleach it. It was not left unburied.
Moses died, according to the word of the Lord, and He buried him in a valley in
the land of Moab. (Alexander R. Thompson, D. D.)
So the days of weeping and
mourning for Moses wore ended.
The worker removed-the work continued
And when these days were ended, straightway the career of Joshua
opens, the tide of things rolls forward, and the march of events sweeps on. And
is this the end of it all so far as Moses is concerned? We cannot think it. In
some churchyards we see the broken column, and that we always understand as the
emblem of a broken life. Where are the lives which are not broken? And over
what graves shall the broken column not be raised? “Moses, the servant of the
Lord, died there,” etc. That life falls; but the thread of its conjunction with
the eternal purpose is not broken; that does not fall with the life. The
streamlet fails, but the mighty river rolls on. Moses dies, and is buried, but
Joshua takes up the staff and stretches forth the hand. What is the life of
Moses, or any other life? It is safe with God, if in purpose, at least, and
intention and drift it be lived in Him and for Him--safe with God while its
mortal courses are running, and safe with Him when they are stayed. But while
they are running He works by them, and when they are stayed He works without
them, and by other lives. And it is when the soul of the man is in harmony with
this fact, and governs itself by it, as the soul of Moses was in harmony with
it--it is then that the true life will be lived, and no shadow of fear will rest
upon the future. But indeed it is a great thing of which we speak, this harmony
of mind with the purpose of God. It is the highest life of man. It is the fruit
of long patience and much strife, and the triumph of the grace of the Almighty
Spirit within the human soul. (D. Wright, M. A.)
Joshua . . . was full of
the spirit of wisdom.--
Joshua and Moses
We have here a very honourable encomium both of Moses and Joshua;
each has his praise, and should have. It is ungrateful so to magnify our living
friends as to forget the merits of those that are gone, to whose memories there
is a debt of honour due. All the respects must not be paid to the rising sun;
and on the other hand, it is unjust so to cry up the merits of those that are
gone, as to despise the benefit we have in those that survive and succeed them.
Let God be glorified in both as here.
1. Joshua is praised as a man admirably well qualified for the work
to which he was called.
(a) His intimacy with the God of nature; God knew him face to face,
and so he knew God (Numbers 12:8). He saw more of the glory
of God than any (at least) of the Old Testament saints ever did; he had more
free and frequent access to God; and was spoken to, not in dreams and visions
and slumberings on the bed, but when he was awake, and standing before the
cherubims.
(b) His interest and power in the kingdom of nature. He was greater
than any other of the prophets of the Old Testament; though they were men of
great interest in heaven, and great influence upon earth, yet they were none of
them to be compared with this great man; none of them either evidenced or
executed a commission from heaven so as Moses did. (Matthew Henry, D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》