Good Friday to you my ‘Walking with Jesus” friends,
Goodbyes can be very difficult, can’t they? I’m sure we’ve all had very significant, memorable, perhaps gut-wrenching times of goodbye. But farewell’s can also be very significant learning experiences. They can be life direction alerting. I know, for me, the days of my mother’s farewell, more than 38 years ago, changed the course of my life forever. What about you? Have you had life impacting farewells?
The time had come for Moses to say goodbye. Volumes have been written about this remarkable man. Movies and plays produced to portray him, and his life, and his impact in our world. The first five books of our Bible were written by him. But he was growing old, and the time had come. How did he know? Here’s what he wrote for us: “On that same day the LORD spoke to Moses, ‘Go up into the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo in Moab, across from Jericho, and view Canaan, the land I am giving the Israelites as their own possession. There on the mountain that you have climbed, you will die and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor…” (Deut. 32:48-50) I wonder what the look was on his face as Moses heard those words. I wonder who he told? I imagine Moses walked around the camp that day looking at the people with very different eyes, perhaps stopping to say farewell to some and tell them how much he loved them. I imagine he went to the Tent of Meeting and spent some prolonged time there remembering so much about that remarkable portable worship tabernacle and the holy things inside… and those 40 days up mount Sinai when God first described it all to him, as he met with God in the cloud.
Do you find it interesting that God would invite Moses back up a mountain to meet with Him, to view the land of Canaan across on the other side of the Jordan, and then to simply die up there, in a private meeting with God? So many times before, the two of them had met on mountain tops, in private, holy encounters. This would be their final one. It would be for Moses the doorway to eternity with God.
Perhaps you’ve wondered WHY? Why would God end Moses’ life on this side of the Jordan, why not allow Moses to enter the land of promise with the people that he’d led for so long? Moses knew, God had told him many years before, but God repeated His reason here for Moses and for us: “This is because both of you [Moses and Aaron] broke faith with Me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin and because you did not uphold My holiness among the Israelites. Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance, you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel.” (Deut. 32:51,52) I can hear you my friends… ‘After all Moses did, after all he’d been through with these people for all those years…this just doesn’t seem fair. Where is God’s grace, God’s mercy, God’s love, God’s forgiveness?’
Do you see the two statements of God which I underlined? I think there is where we find the answer to our “WHY?” “…because you broke faith with ME in the presence of the Israelites.” Leadership is influence and leaders who’ve made a commitment to God and to lead people in God honoring ways, are held to an extremely high standard, for when they fail, their failure crushes the hopes, the trust of the people, both in them as a leader and in God. Moral, ethical failure invalidates their leadership for they, like Adam, have turned away from God and therefore are disqualified from being God’s spokesman. Moses was called to live an example for the people…everyday, of what it could be like for any and all of them, if they would commit themselves to living in a FAITH-Honor relationship with God. That’s why God also said to Moses: “…you did not uphold My holiness among the Israelites.“ Do you see God’s emphasis in both statements on the fact that Moses was a leader of great influence for the Israelites, and thus a high and holy calling with very high God expectations that Moses would consistently draw the people to God?
I find it interesting that for both Aaron and Moses, God extended remarkable mercy and grace, allowing them to continue in their significant leadership role for many years, but ultimately NOT allowing them the privilege to lead the people into the new land. God also made it very clear in the leadership transitions of both Aaron to Eleazar and Moses to Joshua WHY God brought both their lives to an end before the people followed new leaders into the new land. I wonder what lessons there are here for you and me, my friends, especially if you are in an influential position of leadership which you believe God entrusted to you?
The record shows us there was no pouting, no negative reaction from Moses to these death instructions from God. Rather, Deuteronomy 33:1 says: “This is the blessing that Moses, the man of God, pronounced on the Israelites before his death…” and what follows is 29 verses of Moses’ final farewell message to the people, ending with this statement: “Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD? He is your shield and helper…” (Deut. 33:29) Did you notice that little phrase of life ending commentary, almost like a very brief obituary? “Moses, the man of God…” As you reflect, my friends, on what will be said of you when you reach the end of your life journey, would it be your great desire that those words could be spoken of you?
Deuteronomy 33 are the last recorded words spoken by this great man of God, Moses, to the people he had loved and led for more than 4 decades. I presume he was standing on a high place, perhaps on one of the foothills of the mountain. We have no record of what he said to anyone as he came down off that high place. Who did he embrace? Certainly Joshua, and probably Eleazar the priest, Aaron’s son. Maybe other leaders who had been with him for so long, probably Caleb. And then Moses turned and began a final hike up the mountain. The people had seen him do this many times before at Sinai. How often did he stop as he ascended higher and higher, as he turned and waved to the people? What was he saying to God as he climbed, thanking God for the privilege of this amazing, miraculous lifetime he had lived? First as an Egyptian Prince, then a shepherd and finally 40 years as servant of God, leader of these more than 1 million Hebrews.
“So, Moses climbed Mount Nebo, from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There the LORD showed Moses the whole land… Then the LORD said, ‘This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants…” (Deut. 34:1-4) How long did God and Moses stand there on the top of that mountain together? What more did they speak about? Oh, the contrast for Moses of looking to his left and seeing the desert where they’d spent 40 years, and then looking straight ahead, across the Jordan to Jericho and far beyond into Canaan, and finally looking down to the sprawling tent city of more than 1 million people ready to enter their land of promise.
“And Moses, the servant of the LORD, died there… God buried him… but to this day no one knows where his grave is. Moses was 120 years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak, nor his strength gone. The Israelites grieved for Moses for 30 days…” (Deut. 34:5-8) I presume Joshua wrote those words, as guided by the Holy Spirit of God. A remarkable, unique era had ended. As Moses began his God given life commission on a mountain, meeting with God, as recorded in Exodus 3, so Moses ended his God given life commission, on a mountain, meeting with God, here at the Jordan. Tomorrow we’ll look at what happened next as Joshua picked up the mantle of Moses’ leadership and began to lead the people into the future they had long anticipated. But for today… let’s sit on that high mountain and simply reflect about what happened there and consider that this day will come for you. The day you’ll breath your last and God will escort you into your eternity. I have three important questions for us…
1. Are you and I ready to die?
What more needs to be done to get ready for that unavoidable, unpredictable event that is coming for you and for me?
2. How would you like God to be part of your death experience?
Do you anticipate it could be a worship experience for you as it was for Moses… you and God talking about your life, about eternity, and then God causing your heart to stop beating, your lungs to cease breathing, as you step into eternity?
3. What is on the other side for you?
Will Jesus escort you from your place of death directly into God’s presence because you’ve trusted your life to Jesus and trusted God to save you from your sin? Or do you have another idea of what awaits you in your eternity?
Powerful questions, aren’t they? Important life and death questions!
And here’s a song to help you consider that moment, that is approaching for all of us…
Today’s Scripture is
Deuteronomy 32:48-34:8
Choose below to read or listen.
Deuteronomy 32:48-52
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Deuteronomy 33
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Deuteronomy 34:1-8
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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