Deuteronomy 34--The Death of Moses

Deuteronomy 34
English Standard Version

The Death of Moses
34 Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And the LORD showed him all the land, Gilead as far as Dan, 2 all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the western sea, 3 the Negeb, and the Plain, that is, the Valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar. 4 And the LORD said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, ‘I will give it to your offspring.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.” 5 So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD, 6 and he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no one knows the place of his burial to this day. 7 Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated. 8 And the people of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days. Then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.

9 And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. So the people of Israel obeyed him and did as the LORD had commanded Moses. 10 And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, 11 none like him for all the signs and the wonders that the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, 12 and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.

---

This is the end of the book of Deuteronomy and is the end of the time of Moses.  Moses is commanded to go up the mountain and the LORD shows Moses the entirety of Israel (I think supernaturally as I don't think that the LORD just pointed off in the distance and made Moses squint to see something on the horizon).  Moses gets to see the Land that he himself will not enter in this life, but we know from the New Testament that he met with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration which is in the Promised Land, and it is interesting to me that Moses is told that this Land will belong to his descendants.  Moses was of the tribe of Levi and they didn't get any physical inheritance save the cities of refuge that they lived in so that they had a place to protect people and dispense justice.  So then is Moses being seen as a "federal head" of all the people of Israel or is this a prophecy that has more to do with his spiritual descendants than his physical descendants?  It's quite an interesting question for us, but the key thing here is that God is gracious to Moses to allow him to see the land before he dies and is "gathered to his people," that is taken to Paradise.

Joshua is probably writing this last part of the book of Deuteronomy as Moses can't write about his own death.  The LORD knew that if the people would bury Moses themselves they would make a shrine out of the place he was buried and they would come and worship at it, so the LORD took Moses away and buried him in secret--the people know roughly where Moses was buried, but not the exact location.  We are told that at the time of Moses' death that even though he was 120 years old, he still had perfect eyesight and retained the strength and vigor of a young person, for the LORD had blessed him with these things to help him with the task that Moses was given to lead the people to the Promised Land.

The people so loved Moses that they had a period of grieving and mourning that lasted 30 days where they did not break camp at that time.  Though they were there within eyesight of the Promised Land, they could not move on from the death of Moses (literally), and I think we'll see that God breaks through their weeping and mourning and commands them to get up and conquer the Land (see Joshua 1:1).

The book ends by telling us that the LORD filled Joshua with His Spirit to lead the people and while he would have different gifts than Moses, it was clear that the LORD had chosen Joshua and gifted Joshua to lead the people in this time and was equipping him for that task much like the LORD did for Moses.  Since all the people saw they same Spirit in Joshua that was in Moses, they followed and obeyed Joshua as like they had done with Moses, for they knew that Moses had spoken for the LORD and now Joshua did that.

Joshua writes what seems to be eulogy for Moses and says, "
10 And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, 11 none like him for all the signs and the wonders that the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, 12 and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.

What an amazing epitaph if there was to be a grave marker for Moses.  It is because of the power that the LORD gave him during this time and the signs and wonders that he did that many wonder if Moses may be one of the two prophets in the book of Revelation--I'll say I'm not sure, but I don't think so because those prophets are killed and the Bible here clearly says that Moses died.  However, we will always think of the Exodus, the Passover, and the 10 Plagues when we think of Moses as well as other events like The Burning Bush, The Parting of the Red Sea, and the Ten Commandments.  There are other things that the Jews would think about when they think of Moses such as the Tabernacle and the Mana (though they get it wrong and say that Moses gave them break to eat when that mana came down from heaven).  Moses had definitely been one of the key figures of the Bible that is a prophetic type for the coming Messiah and we see much of what Moses was doing ultimately fulfilled in Christ--Deliverance, redemptions, instruction in righteousness,  mediation of a covenant, leading His people, daily provision--both physical and spiritual, and Jesus is going to do what Moses couldn't do--die in the place of the people (Moses made this request and the LORD refused because Moses was himself guilty of sin) and Jesus will lead His people into the new Promised Land of the New Jerusalem where He will dwell with them forever.

I hope this study of the Law has given you a better appreciation for how the Old Covenant points to the New Covenant and the Old Covenant is not evil, but trusting in external works of obedience and self-righteousness it what's wrong--it can never save you.  We have seen though that the LORD did not command external obedience apart from internal transformation, yet the Law put boundaries in place for society that said that those who refused to be transformed by the LORD and tried to say they were His people called by His name, yet they lived according to their old nature were dangerous to themselves and to others and they were to cut off from the people of God and in some cases were to be cut off from the living.  We see the first half of this in the Church still with what we call excommunication where those who claim they are saved but they still are controlled by sin and the flesh and show that they are a bad tree producing bad fruit should be cast out of the church and cut off from fellowship with others so that their sin does not corrupt others and that the righteous are not caught up in the judgment of the wicked.  We entrust the LORD to put people to death who are living in rebellion, and the New Testament hints that this does happen still.  We live in a different time and place now where most of us will never live in a theocracy where this Law will be the law of the land, but that does not mean that this Law is bad, it just means that we must be careful to do what is written in it because we love the LORD and He has changed us, not because of external threat of imprisonment or death from civil authorities.

The next stop I'd like to make now is to jump to the New Testament and look at the book there that most closely is associated with "The Law" that we've studied, and that's the book of Romans.  It will have a lot of references to the things we just studied (why I wanted to study Genesis through Deuteronomy first).  We will probably then return to study the rest of the books of history soon after that, but we stop and study one of the other Gospels in between (all that is subject to change with the LORD's leading).