Deuteronomy 4

Chapter 4. Conclusion of the Book of Deuteronomy

Section I: Concluding History

Section I—Concluding HistoryDeuteronomy 31-34Moses gathers Israel around him after his three long addresses, and announces to them the approaching end of his life. Deuteronomy 31:1 and Deuteronomy 31:2 reiterate to them the promise of their victorious entrance into the land of Canaan, under Joshua, his successor; Deuteronomy 31:3 assures them of the subjugation and destruction of all their enemies; Deuteronomy 31:4-5 and Deuteronomy 31:6 solemnly charge them to be strong and of good courage, to fear not, nor be dismayed, for the Lord would go before them and not fail them nor forsake them. Then he calls Joshua unto him in the sight of all Israel and commits to him his sacred charge, promising him the divine protection and presence in all his ways (Deuteronomy 31:7-8). a. He writes the law and delivers it to the priests and Levites, and solemnly charges them, every seven years, “the year for canceling debts” (Deuteronomy 15:9), as Israel shall gather before the Lord, that it is to be publicly read to them in the Feast of Tabernacles, that they may hear and learn and fear the Lord their God, and observe to do all the words of this law; and that their children, which have not known anything, may hear and learn to fear the Lord their God, as long as they live in the land they go to possess. b. He takes Joshua and presents him before the Lord in the tabernacle of the congregation, and solemnly inducts him into his ministry. Then the glory of the Lord appears above the door of the tabernacle, Jehovah Himself recognizing the new leader of His people. Then the Lord reveals to Moses that after his death the people are going to backslide into unfaithfulness and idolatry, and to be visited with many judgments and sorrows; and He therefore commands Moses to write a song and rehearse it in the ears of all Israel, that it may be a witness in the day of their declension, of the faithful warnings of their covenant God. And the Lord said to Moses: “You are going to rest with your fathers, and these people will soon prostitute themselves to the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake me and break the covenant I made with them. On that day I will become angry with them and forsake them; I will hide my face from them, and they will be destroyed. Many disasters and difficulties will come upon them, and on that day they will ask, ‘Have not these disasters come upon us because our God is not with us?’ And I will certainly hide my face on that day because of all their wickedness in turning to other gods. “Now write down for yourselves this song and teach it to the Israelites and have them sing it, so that it may be a witness for me against them.” (Deuteronomy 31:16-19) c. He commits the law to the hands of the Levites and priests to be kept in the ark of the covenant, as a further witness for Jehovah. Finally he gathers the elders and officers of Israel around him and publicly utters in their hearing, the song itself.

Section II: Moses’ Song

Section II—Moses’ SongDeu_32:1-47It consists of seven parts. (1) Introduction. “Listen, O heavens, and I will speak; hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants” (Deuteronomy 32:1-2). In the most solemn manner he appeals to the heavens and the earth to witness to the gracious words which he is about to speak, and which he compares to the gentle rain and the soft dew of night as it falls upon the heated earth and withered grass and herb. (2) The theme of his song. “I will proclaim the name of the Lord. Oh, praise the greatness of our God! He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he” (Deuteronomy 32:3-4). It is the name of the Lord and the greatness of our God, the Rock, “his works are perfect” (Deuteronomy 32:4). (3) The contrasted picture of God’s people. “They have acted corruptly toward him; to their shame they are no longer his children, but a warped and crooked generation. Is this the way you repay the Lord, O foolish and unwise people? Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you?” (Deuteronomy 32:5-6). Very different are they from Him. “They have acted corruptly toward him; to their shame they are no longer his children, but a warped and crooked generation” (Deuteronomy 32:5). They are a foolish people and unwise, thus to requite so great and good a God for all His kindness. (4) The recital of His goodness and faithfulness to them (Deuteronomy 32:7-14). “Remember the days of old; consider the generations long past. Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain to you” (Deuteronomy 32:7). Far back in the past His love began, and many generations have magnified it. Even in the commencement of earth’s nations, when the Most High divided to them their inheritance, and separated the sons of Adam, He formed His great providential plans with reference to Israel’s honor and blessing. “He set up boundaries for the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel” (Deuteronomy 32:8), for He had set His heart on them, choosing them for His portion and His inheritance. His providential care and love had been in all their past: He had found them in the desert waste and had led them and kept them as the apple of His eye; as sensitive to their slightest want as the tender pupil of our eye is to the slightest particle of dust. As the mother eagle trains her young to fly by breaking up her nest and then compelling her fluttering brood to strike out their little wings and learn to bear themselves upon their native air, and, when weary and sinking, puts her own strong pinions under their sinking strength and bears them on her wings, so God had led them and trained them to trust and obedience. And then the days of trial had been exchanged for the fullness of blessing; the wilderness had given place to the fruitful land of Gilead and Bashan, and He had made him to “ride on the heights of the land and fed him with the fruit of the fields. He nourished him with honey from the rock, and with oil from flinty crag, with curds and milk from herd and flock and with fattened lambs and goats, with choice rams of Bashan and the finest kernels of wheat. You drank the foaming blood of the grape” (Deuteronomy 32:13-14). So had He loved and led them all their days. And so does He still love and lead His unworthy children. A picture more beautiful of His fatherly and motherly care has never been written by the inspired pen of prophet or apostle, than the poetic imagery of these solemn words. (5) Israel’s ingratitude in spite of all God’s goodness (Deuteronomy 32:15-18). Very characteristic is the name with which the lawgiver introduced the picture of Israel’s sins. Jeshurun, he calls them, meaning the righteous one, as if solemnly asking the question, How true has Israel been to their high name? “Jeshurun grew fat and kicked” (Deuteronomy 32:15). Like the ox that has become unruly through his very abundance, “he abandoned the God who made him and rejected the Rock his Savior” (Deuteronomy 32:15). The Hebrew here for “rejecting,” means to treat as a fool, and it implies the indignation with which God had felt their insulting conduct towards one so great. Then he describes their cursed wickedness. “They made him jealous with their foreign gods and angered him with their detestable idols. They sacrificed to demons, which are not God— gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your fathers did not fear. You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth” (Deuteronomy 32:16-18). The word jealousy implies very tenderly the marriage bond which God had established with His people, and in connection with this, their worship of demons implies that the great adversary has been received by them instead of Jehovah Himself. (6) At length the notes of judgment fall, and the sorrow of God’s anger is dealt out in terrible eloquence and majesty. And yet, it is more like a wail of love than a thunder of vengeance. Pathetically, He pauses in the midst of His purpose of judgment, and cries: “But I dreaded the taunt of the enemy, lest the adversary misunderstand and say, ‘Our hand has triumphed; the Lord has not done all this’” (Deuteronomy 32:27); and then bursts out into upbraiding complaint: “they are a nation without sense, there is no discernment in them. If only they were wise and would understand this and discern what their end will be! How could one man chase a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the Lord had given them up?” (Deuteronomy 32:28-30). Reluctantly returning again to the inevitable sentence of judgment. He says, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay. In due time, their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them” (Deuteronomy 32:35). And yet it is rather as the sentence of a judge who stops to weep over the criminal that he is about to commit to the bonds of shame, or the doom of death; but even when the sentence is uttered it is immediately arrested by the closing message (Deuteronomy 32:36-40). Already He sees them sinking beneath His stroke; their power is gone and there is none shut up or left. Their idols have failed them, their enemies are gloating over their helplessness and misery. Then He waves the sword of His vengeance against their persecutors and lifting up His hand to heaven, he swears: See now that I myself am He! There is no God besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand. I lift my hand to heaven and declare: As surely as I live forever, when I sharpen my flashing sword and my hand grasps it in judgement, I will take vengeance on my adversaries and repay those who hate me. I will make my arrows drunk with blood, while my sword devours flesh: the blood of the slain and the captives, the heads of the enemy leaders. (Deuteronomy 32:39-42) This is not the picture of Israel’s judgment, but of God’s judgment on Israel’s foes, as He awakes for their defense in the hour of their captivity and sorrow. And then the song closes as it began, with an appeal to the nations to witness His vengeance upon His foes, and His mercy to His people and His land. “Rejoice, O nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants; he will take vengeance on his enemies and make atonement for his land and people” (Deuteronomy 32:43). And so the solemn song is ended, and Moses thus adds his own conclusion: “He said to them, ‘Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. They are not just idle words for you—they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess’” (Deuteronomy 32:46-47). Like the dying swan, which sings itself to death, Moses closes his song by receiving the intimation of his immediate death on Mount Nebo. On that same day the Lord told 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 and was gathered to his people. This is because both of you 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.” (Deuteronomy 32:48-52) It would seem as though it was intended to be God’s very seal in the eyes of the people, of the words that Moses had so often spoken, that they might know and see in the death of their lawgiver how inviolable were the threatenings of the law that he himself had given them, and came with ten thousands of saints. They saw how inexorable God’s sentence was, from which even Moses could not escape and that in his death they might have a still more memorable and never-to-be-forgotten pledge, that the word of God must stand and that they could not with impunity disobey its statutes or despise its judgments.

Section III: Moses’ Blessing

Section III—Moses’ BlessingDeu_33:1-29Under the formal announcement of his death Moses pronounces his blessing upon the tribes of Israel. Was this a foreshadowing of the greater spiritual truth, that the blessing of the gospel would come with the passing away of the law? (1) The introduction. This is the blessing that Moses the man of God pronounced on the Israelites before his death. He said: “The Lord came from Sinai and dawned over them from Seir; he shone forth from Mount Paran. He came with myriads of holy ones from the south, from his mountain slopes. Surely it is you who love the people, all the holy ones are in your hand. At your feet they all bow down, and from you receive instruction, the law that Moses gave us, the possession of the assembly of Jacob. He was king over Jeshurun when the leaders of the people assembled, along with the tribes of Israel.” (Deuteronomy 33:1-5) It commences with the majestic description of the appearing of Jehovah at Mt. Sinai as He came, literally, from the midst of ten thousand of His holy ones to give His fiery law, and yet, to gather His people as a loving Father at His feet and to reveal Himself as the true King in Jeshurun, His righteous nation. Moses was but the mediator of the law, which he left to Israel as their precious inheritance from their heavenly King. (2) The blessing of Reuben. “Let Reuben live and not die, nor his men be few” (Deuteronomy 33:6). On account of Reuben’s shameful crime Jacob had left an hereditary cloud upon the tribe and therefore we find that even in the brief history of the wilderness the numbers of the tribe have greatly diminished, so that it may have seemed to many of them that there was a serious danger of their extinction. The blessing of Moses seems to suggest this danger and to answer this fear. “Let Reuben live and not die, nor his men be few” (Deuteronomy 33:6). And the blessing was fulfilled in their succeeding history by their continuance, although they never became a leading tribe of Israel. Compare Numbers 1:21 with Numbers 26:7. (3) The blessing of Judah. “And this he said about Judah: ‘Hear, O Lord, the cry of Judah; bring him to his people. With his own hands he defends his cause. Oh, be his help against his foes!” (Deuteronomy 33:7). The expression here, “The cry of Judah,” implies that Judah is to call upon Jehovah and to recognize God as the source of his prosperity and blessing. “Bring him to his people” means, bring him back in triumph as he goes forth in war. “With his own hands he defends his cause” has been translated, “with his hands he contendeth with the people,” as describing his warlike enterprise. “Be his helper against his foes,” pledges divine assistance in all his conflicts. The blessing was fulfilled in Judah’s preeminence among the tribes of Israel, and the victorious wars of David, Uzziah, and others of Judah’s kings. The same picture had been given in Jacob’s blessing, in even more vivid colors. (4) The blessing of Levi. This is a far higher blessing. Judah was to be helped of God, but Levi was to be wholly the Lord’s and absolutely carried and sustained by Him. About Levi he said: “Your Thummim and Urim belong to the man you favored. You tested him at Massah; you contended with him at the waters of Meribah. He said of his father and mother, ‘I have no regard for them.’ He did not recognize his brothers or acknowledge his own children, but he watched over your word and guarded your covenant. He teaches your precepts to Jacob and your law to Israel. He offers incense before you and whole burnt offerings on your altar. Bless all his skills, O Lord, and be pleased with the work of his hands. Smite the loins of those who rise up against him; strike his foes till they rise no more.” (Deuteronomy 33:8-11) Levi is here called “your holy one,” the tribe separated and consecrated wholly unto the Lord; and his fidelity had been tried not only in Moses and Aaron themselves, as they stood firm amid the murmurings of the people at Massah and Meribah, but also in the loyal stand of the Levites themselves in the frightful hour of Israel’s apostasy (Exodus 32:25-28), when they stood up even against their dearest friends and were faithful to God, to the sacrifice of their fathers and mothers, their brethren and their children (Deuteronomy 33:9). But their righteousness was not their own. Let your Thummim and your Urim be with Levi is Moses’ prayer. God is their Urim and their Thummim, their Light and their Might. Their highest honor is that they are to “teach [God’s] precepts to Jacob and [God’s] law to Israel. Offer incense before [God] and whole burnt offerings on [God’s] altar” (Deuteronomy 33:10). Levi represents the spiritual priesthood, that live where we are wholly the Lord’s and have no portion of our own, not even of strength, or righteousness, but the Lord is our inheritance, both for holiness and happiness, both for strength and all-sufficiency. (5) The blessing of Benjamin. “About Benjamin he said: ‘Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the Lord loves rests between his shoulders” (Deuteronomy 33:12). This is nearer and dearer still; to be the beloved of the Lord, to dwell secretly in His presence, or more literally, on Him, as one that lies upon His breast, to be covered by the Lord all the day long, and hidden under the robes of His righteousness, the wings of His unfolding love, and to dwell between His shoulders. That may be in His bosom, or on His back, where the father carries his children, representing the supporting and upholding strength of God. This is the place of John, on Jesus’ breast. Some have found in this beautiful blessing an allusion to Benjamin’s future location, as a tribe, with Jerusalem and Zion and the abiding presence of Jehovah in the temple, within the borders of their tribe. An added beauty is given when we remember that the original of Ben- Jamin is Benoni, “the son of my sorrow,” and it afterwards became Benjamin, “the son of my right hand.” (6) The blessing of Joseph. About Joseph he said: “May the Lord bless his land with the precious dew from heaven above and with the deep waters that lie below; with the best the sun brings forth and the finest the moon can yield; with the choicest gifts of the ancient mountains and the fruitfulness of the everlasting hills; with the best gifts of the earth and its fullness and the favor of him who dwelt in the burning bush. Let all these rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers. In majesty he is like a firstborn bull; his horns are the horns of a wild ox. With them he will gore the nations, even those at the ends of the earth. Such are the ten thousands of Ephraim; such are the thousands of Manasseh.” (Deuteronomy 33:13-17) It begins with the rich bounty of nature and providence. The precious things of the heavens, with their fertilizing rains, the dew, with its gentle refreshing, the deep that coucheth beneath, with its subterranean fountains, the sunshine of heaven, the mild and quickening radiance of the gentle moon, the treasures of the mountains and the hills and the fruitfulness of the earth, all these are upon the land of Joseph, and the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. Better still is the good will of Him that dwelt in the bush, that is, the covenant blessing pronounced in Midian on Moses, when God first revealed His glorious name Jehovah as the title of His covenant relation with Israel. It may also mean the good will of the God who comes to us in our fiery trials as well as in our earthly prosperity, and in whose presence no name can consume or sorrow harm. Three reasons are given for Joseph’s blessing. The first is that he was separated from his brethren. This may mean his early trials and separation. For us, it most surely does mean that complete separation unto God and from the world in which the fullness of blessing must ever begin. The second and higher reason was “In majesty he is like a firstborn bull” (Deuteronomy 33:17). This figure, we need not say, expressed the idea of sacrifice and entire consecration. The firstling of the Hebrew flock was the Lord’s, and was wholly laid upon the altar. And so Joseph thus stands as the type of our complete surrender as a living sacrifice unto Jehovah. Then shall we know the fullness of His love. The third reason is, “His horns are the horns of a wild ox [unicorns]” (Deuteronomy 33:17). One peculiarity is that the unicorn has but one horn, and so Joseph is to have only one source of strength, God, and God alone. They of whom this is true, like Joseph, “will gore the nations, even those at the ends of the earth. Such are the ten thousands of Ephraim; such are the thousands of Manasseh” (Deuteronomy 33:17). This is a beautiful picture of the secret of blessing; separated unto God, covenanted with Him, as He that dwelt in the bush, baptized with His holy presence and His consuming fire, consecrated on His altar and armed with His strength alone, we must have Joseph’s blessing and Joseph’s victory. (7) The blessing of Zebulun and Issachar. “About Zebulun he said: ‘Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out, and you, Issachar, in your tents. They will summon peoples to the mountain and there offer sacrifices of righteousness; they will feast on the abundance of the seas, on the treasures hidden in the sand’” (Deuteronomy 33:18-19). Bold enterprise and peaceful rest are the promises given to these two tribes. The territory of Zebulun reached to the shores of the sea of Galilee; and from the sand of the coast the most costly glass work of ancient times was made. This may explain the reference to “the abundance of the seas, on the treasures hidden in the sand” (Deuteronomy 33:19). The other promises seem to refer to their bold aggressive spirit, and their faithfulness to God’s covenant, in the conflicts with Jabin and Sisera (Judges 4:15-18). Perhaps this prophecy was also more distinctly fulfilled in the parts which these two tribes sustained, as the counselors and helpers of David, when he assumed the kingdom of Israel (1 Chronicles 12:32-33). (8) The blessing of Gad. “About Gad he said: ‘Blessed is he who enlarges Gad’s domain! Gad lives like a lion, tearing at arm or head. He chose the best land for himself; the leader’s portion was kept for him. When the heads of the people assembled, he carried out the Lord’s righteous will, and his judgments concerning Israel’” (Deuteronomy 33:20-21). His spacious territory is first referred to, covering as it did the fertile plains of Gilead; next, his bold, swift, martial movements, sweeping as the lion, upon his enemies; next his claiming for himself the first inheritance in the conquered regions east of the Jordan. This is the correct translation of the 21st verse because there the leader’s portion was reserved. Gad was the leader in the wars of Joshua, going before their brethren armed, until the rest of Canaan was subdued, and then returning to gain their inheritance in Gilead, and faithfully keeping the covenant, as they had promised Moses. Thus, Moses here assumes in his blessing, “he carried out the Lord’s righteous will, and his judgements concerning Israel” (Deuteronomy 33:21). (9) The blessing of Dan. “About Dan he said: ‘Dan is a lion’s cub, springing out of Bashan’” (Deuteronomy 33:22). The figure is that of a wild and swift attack upon his foes. Perhaps this is an allusion to the bold and even cruel attack of Dan upon the defenseless tribes of the north (Joshua 19:47; Judges 18:27). (10) The blessing of Naphtali. “About Naphtali he said: ‘Naphtali is abounding with the favor of the Lord and is full of his blessing; he will inherit southward to the lake’” (Deuteronomy 33:23). This is a picture of earthly prosperity. Their inheritance lay on the west coast of Galilee, which was “the garden of Palestine,” extending up to the head water of the Jordan, and including the most beautiful scenery and the most productive land in the whole country. But they were also to have the blessing of the Lord. (11) The blessing of Asher. “About Asher he said: ‘Most blessed of sons is Asher; let him be favored by his brothers, and let him bathe his feet in oil. The bolts of your gates will be iron and bronze, and your strength will equal your days’” (Deuteronomy 33:24-25). Asher’s inheritance was in the extreme northwest of Palestine, reaching up from Mount Carmel to the coast of Tyre and Sidon, and the base of Lebanon and Hermon. If we take the “bolts of your gates” to mean fortress, and strength to mean rest, the significance of the promise will be that Asher should be strongly defended from his enemies, and that the inheritance should be stable and quiet as long as his days should last. However, the words have become too precious to change their meaning without very high authority, and the received translation is reasonably sustained by the best authorities. It makes the promise a heritage of spiritual blessing to the Christian heart, pledging to us the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the keeping power and love of God in all our steps, and strength according to our daily need, whether for soul or body. (12) The blessing of Jehovah. Above all Israel’s tribes, Moses blesses God Himself. Moses ascribes to God Himself his closing benediction. There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, who rides on the heavens to help you and on the clouds in his majesty. The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. He will drive out your enemy before you, saying, “Destroy him!” So Israel will live in safety alone; Jacob’s spring is secure in a land of grain and new wine, where the heavens drop dew. Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord? He is your shield and helper and your glorious sword. Your enemies will cower before you, and you will trample down their high places. (Deuteronomy 33:26-29) He gives Him the tender name of the God of Jeshurun, that is, “the Righteous One,” lovingly assuming, as ever, to allure his brethren to fidelity, that Israel will keep their covenant with God, and prove indeed His Jeshurun. How sublime the picture of God’s protection, reaching to heaven in His help, and riding upon the sky for our deliverance, and then stooping to the profoundest depths, as He places under our lowest need His everlasting arms. It is before Him and not them that the enemy should be thrust out. He is the shield of their help, and the sword of their excellency, and through Him shall they tread upon the high places of their foes. But the secret of Israel’s blessing must ever be to dwell alone. They cannot mingle with the nations, but they must be wholly separated unto the Lord their God. Then shall it indeed be true, “Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord?” (Deuteronomy 33:29). What if they failed to claim the fullness of their blessing? It remains for us through Jesus Christ, our true Jeshurun, who leads us into their “land of uprightness” (Psalms 143:10) and becomes for us a surety of all the promises. Simeon is absent from this catalogue of blessings, and afterwards seems to have performed an insignificant part in the national history of Israel. Was there a lost tribe among the Israelites as there was a Judas among the twelve?

Section IV: The Death of Moses

Section IV—The Death of MosesDeu_34:1-12This, of course, was added by a later hand. (1) We have the dying vision. Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There the Lord showed him the whole land—from Gilead to Dan, all of Naphtali, the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the western sea, the Negev and the whole region from the Valley of Jericho, the City of Palms, as far as Zoar. Then the Lord said to him, “This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.” (Deuteronomy 34:1-4) How oft the closing hour is an hour of vision to the saints of God. Moses saw not only the beautiful land of promise, but also its spiritual meaning; and, in the distant future, no doubt, the form of the Son of man who should traverse it, and perhaps the hour when he should stand with Him in the transfiguration glory and talk of the decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem, and in which all the fullness of the Mosaic ritual should at last be fulfilled. We, too, may have such a vision, but before beholding it we must come to the place of death, the death of self. Standing beside our own grave we can see farther than Moses saw, and then come down, as he could not, and literally enter in. (2) The death of Moses. “And Moses the servant of the Lord died there in Moab, as the Lord had said. He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is” (Deuteronomy 34:5-6). Even Moses must die. The giver of the law must be the most pre-eminent monument of its truth and sanctions; and his death must have in it the dark shadow of judicial execution. While it was glorious indeed, it was also sad. It had the remembrance of sin, and was the divine mark of a single act of disobedience and unbelief. So, even to the saint of God, death is the decree of justice and the fruit of sin; and yet for us, as for him, it becomes an hour of transfiguration and the gate of heaven. The actual nature of Moses’ death we know not. Perhaps God sweetly kissed his spirit away. Perhaps, like Enoch and Elijah, his body was transformed in anticipation of the resurrection to the heavenly glory. More probably, however, he really died, and was literally buried, and raised from the tomb afterwards, to stand on the mount of transfiguration with Christ, and enter the land of promise through Jesus Christ, as he could not through the law. The contention of the devil about his body may have been on account of God’s preserving it from corruption and guarding it for his future resurrection. Satan may have claimed his right to every human body after death, on account of the penalty of sin. (3) Moses’ supernatural strength. “Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone” (Deuteronomy 34:7). This remarkable strength is mentioned, no doubt, with the intention of suggesting its supernatural cause in the sustaining grace and power of God. The same strength was given to Caleb, and the same quickened life is promised to us through Jesus Christ, and the abiding of the Holy Spirit, for “if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you” (Romans 8:11). (4) The character and influence of Moses. The Israelites grieved for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the time of weeping and mourning was over…. Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, who did all those miraculous signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt—to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land. For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel. (Deuteronomy 34:8, Deuteronomy 34:10-12) His influence among his own people is shown in the sincere mourning of Israel for him for 30 days, and in the almost supernatural respect paid to him in later times. God Himself bears witness here to his place of honor and service. No other prophet stood so near to the Lord, “whom the Lord knew face to face” (Deuteronomy 34:10). However, we must remember that this high eulogy was paid to Moses before the days of Elijah, Isaiah and John the Baptist, and we must read it in the light of the time when it was given. Our Lord tells us that “among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (Luke 7:28). So high is the new dispensation above the old, that in the bosom of Jesus, and leaning upon His breast, we shall find that God has “planned something better for us” (Hebrews 11:40), and that “(for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God” (Hebrews 7:19). (5) The succession of Joshua and the testimony paid to his wisdom. “Now Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him. So the Israelites listened to him and did what the Lord had commanded Moses” (Deuteronomy 34:9). This perhaps is not the least testimony to Moses himself, for the wisdom of Joshua is connected with the fact that Moses had laid his hands upon his successor and, with a spirit as beautiful and humble as it was effectual, committed to him not only his work, but the same divine efficiency which had been given to him. The highest spiritual lessons of the book of Deuteronomy will be perceived by us if we remember that it was a temporary message, and represented the transfer, or transition, from the law to that period under Joshua which was to be especially the type of the gospel. We must not, therefore, be surprised at Israel’s failure, or even Moses’ death, for all this was intended to prepare us for the insufficiency of the law to bring in the fullness of the blessing. These were great educational dispensations, and the law was but the schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Hence, before entering the land of promise, we find a complete reorganization and new departure. There is a new generation of Israel, a new numbering of the people, a new edition, as it were, of the very law itself, at least a renewal of the covenant based upon the law, and a new leader; preparing our minds for the great spiritual truth that before we can enter into our full inheritance in Christ “the old has gone,” the world, the flesh, the law, the life of self, “the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Then we are prepared for the next great message with which the book of Joshua begins: “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give them—to the Israelites” (Joshua 1:2). The Christ in the Bible Volume Two Joshua through Chronicles by Dr. Albert B. Simpson 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 © 1992 by Wingspread Publications. 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