The View from Mt. Pisgah

Faith Baptist Church

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Good Tuesday morning to you. Today we're reading in Deuteronomy 33 and 34, the last two chapters in the book of Deuteronomy, and also

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Luke 23 and Psalm 67. Most appropriate that this particular week we're reading

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Luke 23, the account of the crucifixion of our Lord. Tomorrow I'll be reading chapter 24, which has to do with the resurrection, all of which is of course preparing us for Easter Sunday.

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But today I want to focus on the opening of chapter 34 of Deuteronomy.

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Several years ago we used to live in Vermont. We lived in Vermont from 1992 to the year 2000 and really grew to love the state, and after we moved away, we made several trips back to Vermont, and on all of those trips we did some kind of hiking.

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At one point, we never visited this place when we lived there, but I heard about this very beautiful spot in the northeast part of the state near Lake...it

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was on Lake Willoughby. Lake Willoughby is a really cool lake, and it sits between two mountain peaks.

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The reason I'm bringing this up is because one of the mountain peaks, and I'll show it to you here, that mountain is called

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Mount Pisgah. Mount Pisgah. Why did they come up with that name for a mountain on the side of Lake Willoughby in the state of Vermont?

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Interestingly, I took that picture from a trail leading up to the top of Mount Hoar, H -O -A -R, on the other side of the lake.

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So this lake actually kind of splits these two mountain peaks. Well, of course, if you've read

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Deuteronomy 34, you know Mount Pisgah is the mountaintop where Moses had an opportunity to view the land of Canaan.

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Just as a review, Moses led the people of Israel for 40 years through the wilderness, led them out of the land of Egypt, but in his disobedience and really rebellion against the

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Lord, the Lord told him to speak to a rock to get water to come out of it, and Moses instead angrily hit the rock, and he really kind of put himself in the place of God when he said, why do we have to do this?

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We have to give you this water out of the rock, speaking of himself as if he's the agent of getting this water for them.

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And the Lord told Moses, well, because you have not honored me and you've disobeyed me, you're not going to be entering into the land of Canaan.

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Pretty harsh and serious punishment, but it gives a sense of just how serious

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Moses' sin was. So even though Moses wasn't allowed to enter the land,

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God nevertheless graciously gave him the delight of seeing it from the top of Mount Pisgah.

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This is what we read at the beginning of chapter 34. It says, then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo to the top of Pisgah.

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So you think of Nebo as a collection of mountains, and one of the mountains is this peak called

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Pisgah, which is across from Jericho. And the Lord showed him, Moses, all the land of Gilead, as far as Dan, all

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Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah, as far as the

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Western Sea. What a view from the top of Mount Pisgah. He also saw the south and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, as far as Zor.

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And then the Lord said to him, this is the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying,

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I will give it to your descendants. I have caused you to see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there.

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The fact that God allowed Moses to see it with his eyes was really an act of grace on God's part.

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Did he deserve it? No, he didn't. Moses didn't deserve it, but he longed for it.

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He longed to see the land, and God graciously gave him the privilege of seeing the land.

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What a delight that was for Moses. And so I find it's interesting that a few thousand years later, somebody came to the state of Vermont, and they looked up at that mountain, and it reminded them of this biblical passage, this biblical location.

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Across the lake from Mount Pisgah is Mount Hoar, again spelled H -O -R, which is the mountain where Aaron died.

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He passed away in the promised land. So somebody had enough biblical knowledge and understanding to reflect those biblical passages in these two mountain peaks, sitting across from one another on Lake Willoughby.

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I find it interesting that it's so named in the state of Vermont. Vermont stands as one of the most unchurched, pagan states in these

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United States. Those mountains do stand as a testimony to God's Word, and you think about Mount Pisgah, the

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God's grace. Oh, that the people who look up at that mountain every day would just realize how gracious God is, at the same time how just, and that we need him.

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We need this God of justice to be merciful and gracious to us. I hope you have a good rest of your

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Tuesday, and I trust the Lord will bless you in it. Let's have a word of prayer. Father, we do thank you that you are a

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God of grace, a God of mercy. Thank you for allowing Moses to view the promised land and to give that legacy to us, that you show to us that you are a gracious and merciful

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God. So bless these thoughts to our hearts today, we pray in Jesus' name. All right, good day.