Keep sharing good news without ads.
Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/frank-sona/the-death-of-moses/
Turn with me to the last chapter of the book of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy 34. I've been going through a little bit of the book of Deuteronomy in my studies, and I have to say it will fit in quite well with what we've been hearing.
Deuteronomy chapter 34. In many ways, Moses is the Old Testament counterpart to the Apostle Paul. There are a lot of similarities between the two of them. They were both tremendous leaders in their testamental periods.
They were both trailblazers. They both had to refuse and choose. And when we look at this, I want you to notice this last chapter and keep in mind that the writer of this last chapter is Moses himself.
And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo to the top of Pisgah. Now, you'll understand a little bit that Pisgah was more of a ridge. The word Pisgah never appears in the Old Testament apart from the definite article.
It's the Pisgah. And Nebo is the mountain, of course, the mountain of Nebo to the top of Pisgah. So God takes him to this mountain on this ridge that is over against Jericho, and the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead unto Dan, and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah.
Unto the utmost sea and the south and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees unto Zoar. And the Lord said unto him, This is the land which I swear 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. So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, according to the word or the mouth of the Lord. And he buried him.
Imagine that. The Lord himself buried him in a valley in the land of Moab over against Beth Peor, but no man knoweth of his sepulcher unto this day. And Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.
The idea there is that he was a man still full of moisture. He wasn't some old, dried-up man. That's the idea. Physically, he was very capable. His death was, in a sense, physically, naturally premature, but it was according to the mind of God.
And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab 30 days. Interesting. At one point earlier, how many times they wanted to kill him. Now they're weeping for him because he's gone. So the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.
And Joshua, the son of Nun, was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands upon him. That's the mark of identification. And the children of Israel hearkened unto him and did as the Lord commanded Moses.
And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face in all the signs and the wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, and in all that mighty hand and in all the great terror which Moses showed in the sight of all Israel.
Joshua 1, verse 1. Now after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, Moses, my servant is dead. Now, therefore, arise.
Go over this Jordan. If you can ever get anything by him, I would heartily recommend writings by a man. He's an old Scottish writer, preacher. In the 1800s, his name is J .R. Macduff. There's something about old books that just the new books just don't seem to have the content and the character by the writers.
But this book, he's written a number of books, and one of the books is called Sunsets on the Hebrew Mountains. And it is literally the account of men, Old Testament saints, that died and God took them up into mountains.
And you have Aaron, and, of course, you have Moses, and he writes in his account of Moses, and it's very, very interesting. Here is Moses, and he's going to die. God takes him up into a mountain on Denebo, and he's going to bury him.
And as Moses is writing this, and I was thinking, he's writing his own epitaph. He's literally writing the end of his life story. I wonder what would you or I write if we had to write our own epitaphs.
What would we put as a capstone, as a summation? It's very challenging. What would you write over your life? Some of you are quite young, and if you were to end now, and the Lord were to take you home, what would you write?
Moses writes concerning this account, and he says, There was not a prophet who arose in the land of Israel whom the Lord knew face to face. It's a tremendous statement. It's a statement, really, that is not so much, although it carries an aspect of it, of official capacity, but it is really more personal.
We were reading here, as our brother Joel was bringing before us Paul, how well did he know, how well did Paul know Christ? For to me, to live is Christ. How well did Moses know God, whom the Lord knew face to face?
And so there is this statement of intimacy and communion and enjoyment. And the reason I say that to support this statement is because if you go back to Exodus, you remember that Moses said, Show me your face to God.
And God says, I can't. He said, I will put you in the cleft of the rock here. I will put you in this safety zone, and I will pass by, and the afterglow of my backside you will see, but you cannot see my face.
And yet here it says, Whom the Lord knew face to face. It is a statement, really, of not official position, although it certainly had privilege that no one else had. But it really is a statement of communion and personal intimacy.
And now he's gone. It's a challenge to me. It should be a challenge to every one of us. As we've been hearing, how well do you know God? How intimate is our communion? Do we speak with him regularly? When you go through Moses' life and you see how he spoke with God, whether it's at the bush, in that communication there, whether it's on the mountain, how many times Moses goes up and down, and he communicates with God, whether it's in his throwing up his hands at times, whether it's when there's plagues that are coming in, and discontent in the camp, and Moses is falling on his face, he comes to God with everything.
There seems to be no aspect of life that is left out in his communion with God. And yet think about it. Here is a man that had the responsibility for overseeing 2 million people. Here is a man that on a daily basis, even though he brought in the 70 elders later on to help and so on, he was constantly bombarded with a busyness of life.
And yet he says that the Lord knew him face to face. Too busy to read, too busy to pray, too busy to stop. Not Moses. That's us often, not Moses. What an example here. I want you to think as I look at this, I want you to think of the place and the purpose first of all, the place and the purpose.
And that's going to be found in the first six verses, so that God takes Moses up onto the top of a mountain. His death is not going to be degraded in any way. Even though he has failed, there has been an act of disobedience when he smote the rock the second time to give them water, as you remember.
And that resulted in his being rejected from going into the promised land, into the inheritance. But it's significant that he really not only was not allowed to go into the land because of that, but there's two other reasons why he wasn't able to go into the land.
And one of those reasons is to the fact of typical teaching. What we mean for the younger ones by typical teaching or typology is that there are Old Testament illustrations of truth. And Moses represents the law.
And the law, he's the lawgiver. The law could not bring them into the inheritance. And that is true for us too. The book of Hebrews explains that. Joshua has to bring them in. Joshua, whose name means Jehovah the Savior.
He's a picture of the Lord Jesus. And the book of Hebrews explains that too. So Moses couldn't go into the land because he represents in a typical way, picture, the law. The law could not bring them in.
But what I think is also significant is this. You remember that God said that entire generation that was in unbelief could not go in. And subsequently, those of the next generation had to wait till they all died before they could go into the land.
You could understand. I don't want to get sidetracked, but you could understand where Caleb and some of these men might get pretty upset with some of these other ones. It's your fault. Because of you, we can't go in.
We have to wait. But it's interesting that the very first verses of Joshua 1 says this. Moses, my servant, is dead. Now go in. He was literally the last one to die from that group. And in a very real sense, while he's not part of the group that died in unbelief, yet he failed to obey God.
And so in that sense, he didn't believe God. So the very last one dies, Moses. Now he says, go in. So Moses knew that. So you look at the place, and now the purpose of his death has several aspects to it.
So there's a mountain. And then God gives him a view. That's interesting. Verses 1, 2, and 3, it says the Lord showed him all the land, all the land, over and over. And so as Moses is taken up on this mountain, he begins his view looking to the north.
And then it goes circumspectly counterclockwise as he moves around and looks at all this land. And God shows him the land, and he says, but you can't go in. And Moses' heart is longing to go into that land.
It's interesting. You want quite a neat little contrast. In the book of Ruth, you have a man named Elimelech. And Elimelech is, he's in the land, and he wants to go to Moab. He shouldn't have, and he died there.
Here's a man who is in Moab, and he wants to go in the land, but he can't go in. And so there's a neat little contrast there. There's another comparison if you think of the Lord Jesus. And the devil took him up to an exceeding high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment and their glory.
And he says, all this will I give you if you submit to me and you bow down and worship me. And, of course, the Lord Jesus wouldn't, couldn't. That would be disobedience, and he could not sin. And here's Moses.
And he sees the very thing now that God had promised his people. And his heart is longing to go in. And in submission, there's no remonstrance, there's no resistance, there's no debate. He acquiesces.
He knows he's going to die. And he sees the kingdom. I just wonder, as I was thinking of this, about my own heart. And that is true. None of us really know our own hearts. But how submissive am I to the things of God?
When God says no to you or to me on specific things, how willing are we to submit to that? When God says, no, this is not my will for you, and you might want this, and it could be a number of things. I see there are single people here, there are married people here, there are people in your employment, and whatever.
Maybe it's a partner, maybe it's some relationship, maybe it's some job that maybe would have taken you away from maybe closeness to the assembly, or moved you into a sphere that God knows who is infinite.
Of course, in his knowledge, he's omniscient, and he knows that is not the best thing for you. And he says, no. Are you and I able to not only agree with God, but agree willingly with God? That was Moses.
And so he takes him up and he shows him all the land. Then it says, Think of Abraham. He's taking him back, and what he's doing is he's confirming to Moses his word. He's confirming to Moses, saying, Don't worry, you're leaving these people.
You're letting them go. Because Moses was the shepherd. Moses loved those people. His life was poured into them. And thank God for men. We need men that are raised up, that will have that same care, that same burden, that same heart, that beats and throbs with a concern for the people of God, that will pour out their lives, lay down their necks.
And even what it means being misaligned and misunderstood, and even incorrectly and wrongly blamed, they are willing to do that. Men that God will raise up. That's what we need. And we need to pray for such men, and such men need to give themselves to that.
But Moses was one of those men. And God is telling him, Moses, I've got them. I'm true to my word. I promised this long ago. I gave it to Abraham. And by Abraham's name, he reiterates, as it were, the promise, the covenant.
And the covenant keeping God, Moses. And then by the name of Isaac, he's emphasizing the provision. Because you remember that while Abraham was given the promise, all of a sudden now the question is, is that going to be taken away?
Because Isaac is going to be offered on the altar. But yet Isaac has the provision of the lamb, the ram, and it's pointing us ahead again in Genesis 22. And then with Jacob, it's the idea of the problems.
Because Jacob introduced a number of problems. And God is saying, listen, there might have been problems with Jacob, but I am the God who performs. I am the God who sees things through. Moses, you can die confidently.
I have them. He's reminding them of that. Then he says here, verse 5, Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, according to the mouth of the Lord. And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab.
And he says, no man knoweth of his sepulcher unto this day. I thought that was very interesting. Because here is this massive parcel of land. According to the geography that we're given here, it was approximately at its furthest view, a hundred-mile view.
A hundred-mile panorama of land that Moses was allowed to see. And God says, there it is, there it is, there it is. It's everything that I've promised. And it's interesting. God not only gives Moses sight.
He gives him insight. You know why? Because the land hadn't been divided yet. And he's seeing it there as if it had. The land of Judah. Dan. Naphtali. Here they are. And God is giving him that. He's not only giving him sight, he's giving him insight.
And the interesting thing is that as God shows Moses this panoramic view, as it were. And this is everything God is saying to Moses. Here is everything that I have told them about. Everything that you have known.
And in contrast, with all of that vast parcel of land that was so well-known and promised, there's one little grave that's unknown. One little grave that's unmarked. And it's special to God. Some have suggested, maybe rightly so, I don't know, I'm not sure.
But we do read in the book of Jub that Michael contended with the devil about the body of Moses. Perhaps because maybe they would have made a shrine or a memorial about it. And put up some, erected some memorial because to Moses.
Some may have suggested that some might have even dug up the body of Moses and brought it in to Canaan themselves. To make sure that Moses does enter in. For whatever the reason is, God chooses not to disclose it.
But it is special to God. And it fulfills in a man who's 120 years old. I was speaking to Dodie, 98? You got 22 years to go. 22. Don't know if you'll catch up. But 120 years old and it fulfills that verse.
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. It meant something to God. Every time, every time a child of God dies, can I put it that way? A believer. It's precious to God. One less person to pray for the nation.
I remember something that spoke to me when my wife's father died. We were standing by the coffin. And she said to our children, she said there's one less person now to pray. Moses was a man of prayer.
He's gone. We need, we need, God is looking for men and women who are men and women of prayer. To pray for his people. And so, we have that mention here that it's not known. So we have the place and the purpose, verses 1 through 6.
Then we have the report and the record, verses 7 through 12. And so it says, Moses was 120 years old. His eye was not dim. His natural force not abated. And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab.
And as I'm reading that, I'm thinking about this and how they talked about him during his life. How they criticized him. How they wanted to kill him. And yet he poured his life into them. Can I just want to encourage, because I think we've all been there at one point or another.
But some more than others. Because it seems, the Apostle Paul said, the more I love, the less I be loved. And it seems that obviously, you know, the best way, don't get your hands dirty, right? You'll never be blamed for anything except being lazy.
But the more we get involved, the more there is the risk of being misunderstood. The more there is the risk of being misaligned. The devil does not attack lazy Christians. He attacks busy ones. Committed ones.
But Moses goes on the divine record. And so will the divine record be for each one as God records. We have here the report and the record. God records. He knows. He sees. And while men might write and say one thing, God knows and will write and say another.
Someone has said, there's two sides to every story, right? Well, there's actually three sides. There's your side, there's my side, and then there's the truth. And God knows it. And here is the report and the record about this man.
As we go through a little further, I want you to think when it comes to what God says about him spiritually. His memory now before the people. His memory before the Lord. But I want you to think finally of the life and the lessons.
The life and the lessons that God gives us here. It says here at the end. Verse 9. And Joshua, the son of Nun, was full of the spirit. Verse 8. Sorry, rather. The children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab 30 days.
So the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended. 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.
He's going to present him. If you were to go back a few chapters to chapter 31. You would see that there is a public and official recognition now of Joshua by Moses. Joshua is...Moses is not bitter. He's not holding anything back.
He's not couching statements with innuendos that could be taken two ways. He is literally extremely sincere and spiritual. And he is commending Joshua according to the commandment of the Lord. He is a man that's not bitter.
He doesn't hold anything back. You know, there's some brethren. And they can't seem to take that. They can't seem to take when younger men are coming up. Older men. They think they can do it all. They don't want to let go.
They don't want to encourage. They don't want to recognize. Brethren, let me just say this to older men. That there is such a crying need as well for older men to groom younger men. To train them. Not to just wait until they can't do it anymore and then just flop things into their hands.
And then the younger men are floundering and they're crying out. We didn't know. Bring them along. Encourage them. Teach them. You have that. You have that multiple times in the scriptures. An Elijah with an Elisha.
A Paul with a Timothy. There is a crying need to shepherd not just the flock but individuals and train them and teach them on the part of older men. I think that one of the problems is that there aren't many older men as such that are doing it themselves or as much as should be.
And if you're not doing it yourself, you certainly can't train others to do it. Moses wasn't that way. Moses was highly commendable. What a man. What a man. There arose not a prophet like him. It didn't say there weren't other prophets.
Aaron was called. Miriam. They were actually addressed as such, labeled as such. But not like Moses. Whom the Lord knew face to face. And when Moses does this, it's interesting. One of the last verses of Deuteronomy, even in light of the backdrop and background of his disobedience that he could not enter in.
Here are millions of people that are just waiting to go into the promised land. And Moses can't go in because he disobeyed. And yet it says he did it. One of the last statements that God puts upon him of the divine record according to the commandment of the Lord.
How gracious is our God. How kind is our God. A God of restoration. A God of kindness, of grace, and of mercy. But you know what I think is very significant? That statement is not only a statement about Moses.
It is a statement to the nation. You say, how is that? The book of Deuteronomy. What book would you think has the word or a derivative of the word of command, commandments, commanding, more than any other book in the Bible?
It's Deuteronomy. The word command, commandments, more than any other book in our entire Bible. And that's interesting because Psalms only has it 47 times. The book of Exodus, where the Decalogue was actually given, and the book of Leviticus, which is the priest's handbook, has that word less times than Deuteronomy.
I think Exodus, off the top of my head, has it about 60 times. Deuteronomy has it almost 100 times. Because you see, the key is, they're going to stand on the threshold of the land. What is going to ensure their success?
What is going to guarantee them progress and conquering and victory? It's obedience to the word of the Lord. It's wedding that obedience and meshing it and melding it together with a love for the Lord their God.
And that's what you find in Deuteronomy. What a voice to us. Moses, according to the commandment of the Lord. And there arose not a prophet, since in Israel, like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew, face to face.
What's going to be said about each of us? What is being said of us right now? What is known by God about us? Love for his people, love for the Lord, love for his word, laying down our lives, service to God, humility.
Moses, the meekest man in all the world, humility, meekness. Listen, meekness isn't thinking less about yourself. Meekness is thinking the most about God. Meekness is the aspect and the idea and the understanding that God is so great that I am so small.
And I can do nothing without God. And the Lord Jesus said that. And so might God help us to keep these lessons on this last page of this last man, of his last days of his life. Moses, the Old Testament counterpart to the Apostle Paul.
And what an example these two men are for each of us.