In the last chapter of Deuteronomy, our reading for this last Sunday, we find an account of the death of Moses. For his first forty years he was raised as a prince in Egypt, for the next forty years he was a shepherd in the Sinai, and for the last forty years he shepherded the children of Israel through that same wilderness, and lead them to the promised land.
And there, on the summit of Mount Pisgah, rising out of the plains of Moab, God let him see across the Jordon River: "This is the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, I will give it to their descendants." But that was it. Just a look.
"I will let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there." Deuteronomy Ch. 34, vs. 4.
We are tempted to say "What a waste!" After all that effort, and struggle, and patient endurance, to be allowed only to see the land, but not to enter it !
But isn't that what death is like for all of us? --a curtain coming down on all the future possibilities, a sudden departure, and, for those of us left behind, a vacancy.
That, however, is never the end of the story, at least from God's perspective. As King David said following the death of his young son, "He cannot come to me, I shall go to him." 2 Samuel Ch. 12, vs. 23.
And on the loss of his brother John, following a long and debilitating illness, Benjamin Franklin wrote to his niece:
We have lost a most dear and valuable relation. But it is the will of God and nature that these mortal bodies be laid aside, when the soul is to enter into real life. This is rather an embryo state, a preparation for living. . . .
Our friend and we were invited on a party of pleasure, which is to last forever. His chair was ready first, and he has gone before us. We could not all conveniently start together, and why should you and I be grieved at this, since we are soon to follow, and know where to find him?
Adieu,
B. Franklin
Colin, thanks for this post. Yes, Moses shepherded the children of Israel for 40 year, and perhaps that was his tenure of office so to speak. It was for someone else, a new generation, to take them on the next step--over the Jordan and into the land of promise. I have stood on the top of Mount Nebo in Jordan and looked westward into Israel. Tradition says that's where Moses stood...the Jordan River lies to the right, north, and present-day Jericho beyond the river off in the distance. I can imagine Moses standing there thinking of the journey, wondering what would lie ahead for Israel, and passing the mantle on to another in his mind. Although written later and under different circumstances, and although Moses had a few glitches along the way, I think of 2 Timothy 4:7 when I picture him standing there.
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