At the end of his life, we see Moses on Mount Pisgah, viewing the land of Canaan stretched out beneath him (Deut. 34). That was a new mount of God to him. It lay a little outside the promised land, but it afforded him a full view of it. It was a high eminence, the top of Pisgah on Mount Nebo, in the mountains of Abarim. The earth had now ceased to own Moses; Israel also knew him no more. The wilderness too had all been passed, and the Lord alone is his company on the hill that overlooked the land of promise. What an expression of the place of the church or heavenly glory the whole of this is! On high with the Lord, Moses looks down on the earthly inheritance, the place of the tribes of Israel, Gilead and Dan, Naphtali, Ephraim and Manasseh, with all the land of Judah to the sea, the south too, and the valley of Jericho, with the city of palm trees unto Zoar! A place that could command such objects beneath, and in such company, is heavenly indeed! Moses is on high with the Lord, looking on the cities and plains where the redeemed and happy families of the earth were to dwell. It is from heaven alone that such blessing and occupation of the earth, in righteousness and peace, will be seen by the Lord and His children of the resurrection. (We have also a witness to the heavenly glory of Aaron, Moses’ associate, in Numbers 20. He dies as a priest on the top of the hill, the earthly people being beneath him and knowing him only as a priest in the high places.)
The Mount of the Transfiguration
Again, as another witness of Moses in the heavenly place, we see him in the New Testament, on another mount, the mount of the transfiguration. Peter, James and John are there, presenting Israel and the earthly people, and they are on the outside. But Moses is there, again in company with the Lord and another coheir of the heavenly glory, and they are within, enwrapped in the cloud of the excellent glory, the true veil that is to separate the holy place from the courts, or the heavens from the earth. Moses is on the heavenly side of that veil, glorified in the likeness of the very Lord of the glory Himself.
These are two strong and clear testimonies to the heavenly glory of Moses — striking exhibition of him in the heavenly place, being in company with the Lord on the top of two hills, from the one of which he sees the earthly inheritance beneath him, and from the other, the earthly people outside him. And thus I judge, from all these witnesses which we have here listened to, we gather both the heavenly calling and glory or the heavenly character and place of this honored and faithful servant of God. He is a child of the resurrection and a joint-heir of God with Jesus Christ.
Earth and Heaven
Thus Moses loses the earth, but gains heaven. He loses Canaan by his own wrong, trespassing, as we have seen, against the grace and power of the budding rod, but he gains glory on the top of the hill that overlooked Canaan, through the abounding kindness and love of God his Saviour. Law says that “no man shall take advantage of his own wrong,” and justly so, for righteousness forbids the thought that anyone shall gain a benefit by his own misdeed. But grace does not act by law, for the glory we reap through it, as pardoned sinners, is richer and brighter far than that which Adam in innocence knew. God’s riddle is solved in our history — the eater has yielded meat, and the strong man sweetness. Moses and the church both illustrate it; both are traveling onward through forfeiture of the earth, led by the hand of the Son of God, to the top of that hill which looks down on the goodly tents of Jacob beneath. O beloved, what manner of people should we be! May the life and energy of the indwelling Spirit keep us more and more separated to heavenly character and heavenly hopes!
J. G. Bellett, adapted