THE beautiful scene of Moses on Pisgah is made use of to illustrate the truths; first, that a penalty once incurred by our failure is not revoked; secondly, that the grace of the Lord brings in something in its stead far better than what was lost:—
“Moses makes the ascent from the plains of Moab up to the highest eminency of which the Lord had spoken to him. But now a good and a glorious thing appears, of which there had been no notice whatever in the Lord's previous words to him. The Lord Himself, and no less, not even Gabriel, the messenger on so many happy occasions, comes to bear him company, and to be his guide through the mystic scene which now lies beneath him. It is an hour of more than human delight. It is divine joy which Moses now tastes, joy in which the Lord Himself shares. With His own finger, as it were, the Lord points out to His servant all the promised land on either side of the river. He traces it from eastern Gilead across the Jordan to Dan, and from Naphtali in the north, through Ephraim and Manasseh, down to Judah—then westward to the furthest sea, and to the south from Judah to Zoar. And his guide is his interpreter. The Lord tells him the divine history of the land, that it is the land of covenant and of promise, the land of the chosen of God. This was exceeding the promise. The half of this had not been told him, for he not only sees the land, but has it all shown to him and described to him by the Lord Himself. It became "a holy hill" to him, a mount of transfiguration. Nay, Pisgah was more to Moses than Tabor was to Peter, James, and John. They, on Tabor, were below the Lord's place, surveying, as above them, those upper regions of glory into which Ile entered-he, on Pisgah, was on an equal elevation with the Lord, surveying, as beneath Him, those lower regions of blessing, at which, with equal eye he and his companion-Lord were gazing." All this is was a good and a glorious thing beyond what had been promised. But was it also beyond what had been lost and forfeited? Yes, far indeed beyond it. The land which he had lost, through his own pride and naughtiness of heart, was now found to be his footstool, while he himself was in company with Him who is to sit on the throne of it for ever."