Golden Text.— “And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.” —Ex. 33:11.
“And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.”— Deut. 34:10.
Read Deut. 34:1-7
The Death of Moses.
1-3. “And the Lord shewed him all the land.” Read with prayer and reliance upon the Holy Spirit the parallel passages in Num. 27:12-17; Deut. 3:23-29; 32:48-52, and notice Moses’ great desire to go over into the land, his prayer to God that he might be permitted to do so, God’s refusal to allow him, Moses’ meek submission and his request that someone be appointed in his stead, so that Israel might not be as sheep which have no shepherd.
4. “I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither.” When Moses pleaded to be permitted to go over, the word from the Lord was, “Let it suffice thee, speak no more unto Me of this matter” (Deut. 3:26), and that was enough. It was Israel’s sin in murmuring and rebelling that led Moses to sin, but that did not excuse Moses. How holy is our God, and what holiness He requires in us! And who is equal to it?
5-7. “Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died. His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.” When Aaron died, Moses and Eleazar were with him, but no one was with Moses when he died. He had often been alone with God, on two different occasions for forty days and nights at a time, but previous to this occasion he had always come back to continue with the people. Now in health and vigor of body and in the use of all his faculties he went up into the mountain alone and returned to Israel no more. Out from the earthly tabernacle in which he had sojourned or 120 years, Moses, the servant of the Lord, went to live with God for ever. No sickness, no suffering, as far as we know, but he just closed his eyes to earth and entered into the presence of God and of the redeemed and of the holy angels, absent from the body, present with the Lord, which was very far better for him (Phil. 1:21, 23). He is still there alive and well, and after more than 1,400 years from the time of his departure Peter and the others saw him on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus Christ, as he and Elijah spake with our Lord of His approaching decease (Luke 9:30-32). The body of Moses was buried, but, no man being present, no man knows where, for God has not seen fit to tell.