Deuteronomy 34 - The Passing of the Prophet

It took me a year and a half, but I finally finished Deuteronomy (Numbers took me "just" one year, Leviticus took me three months, Exodus five months, and Genesis about nine months).  All together, I've spent the last four years reading the Pentateuch!  When I began I was 30 years old, living in an apartment in Rancho Cucamonga, and working part-time jobs.  Now I'm 34, living in a house in Apple Valley, and working as a full-time English teacher.  Reading these five books has been a journey.  And yet, the larger journey has just begun.  I've still only scratched the surface of the Word!  I'm not disappointed it took me so long because I was able to dwell on each chapter thoroughly.  This project of mine is not a race.  That said, there were a few lapses during those four years in which I failed to read for months at a time.  This must be avoided in the future.  Even if my pace is slow, I need to strive to always be making progress.  At any rate, this first leg of the journey has concluded.  It's been an immensely rewarding four years of reading.  I can only imagine what awaits me next.

Deuteronomy 34 is short, yet powerful.  There is only one thing that occurs, and that is the death of Moses, which unfolds in a subtly emotional way.  Moses is alone (well, not exactly, as he is graced by the divine company of God and His angels).  There are no friends around, no family members consoling him at his bedside.  He is on top of a mountain, looking down on the land he'll never set foot in -- the land he strove so hard to will his people toward.  God reminds him one last time that he won't enter into the Promised Land.  And we hear no complaint from Moses, no discontent, or anger, or disappointment.  We hear nothing, which indicates Moses's obedience.  He simply views that earthly paradise, and dies.  The passage is almost softly spoken, understated, and yet powerfully emotional.  I was almost able to visualize the scene: the top of the peak, wind blowing, yet a quiet in the air, the whole world stretching out around Moses, a giant panorama of the land he'd never inhabit, and God's gentle voice inviting Moses into the next life, a life that would one day open up to the true Promised Land, when heaven's gates would open with the Son's Supreme Sacrifice. 

It is interesting that Moses's body needed to be buried in secret.  There is a striking verse in the Epistle of Jude that reads, "When Michael, the Archangel, disputing with the devil, contended about the body of Moses" (Jude 9).  Thus it is revealed that there was an actual dispute over Moses's body, that Satan wanted it buried in a public place, so that, presumably, the Israelites could be tempted into idolizing his remains.  And Michael had to wrest it from him to keep it as God desired it -- that Moses should be buried in a secret place. 

To end, a few words about Moses, the greatest of the Old Testament prophets.  In my commentary it is stated that "no prophet ever appeared with greater dignity, in the old law, than Moses."  He was a "lawgiver, priest, prophet, ruler of a great and ungovernable people, and a sacred writer of the highest antiquity."  His importance cannot be stressed enough.  The way in which his relationship with God is described is beyond wonder -- nothing less than a face to face friendship.  He has done more than anyone in the Old Testament to set the stage for the coming of the Messiah, with his establishment of the Law, the Priesthood, and the Jewish Kingdom.  The people who inhabit the pages of the coming books of the Old Testament will constantly look back to Moses as they look forward to the coming of the Messiah.  Moses had the supreme privilege of doing God's wonders.  It was a privilege reading about this great man.