Scripture Daily

Context No. 328 of 4322 · Deuteronomy

Context · Reflection

Deuteronomy 34:1-12: in context

1Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is opposite Jericho. The LORD showed him all the land of Gilead to Dan, 2and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, to the Western Sea, 3and the south, and the Plain of the valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, to Zoar. 4The LORD said to him, “This is the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your offspring.’ I have caused you to see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.” 5So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the LORD’s word. 6He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth Peor, but no man knows where his tomb is to this day. 7Moses was one hundred twenty years old when he died. His eye was not dim, nor his strength gone. 8The children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the days of weeping in the mourning for Moses were ended. 9Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. The children of Israel listened to him, and did as the LORD commanded Moses. 10Since then, there has not arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, 11in all the signs and the wonders which the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land, 12and in all the mighty hand, and in all the awesome deeds, which Moses did in the sight of all Israel.

This is the last chapter of the Torah, and it is Moses' death. He climbs Mount Nebo, and God shows him the whole land, spread out to the horizon, Gilead and Dan and Naphtali and Ephraim and Judah all the way to the sea. This is the land, God tells him, that I swore to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. I have let you see it with your own eyes, but you shall not cross over there. After forty years of leading a stubborn people through the wilderness toward this exact place, Moses is brought to the very edge of it, allowed to see all of it, and told he will not set foot in it.

It is a poignant scene, and yet it is threaded with tenderness. God does not simply deny Moses the land; he takes him up the mountain and shows him the whole of it, so that Moses sees with his own eyes that the promise is real and good, even though he will not enter it. Moses dies there, a hundred and twenty years old, his eyes still undimmed and his strength unfailing, and then the text says something remarkable: God himself buried him in a valley, and no one to this day knows the place. No human hand tended Moses in death; God did it personally. And the work went on. Joshua, filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid hands on him, took up the leadership, and the people crossed the river Moses only saw.

The shape of it is worth keeping. Moses spent his life bringing something to the edge that he himself would not cross into, and his task was to see it, bless it, and hand it on. Much of the good I work toward may be like that, real and good and not finished by me. Is it enough for me, as it had to be for Moses, to be shown from the mountain that the promise is true, and then to hand the crossing to someone else?

Sources