Deut 34 · Read 10 min · think and write 15 min
In the last lesson, at the rock in Kadesh, the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them” (Num 20:12).
Later Moses told the people, “I am one hundred twenty years old today. I can no more go out and come in. The LORD has said to me, ‘You shall not go over this Jordan’” (Deut 31:2).
This is the last lesson about Moses. At the burning bush, God had promised to bring the people “to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey” (Exod 3:8). Forty years later, Moses stands on a mountaintop and sees that land.
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.
One look from the mountaintop. Moses “went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is opposite Jericho” (v. 1). Then “the LORD showed him all the land of Gilead to Dan” (v. 1), and on to the Western Sea, the south, and the plain of Jericho (vv. 2–3). God does not give him one distant glance. He walks him through the whole land.
The same promise. “This is the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob” (v. 4). God told Abram, “I will give this land to your offspring” (Gen 12:7). At the bush, God said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exod 3:6). Across four hundred years and several generations, God remembers the same promise.
Seeing it, but not going in. “I have caused you to see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there” (v. 4). The words are plain, and the passage does not soften them. What happened in the last lesson was real, and so were its consequences. God had said it before: “For you shall see the land from a distance; but you shall not go there into the land which I give the children of Israel” (Deut 32:52).
The servant of the LORD. The next sentence reads: “So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab” (v. 5). Here the passage calls him ‘the servant of the LORD.’ The one who did not go in is still God’s servant. The LORD himself buried him — “He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab” — and “no man knows where his tomb is to this day” (v. 6).
His eye was not dim. “Moses was one hundred twenty years old when he died. His eye was not dim, nor his strength gone” (v. 7). The passage does not say he died of old age. It says only that he died “according to the LORD’s word” (v. 5). Israel “wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days” (v. 8).
Someone carries it on. “Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him” (v. 9). Moses does not finish the whole journey himself, and he does not need to. God’s work does not stop with Moses. The passage goes on: “The children of Israel listened to him, and did as the LORD commanded Moses” (v. 9).
The last word. The final verses of Deuteronomy are not about what Moses failed to do. They say: “Since then, there has not arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face” (v. 10). Exodus says the same: “The LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend” (Exod 33:11). The weight of Moses’ life rests on his relationship with God.
Israel stood on the east bank of the Jordan. The man who had led them out of Egypt was gone. The ones crossing the river would be a new leader and a new generation.
God’s promise did not change because Moses could not go in: “I will give it to your offspring” (v. 4). God’s work does not depend on one person finishing it.
You may have something you have worked at your whole life without seeing how it ends. You may be caring for an aging or very sick family member, or facing the end of your own life. This lesson does not promise that your hope will come true.
It shows you this: Moses did not go in, yet God himself took him up the mountain and God himself buried him. The last thing the passage records is not what he failed to do, but that he was the one “whom the LORD knew face to face” (v. 10).
Seven lessons: Called from the Bush · The Night of the Passover · Through the Sea · The Covenant at Sinai · The Golden Calf and the Plea · Striking the Rock · Seeing the Promised Land. Moses’ road began with God calling his name from a bush, and ends with God himself showing him the promised land.
This week: Think of someone near you who could carry on something you are doing — a younger co-worker, a child, a friend. Find a chance this week to teach them one thing you know.
The Gospels tell how Jesus was transformed on a high mountain: “Behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them talking with him” (Matt 17:3).
Hebrews says: “Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken, but Christ is faithful as a Son over his house” (Heb 3:5-6).
In his sermon, Stephen recalled something Moses said: “The Lord our God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, like me” (Acts 7:37).
Readers can set these side by side and see for themselves: Deuteronomy says no prophet arose like Moses again; the New Testament says Moses was the faithful servant, and Christ is the Son.
Scripture: World English Bible.