Scripture: Deuteronomy 34: 1-12
Sermon: Did Moses Die Happy?
Topics: Moses, happiness, death
Preached: 2002
Rev. Mike Abma
DEUTERNOMY 34
Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho, and the Lord showed him the whole land: Gilead as far as Dan, 2all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, 3the Negeb, and the Plain—that is, the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees—as far as Zoar. 4The Lord said to him, ‘This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, “I will give it to your descendants”; I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there.’ 5Then Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, at the Lord’s command. 6He was buried in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor, but no one knows his burial place to this day.7Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died; his sight was unimpaired and his vigour had not abated. 8The Israelites wept for Moses in the plains of Moab for thirty days; then the period of mourning for Moses was ended.
9 Joshua son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, because Moses had laid his hands on him; and the Israelites obeyed him, doing as the Lord had commanded Moses.
10 Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. 11He was unequalled for all the signs and wonders that the Lord sent him to perform in the land of Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his servants and his entire land, 12and for all the mighty deeds and all the terrifying displays of power that Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.
HEBREWS 11: 39-40
Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40since God had provided something better so that they would not, without us, be made perfect.
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
INTRODUCTION
Last fall my wife and I went to see the movie Lord of the Rings. It is the film version of J.R.R. Tolkein’s majestic novel by the same name. From the outset of the movie you know the ring is both something of great power and great evil. And you also learn, early in the movie, that the only way to destroy this ring is drop it into the Crack of Doom, which is a mountain deep in the Dark Lord’s country of Mordor.
And so, for three hours, Frodo and his three hobbit friends are pursued by Black Riders in search of the ring. For three hours a company of nine –
4 hobbits, 2 men, 1 elf, 1 dwarf, and 1 wizard:
the fellowship of the ring – go on a quest to get the ring thrown into
the Crack of Doom.
After three fast-paced and at time frantic hours of watching this fellowship of the ring finally make it practically to the border of the land of Mordor, the movie rather suddenly ends.
Stunned, my wife turned to me aghast, and asked, “What? What’s going on here? What about throwing the ring into the Crack of Doom?”
“Well,” I replied, “That’s another two movies and probably about 6 hours away.”
That movie catches us off-guard because we are not used to things being left incomplete, unfinished, unrealized.
In the land before time, the dinosaurs make it to the secret valley;
In the world of incredible journeys, the pets always make it back to
their owners.
In fact, in most of what we read, and watch,
people will reach their goals,
discover their dreams,
or make it home.
That is how a good heart-warming story is supposed to go.
STORY OF MOSES
We know that the first five books of the Bible are:
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
These are followed by Joshua, then Judges and so on.
But the Hebrew Bible has certain major divisions and breaks.
The first five books of their Bible stand alone as one unit or one major work
which they call The Torah.
This has led others to call these first five books the Pentateuch, because they
were made up of 5 different books.
And yet others simply call them the Books of Moses.
Regardless of what you call them, the fact that this big opus of five books ends with the story of Moses dying on top of Mount Nebo just short of reaching the Promised Land, does seem rather odd, even rather abrupt.
It strikes us as rather odd and abrupt because the story of Moses has so many of the components of a good heart-warming story.
* Moses is miraculously saved as a baby and raised in an Egyptian home while still being nursed by his Israelite mother.
* In his identity struggle, he remembers who he is:
he identifies with his oppressed people and is willing to fight for
justice.
* That leaves him a refugee where he meets a lovely Midianite maiden, and
settles down to raise sheep and children.
* But then the Lord appears, personally, to Moses to give him a new job — namely, to go from serenely herding sheep, to herding the Israelites out of Egypt, through the desert, to the Promised Land.
And Moses follows God’s command.
In fact, he devotes the rest of his life to following God – whether that was in the form of a pillar of cloud, a pillar of fire, or a tablet of commandments. Even when God led the Israelites into the middle of the Desert of Zin where there was no water, Moses did not despair. He knew God would provide. And God did provide. In Exodus 17, God commands Moses to strike the rock and viola, water gushed forth.
By the time Moses was 80 the Israelites were on the borders of the Promised Land. Spies were sent on a 40 day reconnaissance mission. The minority report of two said, “Full steam ahead, God is with us.” The majority report said, “No way, the land is full of giants.”
The crowd, in good democratic fashion, sided with the majority report and was about to kill Moses. Then God entered the picture and was about to kill the people. In the end, Moses intervened, convinced God not to kill the people (who were about to kill him), and God decided on a form of penance for his people. One year of wandering in the desert for each of the days the spies were wondering around the Promised Land – 40 years.
The Biblical story is actually pretty silent about what happened in those 40 years, but we do know that after the 40 years, the Israelites were back in the same desert, at the same rock, with the same complaint – they wanted water. Not only had Moses had been tromping around the desert with this rabble and their parents for 40 years, but his beloved sister Miriam had just passed away, so Moses was in no mood for these complaints. When he let God know about the complaints, God said, “Speak to the rock, and water will come.”
Perhaps Moses a flash of déjà vu, perhaps he simply lost it. But whatever the reason exactly, he does not speak to the rock. He strikes it, not once but twice. Water still gushes forth, but something else gushes forth as well. The Lord’s rebuke. The Lord said to Moses, “because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this people into the land I will give them.” (Numbers 20).
After years and years and years of dreaming of entering the Promised Land, one strike, one stroke, one swing, and the door closed.
PROBLEMS
Not so long ago we read this story at home in our Children’s Bible. After hearing it, our 8 year old son Aaron thought it was pretty unfair.
“Listen Dad, it’s not fair. Moses didn’t get to go into the Promised Land because he hit a rock? That doesn’t make sense. A rock doesn’t even have feelings.”
Aaron isn’t alone.
In his recent book called Moses: A Life, Jonathon Kirsch writes that a blow from a wooden staff against a dry rock and suddenly a lifetime of struggle, hardship, and faithful service is counted for nothing ….NOTHING.
Even TIME magazine, in an article on the life of Moses in December 1998, noted, “It seems the most hairsplitting of technicalities — to strike rather than to speak.”
This has led Kirsch to come to this conclusion about the life of Moses:
“His is an existential tragedy.
He was cast adrift at birth in a hostile world.
He spent a long and lonely life in constant pursuit of a dream that
always eluded him. And he died a lonely death.
It is hard to downplay how devastating it was for Moses not to enter the Promised Land. At the beginning of Deuteronomy Moses pleads with God to be able to cross the Jordan River, to take a quick look at the Promised Land.
God replies, “That’s enough. Do not speak to me anymore about this
matter.”
Case closed. No appeal. The Lord has spoken and Moses is silenced.
It is clear that Moses did not enter the Promised Land because the Lord did not let him.
It is not because he was too old – his eyesight was still good.
It was not because he was too weak — he was still strong, and in the Hebrew
idiom, he was not a candidate for Viagara.
No, the only reason Moses did not enter the promised land was because God did not let him. The reason was not because Moses hurt a rock. No, the reason was Moses hurt God – Moses disobeyed God, and so dishonored God. That is why he was not allowed into the Promised Land.
PERSPECTIVE
So how should we see Moses climbing Mt. Nebo? What picture should we have in our minds? An old, defeated man, walking with head down, and heavy steps, knowing he is only steps away from realizing a lifelong dream?
And how should we picture God?
You know, we live in a world in which we are tempted to see God as something like a cosmic Morgan Stanley. That God is in the business of making our dreams come true, one believer at a time. And it doesn’t matter what the dreams are.
Last year our kids were part of a fundraising activity – a pace-race they called it, running around a track again and again. For the event, the marathon swimmer Jim Dreyer was brought in. In the rain and the cold, he gave this crowd of shivering kids and parents a pep talk: “Pursue your goals. Live your dreams. There is nothing, and I repeat, nothing you cannot do. There is nothing, and I repeat, nothing you cannot achieve.”
And of course, this fits well with a lot of the other messages of the “can-do” gospel were hear and see. The gospel that says, “chase your dreams and pursue your happiness.”
It fits well with the many movies that make sure to show us all those people who chase their dreams and reach them; who pursue their happiness and do live happily ever-after – all within the allotted 90 or so minutes.
But what about people who have a door shut on their dreams?
What about people who have the plug pulled on their pursuit of happiness?
What about people like Moses who could see it in the distance but could not realize it? Are such people failures? Should we feel sorry for such people?
If so, then we need to feel sorry for the whole lot of the people mentioned in Hebrews 11. The whole lot of them failed to receive what had been promised. The whole lot of them failed to have their dreams realized.
PROMISE
Did Moses die happy? Maybe that is the wrong question.
What we do know is that Moses died as close to the Lord as any person who ever lived.
For from the day Moses encountered the living presence of God in burning bush,
The glory of God shone from his face,
The name of God was on his lips
And the obedience of God directed his life.
It was true then, and it remained true when Moses climbed the Pigsah ridge of Mt. Nebo with strong and vigorous steps, and, with a head held up high, looked north and west and south:
The glory was still shining from his face
The name was still on his lips
And obedience is still what directed his life.
CONCLUSION
Deuteronomy is the final book of what is called the Pentateuch in the Bible – the first 5 books. In a very real way, the Pentateuch does leave us hanging, with Moses dying on the mountain, and Israel hanging around the border for 30 more days feeling badly for how poorly they treated their leader.
But Deuteronomy does end with a fitting epitaph for Moses.
Since then no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses ….
No one has performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.
No one, that is, until the arrival of the New Moses, the New Prophet from Nazareth. He was also taken up a high mountain and shown all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. He was shown everything he could have dreamed of. All he had to do to have it all was to disobey.
But he did not.
With an obedience even more unwavering than Moses, Jesus took the path of obedience that led him to a different mountain, a different hilltop. That is where he laid down his life.
Did he die happy? Perhaps that is the wrong question.
He did die faithful — obedient, even to death on a cross.
And where Moses, in his disobedience, could only lead to the border,
Jesus, in his perfection, opened up the path all the way into the Promised Land.
Amen
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