Postscript
Deuteronomy 34: 1-12
The Great Covenant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Max A Forsythe
Introduction: Many of the liberal minded commentators wax energetically when they claim that Moses could not have written a book that includes his own obituary. Of course, the issues in their mind are more climatic and complex than the simplicity of my report. Among many things, they simply fail to realize the testamentary aspect of the Covenant form before us. As Dr Kline notes: “A testament is of force only after the death of the testator. So the Deuteronomic Covenant in its testamentary aspect would not become operative until the death of Moses. … It was, therefore, appropriate that the Deuteronomic treaty should close with the record of Moses’ death, which in effect notarizes the treaty.”
We are all familiar with the role of the notary public in our legal system. Whenever you sell or transfer real substantive property – the contract must be notarized and if substantive enough recorded in the County Court House.
Old Covenant Milieu: Dr Brown gives us a second point for our consideration this morning. Repeatedly, Moses is assured that while he cannot enter into the land, he will be able to see it from a distance. “It is essential for us here to appreciate the principles of Hebrew law regarding land rights. … In later Jewish times the practice of ‘viewing’ land had very significant legal implications.” Abraham was told to look around him and know that it would be his own descendants who would own it. Jesus was shown all the kingdoms of the world and promised them if He would worship the devil. He of course refused the right conferred in such a viewing. Again, in the parable of the man who had just purchased a field and had yet to view it – the issue was the formal legal transfer. “By looking out over the land Moses had been given the unique privilege of legally taking possession of that entire country on behalf of its new people.”
In the same respect have early explorers in the New World planted their sovereign’s flag on the eastern shore and laid lawful claim all the way to the western as well. Of course, there have always been disputed territories and even the history of Israel makes that evident. However, the basis of the claim of modern Israel to the land of promise is linked back to the seminal event in our passage today!
So after having given his blessing to the people there on the plains of Moab, he ascended Mount Nebo, to the “the summit of the ridge”, as Dr Craigie translates is. This is nothing more than the highest point giving the best view of the country beyond. Then in geographic order, God shows him, from north to west, to south and east and north again the whole vast panorama of the promised landscape. I once did a panorama photographic montage. I took a whole roll of black and white film in the middle of the winter from the center of the barn lot. One picture had me in winter clothing with two large buckets of water going to the barn. Then there were five or six shots around the west and south sides of the yard, then a picture of me again from the back with my footsteps in the snow, then on around to the beginning again. The hard part was getting all of the lines in the pictures to line up so that when they were hung at the top of the stairs you could literally see me coming and going. Those pictures are long gone now, remodeled out of the way several times over. But, it was a fun project to illustrate a winter moment in time! It must have been a special day with school canceled – otherwise I would not have had the luxury of framing the moment.
And for the life of Israel – the framing of the land is and always will be a seminal moment of possession on the part of Moses for the benefit of the people Israel. We should also remember as Dr Brown would encourage us, to realize that we see more of the glory of the kingdom than we will ever possess. We have the blessed hope given to us of a heaven without sin, without pain, without troublesome relationships, without financial hardship. “The story of Moses’ viewing the land (Dr Brown assures us) enshrines a vital spiritual principle; not everything which is ‘given’ to a believer is an immediately acquired possession. Some Christians seem to want everything this side of heaven. … We are heirs to a rich inheritance, that is beyond doubt, but some of our assured possessions belong to a land we have yet to enter.”
Peter tells us in his first letter (1:4-5) that we are heirs “to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” We like Moses can certainly look forward to the good things beyond our immediate possession, and in doing so – like Moses we can affirm the blessed hope given to us, each and every one.
A third thing is going on here in this passage. There would be no tomb of the prophet as the followers of Mohammed and Lenin have. Remember, the Lord our God is a jealous God and he would not have us give to mere men the honor and glory that belong to him alone. Therefore, the Lord Himself saw to the final resting place for Moses. And just as the tombs of all the patriarchs, kings, priests and apostles are generally unknown to the modern age – so may we better appreciate the Lord and God whom they all served.
One of the grave errors of the Roman Church is the investment of sentiment in the order of sainthood, as well as in the spiritual market in their bones, burial shrines and various accouterments of supposed church history. Yes, we may very well guess where the Apostle Peter is buried, beneath the high altar of the Vatican – but what a travesty Rome has made from their altars which, by tradition – most have a holy relic of one sort or another. God in His infinite wisdom prefers simple unknown graves for His devoted followers.
A fourth item in this passage, very minor perhaps is the record that Moses’ eyesight and vitality had not declined even though we read in another passage that his ability to go in and out had been declining. There are several possible ways to take the word vitatility, however in conjunction with eyesight I would suggest that the implication here is that his scholarship and writing ability remained until the very last. And of course, we have the whole context of the book of Deuteronomy being recorded from his sermons over the last week or so of his life. It was quite an accomplishment for a man of 120 years.
Old John Adams was met in the village square late in life and when asked how he was doing, he admitted that the structure of his frame had suffered from age, but he – the spiritual man was well indeed.
A smaller, fifth item we should note in this short chapter is the tradition of respect which had begun earlier at the death of Aaron and continues even down unto our own time. It is the period of mourning that followed after the death of Moses. I can still remember the three days without television that followed the death of President Kennedy. Flags of course fly at half mast for special people fairly often. We even set aside special days for the memory of certain people or the survivors of particularly nasty wars. And yet, I have often wondered if a whole day every year to honor specific people is justifiable? History sometimes changes its mind about the impact of a person’s life – two of our greatest presidents must now share a generic holiday and to still honor lesser men seems somehow less than kosher.
As I said – that was a small item. Of more importance is a sixth item in which we see the investment of Joshua as the replacement for Moses. In Numbers 27: 18-22 we read that Moses laid his hands upon Joshua and inaugurated him for service. This we still do within many of the churches of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ordination of elders requires the laying on of hands. I can still remember when I felt the weight of the whole world in that laying on of hands. It was a special occasion since men from at least six Presbyterian denominations participated. Calvin surmised that spiritually the laying on of hands was a special blessing, and so do I remember it. The Church has been laying on the hands of authority for many centuries and through that practice may all of the leaders of Christ’s Church be traced back to Apostolic times.
Several times, when I was without call and still unordained – people wanted me to take leadership on my own recognizance. That I refused because it is in the wisdom of those who choose leaders and invest them with the authority of the church that the church continues.
Finally, we come to our seventh and last item in this chapter. Since there was no tomb to enshrine and enscribe a proper testament – it is written here at the end of the Great Covenant:
“But since then there has not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, in all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, before Pharaoh, before all his servants, and in all his land, and by all that mighty power and all the great terror which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.”
The great majority of the miracles in the Bible are recorded in the context of the Exodus or the presence of Jesus Christ. Of course, there are miracles recorded outside of these two seminal events, and even among the first generation of Christians.
Dr Craigie shares this intimate observation: “The last three verses of the book constitute, as it were, the literary epitaph of Moses; they form a fitting conclusion to the Pentateuch, of which the last four books contain an account of the life and work of Moses in Israel. Moses was a prophet, but in his epitaph it is not his knowledge of God that is stressed, but rather the Lord’s knowledge of him. God had sought him out and appointed him to a particular task; over the years, the relationship had become intimate, so that those Israelites who knew Moses, it was evident that his highest communion was with God. And so in his epitaph, written in a book because the grave was not known, God’s intimate knowledge of Moses was the most striking memory of the man now departed.”
Contemporary Application: Over the years, in order to better proclaim the Calvinist orthodoxy of the faith once given to the saints, I have often commented that it is always more important what God thinks of you than what you think of God! Forgive me – if I take the opportunity to hammer this covenantal point home!
Here was a mere man who spent his the first third of his life enjoying the educational benefits of the highest and most powerful imperial court in the entire Middle East of antiquity. Suddenly, he became a refugee and spend most of the second third of his life in the deserts of Midian caring for sheep and meeting the God of heaven on His own terms. And finally, for the final third of his life – he was sent back to rescue the people of Israel and to record for all time the covenantal wisdom and purpose of the great God of creation.
Where would Moses have been without the Lord? An untimely baby aborted by murderous decree! And that was only the beginning of merciful, providential events! Certainly, as we all realize, we are not another Moses or even a Reformer of notice. However, there is always a purpose in the calling of the elect into the Kingdom. First of course, there is the benefit of your salvation. Second, there is the calling to study, prayer, obediance and service as the Lord has given us gifts to serve His eternal kingdom.
As we conclude this year long study of the Great Covenant reveled through Moses, may I charge you to reflect upon your own calling? Salvation of course is our greatest gift, obedience to the Covenant is always good and beneficial. However, what special calling would the Lord lay upon you through this study of the Covenant? Please be in prayer for your understanding, application and acceptance of this essential Covenant for the Kingdom of the Spirit in which you are a citizen. Amen.
Resources Used: