After some strange laws, and some harsh ones, and
more curses than blessings, Deuteronomy concludes with Moses blessing the
Israelites from the slopes of Mount Pisgah.
Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you,
a people saved by the Lord,
the shield of your help,
and the sword of your triumph!
Your enemies shall come fawning to you,
and you shall tread on their backs.
(Deuteronomy 33:29)
These are the last words the Israelites hear from
the mouth of Moses, and they are encouraging words. The Israelites are going to
face many enemies in the days to come, and so they need these uplifting words.
Perhaps this is a reminder to us to always leave others with encouraging
words—life-lifters.
Deuteronomy 34 recounts the death of Moses on
Mount Pisgah. He gets to see the Promised Land, but not enter it. Perhaps this
is a picture of each of our lives. None of our lives will end complete. The
completion only comes in the vision of God, when we stand before God face to
face.
Deuteronomy 34:6 is unclear as to whether he
(God) buried Moses or they (the people) buried Moses. Some manuscripts have one
rendering, some another. In a way, this is symbolic of Moses’ life, for he
stood between YHWH and the Israelites. Moses represented God to the people and
the people to God just like a priest, a pontifex, a bridge-builder. In a way, Moses
was a type of Christ to come.
However, the fact that “no one knows his burial
place to this day” suggests that God buried Moses and not the people.
Otherwise, why would the people keep Moses’ burial place a secret? After all,
the Israelites later venerated the graves of other biblical figures like David
and Rachel.
Moses reached the full extent of human years on
earth promised earlier in Genesis: 120 years. His sight was unimpaired and his
vigor had not abated; this suggests that God took Moses in the midst of his
strength, not in the absence of it. We would probably all like to end our life
on earth that way. However, better than 120 vigorous years on earth is eternal
life with God.
At the end of Deuteronomy, we are told that
Joshua son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his
hands on him. These words prepare us to focus on the next leader in Israel’s
long history, and the next book in the canon of Hebrew Scripture….
As we pause before continuing our study tomorrow,
I wonder: what parts of the Torah have spoken most deeply and meaningfully to you
over the past forty-seven days? What questions has this reading raised for you?
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