Bible
Commentary
Deuteronomy 34
Having
read how Moses finished his testimony, we are told here how he immediately
after finished his life. This chapter could not be written by Moses himself,
but was added by Joshua or Eleazar, or, as bishop Patrick conjectures, by
Samuel, who was a prophet, and wrote by divine authority what he found in the
records of Joshua, and his successors the judges. We have had an account of his
dying words, here we have an account of his dying work, and that is work we
must all do shortly, and it had need be well done. Here is, I. The view Moses
had of the land of Canaan just before he died, ver. 1-4. II. His death and
burial, ver. 5, 6. III. His age, ver. 7. IV. Israel's mourning for him, ver. 8.
V. His successor, ver. 9. VI. His character, ver. 10, &c.
Moses
on Mount Pisgah. B. C. 1451.
1 And Moses went up from the plains of
Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against
Jericho. And the LORD showed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan, 2 And all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim,
and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the utmost sea, 3 And the south, and the plain of the valley
of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar.
4 And the LORD said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto
Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I
have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither.
Here is, I. Moses climbing upwards
towards heaven, as high as the top of Pisgah, there to die; for that was the
place appointed, ch. xxxii. 49, 50. Israel lay encamped upon the flat grounds
in the plains of Moab, and thence he went up, according to order, to the
mountain of Nebo, to the highest point or ridge of that mountain, which was
called Pisgah, v. 1. Pisgah is an appellative name for all such eminences. It
should seem, Moses went up alone to the top of Pisgah, alone without help--a
sign that his natural force was not abated when on the last day of his life he
could walk up to the top of a high hill without such supporters as once he had
when his hands were heavy (Exod. xvii. 12), alone without company. When he had
made an end of blessing Israel, we may suppose, he solemnly took leave of
Joshua, and Eleazar, and the rest of his friends, who probably brought him to
the foot of the hill; but then he gave them such a charge as Abraham gave to
his servants at the foot of another hill: Tarry you here while I go yonder and
die: they must not see him die, because they must not know of his sepulchre.
But, whether this were so or not, he went up to the top of Pisgah, 1. To show
that he was willing to die. When he knew the place of his death, he was so far
from avoiding it that he cheerfully mounted a steep hill to come at it. Note,
Those that through grace are well acquainted with another world, and have been
much conversant with it, need not be afraid to leave this. 2. To show that he
looked upon death as his ascension. The soul of a man, of a good man, when it
leaves the body, goes upwards (Eccl. iii. 21), in conformity to which motion of
the soul, the body of Moses shall go along with it as far upwards as its earth
will carry it. When God's servants are sent for out of the world, the summons
runs thus, Go up and die.
II. Moses looking downward again towards
this earth, to see the earthly Canaan into which he must never enter, but
therein by faith looking forwards to the heavenly Canaan into which he should
now immediately enter. God had threatened that he should not come into the
possession of Canaan, and the threatening is fulfilled. But he had also
promised that he should have a prospect of it, and the promise is here
performed: The Lord showed him all that good land, v. 1. 1. If he went up alone
to the top of Pisgah, yet he was not alone, for the Father was with him, John
xvi. 32. If a man has any friends, he will have them about him when he lies a
dying. But if, either through God's providence or their unkindness, it should
so happen that we should then be alone, we need fear no evil if the great and
good Shepherd be with us, Ps. xxiii. 4. 2. Though his sight was very good, and
he had all the advantage of high ground that he could desire for the prospect,
yet he could not have seen what he now saw, all Canaan from end to end
(reckoned about fifty or sixty miles), if his sight had not been miraculously
assisted and enlarged, and therefore it is said, The Lord showed it to him.
Note, All the pleasant prospects we have of the better country we are beholden
to the grace of God for; it is he that gives the spirit of wisdom as well as
the spirit of revelation, the eye as well as the object. This sight which God
here gave Moses of Canaan, probably, the devil designed to mimic, and pretended
to out-do, when in an airy phantom he showed to our Saviour, whom he had placed
like Moses upon an exceedingly high mountain, all the kingdoms of the world and
the glory of them, not gradually, as here, first one country and then another,
but all in a moment of time. 3. He saw it at a distance. Such a sight the
Old-Testament saints had of the kingdom of the Messiah; they saw it afar off.
Thus Abraham, long before this, saw Christ's day; and, being fully persuaded of
it, embraced it in the promise, leaving others to embrace it in the performance,
Heb. xi. 13. Such a sight believers now have, through grace, of the bliss and
glory of their future state. The word and ordinances are to them what Mount
Pisgah was to Moses; from them they have comfortable prospects of the glory to
be revealed, and rejoice in hope of it. 4. He saw it, but must never enjoy it.
As God sometimes takes his people away from the evil to come, so at other times
he takes them away from the good to come, that is, the good which shall be
enjoyed by the church in the present world. Glorious things are spoken of the
kingdom of Christ in the latter days, its advancement, enlargement, and
flourishing state; we foresee it, but we are not likely to live to see it.
Those that shall come after us, we hope will enter that promised land, which is
a comfort to us when we find our own carcases falling in this wilderness. See 2
Kings vii. 2. 5. He saw all this just before his death. Sometimes God reserves
the brightest discoveries of his grace to his people to be the support of their
dying moments. Canaan was Immanuel's land (Isa. viii. 8), so that in viewing it
he had a view of the blessings we enjoy by Christ. It was a type of heaven
(Heb. xi. 16), which faith is the substance and evidence of. Note, Those may
leave this world with a great deal of cheerfulness that die in the faith of
Christ, and in the hope of heaven, and with Canaan in their eye. Having thus
seen the salvation of God, we may well say, Lord, now let thou thy servant
depart in peace.
The
Death of Moses. B. C. 1451.
5 So Moses the servant of the LORD died
there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD. 6 And he buried him in a valley in the land
of Moab, over against Beth-peor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this
day. 7 And Moses was a hundred and
twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force
abated. 8 And the children of Israel
wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days: so the days of weeping and
mourning for Moses were ended.
Here is, I. The death of Moses (v. 5):
Moses the servant of the Lord died. God told him he must not go over Jordan,
and, though at first he prayed earnestly for the reversing of the sentence yet
God's answer to his prayer sufficed him, and now he spoke no more of that
matter, ch. iii. 26. Thus our blessed Saviour prayed that the cup might pass
from him, yet, since it might not, he acquiesced with, Father, thy will be
done. Moses had reason to desire to live a while longer in the world. He was
old, it is true, but he had not yet attained to the years of the life of his
fathers; his father Amram lived to be 137; his grandfather Kohath 133; his
great grandfather Levi 137; Exod. vi. 16-20. And why must Moses, whose life was
more serviceable than any of theirs, die at 120, especially since he felt not
the decays of age, but was as fit for service as ever? Israel could ill spare
him at this time; his conduct and his converse with God would be as great a
happiness to them in the conquest of Canaan as the courage of Joshua. It bore
hard upon Moses himself, when he had gone through all the fatigues of the
wilderness, to be prevented from enjoying the pleasures of Canaan; when he had
borne the burden and heat of the day, to resign the honour of finishing the work
to another, and that not his son, but his servant, who must enter into his
labours. We may suppose that this was not pleasant to flesh and blood. But the
man Moses was very meek; God will have it so, and he cheerfully submits. 1. He
is here called the servant of the Lord, not only as a good man (all the saints
are God's servants), but as a useful man, eminently useful, who had served
God's counsels in bringing Israel out of Egypt, and leading them through the
wilderness. It was more his honour to be the servant of the Lord. than to be
king in Jeshurun. 2. Yet he dies. Neither his piety nor his usefulness would
exempt him from the stroke of death. God's servants must die that they may rest
from their labours, receive their recompense, and make room for others. When
God's servants are removed, and must serve him no longer on earth, they go to
serve him better, to serve him day and night in his temple. 3. He dies in the
land of Moab, short of Canaan, while as yet he and his people were in an
unsettled condition and had not entered into their rest. In the heavenly Canaan
there will be no more death. 4. He dies according to the word of the Lord. At
the mouth of the Lord; so the word is. The Jews say, "with a kiss from the
mouth of God." No doubt, he died very easily (it was an euthanasia--a
delightful death), there were no bands in his death; and he had in his death a
most pleasing taste of the love of God to him: but that he died at the mouth of
the Lord means no more but that he died in compliance with the will of God.
Note, The servants of the Lord, when they have done all their other work, must
die at last, in obedience to their Master, and be freely willing to go home
whenever he sends for them, Acts xxi. 13.
II. His burial, v. 6. It is a groundless
conceit of some of the Jews that Moses was translated to heaven as Elijah was,
for it is expressly said that he died and was buried; yet probably he was
raised to meet Elias, to grace the solemnity of Christ's transfiguration. 1.
God himself buried him, namely, by the ministry of angels, which made this
funeral, though very private, yet very magnificent. Note, God takes care of the
dead bodies of his servants; as their death is precious, so is their dust, not
a grain of it shall be lost, but the covenant with it shall be remembered. When
Moses was dead, God buried him; when Christ was dead, God raised him, for the
law of Moses was to have an end, but not the gospel of Christ. Believers are
dead to the law that they might be married to another, even to him who is
raised from the dead, Rom. vii. 4. It should seem Michael, that is, Christ (as
some think), had the burying of Moses, for by him the Mosaical ordinances were
abolished and taken out of the way, nailed to his cross, and buried in his
grave, Col. ii. 14. 2. He was buried in a valley over against Beth-peor. How
easily could the angels that buried him have conveyed him over Jordan and
buried him with the patriarchs in the cave of Machpelah! But we must learn not
be over-solicitous about the place of our burial. If the soul be at rest with
God, the matter is not great where the body rests. One of the Chaldee
paraphrasts says, "He was buried over against Beth-peor, that, whenever
Baal-peor boasted of the Israelites being joined to him, the grave of Moses
over against his temple might be a check to him." 3. The particular place
was not known, lest the children of Israel, who were so very prone to idolatry,
should have enshrined and worshipped the dead body of Moses, that great founder
and benefactor of their nation. It is true that we read not, among all the
instances of their idolatry, that they worshipped relics, the reason of which
perhaps was because they were thus prevented from worshipping Moses, and so
could not for shame worship any other. Some of the Jewish writers say that the
body of Moses was concealed, that necromancers, who enquired of the dead, might
not disquiet him, as the witch of Endor did Samuel, to bring him up. God would
not have the name and memory of his servant Moses thus abused. Many think this
was the contest between Michael and the devil about the body of Moses,
mentioned Jude 9. The devil would make the place known that it might be a snare
to the people, and Michael would not let him. Those therefore who are for
giving divine honours to the relics of departed saints side with the devil
against Michael our prince.
III. His age, v. 7. His life was
prolonged, 1. To old age. He was 120 years old, which, though far short of the
years of the patriarchs, yet much exceeded the years of most of his
contemporaries, for the ordinary age of man had been lately reduced to seventy,
Ps. xc. 10. The years of the life of Moses were three forties. The first forty
he lived a courtier, at ease and in honour in Pharaoh's court; the second forty
he lived a poor desolate shepherd in Midian; the third forty he lived a king in
Jeshurun, in honour and power, but encumbered with a great deal of care and
toil: so changeable is the world we live in, and alloyed with such mixtures;
but the world before us is unmixed and unchangeable. 2. To a good old age: His
eye was not dim (as Isaac's, Gen. xxvii. 1, and Jacob's, Gen. xlviii. 10), nor
was his natural force abated; there was no decay either of the strength of his
body or of the vigour and activity of his mind, but he could still speak, and
write, and walk as well as ever. His understanding was as clear, and his memory
as strong, as ever. "His visage was not wrinkled," say some of the
Jewish writers; "he had lost never a tooth," say others; and many of
them expound it of the shining of his face (Exod. xxxiv. 30), that that
continued to the last. This was the general reward of his services; and it was
in particular the effect of his extraordinary meekness, for that is a grace
which is, as much as any other, health to the navel and marrow to the bones. Of
the moral law which was given by Moses, though the condemning power be vacated
to true believers, yet the commands are still binding, and will be to the end
of the world; the eye of them is not waxen dim, for they shall discern the
thoughts and intents of the heart, nor is their natural force or obligation
abated but still we are under the law to Christ.
IV. The solemn mourning that there was
for him, v. 8. It is a debt owing to the surviving honour of deceased worthies
to follow them with our tears, as those who loved and valued them, are sensible
of our loss of them, and are truly humbled for those sins which have provoked
God to deprive us of them; for penitential tears very fitly mix with these.
Observe, 1. Who the mourners were: The children of Israel. They all conformed
to the ceremony, whatever it was, though some of them perhaps, who were ill-affected
to his government, were but mock-mourners; yet we may suppose there were those
among them who had formerly quarrelled with him and his government, and perhaps
had been of those who spoke of stoning him, who now were sensible of their
loss, and heartily lamented him when he was removed from them, though they knew
not how to value him when he was with them. Thus those who had murmured were
made to learn doctrine, Isa. xxix. 24. Note, The loss of good men, especially
good governors, is to be much lamented and laid to heart: those are stupid who
do not consider it. 2. How long they mourned: Thirty days. So long the
formality lasted, and we may suppose there were some in whom the mourning
continued much longer. Yet the ending of the days of weeping and mourning for
Moses is an intimation that, how great soever our losses have been, we must not
abandon ourselves to perpetual grief; we must suffer the wound at least to heal
up in time. If we hope to go to heaven rejoicing, why should we resolve to go
to the grave mourning? The ceremonial law of Moses is dead and buried in the
grave of Christ; but the Jews have not yet ended the days of their mourning for
it.
The
Character of Moses. B. C. 1451.
9 And Joshua the son of Nun was full of
the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him: and the children
of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as the LORD commanded Moses. 10 And there arose not a prophet since in
Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, 11 In 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, 12 And
in all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror which Moses showed in the
sight of all Israel.
We have here a very honourable encomium
passed both on Moses and Joshua; each has his praise, and should have. It is
ungrateful so to magnify our living friends as to forget the merits of those
that are gone, to whose memories there is a debt of honour due: all the respect
must not be paid to the rising sun; and, on the other hand, it is unjust so to
cry up the merits of those that are gone as to despise the benefit we have in
those that survive and succeed them. Let God be glorified in both, as here.
I. Joshua is praised as a man admirably
qualified for the work to which he was called, v. 9. Moses brought Israel to
the borders of Canaan and then died and left them, to signify that the law made
nothing perfect, Heb. vii. 19. It brings men into a wilderness of conviction,
but not into the Canaan of rest and settled peace. It is an honour reserved for
Joshua (our Lord Jesus, of whom Joshua was a type) to do that for us which the
law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, Rom. viii. 3. Through
him we enter into rest, the spiritual rest of conscience and eternal rest in
heaven. Three things concurred to clear Joshua's call to this great
undertaking:-- 1. God fitted him for it: He was full of the spirit of wisdom;
and so he had need who had such a peevish people to rule, and such a politic
people to conquer. Conduct is as requisite in a general as courage. Herein
Joshua was a type of Christ, in whom are hidden the treasures of wisdom. 2.
Moses, by the divine appointment, had ordained him to it: He had laid his hands
upon him, so substituting him to be his successor, and praying to God to
qualify him for the service to which he had called him; and this comes in as a
reason why God gave him a more than ordinary spirit of wisdom, because his designation
to the government was God's own act (those whom God employs he will in some
measure make fit for the employment) and because this was the thing that Moses
had asked of God for him when he laid his hands on him. When the bodily
presence of Christ withdrew from his church, he prayed the Father to send
another Comforter, and obtained what he prayed for. 3. The people cheerfully
owned him and submitted to him. Note, An interest in the affections of people
is a great advantage, and a great encouragement to those that are called to
public trusts of what kind soever. It was also a great mercy to the people that
when Moses was dead they were not as sheep having no shepherd, but had one
ready among them in whom they did unanimously, and might with the highest
satisfaction, acquiesce.
II. Moses is praised (v. 10-12), and with
good reason.
1. He was indeed a very great man,
especially upon two accounts:-- (1.) His intimacy with the God of nature: God
knew him face to face, and so he knew God. See Num. xii. 8. He saw more of the
glory of God than any (at least of the Old-Testament saints) ever did. He had
more free and frequent access to God, and was spoken to not in dreams, and
visions, and slumberings on the bed, but when he was awake and standing before
the cherubim. Other prophets, when God appeared and spoke to them, were struck
with terror (Dan. x. 7), but Moses, whenever he received a divine revelation,
preserved his tranquillity. (2.) His interest and power in the kingdom of
nature. The miracles of judgment he wrought in Egypt before Pharaoh, and the
miracles of mercy he wrought in the wilderness before Israel, served to
demonstrate that he was a particular favourite of Heaven, and had an
extra-ordinary commission to act as he did on this earth. Never was there any
man whom Israel had more reason to love, or whom the enemies of Israel had more
reason to fear. Observe, The historian calls the miracles Moses wrought signs
and wonders, done with a mighty hand and great terror, which may refer to the
terrors of Mount Sinai, by which God fully ratified Moses's commission and
demonstrated it beyond exception to be divine, and this in the sight of all
Israel.
2. He was greater than any other of the
prophets of the Old Testament. Though they were men of great interest in heaven
and great influence upon earth, yet they were none of them to be compared with
this great man; none of them either so evidenced or executed a commission from
heaven as Moses did. This encomium of Moses seems to have been written long
after his death, yet then there had not arisen any prophet like unto Moses, nor
did there arise any such between that period and the sealing up of the vision
and prophecy. by Moses God gave the law, and moulded and formed the Jewish
church; by the other prophets he only sent particular reproofs, directions, and
predictions. The last of the prophets concludes with a charge to remember the
law of Moses, Mal. iv. 4. Christ himself often appealed to the writings of
Moses, and vouched him for a witness, as one that saw his day at a distance and
spoke of him. But, as far as the other prophets came short of him, our Lord
Jesus went beyond him. His doctrine was more excellent, his miracles were more
illustrious, and his communion with his Father was more intimate, for he had
lain in his bosom from eternity, and by him God does now in these last days
speak to us. Moses was faithful as a servant, but Christ as a Son. The history
of Moses leaves him buried in the plains of Moab, and concludes with the period
of his government; but the history of our Saviour leaves him sitting at the
right hand of the Majesty on high, and we are assured that of the increase of
his government and peace there shall be no end. The apostle, in his epistle to
the Hebrews, largely proves the pre-eminence of Christ above Moses, as a good
reason why we that are Christians should be obedient, faithful, and constant,
to that holy religion which we make profession of. God, by his grace, make us
all so!
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