Dt. 32:48-52; 34:1-12 The Death of Moses



1. Moses must die--he is the man of the Law, and a lawbreaker--the Law cannot bring you into the Land; but the Law can bring you to the very brink; contrast with Joseph and Jacob, who are buried in the land--Moses is buried outside the land



Moses lays down his life so that the people may live

There were times in Moses' life when he had to stand up against a hostile mob;

There were times when all Israel would rebel, and Moses would stand alone!

But now, God calls him to lay down his life so that the people can enter the land

--WITHOUT HIM

That would be HARD!!

You've led the people through the wilderness.

When they rebelled, YOU stood firm.

It would be so easy to say, "But God, these people are helpless without me!"

But the time had come when Moses must die.

He must lay aside his authority;

He must lay down his life for the sake of his people.

And in doing so, he becomes a picture of Christ:

who for us and our salvation, became a man,

who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,

but made himself of no reputation,

taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.

And being found in appearance as a man,

He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death,

even the death of the cross.

Christ, as the Prophet like Moses, had stood up against a hostile mob.

HE had stood alone against the Pharisees and Sadducees.

HE had stood firm when his disciples wavered.

But then came the Garden of Gethsemane,

where the Father commanded the Son to lay down his life for the sake of his people.

ONLY through HIS death could his people enter the Promised Land.



But what about you?

You fathers--you husbands--you mothers

--all of you who stand in a position of authority

You are used to using your authority--the authority that God gave you--in many ways.

But when was the last time that you laid down your life for others?

When was the last time that you humbled yourself for the sake of your family?

When was the last time that you died for someone else?

Following Christ requires death--it requires that we deny ourselves,

take up our cross, and follow him.

What does that mean?

It means that you must die to self.

It means that you must put the interests of others AHEAD of your own.

It means that you children should start asking yourselves,

"what can I do for my parents?"

"how can I humble myself and do something kind for them?"

It means that you husbands should start asking yourselves,

"how can I serve my wife, and show my love for her

in a way that will point her to Christ?"

After all, what did Christ do?

He put our interests ahead of his own,

and laid down his life as a sacrifice for our sins.

So the death of Moses tells us that we who are in Christ must also die with him.



But the death of Moses had a purpose.

Moses must die so that someone else can lead Israel into the land:



2. Joshua received the Spirit of wisdom--ordained by Moses--now Israel obeyed him

The book starts with a scene of rebellion:

Moses appoints judges to lead the people,

He sends out 12 of them as spies,

and the people follow their elders, rather than follow God's Word!

The book ends with the hope of something different:

because Joshua has been given the spirit of wisdom.

Joshua will do what God has said--and the people will follow him!

The book of Joshua reports that this actually happened!

The people of Israel were actually obedient!

Can you believe that?!!

For a whole generation the Israelites obeyed Joshua,

and did all that Moses had commanded.

They entered the Promised Land,

they went up and fought their enemies,

and because they obeyed Joshua, God gave them the Land.

Joshua is a very encouraging book!



But WHY do the people follow Joshua?

v9

The people follow Joshua BECAUSE he had received the Spirit of Wisdom.

Moses must die, so that the Spirit might work through Joshua.

Scripture frequently speaks of the laying on of hands as a sort of ordination.

And those who are ordained are said to receive spiritual gifts.

Here Joshua receives the Spirit of Wisdom.

Timothy is said to have received a "gift of God"

through the laying on of the hands of the elders when he was ordained.

And the people are to follow those whom God has appointed.

This is hard for us sometimes.

In our individualistic age,

we don't like to hear about authority and submission.

It's not popular.

But Jesus Christ has given pastors and elders to the church,

for our good, and for the building up of the body.



They are to point you to Christ,

and lead, not merely in word but in deed.



But notice also HOW the people follow:

the follow by doing all that the Lord had commanded Moses.

If we have faithful elders,

then they will merely call you to do what God has said in his Word;

But that's the key:

we don't have the right to pick and choose what we want to do.

we must do as God has said.

That is the only road to the Promised Land.





3. No prophet like Moses has arisen

whom the Lord knew face to face

who performed such great signs and wonders before Pharaoh (the enemy)

and performed such mighty power and great terror in the sight of all Israel

Deuteronomy closes with a reminder that Moses is the greatest Prophet of the OT.

Elijah was good--but he wasn't greater than Moses

Isaiah is marvelous--but nobody thought that he was the Messiah!

Dt. 18:15 proclaims that God will raise up a Prophet like Moses someday

And the end of Dt reminds Israel that to be a prophet like Moses,

this future Prophet must know the Lord face to face

he must perform great signs and wonders before his enemies

and he must perform mighty deeds before his people.

What does Jesus do?

John's gospel proclaims most clearly that no one knows the Father except the Son.

Moses may have known God face-to-face;

but JESUS knows God so intimately,

that no one else knows God apart from him

--nobody comes to the Father but by me!

John also speaks of the great signs and wonders that Jesus performs:

his whole gospel is structured around seven signs that Jesus does

Consider the feeding of the 5,000--just like Moses

Consider the raising of Lazarus--something Moses never did!

Moses may have gotten water from a rock,

but Jesus one-ups him!

he turns water into wine!

Jesus performs great signs and wonders before his enemies,

and performs mighty deeds before his people.

None, of course, is greater than his death and resurrection.

Moses died so that the people might live.

Jesus says, that if he is lifted up on the cross he will draw all people to himself.

But not only does he die--he is also raised from the dead.



But I'd like you to look carefully at the pattern here:

Death of Moses

Gift of the Spirit to his disciple

Promise of a prophet like Moses

In John's gospel you have a similar pattern:

Death of Jesus

Gift of the Spirit to his disciples

Promise of his return



You see, God was teaching his people about eschatology:

Moses must die--but the presence of the Spirit is a promise

that one like Moses will come again.

The people of Israel must always be on the lookout for that Prophet.

They must watch and wait, trusting God to take care of them until he comes.

They must follow Joshua, the one whom Moses ordained,

until God sends the One Greater than Moses.



And isn't that what we must do?

We must always be on the lookout for the return of Christ.

We must watch and wait, trusting God to take care of us until he returns.

And until then, we must follow those whom Christ has given us to lead us



But of course, we have much, much more than the Israelites did.

Moses died and stayed dead.

Christ died, but rose again from the dead!

And now HE reigns at the right hand of the Father!

They had a spirit-filled leader in Joshua;

We not only have a Spirit-filled leader in Jesus;

we ALL have received the Spirit!

They were looking forward to Christ's first coming;

We are looking forward to his second coming

when we will be glorified with him!



But not surprisingly, the pattern is the same.

Death

Gift of Spirit

Promise of Return

God was teaching his people how to think about the future:

how we live today should be shaped by what God has promised about the future.

Hebrews 11 tells us that the Israelites understood this:

Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Sarah, (11:13)

"all died in faith, not having received the promises,

but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them,

and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland.

And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out,

they would have had opportunity to return.

But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country.

Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God,

for He has prepared a city for them."

All these OT saints were looking forward to the promise:

Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, the prophets, all these, Hebrews says,

"having obtained a good testimony through faith,

did not receive the promise,

God having provided something better for us,

that they should not be made perfect apart from us."

But didn't Joshua receive the Promised Land?

Didn't David receive the Throne?

Didn't Solomon recieve the Temple?

What does it mean that they did NOT receive the promise?

Hebrews 11:33 makes it perfectly clear that they did obtain certain promises.

But they did not receive THE promise.

They did not receive the heavenly country, the heavenly throne, the heavenly temple

that they looked forward to.

Receiving the earthly land was good for Joshua

--but it did not bring Israel eternal peace!

Receiving the earthly throne was good for David

--but David died, and his grandson lost the kingdom!

Receiving the earthly temple was good for Solomon

--but within a few generations, the priests were offering sacrifices to idols...

Any thoughtful, God-fearing Israelite KNEW that there must be something more.

David knew it--you see it in the Psalms.

Solomon knew it--you see it in his dedication prayer at the temple!

The earthly kingdom, the earthly temple, the earthly country

--all this could only be a picture of what was to come.



And after many centuries we finally come to the manger in Bethlehem.

Because it is only in Christ that all the OT finally comes to completion.

Here all those pictures find their substance.

And in the death and resurrection of Christ,

we finally see what all those pictures were pointing to.



But it doesn't stop there:

Because as Paul says in I Cor 13:12

"now we see as in a glass darkly--as in a mirror dimly"

Now we see IN PART--we still don't see fully.

The Old Testament reveals shadows of Christ.

The New Testament reveals the image that cast those shadows--Christ himself--

but it is only in glory that we will finally see him as he is.

Then they had shadows;

Now we have the image

In the New Creation we will finally have the fullness of truth and beauty in Christ.



Moses must die

so that the Spirit can work through Joshua

until the Prophet like Moses appears.

Even so,

Christ must die,

so that the Spirit can work in his church

until he returns again.

And indeed,

We must die--taking up our cross daily--as our Savior commands in Luke 9:23

so that the Spirit may continue to mold us into the image of Christ

until he returns to transform our lowly bodies into the likeness of his heavenly body.



Until then, my beloved,

let us follow the wisdom of the apostle Paul which he speaks in Philippians 3:7-14