Deuteronomy 34 MOSES DIED THERE There comes a time in the lives of God's servants when our work is done. It is not easy to face the fact that God has chosen others to carry on the work in which we have been engaged. They will not do the same things nor will they do the work to which God has called them in the way we might have chosen. But they are servants of God too, and the Lord suits them to the work before them in a way that is most appropriate to their personality and the needs to be met. Moses knew when he was finished his work, and God did not leave him there in the camp of Israel to intimidate Joshua or to get the minds of the Lord's people distracted by having two leaders in one place. He wisely accepted God's discipline without bitterness or rancor. He accepted the fact that he was not going into the promised land with the characteristic meekness for which he was known. "The meekest man in all the earth." God in grace had him to go to mount Nebo at the top of the hills of Pisgah, and pointed out to His servant the places where the tribes would settle. He could see to Dan in the north, over to where Naphtali would settle all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. He could see the southern plains and closer, the city and plains of Jericho where Israel would cross the Jordan.
We may not accomplish in our lifetime all we had hoped, but we must remember the work is not ours but God's. What God has done through us and for us is worthy of our praise and thanksgiving from full hearts. To be allowed to speak for God to the people is a great privilege. To have pointed precious souls to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation is a great privilege. To have been allowed by God to participate in the life and testimonies of local assemblies is a great privilege. To have been able to have the gift God gave us blend in with that of other members of the body of Christ is a great privilege. To be able to be in fellowship with the people of God is a great privilege. "I am the Lord's, O teach me all it meaneth, all it involves of love and loyalty."
Moses was "slow of speech" he said, when he was in Midian forty years before. But the three eloquent speeches he gave in the book of Deuteronomy indicate God had made him to become a very articulate orator who spoke with power and authority. God is able to do what He wants with His servants to bring about His own plans and purposes. No one in Israel could doubt that Moses spoke for God. Whether they would act upon his words was now their responsibility. It is our responsibility to pass on to people the truths of God's Word and do it in fellowship with God as best we can. Not all of God's servants are the same, but if in the spirit of "meekness and lowliness," we preach the word, then we can trust God to use it as He sees fit.
Moses was a humble man who could, and did, identify himself with the people of God. He was a courageous man who did not quit when things got very hard, and even when he personally was unjustly criticized. There was a wisdom in the man that he learned through the years of following God, that couldn't be ignored by those he led. Humility, wisdom, and courage need to be characteristics of any man who leads God's people today in assembly leadership or in public service. Moses never let his success or position go to his head and become arrogant and domineering. There needs to be a gracefulness and compassionate spirit about those who guide the saints of God. A prideful attitude and an arrogant authority will not endear a leader to God's people. That person will soon find himself resented and his opinions resisted. If he does not change, there will be people who will ignore his leadership and perhaps some will even leave.
Moses didn't stop growing spiritually at age eighty. In fact, he became the greatest prophet in Israel until the Lord Jesus Christ came. The Lord knew him face to face. Nobody else has ever had experienced that. The signs and wonders God did in Egypt through Moses, were unprecedented. The miracles performed through Moses from the crossing of the Red Sea through forty years of wilderness travel and living, had an impact on the nation of Israel that continues to this day. Enemies of Israel in areas around the Middle East were caused to fear Moses because he was the man God chose to use. and could use without Moses claiming credit for himself. It is important that we all know who we are before God and never attempt to take credit ourselves for success in the work of God. To give God all the glory for souls saved, saints strengthened, assemblies established and teaching received, is absolutely essential for a servant of God. There can be no place for self-exaltation in the work of the Lord.
The Lord had kept His servant with full strength and clear eyesight right to the end of his days. The journey of the life of Moses is a story of a remarkable man who was kept from dying as a baby because his parents who knew he was a "proper child," did all they could to preserve him for God. He was in the safest possible place in Egypt in Pharaoh's palace, naturally speaking, for the first forty years of his life. He was exposed to all the world had to offer, but saw that was only temporary. For forty more years he learned principles of leadership by being a shepherd of sheep. In the years ahead the patience and meekness he learned in the wilderness of Midian would stand him in good stead. The last forty turbulent years were a testimony to the triumphant power of faith in God. How he died is not mentioned but the keys that only God holds were used in the way God chose. His death wasn't due to weakness or sickness. God just decided it was time to take his servant home and bury his body in an unknown place where it wouldn't become a shrine or a stumbling block to God's people. There was even a contention between Michael the archangel and the devil about the body of Moses.
There is no substitute in the life of faith for going through testing times. We will learn more of ourselves and of God through the difficulties of life that any other way. It is in the problems we face that we learn who we really are. We might think we have certain strengths and God has to show us that His strength is made perfect in weakness. We may think our intellectual reasoning will give us the solution to the issues we face or the challenges that arise before us. When we come to our extremity, we find that what is needed is real faith in God. Not just talk or teaching about faith, but believing that God can and will do the impossible. There is no better teacher to let us know what is right, than the failure when we act independently of God's will.
God did not abandon His people Israel, but stuck with them through all their failures until they reached the land of Canaan. Later, in their smug complacency, they forsook God, and to this day are suffering the consequences of self-will and willful disobedience. There is no reason for us to think God has abandoned us because we are getting smaller in number, if we are doing His will and following His Word. The problems will come when we try to do God's things our way because that would be more convenient to us and less stressful. If we are trying to be accepted by everything, every church group or everybody around, we will fin we have nothing to offer the people that they can't get better in some other place or way. Our commitment to God is not in the form of a written contract, but we are to "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and I will be a Father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."