Deuteronomy

The Death of Moses

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pentateuch

Lesson: 110-110

Genre: Talk

Track: 110

Dictation Name: RR187BG110

Location/Venue:

Year: 1993

Let us worship God. One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord, all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in His temple. Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thy heart. Wait I say, on the Lord. Let us pray.

Almighty God our Heavenly Father whose grace and mercy never fail. We give thanks unto Thee that our times are in Thy hands. We come into Thy presence mindful of past and present mercies. We open wide our mouths that Thou mightest fill them. Oh Lord our God how great and marvelous Thou art and we praise Thee. Speak to our need, comfort and strengthen, bless each and every one of us in terms of Thy holy purpose and Thy kingdom. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Our scripture this morning is Deuteronomy 34. With this chapter of course we finish our studies in Deuteronomy and will next week begin our studies in the gospel of John and we shall see as we go through John how very closely the entire book is tied to the Pentateuch, to Genesis, Leviticus, , Numbers and Deuteronomy as indeed other books in the New Testament are. The Gospel of Matthew in fact in its original form is divided into five sections like the five books of Moses. Our scripture then, the thirty fourth chapter of Deuteronomy.

“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 shewed 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.

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 Bethpeor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.

7 And Moses was an 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.

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 shewed in the sight of all Israel.”

The man Moses died but the law of God is eternal because it expresses the nature of God’s being. The setting was a plains area of Moab. Since names have changed over the centuries we do not know where the Nebo Mountains are or which is Pisgah. We learned something more about Moses, in Deuteronomy 31:1 when Moses tells us he is a hundred and twenty years old that day he adds I can no more go out and come in. Compared to his earlier years this no doubt seemed true to Moses but the fact is however Moses was ailing he was still able to climb to the top of Pisgah to see the land spread out before him. Moreover, Deuteronomy 34:7 tells us something quite remarkable: his eye was not dim nor his natural force or moisture abated. In other words, Moses’ vision was still that of a young man nor had his sexual ability diminished and disappeared. Quite a remarkable thing for a man of a hundred and twenty. Our ignorance of Moses’ grave is not accidental. No cult of Moses could develop nor a shrine center around his grave. God caused the memory of it to cease since apparently the people in general were ignorant of the site. We have a tantalizing reference to the body of Moses in Jude 9. Michael the archangel contends, and the word has a legal connotation, with the devil over the body of Moses. This contention is secondary to the fact that Moses’ answer to Satan is God centered, the Lord rebuke thee. Not even Michael presumes to speak in his own authority however right the cause. Beyond this we are told nothing. Even in death Moses was somehow important.

We are not told who was with Moses when he died, possibly it was Joshua and the angel Michael. The emphasis of the book is on verses ten through twelve, the last three verses. These tell us of the uniqueness of Moses, he was a prophet without equal. He was God’s man. God had given Moses a status unequaled by any prophet, only with the coming of Jesus Christ do we see one greater than he. This greatness was the work of God. In two respects Moses was unrivaled, first God knew Moses face to face, that is, with a revelation of Himself without equal until the incarnation. Moses was close to God because God so ordained it in a remarkable way. Second, God through Moses worked amazing signs and wonders against Pharaoh, his people and the land of Egypt and this term, signs and wonders, is picked up and used by the gospel of John. Well, Moses was close to God because God had so ordained it in a remarkable way. His greatness was of grace. Second, God through Moses worked amazing signs and wonders against Egypt. Signs and wonders which appear only in three eras of biblical history. It’s wrong to believe that beginning to end the bible is about miracles. First there were miracles in Moses’ day. Second in the time of Elijah and Elisha and third, in the lives of Christ and His apostles. Their occurrence in other eras was rare and unique. There is however a third aspect of Moses’ life, an obvious one which is not mentioned here when we are told how great Moses was. God gave His law through Moses.

Of course this is a subject of all Deuteronomy as well as Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers. Why is it not mentioned in this summary? Because the law is so radically God’s revelation of His being Moses is simply the one who carries it to the people. The plagues on Egypt manifested God’s sovereign power and judgment, not Moses’ power. The law is a revelation of God’s righteousness or justice, not Moses’ justice. We should not speak of it as the Mosaic law as we often do because it is God’s law. The law tells us what God is, the meaning of His justice, and what we should be. There can be no government without law. This is why the modern parents who seek to replace law by love in governing their children soon find that they have abandoned law, love and government. Because there can be no government without law the wrong law in governing means tyranny. Tyranny is in fact government without God. True tyranny does not refer to the harshness of a rule but to its humanistic man made doctrine of justice. No higher court of God is recognized. Man has no appeal against human injustices under tyrannies. If there is no always valid law of God there is no salvation because there is no eternally valid standard of judgment. You and I don’t know what the law of the state or the county or the federal government is except to a small degree. More than one person has said that so many laws are passed every year they can fill a small library, laws and regulations. We are ignorant of them, they have no foundation in our being, but God’s law is written on the tables of our heart so that we know right and wrong. Because there is no eternally valid standard of judgment apart from God’s law man then simply fails to meet his own or someone else’s criteria. This is a subjective matter, so that salvation becomes a fluid subjective and changing idea.

We are not saved by law; Christ delivers us from the death sentence of the law into faithfulness to it. Harold J. Brockey wrote the most evident sign that we may not be believing Moses or Jesus is that the wonderful possibilities of the promise of the Holy Spirit are strangely lacking in the church. Because people no longer relate the holy spirit to the law. Romans 7:12 tells us the law is holy; this means it is our way, not of salvation but of sanctification. We are told that Israel wept and mourned the death of Moses for a month. However much they had disobeyed him they also knew that he was a link to God. Now that link was gone and they wept. The God-ordained link however in the covenant and the covenant law and these continued forever. The only question was whether or not the people would be covenant breakers or covenant keepers. Not even Joshua was entirely immune to seeing Moses’ death as a broken link to God and so for a time he was paralyzed and for this reason God told Joshua Moses my servant is dead, now therefore arise, go over this Jordan. You have a work to do, get with it! God’s work did not die with Moses nor with the death of any man. It continues. And the power of God is the same in every generation. Men can be used in God’s work but they cannot frustrate it nor hinder it. Those who tried in the wilderness years to oppose or to frustrate Moses’ work paid a price for it. God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven and no man can stay His hand or alter His decrees. God’s will is always done. Let us pray.

Our Father, we give thanks unto thee that age after age Thy word is unshakeable standard. Thy son the rock of all ages and we thank Thee that Thou hast given us faithful servants in every generation so that Thy will may be proclaimed, Thy will be done, Thy kingdom furthered. Give us joy therefore in the fact that as we see a great shaking of men and nations all around us we see Thee at work. Thy will being done, the powers of darkness shattered and humbled for Thy kingdom’s sake. How great Thou art oh Lord and we praise Thee. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Yes?

[Question] An interesting tidbit in relationship to what you mentioned about miracles, I read in a book that there were supposed to be more miracles in the Old Testament than there were in the New Testament and yet a lot of premills put a lot of emphasis on the overwhelming miracles in the New Testament.

[Rushdoony] I’ve never counted up the miracles in the Old but that could be well be true, yes.

[Question unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Certainly there were a lot of them.

[Question unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Any other questions or comments? Start reading the gospel of John, in particular, John 1:1-18. We’ll give some time to that, it is like Genesis 1, a seminal part of the New Testament and so it is extremely important and we will spend a little while on it beause it is imperative that we do so to see what John is telling us.

If there are no more questions or comments, yes?

[Question] When it says here in ten at whom the Lord knew face to face does that mean this was the last person that God spoke to face to face and he never directly spoke to David, but that he spoke through prophets and others to David.

[Rushdoony] That is a very important question and the answer to it is throughout the book of Genesis and elsewhere we encounter references to the angel of the Lord and then people saying we have seen God as in the book of Judges, Samson’s parents. Now, the angel of the Lord, the angel of Jehovah, was the pre-incarnation appearance of God the Son, of Jesus Christ. So that we are told no man has seen God, the Father, at any time, also that the only begotten son of God hath revealed Him. So these pre-incarnation incidences always refer to the angel of the Lord and so it was God the Son who appeared to Moses and it’s a very interesting aspect of the Bible, the belief of the ancient Hebrews was that for man the sinner to come face to face with a theophany, that is, a revelation of God, was to die, because being a sinner he could only live by the grace of God and so in each instance the man to whom God appears in revelation or the angel of the Lord appears immediately is afraid of his death. And this is an important fact because it does indicate that for all their waywardness there was always an element in Israel that knew the holiness of God and the depravity of man and therefore a confrontation with God was a frightening thing even to these saints. This fear went so far as to feel that to use the name of the Lord, Jehovah or Yahweh, or however it is to be pronounced, was also a semi-confrontation.

So to this day no orthodox Jew and even somehow are not orthodox will use the name of God. In fact when they write and they don’t use the name of God or just God they will say G-d. They are that fearful and hesitant of invoking God’s name because it means in a sense a confrontation with Him. The sad fact is that same kind of respect has been very much lacking in Christian circles. I’m not saying the over caution on the part of orthodox Jews is all together right but at least it is sounder than the casualness within the Christian community. Does that help answer your question? Was there any other question or comment?

[Question] Was the [unknown] who appeared to Joshua, was that Christ?

[Rushdoony] Yes. Yes. And of course the interesting thing is that Joshua and Jesus is the same name. Joshua is translated from the Hebrew and Jesus from the Greek and in our Lord’s day it was usually pronounced Jeshua but the Greek form is Yeshua, Jesus, that’s a Latin form, let me see what’s the Greek form, well at any rate it isn’t that important but it is a word that means Joshua. Jehovah saves is the meaning of it. Yes?

[Question unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Exactly, the captain of hosts leading his people into the Promised Land and Jesus Christ leading us into the Promised Land. And in Hebrews this analogy is stretched very strongly. Well, let us conclude now with prayer.

Our Father, it has been good for us to be here, Thy word is truth and Thy word is the word of power, of healing, of strength and we rejoice in Thy word and Thy promises to us which in Christ Jesus are yea and amen. And so our God we praise Thee, we thank Thee, we glorify Thee. And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, Amen.