Deuteronomy 34:1-8 – Staying true to God

Everyone, godly or otherwise, great or small, has to face death one day. This is the outcome God said would happen the day that Adam chose to disobey Him. Death is a sad reminder that man had failed God. The consolation for us believers, however, is that God is still on the throne. Yet realistically we must accept that physical death is the inevitable outcome, even for Moses. And the moment for him to die had come. We are told in Deuteronomy 34:7 that he died at 120 years of age. We are also told that even up to that age, he was unusually healthy. His eyesight in a sense was 20/20 and physically he was still strong and robust.

As promised by God he would see the promised land, but he would not enter. So before he died, he went up to Mount Nebo in the plains of Moab. At the top of Pisgah opposite Jericho, God showed him all of Canaan. Deuteronomy 34:2-4 said that Moses saw “Gilead as far as Dan, and all Naphtali and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah as far as the western sea, and the Negev and the plain in the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar.” This was the stretch of land that God had promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that He would give to their descendants.

So Moses died in the land of Moab and was buried in a valley opposite Beth-Peor. The place where God buried him was not made known to anyone. Perhaps the reason God did not want his burial site to be known was that He knew the propensity of man. If they knew where Moses was buried, they would probably turn his tomb into a shrine to venerate him. So the place where he was buried was a secret known only to God. With the death of Moses, the people must have felt a great loss. So Deuteronomy 34:8 tells us that the people mourned and wept for him 30 days in Moab.     

One hundred and twenty years, yet his strength never abated. He was as vigorous as when he was when God called him. Even his eyesight did not dim. What a testimony of the grace of God! It is a fact that none of us will ever be like Moses in the closing years of our life. But all of us can emulate his love for God, his love for God’s people, and his faithfulness in service. We can give ourselves to God in total surrender for the work of expanding His Kingdom till Christ comes again. Let us do so willingly!