Mortality of Moses - What She Said Part 14 - Week 2 Day 4

TODAY'S TREASURE

And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.

Deut. 34:10

Transcript

Mortality of Moses

Marlys Roos, Guest Writer

Today’s Treasure

And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.

Deut. 34:10

Besides Jesus, no one is mentioned as extensively in Scripture as Moses. He appears throughout four of the first five books of the Bible, the Torah, which he wrote for God’s people as they prepared to go into the promised land. We think of him as a superhero of faith, but woven within the history of Israel’s exodus, Moses himself has given evidence that he was more like us than God. 

Unlike most people of the Bible, we know about Moses’s birth (Ex.2:1-10). As with others in Scripture—including Jesus—there is a gap of many years before we see him again in Exodus 2:11-22 as a grown man who killed an Egyptian and became a fugitive. 

Forty years passed before God called to him from the burning bush. During this encounter (Ex. 3:1–4:17), God laid out His plan, and Moses questioned God’s identity and wisdom in choosing him. Yet God won the argument, and Moses returned to face off with Pharaoh—but not without continuing to question God.

Sometime during the ten plagues, Moses’s faith in God and His plan increased, as did his and Israel’s confidence to obey. 

"So, the people feared the LORD and believed in the LORD and His servant Moses." Ex. 14:31b

However, almost immediately (Ex. 16:2-3), Israel began to grumble. Throughout the next three-and-a-half books (forty years), Moses often admitted his anger, frustration, and exhaustion from leading such “a stiff-necked people.”

Instead of summarizing Moses’s well-known history, let’s focus on the brief, almost indifferent, recording of three life-changing events for Moses tucked in amongst detailed instructions to the priests, a failed diplomatic effort, a military victory, and an Israelite rebellion. Could the placement, brevity, and tone of these (now) verses imply the pain, grief, and brokenness of Moses? How does his acknowledgment of sorrow compare to our own?

Numbers 20:1 abruptly mentions the first event:

"And Miriam died there and was buried there."

Was Moses in shock at the death of his sister who had watched over him in the bulrushes, whom he called a prophetess as she led Israel in song (Ex. 15:20-21), or was he still angry and unforgiving toward her after she and Aaron had questioned his authority (Num. 12)?

The second event is given more detail (Num. 20:2-13). It could have ended differently, but for Moses’s self-righteousness, how he must have longed to relive that moment and follow God’s instruction rather than his impulse. It cost him dearly. He would not lead Israel into the promised land. Regret and denial may have provoked him as he recalled the incident with blame-shifting and word-twisting in his farewell to Israel: “Even with me, the LORD was angry on your account and said, ‘You shall not go in there’”2 (Deut. 1:37).

Finally, Numbers 20:22-29 records the death of Aaron, Moses’s brother and close companion. Scripture reports some of the complexities of their relationship, the interdependencies and disappointments with each other as they journeyed together. And then, in these verses, Moses reported Aaron’s death as an officer might matter-of-factly describe the changing of the guard. The only indication of significant loss was that the house of Israel wept.

LIFE-GIVING ENCOURAGEMENT

As the chronicler of Israel’s exodus and wanderings, Moses could have exaggerated or covered up these discouraging events. Still, he honestly shared them in ways alluding to the grief they caused him. There was nothing supernatural about Moses. His 120 years were filled with sin and failures, but God knew the plans He had for Moses as the basket floated in the bulrushes, as the fugitive fled to Midian, and as he stood before the burning bush. And God knows the plans He has for each of His children, “plans to give [us] a future and a hope” (Jer. 29:11).

PRAYER

Thank You, Father, for knowing us and choosing us to be Your children despite our frailty and failures. Thank You, Jesus, for tearing open the veil to the Holy of Holies so we may approach Your throne. Thank You, Holy Spirit, for leading us through the wilderness until we reach the promised land. Amen.