Basic HTML Version
From Grave to Glory, April 15
Deuteronomy 3:23-28
;
Deuteronomy 34
I besought the Lord at that time, saying, ... I pray thee, let me go over, and
see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and
Lebanon. But the Lord was wroth with me for your sakes, and would not
hear me: and the Lord said unto me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more
unto me of this matter.
Deuteronomy 3:23-26
.
Never, till exemplified in the sacrifice of Christ, were the justice and the love
of God more strikingly displayed than in His dealings with Moses. God shut
Moses out of Canaan, to teach a lesson which should never be forgotten—that
He requires exact obedience, and that men are to beware of taking to themselves
the glory which is due to their Maker. He could not grant the prayer of Moses
that he might share the inheritance of Israel, but He did not forget or forsake His
servant. The God of heaven understood the suffering that Moses had endured;
He had noted every act of faithful service through those long years of conflict
and trial. On the top of Pisgah, God called Moses to an inheritance infinitely
more glorious than the earthly Canaan.
Upon the mount of transfiguration Moses was present with Elijah, who had
been translated. They were sent as bearers of light and glory from the Father to
His Son. And thus the prayer of Moses, uttered so many centuries before, was at
last fulfilled. He stood upon the “goodly mountain,” within the heritage of his
people....
Moses was a type of Christ.... God saw fit to discipline Moses in the school
of affliction and poverty before he could be prepared to lead the hosts of Israel
to the earthly Canaan. The Israel of God, journeying to the heavenly Canaan,
have a Captain who needed no human teaching to prepare Him for His mission
as a divine leader; yet He was made perfect through sufferings; and “in that
he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are
tempted” (
Hebrews 2:10, 18
). Our Redeemer manifested no human weakness or
imperfection; yet He died to obtain for us an entrance into the Promised Land.
“And Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant, ... but Christ as
a son over his own house; whose house we are, if we hold fast the confidence
and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end” (
Hebrews 3:5, 6
)
[112]
20
Ibid., 479, 480
.
114