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The Truth About Angels
appear as one of the shining angels from the throne.—
Testimonies for
the Church 4:533
.
Throughout their journeyings, as they [the Israelites] complained
of the difficulties in the way, and murmured against their leaders,
Moses had told them, “Your murmurings are against God. It is not I,
but God, who has wrought in your deliverance.” But his hasty words
before the rock, “Shall we bring water?” were a virtual admission of
their charge.... The Lord would remove this impression forever from
their minds, by forbidding Moses to enter the Promised Land. Here
was unmistakable evidence that their leader was not Moses, but the
mighty Angel of whom the Lord had said, “Behold, I send an Angel
before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place
[103]
which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice; ... for my
name is in him.”—
Patriarchs and Prophets, 419
.
The Death and Resurrection of Moses
Moses turned from the congregation, and in silence and alone
made his way up the mountainside.... Upon that lonely height he
stood, and gazed with undimmed eye upon the scene spread out before
him.—
Patriarchs and Prophets, 471
.
It was not the will of God that anyone should go up with Moses
to the top of Pisgah. There he stood, upon a high prominence upon
Pisgah’s top, in the presence of God and heavenly angels.—
Spiritual
Gifts 4a:57
.
The angels also revealed to Moses that although he mourned be-
cause he had sinned and could not enter the Promised Land, and
although he felt that he had caused the children of Israel to sin, yet it
was their own sin, their murmuring and complaining spirit, that had
led him to deviate from the right and commit a sin that kept him out of
the Promised Land. The angels told him that he was not the greatest
sufferer, that he did not feel in his heart the fullest depth of their sin,
but that Christ, their invisible leader, was the one against whom they
had transgressed....
The heavenly messengers also referred to the sacrificial offerings
typifying the crucifixion of Christ, and opened before Moses’ mind
the events that should take place in the future.... When the view of
the crucifixion was presented before Moses, what a scene there must
[104]