“This Is The Land I Promised”
Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from
the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There the Lord showed him the whole land—from
Gilead to Dan, all of Naphtali, the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the
land of Judah as far as the Mediterranean Sea, the Negev and the whole region
from the Valley of Jericho, the City of Palms, as far as Zoar.
Then the Lord said to him, “This
is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, ‘I will
give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you
will not cross over into it.”
And Moses
the servant of the Lord died
there in Moab, as the Lord had
said. He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor,
but to this day no one knows where his grave is. Moses was a hundred and twenty
years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor
his strength gone. The Israelites grieved for Moses in the
plains of Moab thirty days, until the time of weeping and mourning was over.
Deuteronomy
34:1-8
There is a closing comment in Deuteronomy: “Moses…died
there in Moab, as the Lord had said.” The Hebrew means literally, “Moses died…with
the mouth of the Lord,” a phrase ancient rabbis
translated, “With the kiss of the Lord.”
Is it too much to envision God bending over us on our
final night on earth, tucking us in and kissing us goodnight?
For
death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity.
Our
Daily Bread – December 18, 2018