In Deuteronomy 34, we read of the death of Moses. After his rash and self-centred partial obedience, partial disobedience back in Numbers 20 he doesn’t make it to the Promised Land. We see that the Lord takes very seriously being misrepresented or misinterpreted by His leaders to His people.
Moses is taken up to Mount Nebo (apparently modern-day Jordan looking west) and dies in the presence of the Lord (v.5). Moses was, no doubt and as we read, a great servant of the Lord, but even he fell short, didn’t he. For all his leadership credentials, his obedience, his righteous indignation at the sin of God’s people, Moses still fell short.
No matter how hard we try,
no matter how much experience we have in any given situation,
we are still going to fall short of the righteous requirements of an altogether Holy God.
Rather than lament the personal failures of Moses, let us draw hope from the fact he failed. If he were all that humanity needed, if he never died, if he were all-sufficient, then we would never have had need for the ultimate leader of God’s people to come. The truer and better Moses, the ultimate servant of the God did come, didn’t He?
For you, the story of Moses is just another preview, type, foreshadow, pointer to the life of Jesus (John 5.39, Luke 24.27). Every not-quite, every failure, every oh-so-close-but-so-far moment in Scripture finds its fulfilment in Jesus.
For you, this means that you have a one-stop-shop, a singular destination to head towards when looking for salvation, for fulfilment, for peace, for acceptance, for forgiveness.
The death of Moses, for you, is another pointer to the person and work of Jesus.
James Travis 