The Death of Moses
Some time ago we learned about the way that God gave water to the Children of Israel from the smitten Rock in the wilderness. This object lesson was to teach them of Jesus, the Rock of Ages, who was smitten that He might give life to all. In the New Testament we are told plainly that the Israelites in the desert “drank of that spiritual Rock that went with them, and that Rock was Christ.”
A long time after this, the people were again left without water. The supply from the Rock was stopped for a time, because God wanted to teach His people another beautiful lesson.
But after all these years that He had cared for them and fed them, they still }believed not in God, and trusted not in His salvation.” They still grieved Him by murmuring and worrying, instead of waiting patiently, knowing that He would be sure to provide for them.
God told Moses to speak to the Rock, and water should flow from it. Once before, you will remember, Moses had been told to strike the Rock. God wanted to show the people that Jesus was smitten, and wounded, and bruised, that He might be for ever able to give the water of life to those who were thirsty.
It was because of this that He could cry to the multitudes, “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink.” And He told the woman at the well of Samaria, that if she knew who was speaking to her, she would have asked of Him and He would have given her living water. “Let him that is athirst come,” He said, “and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”
“I heard the voice of Jesus say,
Behold I freely give
The living water; thirsty one,
Stoop down, and drink, and live.
I came to Jesus, and I drank
Of that life-giving stream;
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived,
And now I live in Him.”
The second time, Moses was told only to speak to the Rock. God wanted by this to show that all who come and ask of Him, and Jesus, the Rock once smitten, gives freely of living water.
Moses was the meekest man on the face of the earth, and he had borne patiently all the murmurings of the Children of Israel against him, and many times had saved them by pleading with God for them.
But this time even he was so angry with the people that instead of speaking to the Rock as God told him, he struck it twice with his rod. The water came out from the Rock in great abundance, but the people lost a lesson that God wanted to teach them, and God was dishonoured before them by Moses’ anger and impatience.
Because of this, Moses did not go with the people into the promised land. God told him that he must die. Moses was very sorry, and asked to be allowed to go into Canaan, but God told him that it could not be. He was obliged to punish Moses, for the sake of all the people before whom he had sinned.
Then Moses prayed that God would not leave His people “as sheep without a shepherd.” He knew how foolish they were, and how much they needed someone to lead them. God had led His people like a flock by the hand of Moses. So Moses prayed that if he must be taken away, God would set another man over them.
Then God told him to take Joshua, and put some of his honour upon him, so that the people would know he had been chosen of God, and be obedient to him after the death of Moses.
Joshua was one of the two spies who had tried to encourage the people to go into Canaan when God told them to. He had been a great deal with Moses, and was up in the mountain waiting while God talked with him.
When the time came for Moses to die, he blessed the people, and went up into the mountain. God let him see the land of promise that he was leading his people to. Then Moses died, according to the word of God, and the Lord buried him. And no one knew where his sepulchre was.
But we know that Moses did not stay long in the grave. For when Jesus was transfigured upon the mountain, Moses and Elijah came and talked with Him.
Elijah, we know, was taken to heaven in a chariot of fire, without dying. But Moses died; therefore he must have been raised from the dead. In the book of Jude we are told that Satan strove with Michael (Christ) about the body of Moses. Satan had the power of death, but Jesus has conquered him, and He has the keys of death and the grave. So He can open Satan’s prison-house and bring out whoever He will.
The Present Truth – December 5, 1901
E. J. Waggoner