The sermon 'The Death of Moses, Servant of the Lord' by Scott Brown examines Deuteronomy 34, highlighting Moses' final moments and the transition of leadership to Joshua. The speaker emphasizes Moses' obedience and meekness as key elements of his character, illustrating the heart of a true servant of God. The death of Moses signifies the continuity of God's leadership, with Joshua being filled with the spirit of wisdom to guide the Israelites. The sermon underscores God's faithfulness in keeping promises, as Moses is shown the Promised Land before his death, despite not being allowed to enter. The mysterious burial of Moses and the angelic conflict over his body are explored, illustrating the dangers of idolatry and superstition. The sermon also connects the prophecy of a future prophet like Moses to the coming of Jesus Christ, highlighting the fulfillment of God's promises through Christ's life and ministry. The sermon concludes with a call to recognize the presence of Christ throughout the book of Deuteronomy and the transformative impact of its teachings.

Please follow along with me as I read Deuteronomy chapter 34 verses 1 through 12, which is the entire chapter. Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo to the top of Pisgah, which is across from Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead as far as Dan, all Nephtali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the western sea, the south and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees as far as Zor. Then the Lord said to him, this is the land of which I swore to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, I will give it to your descendants. I have caused you to see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there.

So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord, and he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-Phiore. But no one knows his grave to this day. Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eyes were not dim nor his natural vigor diminished. And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab 30 days.

So the days of weeping and mourning for Moses ended. Now Joshua, the son of Nun, was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid hands on him, so the children of Israel heeded him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses. But since then there has not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, in all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt before Pharaoh, before all his servants, and in all the land, and by all that mighty power and all the great terror which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your holy word.

We thank you for the freedom to assemble here today. And Lord, we pray now that you'd be with our brother Scott Brown as he comes to preach this section of Scripture, filled with your Holy Spirit, Lord, in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. It's always very difficult to come to the end of a book that has been so helpful to you, and here we are in the very last exposition in Deuteronomy. And so here we are really to come to the end of the book and then we'll come back and we'll spend two weeks summarizing the whole message of the book.

And then we'll move on into the Gospel of Matthew. So here in chapter 34 is the story of the death of the prophet whom the Lord knew face to face, the servant of the Lord. And this chapter explains the dying of Moses and the raising up of Joshua to take his place. And the chapter is full of information and principle for us but it but overall you know it emphasizes the permanence of God's rule. It shows us the continuity that God provides for his people as there's the passing of one leader and the raising up of another.

I don't know if you ever lost something very valuable to you and you wondered if it could ever be replaced, but the principle is here that yes, God is faithful. He will lead His people in His own way, and He does not leave His people without a witness. And here we find this principle here that God does lead His people. And then at the very end of the chapter, there's a prophecy of the incarnation of Christ, whose kingdom will encompass the whole earth. And so here it's the end of Moses' life, but it's not the end.

And so this great principle is here for us. The chapter really breaks into two halves, verses 1 through 8, explaining the death of Moses. We'll break it up a little bit more than that. And then The second half of the chapter moves from verse 9 to 12, and the succession of Joshua. And then finally, the very last words are really an epitaph for Moses.

So Let's look at verses 1 through 3. Moses goes to Mount Pisgah, and the Lord shows him the land. Remember, he's 120 years old. He is going to walk 4, 000 feet in elevation to find this highest peak there in this mountain range. And it says in verse 1, then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo to the top of Pisgah.

He's going from 1, 000 and 1 half feet below sea level to over 2, 000 feet above sea level here in this march at age 120 years old. Wouldn't it be great to walk with a guy who's 120 years old who could out walk you as a 20-year-old? And that was, I think, kind of what happened because none of his natural vigor had diminished. What an amazing thing. But what I want you to notice here in these first three verses is the obedience of Moses.

This is another declaration of the heart of Moses to obey promptly and sincerely. Remember, God commanded Moses to write a song. He wrote it in the same day and sang it before the children of Israel. And It says, then Moses went up. He did not need to be led.

He went willingly. And this is the heart of Moses. That's why it's reported in Numbers chapter 12 verse 3 that Moses was the meekest man. Meekness is power under control. He placed all of the power that God had given him under the control of heaven.

And this is the beauty of Moses' life. And now he walks obediently to the place that God has specified and he knows that that will be the place of his death. With Moses It was all about submission. Moses had a heart to submit to God. And this was the greatness of his spirit.

When he encountered, I am who I am, he submits and he walks with God. And the majesty of God is really the unifying theme of this whole testimony that we've been walking through over the last two years. That God's ways are perfect. All his ways are justice. He's a God of truth and without injustice and we should follow him in every way.

Moses delivers the law of God and calls for obedience in almost every chapter. What Moses calls for among the children of Israel, he has a heart for himself And we see him obeying God over and over again. God says, this is the one I esteem, Isaiah 66, on him who is poor and contrite of spirit and who trembles at my word." That was Moses. Would it be for you and I, wherever we are in our pilgrimage to heaven, that in this coming year, we would tremble at His word more than we did before, that we would make progress in it, that we would see this dear brother set as an example for us so that we would not be idolaters, as 1 Corinthians 10 says, but that we would learn to be of a humble and a contrite spirit, to be the meekest man, the meekest woman, the meekest boy, the meekest girl that there could be. The Bible says that a wise son honors his father.

And that's what we see in Moses. His heart is compliant to the Lord. He doesn't go kicking and screaming to his death, but Every step of his foot is a praise to God, and it's an act of obedience. Like David, I delight to do thy will, oh Lord. That was Moses, and he's such a wonderful help to us, to be like that.

Moses has just spoken his last words and now there's no more speech for Moses, just action. Moses ends his words by saying, there is no one like the God of Jeshurun who rides on the heavens to help you and in his excellency in the clouds he ends his life speaking words of praise toward God and he has said in his last words, yes the Lord loves his people. This is Moses' theme throughout the whole book. God loves his people by giving them laws and giving them commands to take them to the right place at the right time for the glory of God. And so Moses here is obedient.

And then God gives Moses a foretaste of the land. It says, and the Lord showed him all the land. And Moses, of course, was withheld from entering into the promised land. But God now is giving Moses a glimpse before he finally takes him home to see that land. And as Moses looks out and sees that land, you know, what's in his mind?

We know what's in his mind because of what's written in the book of Hebrews. He saw a better country. He longed in his heart for a better country, and that country was heaven. And he saw a type of it as he stood on that mountaintop. And so God is disclosing to Moses even more of his plans, showing him the way.

And then the Lord speaks in verse four. Then the Lord said to him, this is the land which I swore to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, I will give it to your descendants. I have caused you to see it with your eyes, but you cannot cross over." Now here in verse 4, I believe is an example of God boasting. God is boasting in his promise keeping. He's boasting in his plan and the Lord says this is the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

I will give it to your descendants and I have caused you to see it with your eyes." God is boasting in his promise keeping and he's explaining to Moses that he keeps his promise, that he is an almighty God and not one of his words falls to the ground without being fulfilled. And this was a promise given 400 years previously. And now, and now God is speaking it again to Moses. He is a promise keeping God. Every word of God is tested, every word of God is pure.

And when he says, I will never leave you or forsake you, he delivers on that promise. When he says, are you not worth much more than the birds of the air, he keeps his promise. When he says, in my father's house, there are many dwelling places, he keeps his promise. God delivers on his promises. And here he is boasting in his promise keeping that he will fulfill what he has said.

And then what did Moses see? It's interesting that God says it like this, I have caused him to see. I have caused you to see it with your eyes. God did this. God made the promise, and now he's actually, by his own force of his sovereign will causing Moses to see it and and he sees from Gilead as far as Dan you know he's he's explaining you know the northern and the southern and the western borders here of the promised land.

What's interesting about this, and I'm not quite sure what to think of it, But what Moses is seeing doesn't even exist yet. It hasn't happened. The land is not divided up this way. Dan is not up there and Ephraim is not over there. He's seeing something that doesn't exist.

What exists out there are Canaanites, the Amorites, and the Parasites, and the Jebusites, and the pagans are there. Dan is not there. The pagans are there. Ephraim is not there. And so I don't know if God is showing Moses something that isn't there by prophecy or If just Moses knows that it's there.

But this is just a reality here. What Moses is describing doesn't exist yet. He says that he sees the Western Sea. Now, if the Western Sea is the Dead Sea, then it works. He can see that from there.

He's standing there, Jericho is down below him, and the Dead Sea is down off a little bit to his left. But the Mediterranean Sea can't be seen by the naked eye. And most believe that the Western Sea is the Mediterranean Sea. So Is Moses seeing something that can't be seen by the naked eye that God is giving him a spirit of prophecy? To see something that a human normally could not see.

We know he actually does have, I'm going to call them superhuman powers, or actually maybe youthful human powers more correctly. But he is seeing the Western Sea. And I don't know how to explain that except that he's either seeing the Dead Sea or the Western Sea, which is the Mediterranean, and God's giving him a vision. He's giving him a supernatural ability to see farther than any man has ever seen in the history of the world. And he starts with Gilead and moves on.

And so Moses is standing on this mountaintop And he's seeing what is explained in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 13. All these died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and assured them, assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth, for those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly, if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had an opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city before them." And this city, you know, of course, is promised by Abraham in Genesis 15, but they all died in faith.

Moses is going to die in faith as is spoken of here. But what's in his heart? It's a longing for a better country. Do you have that longing in your heart? Absolutely you do.

I don't think there anyone has ever been born without a longing for a better country. God places that longing in the human soul and it's only satisfied in one way and that is by justification, by faith alone. Entry into the family of God for all eternity, while God prepares a heavenly dwelling place for His children. That's that heavenly country that He longed for. And as he stood up on that mountaintop He was longing for a heavenly country in the same way that you long for a heavenly country today But God allowed him to see it like nobody had seen it before He had a foretaste of it and then Moses again is I Don't know what well I don't know why God does this again because he's he's already reminded Moses a number of times He says I've caused you to see with your eyes, but you cannot cross over there You know and I just wonder what Moses was thinking, Lord, I know, I know.

I begged you to go into the land. You told me to stop. You told me to shut up. And I have. And now you're telling me again, I can't go into the land.

Well, that actually probably was not what Moses was thinking. But that's what you and I would think. And so because Moses did not glorify God in that moment of testing, He was withheld from entering into the land. God was bringing discipline upon him for his anger in his treatment of the children of Israel. And it just reminds us again how often we judge ourselves wrongly.

We take our sins lightly when God takes them to be more serious than we do. And we need to learn how to judge correctly. We're so self-serving, we're so pompous, we're so self-righteous that we're constantly praising and flattering ourselves, even in the midst of our sins. We diminish our sins and over-exalt our righteousness. And here what we find is really a completely different mode of judgment than Moses has in the sense that God is judging him for a thing that most people would say wasn't quite as big a deal.

Well, Moses was a murderer. Wasn't that a bigger deal in anyone else's mind? Well, God, though, is righteous in all of his judgments. And he can judge us better than we can judge ourselves. And that's why he's given us this, so that when we have thoughts that contradict this, that we're judged by God.

So that righteous judgment comes to us. So many people come to the Bible as if they're the judges of the Bible. Oh, God did that? How terrible. That's the mean Old Testament God.

And so people often come to the Bible like that as if they're the judges of God rather than God being their judge. Here God is the judge and his judgments are all righteous even though difficult to swallow. And so we're called to a life of self-examination. Here, God brings this matter before Moses again. You know how often we chafe under God's chastisements and his discipline.

But here, we see Moses really, from all we can gather, as humble as a lamb. He's praising God and obeying God as he moves closer and closer to his death. You know, when I think about Moses here in his obedience, his humility, it reminds me of Proverbs chapter 1 verse 23 which says turn to my rebuke surely I will pour out my spirit upon you I think that summarizes Moses and that's why God called him the meekest man that ever lived and then we see after after these first four verses, we see in verse five and six, really the mystery of Moses' death and his burial. And so verse five says, so Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab according to the word of the Lord. And he buried him in the valley of the land of Moab opposite Beth Payer, But no one knows his grave to this day." Now, verse 5 opens with some very, very significant words.

They are enormously significant, and you will learn how significant they are if you just do a Bible search on Moses the servant of the Lord Because Moses is called the servant of the Lord dozens and dozens of time in Scripture from this time forward. And in fact the Bible ends in the book of Revelation saying that Moses, that the song of Moses the servant of the Lord will be sung on that last day and the song of the Lamb. So this is a technical term, Moses the servant of the Lord, and it gets repeated all over Scripture. It's a gigantic study in itself. There's There's much to learn there that we can't really delve into, but Moses has called the servant of the Lord over and over again.

And if you read through the book of Joshua, you'll say there it is there, there it is there. It's in many, many of the chapters in Joshua and then stretching on all the way to the end of Scripture. And this was just so characteristic of him that he was a servant of the Lord. And here What God says of Moses should help us to think about our own lives. That there are only two masters that anyone can serve.

And here, Moses is a servant of the Lord. The Lord Jesus said, if you want to be great in God's kingdom, I'm sorry, John says, if you want to be great in God's kingdom, then be the servant of all. And this was Moses. The Apostle Paul says to Timothy that a servant of the Lord, or an elder, must not quarrel, but be gentle and able to teach. This is a quality of leadership, but it's not just a quality of leadership.

It's a quality for all of God's people. To see themselves as servants, to see themselves as slaves of God, that they have no life but their life from God. And that a servant is one who has no time of his own. A servant doesn't own his time. His master owns every second, every nanosecond of his time.

And that's what a servant is. A servant doesn't have free time. A servant only has one kind of time. Time given as a gift to serve the king, to serve the one who has deployed him. A servant has no possessions of his own.

All of his possessions are owned by his master, and he's a steward of the master's possessions. A servant has no words of his own like Christ. He says, I do not speak my own words. I only speak what I hear my Father saying. A servant doesn't have his own life like Christ who said, I only do what I see my father doing.

So Moses was a the servant of the Lord and that's what it means. It means everything to us. What Moses was is what we are as well. We don't have one minute of our own, not one possession is our own, not one word, not one footstep do we own if we call Christ our Lord. Everything belongs Everything belongs to Him.

And we can only serve one of two masters. And so Moses stands to help us understand something about our own discipleship as servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what a blessing it would be to hear those words spoken in Matthew chapter 25, well done good and faithful servant. And so Moses was the servant of the Lord, and then we see the sovereignty of God in his death. In verse five, so Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab according to the word of the Lord.

Now you might think it's strange that it was God who killed Moses, But God kills everyone who ever dies. Everyone dies according to the word of the Lord. This wasn't unique to Moses. Now, it's according to the word of the Lord. What that means is that God has spoken a word about your death, and nothing can overcome that word.

You will die, and you will die on time, and you will die according to the Word of the Lord. Some people think, well, I have a premonition, you know, that I'm not going to live very long. These are just human speculations. These are often just human feelings. They don't mean anything.

If you think, oh, I just feel that somehow I won't be alive next year, here's what you should say. I will die according to the word of the Lord. My feelings, my thoughts, my premonitions are nothing. Of course, there are people who have thought, I think that I'm going to die and they do. That doesn't mean that your feelings are accurate, okay?

Because you will only die one way by the Word of God. He has marked a moment of your death and He will take you. And if you love Him, then you will enter into the joy of your Master. And He's timed that entry point. He's timed your eternal joy perfectly.

He knows that moment and that hour. It's according to His Word. And He has loved you with an everlasting love. He's drawn you with loving kindness. And at a moment, He will take you into his presence.

And you cannot know when that will be. But Moses died according to the word of the Lord. This means that God has set us here, only God is qualified to take us from here. The Bible says He kills and He heals. He gives life and He takes it away.

And only God is qualified to take a life. This is why there should be such an outrage. This is why there should be such a disturbance against what has happened in our land when men take the lives of babies on their own. Only the Word of the Lord has a qualification for it. And yes, men try to overwhelm God.

But let's be clear, no one overwhelms God. And there are enormous judgments for those who attempt it. And I'm not here to try to explain the sovereignty of God in the death of a baby in a mother's womb. But I am here to say that it's an outrage for men to take life unlawfully. There are conditions that men ought to take life, as is explained in this book.

But let's be very clear. God leaves it to himself to take life. Let's be very, very clear about that. In a culture of euthanasia, in a culture of the putting to death of the older generation, We must be very careful to understand that these words mean something in our culture. This week was the anniversary of Roe vs.

Wade in which the most horrifying condition has fallen upon our land. Now over 50 million babies have been destroyed in their mother's womb. And the abortion movement rolls on. We had our president stand in the National Theater yesterday to affirm his devotion and his love for abortion. And it's for us to stand and speak at this time.

This is a time when the Church must speak. And I'm grateful, I'm grateful that God has given a fire for many here in this church to speak. And I'm confident that there are many who would go to prison for this and they ought to. But here what we find is that God is taking Moses. He goes according to the Word of the Lord.

You know, there's just so much that we can say about this whole matter of life and death, the use of life and its final termination, according to the will of God. And how important it is for us to redeem the time, to not think of our time as one second belonging to us, but to know that we're running a course. Our lives are like a shadow. He's numbering our days. And our life is like a weaver's shuttle.

It just slides along, and then it's gone. And we so fall in love with this world. And this world is our home, and it's not our home. And so there is the sovereignty of God over Moses' death here that's spoken that should teach us a lot about our own lives, about how we use them and also about how we live in this world where men believe they have the authority to take the lives of other people, both very old and both very young. And then this information is given that no grave can be found for Moses.

God stupefies all who would try to find Moses' grave. They won't find it. Why would God hide his grave? It says that no one knows his grave. So there's this whole matter of where is Moses' body?

Jude 9 says that Michael the Archangel had a fight with the devil over the body of Moses. Yet Michael the Archangel in contending with the devil when he disputed about the body of Moses dared not bring against him a reviling accusation but said the Lord rebuke you. Now Jude 9 is really, at least this section, is about respect for authorities. And he's giving the example that even when Michael the archangel was battling with the devil over the body of Moses. As disturbed as he was, he said, the Lord rebuke you.

Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. Michael the Archangel understood authority as an angel having some kind of authority. He was quoting Zechariah 3, 2, where we read the words, the Lord rebuke you. But there are a number of things to draw from this that we learn about the world and the way that God has ordered the world.

He's ordered the world with angels in the world. One of my favorite songs to sing to my children in the night is the song that goes, all night, all day, angels watching over me, my Lord. Now I lay me down to sleep, angels watching over me. But that's not the only kind of angel that's out there. There are these angels that wrestle with the angels of God.

And so there was a time when Michael disputed with Satan over the body of Moses. Now, we shouldn't be surprised that there would be an issue over the body of Moses, that the devil wouldn't want to try to create some superstitions about Moses. And so the angels are resisting them and they're trying to cut off the opportunity that the devil wants to take. You know, the devil's always looking for an opportunity to destroy someone. He did it with Job.

He goes to God and he says, You see your servant Job down there? I want to destroy him. Would you let me touch him? There's this negotiation there's a desire of the of the angels in heaven to harm the children of God and this this was happening here the fight though was raised by the devil And he had reason to use the grave for his own purposes. For some reason, and it's easy to think of why, he would want to have the body and the grave of Moses.

Because once you establish superstition, you just promote heartless religion. You have a shrine for the body of Moses and his staff and this rock over here, a piece of the rock that he struck, and then people go. And that's the focus of their religion. And they think well of themselves, because they made a pilgrimage to the grave of Moses. And that's their religion.

And they love that. They feel It makes them feel so amazing whenever they go there. They want something to jack them up. They want something to engage, energize their emotions. To make them feel good, to give them something to look at and and that's what was happening here and The devil is always at work to To promote men you know resting their faith on outward things instead of their hearts before God.

Man wants to find a ritual. Man wants to find a technique. Man wants to find something to make himself acceptable to God. And then gather a bunch of other people to do that, and they can all flatter one another, because they were all there at the grave of Moses, bowing down, praying, like before the golden calf, as they were worshiping the Lord. But this calf was just such an amazing image.

It was so phenomenal and everyone felt so good and they danced and they sang and they were so free and that's what people want. This is just should be a warning to us of the tendency in our hearts to want some visual, experiential thing to get us on in our Christian life. And we long for something amazing that will send, something that will just fix everything for us. It'll take care of the boredom and the drab of our lives, and somehow it'll take us into a whole new thing, and we'll have this experience or this feeling, and now everything will be different. That's just what people long for.

And I think that's what the devil was wanting to do. If you read the commentators, they all say the same thing. They all say pretty much what I'm saying right here. The devil wanted to capitalize on making a superstition out of the body of Moses. That's what they all say.

Now, I'm not told exactly why. I think that's the very best supposition that we can make. And so here, what we find is that God removes the opportunity of this idolatry by force. Do you see that? Guess who won?

Michael the archangel won and the devil, you know, was sent down the road and he lost his opportunity to do that. Now here's a principle for us from this. Here we find God acting to remove the opportunity for superstition and idolatry and some kind of imagery for worship. And so it's an opportunity to just say, if you're trusting in anything like that, the whole matter of images, some people, they look to find these feelings in their films that they watch. They want something to sort of put them back together again.

You know, I think we saw this when the film, The Passion of Christ, came out. And people were just almost like, I have to see it. I have to see what Jesus looked like. I have to see the blood. And they just lusted to see it, that what they saw was not what was true.

And it was a breaking of the second commandment. The second commandment impinges upon, I believe, this whole matter with the body of Moses, that there was an image, a visual item of worship to be used for worship that the devil wanted to establish among the children of Israel to distract them from pure religion. One of the marks of our culture is that It's just enthralled. It's enthralled with external images and entertainments and foolishness and silliness. And often what happens is people get their satisfaction from going from one funny video clip to another.

And if you watch the media in our culture, you'll just get sillier and sillier and shallower and shallower and hollower and hollower. And you'll be a shadow, you'll be a stick man, you'll be empty, you'll have nothing, you'll think you're getting something, but you get nothing from that. You only get something from true worship of God. That's according to the Word of God. And so I just want to suggest that that's why that the devil was fighting over the body of Moses.

Because people will revere irrelevant things. They'll gawk after stupid things if you give it to them. And they'll call it righteousness, but it's not righteousness at all. Here's what Calvin said in his commentary. Let us suspect ourselves in that behalf and consider that it stands us to remove all objects and all other things that may entice us to idolatry." That's Calvin.

He said, you know, if the people had paid attention to this, we would have not had potpourri. That's what Calvin says. He says he gives us fool's baubles and we'll have toys to occupy our heads here below and we will not look to God. So the devil would lead us down a path of irrelevance and foolishness and while God shows us how to serve Him, The devil wants to mix us up and put thoughts that dilute a true knowledge of God. And he's always casting something before our eyes to enliven us in a wrong way and give us something that seems like life, but it isn't life at all.

So, the devil makes efforts to distract, and here there's this enormous effort that was taking place in the heavens with the angels. Now, Just a couple more things about angels here, because obviously in the burial of Moses and the treatment of body, there was angelic conflict in them. So I think it's appropriate just for a moment to talk a little bit more about angels. And It's a helpful study that we should be aware of. Angels are sometimes seen on the earth in human form, which is why in Hebrews 13.1 we read, do not forget to entertain strangers, for by in so doing, some have unwittingly entertained angels, not even known it, which means it's quite possible that you have had some contact with angels and you just don't know it.

We know that angels are ministers in Hebrews 1 7, that the angels are ministers, a flame of fire. That they're also sent to minister to the lost so that they might be saved. Hebrews 1.14 says, are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister to those who will inherit eternal life? In other words, there are people walking in the world that they've not inherited eternal life. They're not believers.

But the angels are there protecting them and helping them, keeping them alive to that day when they'll be converted. And angels are ministering to them, to those who will inherit eternal life. This is the love of God roving about in the world, caring for those lost souls who will be saved someday. What a wonderful thing that is. I don't know how many of you have thought, I can't believe God kept me alive for the day of my conversion.

That was Him who did it. And perhaps there were angels involved. You know, when we enter heaven, the Bible says it will. We will be met by angels. Hebrews 12, 22 says, But you've come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels.

That begins, when you enter into the kingdom of heaven, I believe what this means, you enter into the company of an innumerable company of angels. And so I do love that song, all night, all day, angels watching over me, my Lord. Now I lay me down to sleep. So the message of the fight over the body of Moses is that there's an angelic conflict over the body of Moses that teaches us that our best life now is bowing down before the majesty of God alone and not using a bunch of inventions of our own. Not a bunch of images, not a bunch of entertainments, but God and God alone.

So then we see a declaration of Moses unusual strength in verse 7. Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eyes were not dim, nor his natural vigor diminished. And so God takes Moses. Not everyone has this blessing.

Moses was not sitting in a wheelchair with a hearing aid on. He did not need an electronic lift to getting up to Mount Nevo. You know, he went there on his own two feet. And it's absolutely astonishing. It's not fair.

It's not fair, is it? It's just not fair. God is not fair. We are not created equal in terms of our Constitution. We're not created equal in our mental capacity, in our disposition, or in our physical strength.

I think that should be obvious to all of us here today, that we're not all exactly the same. We're not pop-outs. And God chose to bless Moses with an unusual length and strength of life. And when we read our men's Bible, I think it was Jason pointed out, a number of the great men of God were long-livers. Moses, Joshua, Caleb, you know, lived long lives.

And, you know, if our leaders live long and if they're men of God, then it's a blessing for us. And God keeps men alive for his own purposes. And then there's the grieving of the people for 30 days. Verse 8, and the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab, 30 days. And so there are a number of things to speak about here.

It's appropriate for us to weep with those who weep. There's a time to weep and a time to laugh and a time to mourn. And this was the time to mourn. And they mourned for 30 days. And it's striking because when was the last time there was a mourning ceremony for 30 days in your life?

Well, it didn't happen, probably. At least not the way that it happened here. This was a national Mourning for 30 days now This is the exact same thing that happened when Aaron died Aaron died and they mourned for 30 days as well You can read about that in the book of numbers And so why why these long? Seasons of mourning then when here in our times we don't have long seasons of mourning? I believe it might have been Spurgeon who suggested that we don't mourn so long like that because we know of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

That our hearts default to a knowledge of the resurrection. And so there's more understanding of rejoicing. I don't actually know the answer to the question, but when we pass from death into life, there's rejoicing there. We in our day know more about heaven. We have more revelation has been given since the death of Moses about heaven and about the resurrection.

And so perhaps our confidence is greater in death. But that may not be the whole reason here. But death is a megaphone of the curse from the fall that we all shall surely die. And this also speaks of the handling of a body and the burial of a man. There's a consistent pattern in scripture of handling dead bodies.

There is a Christian way of handling the dead and there's a pagan way of handling the dead. There's an enormous rise in the practice of cremation in our own country because our country is becoming more and more pagan. But in Christianity, the body is treated well, like the body of the Lord Jesus Christ was treated honorably and involved and cared for. And we know that Christ, according to Matthew 27, was buried after the manner of the Jews. There was a way that the Jews buried, and there was a way that the Romans buried people too.

And a way that the Greeks did, and a way that the Hindus did. But here we find the same principle of honor toward the life, toward the dead body. There's enormous pressure to conform to the customs of the people in the surrounding nations. But we're called not to mourn like the Gentiles, not to handle bodies like the Gentiles that are dead. And there are many practices that we have that we should examine to see if they're godly practices.

But here, God is the one who buries Moses. And then, now the scene changes in verse 9. If you notice that, it changes. We're back off the mountain now. And we're back into a narrative portion.

Now Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom. Moses had laid his hands on him, so the children of Israel heeded him, as did the Lord had commanded Moses. So what we see here is that now Joshua is going to take the mantle of leadership and hear a couple of really important things I think to grasp from verse 9. And first of all, is the whole principle of God's wisdom in leading His people. This is highly, I think this is highly symbolic.

God is the leader of his people, and he provides leaders for his people. We often wonder, who in the rising generation is going to be able to lead like some of the great men of the past. Where are they? Where are those men who are going to replace the great men of the past? Well, let me say at least this with all confidence.

God is in charge of appointing the leaders of every generation. And he's doing it here with Joshua. God takes away, and he gives back. And so this is the way of God with his children, whom he loves. He closes one door, and then he opens another door.

And he continues his work on in continuity. You know it's interesting, we're talking about how different this transfer of leadership is from our own national transfers of leadership. We have a president who is the most wonderful savior of everything that ever was, and then there's a competing candidate who is a total idiot and adult, And then he promotes himself as the savior of all things. And then when he comes into office, he proclaims the former savior of all things as a total idiot and adult. So there's no continuity.

Here, though, there's continuity. This is the passing of God from godly leadership to godly leadership. There is collaboration. There's continuity. There is a self-conscious honoring of the past and carrying whatever is honorable onto the future.

So that's the way that God's people should transfer leadership when it's appropriate. But here, there's this transfer of continuity that's really very wonderful. You see this in Scripture with Elijah and Elisha, the mentor and the student, God putting His Spirit upon them. And here we see the same kind of mentorship and walking together with Joshua. We see it in Acts chapter 6 when the deacons are commissioned and it all breathes of God's faithfulness toward His people, that God will never leave His church without leaders that He has not appointed.

Now, He may appoint unseemly leaders, And he has, and I'm confident he will continue to do so in the future. But what we know this, that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church, regardless of that. But here, in this whole section about the transfer of leadership, there's the idea that just breathes through all the words is that God is the one who watches over and cares for His people. He gives us help in His own time, in His own way, through the people that He supplies in His own timing. You know, we might fear being deprived, But we always should remind ourselves that God is in control.

You know, if you find that you lost your father or your friend in death, or someone has been taken off the scene that was so comforting and helpful and wise for you, then you need to know that when God closes a door, he always opens another door. And that's really what he's doing here, that in his wisdom, He chooses those who he puts in governance. And let me just stop for a moment and try to apply this. And especially you children, I want you to hear this. Would you please look at me because there's something here in this transfer of leadership and the sovereignty of God in the provision of leaders that you really need to understand.

And that is this. It was God's wisdom that chose the Father that He gave you. You didn't go get your father on your own, right? God gave you your father. He chose by the force of his own wisdom to give you the father and the mother that he gave you.

He didn't give you some other kid's father. He gave you your father. And he did it by wisdom. He did it because all his ways are perfect. And his ways are pleasant ways.

I mean, in further, as much as we're so disturbed about our current administration, it was God's understanding that chose our president for us somehow. And that doesn't mean that we should fight for the replacement of someone better, but God shows it. It was His insight, it was His insight that has caused the placement of various elders in churches over the years in your lives. It was God's wisdom that made that happen. You may have been at church we say, I really didn't like those guys, but God was the one who placed you there.

He raises up authorities and he takes them down. And this is the glory of God. And this whole transfer of leadership breathes this. Think about your own workplace and all the faults and the failures of your employers. Just think about them for a minute.

There are dozens of them. There are hundreds of them. But understand this. It was the logic of God that caused him to choose whom you would work for from one season to another, and who would be authorities over you in those areas of work. It was God that has done it.

Now, it's so easy to chafe against our fathers, our national government, those who have been placing authority over us in bosses, or our elders. That's the struggle that we have as human beings. But we have to understand that it is God that sets authorities in place. And here we find a brilliant, insightful, knowledgeable placement of Joshua at the helm of the children of Israel. And it's just a sign of the love of God.

Let Joshua be your sign for your father. Let Joshua be your help to understand how to live in your workplace rightly, or in your church or in your nation. Let Joshua show you something this morning that should relieve you of all of your fears. The truth is when we chafe under authority, we chafe under God. When we resist authority, we resist God.

Now, there's a long, sort of afterburn discussion that could happen after what I just said with a number of qualifications, but I think it's very clear here what the force of the event is in this text. Now four things are identified of Joshua. First of all, his spirit. It was a spirit of wisdom and this was a gift of God. No one has a spirit of wisdom unless God somehow gives it to him and God is the one who gives this gift, and God gave it to Joshua.

Second is commissioning. Not only was he wise by the Spirit of God, but Moses laid his hands on him and commissioned Him in the same way that hands are laid on, even in alluded to in the New Testament. In 2 Timothy 1, verse 6, Paul reminds Timothy to stir up the gift which was in him through the laying on of his own hands. That doesn't mean that men go around just giving gifts. These are signs in the same way that the Lord's Supper is a sign.

The laying on of hands is a sign and a commissioning that takes place. And then thirdly, his success among the people. So the children of Israel heeded him. That's a wonderful thing to read. The children of Israel heeded him.

He had success with the people. God caused the people to follow. It was a gift of God. They desired to follow their new leader and and the truth is no one can lead unless God places it in the hearts of people to follow. It's the only way that it can happen.

People cannot be led by force. Only if God puts it in their hearts sovereignly will they follow. And then fourthly, the faithfulness of Moses. His faithfulness to Moses. Joshua is a wonderful example of one who had been mentored.

And he was faithful to his spiritual father. It says, and he did as the Lord had commanded Moses. Got that? Joshua did what the Lord commanded Moses. So then we find in the last two verses of the chapter, the uniqueness of Moses the prophet.

This is his epitaph. As here now we wind down. Can you believe it? We're in the last two verses of the chapter, the uniqueness of Moses the prophet. This is his epitaph.

As here now we wind down. Can you believe it? We're in the last two verses of the book of Deuteronomy after two years. And so there are there are three images that God would want us to know. One is his uniqueness, that since then there has not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses.

And then intimacy, who knew the Lord face to face. And then his power and signs and wonders, and in all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt before Pharaoh and before all of his servants in the land. And so we find ourselves here at the end of the book of Deuteronomy with words about the greatest prophet. And it reminds us of Deuteronomy 18, verse 15, which says, The Lord will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers. It is to him you shall listen." Moses prophesied that there is another prophet who will be raised up at another time, who is like him.

And in these last two verses, in this epitaph of Moses, is also a prophecy of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, that prophet that is to come. And God sent many prophets in this intervening period. And then he sent John the Baptist. And we read that since then there has, that John the Baptist was more than a prophet among those born of women. There has not risen a greater than John the Baptist." So we have Moses and then John the Baptist.

And then came Christ. And Christ is that prophet that Moses prophesied of. You remember the situation where the scribes and the Pharisees asked John the Baptist two questions. They say, are you Elijah? And then he says, are you the prophet?

And he's referring to Moses' prophecy that God would send a prophet like me. And then when Philip encountered Nathaniel, he said, We have found him who Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Moses. And then after Jesus fed the 5, 000, the people began to ask him if he was the prophet who is to come into the world in John chapter 6. And Peter identified Jesus at that same prophet in Acts chapter 3 verse 22 where he says, For Moses truly said to the fathers, the Lord will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever he says to you, and it shall be that every soul who will not hear their prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.

Yes, and all the prophets from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days, you are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, and in you, your seed, in your seed, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. To you first, God, having raised up his servant Jesus, sent him to bless you, and turning away every one of you from your iniquities. Peter believed that Jesus was that prophet. And then before the Sanhedrin, Stephen declared that Jesus was the promised Messiah by saying in Acts chapter 7, verse 37 and 38, he said, this is what Moses said to the children of Israel. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet, like me from your brethren.

Him you shall hear. And while the law was given through Moses, so grace and truth were revealed by the Lord Jesus Christ. And in John 17, we read that He was whom the Lord knew face to face. We see that there's great terror and wonders and signs, and we see this in the ministry of Jesus. Not only do the apostles connect Jesus with this prophet that Moses spoke of, But Christ fulfilled all of these things.

He struck terror into those who saw Him. We always think of sweet Jesus, but we forget that the demons cried out and they said, What have we to do with you, Jesus, Son of God? Have you come to torment us before the time? We forget that at the time of Jesus' arrest, when Judas came with a detachment of troops, with their lanterns and their torches and their weapons, that Jesus went forward to them and He said, Who are you seeking? And then when He said, I am He, they drew back and they fell to the ground.

And we forget that Herod, when the king was troubled in his soul at Jesus, and it caused him to exterminate the baby boys in his region out of fear. We know that there was fear in the hearts of the rulers of Jesus. He struck terror into their hearts and they did dramatic things in order to resist him. So here at the end of the book of Deuteronomy, what we find is a prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because in reality, Every word of Moses in Deuteronomy is a word of Jesus Christ.

Every law is a law of love that is fulfilled in Christ. And so it's appropriate that the book of Deuteronomy would end with a prophecy of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so as we as we begin leaving this book, Let's be very careful to remember that the Lord Jesus Christ is revealed on every page. He shows himself to us in shadows and types and in words that teach us how we might be faithful to God in our generation. It's been a wonderful study.

It's changed our church in so many ways and I'm so grateful for it. Let's pray. And now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead Through the blood of the everlasting covenant Make you complete for every good work Working in you what is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.