The Resurrection of Moses
The Resurrection of Moses
As we have seen all quarter, Moses is the central mortal in Deuteronomy. His life, his character, his messages pervade the book. Though, yes, Deuteronomy is about God and His love for ‘am yisra’el, “the people of Israel,” God often used Moses to reveal that love and to speak to His people Israel.
Now, as we come to the end of the quarter, the end of our study of Deuteronomy, we also come to the end of Moses’ life, at least his life here.
As Ellen G. White expressed it: “Moses knew that he was to die alone; no earthly friend would be permitted to minister to him in his last hours. There was a mystery and awfulness about the scene before him, from which his heart shrank. The severest trial was his separation from the people of his care and love—the people with whom his interest and his life had so long been united. But he had learned to trust in God, and with unquestioning faith he committed himself and his people to His love and mercy.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 470, 471.
As Moses’ life and ministry revealed much about the character of God, so, too, does his death and resurrection.
* Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, December 25.
EGW Notes — SATURDAY ↓Lesson 13 – The Resurrection of Moses
Sabbath Afternoon, December 18
Many years Moses and Aaron had stood side by side in their cares and labors. Together they had breasted unnumbered dangers, and had shared together the signal blessing of God; but the time was at hand when they must be separated. ... Somewhere beyond the mountains of Edom was the path leading to the Promised Land—that land whose blessings Moses and Aaron were not to enjoy. No rebellious feelings found a place in their hearts, no expression of murmuring escaped their lips; yet a solemn sadness rested upon their countenances as they remembered what had debarred them from the inheritance of their fathers. ...
... For his sin at Kadesh, Aaron was denied the privilege of officiating as God’s high priest in Canaan—of offering the first sacrifice in the goodly land, and thus consecrating the inheritance of Israel. Moses was to continue to bear his burden in leading the people to the very borders of Canaan. He was to come within sight of the Promised Land, but was not to enter it. Had these servants of God, when they stood before the rock at Kadesh, borne unmurmuringly the test there brought upon them, how different would have been their future! A wrong act can never be undone. It may be that the work of a lifetime will not recover what has been lost in a single moment of temptation or even thoughtlessness.
—Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 425, 426.
The present is a season of solemn privilege and sacred trust. If the servants of God keep faithfully the trust given to them, great will be their reward when the Master shall say, “Give an account of thy stewardship.” [Luke 16:2.] The earnest toil, the unselfish work, the patient, persevering effort, will be abundantly rewarded. Jesus will say, Henceforth I call you not servants, but friends. [See John 15:15.] The approval of the Master is not given because of the greatness of the work performed, but because of fidelity in all that has been done. It is not the results we attain, but the motives from which we act, that weigh with God. He prizes goodness and faithfulness above all else.
—Gospel Workers, p. 267.
I entreat you to move with an eye single to the glory of God. Let His power be your dependence, His grace your strength. By study of the Scriptures and earnest prayer seek to obtain clear conceptions of your duty, and then faithfully perform it. It is essential that you cultivate faithfulness in little things, and in so doing you will acquire habits of integrity in greater responsibilities. The little incidents of everyday life often pass without our notice, but it is these things that shape the character. Every event of life is great for good or for evil. The mind needs to be trained by daily tests, that it may acquire power to stand in any difficult position. In the days of trial and of peril you will need to be fortified to stand firmly for the right, independent of every opposing influence.
—Testimonies for the Church, vol. 4, p. 561.
Time and again, even amid their apostasy and wilderness wanderings, God miraculously provided for the children of Israel. That is, however undeserving they were (and often remained that way), God’s grace flowed out to them. We, too, today, are recipients of His grace, however much we are undeserving of it, as well. After all, it wouldn’t be grace if we deserved it, would it?
And besides the abundance of food that the Lord had miraculously provided for them in the wilderness, another manifestation of His grace was the water, without which they would quickly perish, especially in a dry, hot, and desolate desert. Talking about that experience, Paul wrote: “And all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ” (1 Cor. 10:4, NKJV). Ellen G. White also added that “wherever in their journeyings they wanted water, there from the clefts of the rock it gushed out beside their encampment.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 411.
On one level, it’s not hard to see and understand Moses’ frustration. After all that the Lord had done for them, the signs and wonders and miraculous deliverance, here they are, finally, on the borders of the Promised Land. And then—what? Suddenly, they are short on water, and so they begin to conspire against Moses and Aaron. Was it that the Lord could not provide water for them now, as He had done for them so often before? Of course not; He could have, and was going to do so again.
However, look at Moses’ words as he struck the rock, even twice. “ ‘Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?’ ” (Num. 20:10, NKJV). One can all but hear the anger in his voice, for he begins by calling them “rebels.”
The problem wasn’t so much his anger itself, which was bad enough but understandable—but when he said “ ‘Must we bring water for you out of this rock?’ ” as if he or any human being could bring water out of a rock. In his anger, he seemed to forget at the moment that it was only the power of God, working among them, that could do such a miracle. He, of all people, should have known that.
Sunday, December 19
The Sin of Moses—Part 1
In all their wanderings, the children of Israel were tempted to attribute to Moses the special work of God, the mighty miracles that had been wrought to deliver them from Egyptian bondage. They charged Moses with bringing them out of the land of Egypt. It was true that God had manifested Himself wonderfully to Moses. He had specially favored him with His presence. To him God had revealed His exceeding glory. Upon the mount He had taken him into a sacred nearness to Himself, and had talked with him as a man speaks to a friend. But the Lord had given evidence after evidence that it was He Himself who was working for their deliverance.
By saying, “Must we fetch you water out of this rock?” Moses virtually said to the people that they were correct in believing that he himself was doing the mighty works that had been done in their behalf. This made it necessary for God to prove to Israel that his admission was not founded on fact. To dispel forever from the minds of the Israelites the idea that a man was leading them, God found it necessary to allow their leader to die before they entered the land of Canaan.
—Ellen G. White Comments, in The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 1, pp. 1115, 1116.
The servants of Christ are not to act out the dictates of the natural heart. They need to have close communion with God, lest, under provocation, self rise up, and they pour forth a torrent of words that are unbefitting, that are not as dew or the still showers that refresh the withering plants. This is what Satan wants them to do; for these are his methods. It is the dragon that is wroth; it is the spirit of Satan that is revealed in anger and accusing. But God’s servants are to be representatives of Him. He desires them to deal only in the currency of heaven, the truth that bears His own image and superscription. The power by which they are to overcome evil is the power of Christ. The glory of Christ is their strength. They are to fix their eyes upon His loveliness. Then they can present the gospel with divine tact and gentleness.
—The Desire of Ages, p. 353.
Through the help that Christ can give, we shall be able to learn to bridle the tongue. Sorely as He was tried on the point of hasty and angry speech, He never once sinned with His lips. With patient calmness He met the sneers, the taunts, and the ridicule of His fellow workers at the carpenter’s bench. Instead of retorting angrily, He would begin to sing one of David’s beautiful psalms; and His companions, before realizing what they were doing, would unite with Him in the hymn. What a transformation would be wrought in this world if men and women today would follow Christ’s example in the use of words!
—Our High Calling, p. 291.
According to this text, there was more to Moses’ sin than just his own attempt to take the place of God, which was bad enough. He also showed a lack of faith, which, for someone like Moses, would be inexcusable. After all, this is the man who, from the burning bush (Exod. 3:2–16) onward, had had, unlike most people, an experience with God, and yet, according to the text, Moses did not “believe Me” (NKJV); that is, Moses showed a lack of faith in what the Lord had said, and as a result he had failed to “hallow Me,” before the children of Israel. In other words, had Moses kept his calm and done the right thing by showing his own faith and trust in God amid their apostasy, he would have glorified the Lord before the people and been, again, an example to them of what true faith and obedience were like.
Notice, too, how Moses had disobeyed what the Lord told him specifically to do.
Verse 9 has Moses taking the rod as the Lord had commanded him. So far, so good. But by verse 10, instead of speaking to the rock, from which water would then have flowed as an astounding expression of God’s power—Moses struck it, not once but twice. Yes, hitting a rock and having water come from it was miraculous, but certainly not as miraculous as just speaking to it and seeing the same thing happening.
Sure, on the surface it might have seemed that God’s judgment upon Moses was extreme: after all that Moses had been through, he was not going to be allowed to cross over into the Promised Land. For as long as this story has been told, people have wondered why—because of one rash act—would what he had been anticipating for so long be denied him?
Monday, December 20
The Sin of Moses—Part 2
Some would regard [Moses’] sin as one that should be lightly passed over; but God sees not as man sees. When within sight of the hills of Canaan, the Israelites murmured because the stream that had flowed wherever they encamped ceased. The cries of the people were directed against Moses and Aaron, whom they accused of bringing them into the wilderness to perish. The leaders went to the door of the tabernacle and fell on their faces. ... Moses was directed, “Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock” (Numbers 20:8).
The two brothers went on before the multitude, Moses with the rod of God in his hand. They were now aged men. Long had they borne with the rebellion and obstinacy of Israel; but now, at last, even the patience of Moses gave way. ... And instead of speaking to the rock, as God had commanded him, he smote it twice with the rod.
The water gushed forth in abundance to satisfy the host. But a great wrong had been done. Moses had spoken from irritated feeling. “Shall we bring water?” he questioned, as if the Lord would not do what He promised. “Ye believed me not,” the Lord declared to the two brothers, “to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel” (Verse 12).
—The Upward Look, p. 299.
The very time to exercise faith is when we feel destitute of the Spirit. When thick clouds of darkness seem to hover over the mind, then is the time to let living faith pierce the darkness and scatter the clouds. True faith rests on the promises contained in the Word of God, and those only who obey that Word can claim its glorious promises. “If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” John 15:7. “Whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.” 1 John 3:22. ...
I asked the angel why there was no more faith and power in Israel. He said, “Ye let go of the arm of the Lord too soon. Press your petitions to the throne, and hold on by strong faith. The promises are sure. Believe ye receive the things ye ask for, and ye shall have them.”
—Early Writings, pp. 72, 73.
Poor Moses! Having come so far, having gone through so much, only to be left out of the fulfillment of the promise made to Abram many centuries earlier: “ ‘To your descendants I will give this land’ ” (Gen. 12:7, NKJV).
“In solitude Moses reviewed his life of vicissitudes and hardships since he turned from courtly honors and from a prospective kingdom in Egypt, to cast in his lot with God’s chosen people. He called to mind those long years in the desert with the flocks of Jethro, the appearance of the Angel in the burning bush, and his own call to deliver Israel. Again he beheld the mighty miracles of God’s power displayed in behalf of the chosen people, and His long-suffering mercy during the years of their wandering and rebellion. Notwithstanding all that God had wrought for them, notwithstanding his own prayers and labors, only two of all the adults in the vast army that left Egypt had been found so faithful that they could enter the Promised Land. As Moses reviewed the result of his labors, his life of trial and sacrifice seemed to have been almost in vain.”—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 471, 472.
Deuteronomy 34:4 says something very interesting. “ ‘This is the land of which I swore to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, “I will give it to your descendants” ’ ” (NKJV). The Lord was using language almost verbatim from what He had said again and again to the patriarchs and to their children, about giving them this land. Now He was repeating it to Moses.
The Lord also said that “ ‘I have caused you to see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there’ ” (Deut. 34:4, NKJV, emphasis supplied). There’s no way that Moses, standing where he was, could have seen with normal vision all that the Lord had pointed him to—from Moab to Dan to Naphtali, and so forth. Ellen G. White was clear: it was a supernatural revelation, not only of the land but also of what it would look like after they had taken possession.
In one sense, it would almost seem as if the Lord had been teasing Moses, rubbing it in: You could have been here had you simply obeyed Me as you should have, or something like that. Instead, the Lord was showing Moses that despite everything, even despite Moses’ mistake, God was going to be faithful to the covenantal promises that He had made with the fathers and with Israel itself. As we will see, too, the Lord had something even better in store for His faithful but flawed servant.
EGW Notes — TUESDAY ↓Tuesday, December 21
The Death of Moses
The Lord announced to Moses that the appointed time for the possession of Canaan was at hand; and as the aged prophet stood upon the heights overlooking the river Jordan and the Promised Land, he gazed with deep interest upon the inheritance of his people. Would it be possible that the sentence pronounced against him for his sin at Kadesh might be revoked? With deep earnestness he pleaded, “O Lord God, Thou hast begun to show Thy servant Thy greatness, and Thy mighty hand; for what god is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to Thy works, and according to Thy might? I pray Thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon.” Deuteronomy 3:24–27.
The answer was, “Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto Me of this matter. Get thee up into the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and behold it with thine eyes; for thou shalt not go over this Jordan.”
—Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 462.
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 on Pisgah’s top, in the presence of God and heavenly angels. After he had viewed Canaan to his satisfaction, he lay down, like a tired warrior, to rest. Sleep came upon him, but it was the sleep of death. Angels took his body and buried it in the valley. The Israelites could never find the place where he was buried. His secret burial was to prevent the people from sinning against the Lord by committing idolatry over his body.
Satan exulted that he had succeeded in causing Moses to sin against God. For this transgression Moses came under the dominion of death. If he had continued faithful, and his life had not been marred with that one transgression, in failing to give God the glory of bringing water from the rock, he would have entered the Promised Land, and would have been translated to heaven without seeing death.
—The Story of Redemption, p. 173.
Christ became one with humanity, that humanity might become one in Spirit and life with Him. By virtue of this union in obedience to the Word of God, His life becomes their life. He says to the penitent, “I am the resurrection, and the life.” Death is looked upon by Christ as sleep—silence, darkness, sleep. He speaks of it as if it were of little moment. “Whosoever liveth and believeth in Me,” He says, “shall never die.” And to the believing one, death is but a small matter. With him to die is but to sleep.
The same power that raised Christ from the dead will raise His church, and glorify it with Christ, as His bride, above all principalities, above all powers, above every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in the heavenly courts, the world above. The victory of the sleeping saints will be glorious on the morning of the resurrection.
—My Life Today, p. 295.
“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 Peor; but no one knows his grave to this day” (Deut. 34:5, 6, NKJV). Thus, with these few verses, Moses—so central to the life of Israel, a man whose writing lives on, not only in Israel but also even in the church and in the synagogue today, as well—died.
Moses died and was buried, the people mourned, and that was that. Certainly, the principle of the words of Revelation applies here: “ ‘ “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” ’ ‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them’ ” (Rev. 14:13, NKJV).
However, Moses’ death was not the final chapter in the story of Moses’ life.
Though we’re given only a glimpse, what an incredible scene is depicted here. Michael, Christ Himself, disputed with the devil about the body of Moses. Disputed over it how? There’s no doubt that Moses was a sinner; indeed, his last known sin, the taking on himself glory that was God’s, was the same kind of sin—“ ‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High’ ” (Isa. 14:14, NKJV)—that got Lucifer himself thrown out of heaven in the first place. The dispute over Moses’ body must have been because Christ was now claiming for Moses the promised resurrection.
But how could Christ do that for a sinner, Moses, someone who had violated His law? The answer, of course, could only be the Cross. Just as all the animal sacrifices pointed ahead to Christ’s death, so obviously the Lord now, looking ahead to the cross, claimed the body of Moses to be resurrected. “In consequence of sin Moses had come under the power of Satan. In his own merits he was death’s lawful captive; but he was raised to immortal life, holding his title in the name of the Redeemer. Moses came forth from the tomb glorified, and ascended with his Deliverer to the City of God.”—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 479.
Wednesday, December 22
The Resurrection of Moses
Christ, with the angels that buried Moses, came down from heaven, after he had remained in the grave a short time, and resurrected him and took him to heaven.
As Christ and the angels approached the grave, Satan and his angels appeared at the grave and were guarding the body of Moses, lest it should be removed. As Christ and His angels drew nigh, Satan resisted their approach, but was compelled, by the glory and power of Christ and His angels, to fall back. Satan claimed the body of Moses, because of his one transgression; but Christ meekly referred him to His Father, saying, “The Lord rebuke thee.” Jude 1:9. Christ told Satan that He knew Moses had humbly repented of this one wrong, that no stain rested upon his character, and that his name in the heavenly book of records stood untarnished. Then Christ resurrected the body of Moses, which Satan had claimed.
—The Story of Redemption, pp. 173, 174.
God did not create evil, He only made the good, which was like Himself. But Satan would not be content to know the will of God and do it. His curiosity was on the stretch to know that which God had not designed he should know. Evil, sin, and death were not created by God; they are the result of disobedience, which originated in Satan. But the knowledge of evil now in the world was brought in through the cunning of Satan. These are very hard and expensive lessons; but men will learn them, and many will never be convinced that it is bliss to be ignorant of a certain kind of knowledge, which arises from unsatisfied desires and unholy aims.
The sons and daughters of Adam are fully as inquisitive and presumptuous as was Eve in seeking forbidden knowledge. They gain an experience, a knowledge, which God never designed they should have, and the result will be, as it was to our first parents, the loss of their Eden home. When will human beings learn that which is demonstrated so thoroughly before them?
—Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, p. 503.
The same merciful Saviour who appointed those temporal cities of refuge has by the shedding of His own blood provided for the transgressors of God’s law a sure retreat, into which they may flee for safety from the second death. No power can take out of His hands the souls that go to Him for pardon. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us;” that “we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.” Romans 8:1, 34; Hebrews 6:18.
—Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 516.
With the added light of the New Testament, the exclusion of Moses from the Promised Land doesn’t seem like much of a punishment, after all. Instead of an earthly Canaan and later an earthly Jerusalem (which for all its known history has been a place of war, conquest, and suffering), “the heavenly Jerusalem” (Heb. 12:22) is, even now, his home. A much better abode for sure!
Moses was the first known example in the Bible of the resurrection of the dead. Enoch was brought to heaven without having seen death (Gen. 5:24), and Elijah, too (2 Kings 2:11), but as far as the written record goes, Moses was the first one to have been resurrected to eternal life.
How long Moses slept in the ground we don’t know, but as far as he was concerned, it didn’t matter. He closed his eyes in death, and whether it was three hours or 300 years, for him it was the same. It also is the same for all the dead throughout history; their experience, at least as far as being dead goes, will be no different than Moses’. We close our eyes in death, and the next thing we know is either the second coming of Jesus or, unfortunately, the final judgment (see Rev. 20:7–15).
Without the hope of the resurrection, we have no hope at all. Christ’s resurrection is the guarantee of ours; having “purged our sins” (Heb. 1:3) on the cross as our sacrificial Lamb, Christ died and rose from the dead, and because of His resurrection we have the surety of ours, with Moses being the first example of a fallen human being raised from the dead. Because of what Christ would do, Moses had been raised; and because of what Christ has done, we, too, will be raised, as well. Thus, we can find in Moses an example of salvation by faith, a faith made manifest in a life of faithfulness and trust in God, even if he faltered at the end. And all through the book of Deuteronomy, we can see Moses seeking to call God’s people to a similar faithfulness, a similar response to the grace given to them as it has been given to us—we, too, who are on the borders of the Promised Land.
Thursday, December 23
The Resurrection of Us All
The apostle [Paul] carried the minds of the Corinthian brethren forward to the triumphs of the resurrection morn, when all the sleeping saints are to be raised, henceforth to live forever with their Lord. “Behold,” the apostle declared, “I show you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. ... Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? ...”
Glorious is the triumph awaiting the faithful. The apostle, realizing the possibilities before the Corinthian believers, sought to set before them that which uplifts from the selfish and the sensual, and glorifies life with the hope of immortality. Earnestly he exhorted them to be true to their high calling in Christ. “My beloved brethren,” he pleaded, “be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”
—The Acts of the Apostles, pp. 320, 321.
To the believer, death is but a small matter. Christ speaks of it
as if it were of little moment. “If a man keep My saying, he shall
never see death,” “he shall never taste of death.” To the
Christian, death is but a sleep, a moment of silence and darkness.
The life is hid with Christ in God, and “when Christ, who is our
life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.”
John 8:51, 52; Colossians 3:4.
The voice that cried from the cross, “It is finished,” was heard among the dead. It pierced the walls of sepulchers, and summoned the sleepers to arise. Thus will it be when the voice of Christ shall be heard from heaven. That voice will penetrate the graves and unbar the tombs, and the dead in Christ shall arise. At the Saviour’s resurrection a few graves were opened, but at His second coming all the precious dead shall hear His voice, and shall come forth to glorious, immortal life. The same power that raised Christ from the dead will raise His church, and glorify it with Him, above all principalities, above all powers, above every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in the world to come.
—The Desire of Ages, p. 787.
In the very day when the silver cord is loosed and the golden bowl broken (Ecclesiastes 12:6), man’s thoughts perish. They that go down to the grave are in silence. They know no more of anything that is done under the sun. Job 14:21. Blessed rest for the weary righteous! Time, be it long or short, is but a moment to them. They sleep; they are awakened by the trump of God to a glorious immortality.
—The Great Controversy, p. 549.
Further Thought: “When they angrily cried, ‘Must we fetch you water out of this rock?’ they put themselves in God’s place, as though the power lay with themselves, men possessing human frailties and passions. Wearied with the continual murmuring and rebellion of the people, Moses had lost sight of his Almighty Helper, and without the divine strength he had been left to mar his record by an exhibition of human weakness. The man who might have stood pure, firm, and unselfish to the close of his work had been overcome at last. God had been dishonored before the congregation of Israel, when He should have been magnified and exalted.”—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 418. “Upon the mount of transfiguration Moses was present with Elijah, who had been translated. They were sent as bearers of light and glory from the Father to His Son. And thus the prayer of Moses, uttered so many centuries before, was at last fulfilled. He stood upon the ‘goodly mountain,’ within the heritage of his people, bearing witness to Him in whom all the promises to Israel centered. Such is the last scene revealed to mortal vision in the history of that man so highly honored of Heaven.”—Page 479.
Discussion Questions:
Friday, December 24
For Further Reading
Reflecting Christ, “God’s Children to be Light Bearers,” p. 319;
In Heavenly Places, “Only One Redeemer,” p. 13.