OVERVIEW:
The transition of leadership to Joshua; the word from the Lord; the song of Moses; Moses’ blessing upon the tribes; the death of Moses; the succession of Joshua.
HIGHLIGHTS & INSIGHTS:
As we move into Deuteronomy 31 today, one of the greatest men who ever lived is about to die. It’s hard to imagine everything that must have been going through Moses’ mind and heart at this moment. As he reflected on the past 40 years of his life…
1. He, no doubt, had thoughts about WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN.
Certainly, his mind went back to that fateful five seconds when out of frustration with God’s people, rather than simply speaking to the Rock, as God had instructed him to do, he struck it twice. That one impulsive fleshly decision and action is what prompted God’s decision to not allow him to be the human instrument He would use to bring His people into the abundant life He had designed for them in Canaan. From a practical standpoint, let us once again allow the word of God to etch into our minds and hearts that though our God is full of grace, mercy, compassion, and forgiveness (Psalm 86:5,15), it does not negate the fact that our sin always has consequences. (Galatians 6:7) Let this tragedy in Moses’ life also etch into our minds and hearts the necessity of always being filled with, controlled by, and walking in the Spirit, not only on a daily basis, and not only on an hourly basis, but a moment by moment basis, even a second by second basis! Moses’ failure teaches us that the entire course and direction of our life can be altered by one momentary impulsive action or reaction of our flesh. God help us!
One day we will all stand at the Judgment Seat of Christ. We will walk back through every day of our lives from the moment we were saved until the moment we entered the Lord’s presence, whether it be by death or by rapture. We will see our lives then, the way our Lord Jesus Christ sees them now. Oh, when the Lord allows us to reflect upon our lives, much like Moses had the opportunity to do in today’s reading, may our minds and hearts, in that day, not be consumed with thoughts about WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN! Let us walk each day of our lives in simple obedience, in the filling and power of the Holy Spirit, having no regrets at our final accounting at the Judgment Seat!
But not only must Moses have been reflecting on this day about WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN…
2. He, no doubt, had thoughts about WHAT ACTUALLY WAS.
Though Moses, no doubt, spent countless sleepless nights rehearsing the whole “striking-the-rock-twice incident”, wondering why God seemed to have such a knee-jerk reaction to his knee-jerk reaction, and wondering whether the punishment actually fit the crime, there is certainly none of that now. All of that was water under the bridge at this point.
God’s “Plan A” for Moses, was obviously, for him to FINISH WELL. Finishing well in “Plan A” meant obeying God and being the one to lead God’s people into Canaan, the land of promise. Because of Moses’ failure in Numbers 20:7–13, however, God made clear to him that “Plan A” was an impossibility. It just wasn’t going to happen.
But, in His grace, God also had a “Plan B” for Moses! “Plan B,” was, first and foremost, for Moses to “forget those things which were behind, and press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God!” (Philippians 3:13–14) In other words, to not sit around feeling sorry for himself, pouting about the failures of his past, but to begin from where he was, and seek to obey God in the course God had for him in “Plan B”!
While reading this today, and because of some kind of failure in your past, you very simply may have missed God’s “Plan A” for your life. Okay, so what do you do now? Well, you can do what a lot of people do, and choose to wallow around in self-pity for the rest of your life, rehearsing it all over and over in your mind, wishing you would have done something different, or had made better decisions, forgetting the fact that all of that rehearsing of it won’t do a single thing to change what now is! All it does is bind you to the PAST, causing you to miss the incredible opportunities that are sitting right in front of you in the PRESENT, and insure that you will never tap into the glorious things God has designed for you in the FUTURE! Oh, my brother or sister, learn from the life example of Moses, that God most definitely has a “Plan B” for your life, and there is most definitely a way for you to FINISH WELL in God’s “Plan B”!
In Deuteronomy 31, Moses sees the big-picture. He knows that for him to finish well, the children of Israel did not need to get all sentimental and preoccupied with sad emotions concerning his DEATH. I mean, they were on the very brink of entering into the very LIFE God had intended for them when He brought them out of Egypt! (Deuteronomy 6:23) This was to be a time for forward thinking, jubilation, expectation, and faith! Moses could have very easily played on the people’s sympathies and made this whole ordeal of his death the people’s focus, and fail in his responsibility to orchestrate the beautiful transfer of leadership to Joshua by making it all about him. But Moses is too much of a man of God and too much of a man of character for that! Moses realizes that for him to finish well in his “Plan B”, how he prepares the people for entering the land, and how he coordinates the whole transition to Joshua is vital. It is apparent by Moses’ attitude and demeanor that he is going to finish well. Moses’ attitude toward Joshua at this moment is much like John the Baptist’s attitude toward Jesus in John 3:30: “He must INCREASE, but I must DECREASE.” Though God had already made the people aware that Joshua would succeed Moses as Israel’s leader, Moses wanted to make sure that his final action on this planet caused this transfer of leadership to be handled with such grace and dignity that it would please the Lord, and at the same time, generate excitement and expectation in the hearts of God’s people about their future with God in the land that He purposed to give them, under the leadership of Joshua.
Though today’s chapters record Moses’ PHYSICAL DEATH, let us not miss that they also record an even more significant death: his DEATH TO SELF. Oh, that more leaders would learn from Moses’ example, and use their platform of leadership to advance the work of God, and aggrandize the glory of God! By God’s grace, just as Moses did, let us get the focus off ourselves and completely on the Lord Himself, and become passionate about Him receiving from our lives “the glory that is due His name”! (Psalm 29:2; 96:8) Let us make certain, whether we’re living in God’s “Plan A” or “Plan B”, that in every remaining moment and detail of our lives, our passion is for the work of God, and the glory of God!
But not only were Moses’ thoughts at the time of Deuteronomy 31 on WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN, and WHAT ACTUALLY WAS…
3. He, no doubt, had thoughts about WHAT WOULD BE.
Of all people, Moses had a clear understanding of the purposes of God in the exodus. He realized that God was desiring, not first and foremost to RESCUE the children of Israel from their bondage in Egypt, but to RESCUE His own name! Moses understood that everything that had taken place in the preceding 40 years was really all about God’s name being rescued from how it was being polluted on the earth. A key chapter that provides incredible commentary of God’s purpose and intention, from the time of the exodus to their entrance into the land, is found in Ezekiel 20. Several times in this chapter, God makes abundantly clear that the issue was HIM, not THEM (the children of Israel)! Sure, the children of Israel were most definitely the beneficiaries of the wonderful and powerful demonstration of God’s deliverance, but the scripture is clear, God did what He did for His own name not theirs! He says in Ezekiel 20:9, “But I wrought (worked) FOR MY NAME’S SAKE, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, among whom they were, in whose sight I made myself known unto them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt.” (God repeats this same intention in 20:14 and 20:22)
In Deuteronomy 31, even as Moses is hours away from drawing his last breath on this planet, he has no thought whatsoever about his own name. His preoccupation is for the name of the One by whom he was called, and the only name that is worthy of glory!
Let us always remember, that though we are most definitely the beneficiaries of the work of God through Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, God did what He did in delivering us out of the bondage of our sin to rescue His own name from how it was being polluted all over this sinful world! Therefore, like Moses, let our lives reflect that we, too, give no thought whatsoever to our own name but to the name of the One by whom WE were called, and the only name on earth that is worthy of glory!
Note that God summons both Moses and Joshua into His holy presence in the tabernacle before Moses’ death to inform them that despite His incredible grace upon the children of Israel in all that He had done, they would rebel after getting into the land. My, oh my, what a travesty. Let us learn from their horrific mistakes!
God gives Moses “inspiration” in writing a song that would be used for years to come in reminding Israel of their sin. The book ends with Moses lovingly seeking to speak blessing on the tribes of Israel that were about to enter the land that was promised.
CHRIST IS REVEALED:
In JOSHUA – Deuteronomy 31:7 (John 1:17; Romans 3:21–22; Acts 13:39) In THE ROCK – Deuteronomy 32:4, 31 (Romans 9:33; 1st Corinthians 10:4; 1st Peter 2:8)