Deuteronomy 34:1-12 shows Moses beholding the Promised Land and handing leadership to Joshua. It is a tender farewell and a faithful finish. Moses climbs Nebo. God shows him the whole land from Gilead to the Negeb. He dies in Moab, and God buries him. Israel mourns for thirty days. His eye is undimmed at one hundred twenty years. Joshua receives the spirit of wisdom through the laying on of hands. No prophet like Moses has arisen, who knew the Lord face to face and worked mighty signs. This reading teaches how to finish well and how to begin again. Let God lead. Serve the mission rather than your name. Bless your successor. Keep your eyes on the promise even if you do not enter it. Receive losses with worship. Remember that the work belongs to God. Encourage someone who must step up. Carry the Presence through prayer in daily tasks. Ask for wisdom to guide and humility to yield. May the Lord who kept His word to Moses keep us faithful until our journey’s end.
00:00A reading from the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter 34, verses 1 to 12.
00:06Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, the headland of Pisgah, which faces Jericho.
00:13And the Lord showed him all the land, Gilead, and as far as Dan, all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh,
00:22all the land of Judah, as far as the western sea, the Negev, the circuit of the Jordan with the lowlands at Jericho, city of Palms, and as far as Zoar.
00:35The Lord then said to him, This is the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that I would give to their descendants.
00:43I have let you feast your eyes upon it, but you shall not cross over.
00:47So there, in the land of Moab, Moses, the servant of the Lord, died as the Lord had said,
00:54and he was buried in the ravine opposite Bethpeor in the land of Moab, but to this day no one knows the place of his burial.
01:03Moses was 120 years old when he died, yet his eyes were undimmed and his vigor unabated.
01:10For thirty days the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab, till they had completed the period of grief and mourning for Moses.
01:21Now Joshua, son of Nun, was filled with the spirit of wisdom, since Moses had laid his hands upon him,
01:28and so the children of Israel gave him their obedience, thus carrying out the Lord's command to Moses.
01:34Since then no prophet has arisen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.
01:42He had no equal in all the signs and wonders the Lord sent him to perform in the land of Egypt against Pharaoh,
01:49and all his servants, and against all his land, and for the might and the terrifying power that Moses exhibited in the sight of all Israel.
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