The Man God Buried

“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)

                Moses turned out to be an amazing man of God, but he was originally groomed for something much different.  I’m sure you remember that Moses’s mother instructed his sister (Miriam) to place her little brother in the Nile River in a small ark she had prepared for him.  By God’s providence, Moses was discovered by Pharaoh’s daughter and consequently raised in a house of Egyptian royalty.  There, Moses doubtless enjoyed every pleasure of life for a good number of years.

                As a young Egyptian noble, Moses saw one of his fellow Jews being beaten by an Egyptian taskmaster.  Anger overtook him and he killed his fellow Egyptian.  Knowing he couldn’t stay in Egypt, Moses fled to the back of the desert where he was a keeper of sheep.  While minding his own business among the flock, Moses saw a bush that was on fire but not being consumed.  After he drew a little closer, He heard the Angel of the Lord calling him to his life’s assignment – leading the Jews out of captivity and into the Promised Land.

                Through Moses’s leadership, the children of Israel were liberated from their captivity only to be enslaved by fear.  Their fear cost them a shot at the Promised Land, and Moses himself made a critical mistake by failing to believe God and hallowing His name among the people.  For that reason, Moses was not permitted to enter the Promised Land – only to see it from Mt. Nebo.  There God took Moses’s soul to heaven and buried His body in the ground.  Thus, he will always be remembered as the only man buried by God Himself – a high honor for a holy man.