March 4 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Deuteronomy 34:1-12:

¹And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the LORD shewed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan,
²And all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the utmost sea,
³And the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar.
⁴And the LORD said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither.
⁵So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD.
⁶And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.
⁷And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.
⁸And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days: so the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.
⁹And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him: and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as the LORD commanded Moses.
¹⁰And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face,
¹¹In all the signs and the wonders, which the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land,
¹²And in all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror which Moses shewed in the sight of all Israel.

Devotional

Moses was not permitted to cross Jordan and enter into the land of promise. He had sinned against God before the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah of Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; he had not sanctified God at that time in the midst of the children of Israel (Deuteronomy 32:51). As a consequence, God withheld from him an achievement that would have brought his life to rich fruition.

But God still loved Moses. He did not forsake him but brought good to his soul through chastisement. He graciously permitted Moses before his death to ascend Mount Nebo and to behold the land that He had sworn to give to the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And in His goodness, God took Moses - when his eye was still not dim and his natural force not abated (Deuteronomy 34:7) - over the Jordan to a better paradise than Canaan, where there would be no struggle for conquest, no sorrows, no agonizing labors, no tears.

As with Moses, God will cause all things to work together for good to all His people, and He will bless them despite their sins and failures. Although there may be frustrations and chastisements for them, there will also be for them as for Moses a day of "sorrow vanquished, labor ended, Jordan passed."

Welcome to "Think on These Things," a twelve-week daily devotional prepared by the late Dr. John H. Skilton, an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and for many years Chairman of the New Testament Department at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia.

We are indebted to P & R Publishing and Skilton House Ministries for permission to use this copyrighted material on the OPC Web site. (P & R held the copyright from 1975 to 2005, at which time they reassigned the copyright to Skilton House.)