Deuteronomy 34:1-12

The departure of Moses gave Israel the challenge to focus on the Word of God

Today I will be preaching at the Mandarin Service from the passage of Deuteronomy 34:1-12. It speaks about the departure of Moses and what it meant for us. Here is my reflection of this passage.

In Deuteronomy 34:1-12, we see that God took Moses up the hill to see the Promised Land and said to him, “You are not to go into this land” To Moses, it would have been devastating as he really hoped to cross the river and go in. However, because of his disobedience, he was prevented from entering the Promised Land. Yet, if we look closer into Israel, every other Israelite were ‘worse’, more sinful than him, more disobedient than he was. Yet they could cross the river to go into the Promised land. We may start to feel that this is probably not justified.

But after reading this passage, I realize that Moses’ job had been completed. He led the Israelites out of Egypt, into the wilderness and to the River Jordan. He brought them the Ten Commandments, and taught them everything that they needed to know. Israel had been relying on Him for everything, including learning the Word, as well as his leadership. I started to realize that if he continued to lead the Israelites, they would continue to rely on Him and not the Word of God. Only with the departure of Moses, did they have the opportunity to truly learn to rely on the Word of God than the leadership of the people.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, as we continue to live our life as a Christian, are we following the authority of the leadership or are we following the authority of the Word? Of course, if the church leadership is good and strong, it is a blessing to the congregation and the local church. But if we look at the Old Testament, from the time of Joshua, to Judges, to Kings, we see that each leader gets worse and worse because they chose to follow a leader and not to focus on the Word of God. So it is a possibility that the leadership loses their way.

The departure of Moses gave Israel the challenge to focus on the Word of God, all the instructions that God had given them through Moses, and to stand firm in their faith on their own. It would be the same for us. Dear Brothers and Sisters, we do need to learn to stand firm in the faith on our own, to fix our eyes on the Word of God and to Follow the Word of God. May the LORD have mercy on us.