And I'm the preaching pastor here and glad that you're with us this morning. So if you have a Bible with you, if you open up to the book of Deuteronomy, the architecture study is going to come from Deuteronomy 34. And if you're not sure what Deuteronomy is, it's the fifth book of the Bible. And if you're using one of the Pew Bibles, it's on page 102.
So I'm going to read the entire chapter, which is verses 1 through 12, Deuteronomy 34, verses 1 through 12.
And as you open your Bible, if you're visiting, please do keep them open. And so we do a style preaching called expository preaching. And so I'm going to do is read the passage, and then as you go through the sermon, it's just going to me do my best to kind of teach us what this passage says, kind of verse by verse. So please hear the words of our God starting in verse one. So what the Spirit wrote then.
Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of the Pisa, which is opposite Jericho. And Lord showed him all the land, Gilead, as far as Dan of Naphtali, then Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah, as far as the Western sea Nigob, the plain that is the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, as far as Zor. And the Lord said to him, this is the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, I will give it to your offspring. I let you see it with your eyes, but you should not go there. 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 the valley in the land of Moab, opposite of Beth Peor. But no one knows the place of his burial to this day. Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eyes was undimmed and his vigor unabated. The people of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab 30 days.
Then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended. Joshua, the son of Nun, was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. So people of Israel obeyed him and did as the Lord had commanded. Moses. There's not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, none like him.
For all the signs and wonders that the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land for all the mighty power and great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel. So that's God's word for us this morning. Please pray with me.
Lord, please bless the preaching of your word. Please help me to be a good communicator of this passage. Help me have the right words to say. Help me to speak with clarity. Please be with the congregation.
Please help them to have good listening ears to hear what you are saying to us. Through your word, through the power of your holy Spirit, Jesus name, we pray. Amen. Okay, so this morning as we gather together as church, we do so by taking actually a little bit of a break from our study of the Gospel of Luke. And we're going to start a new series that will actually take us into the beginning of July before we jump back into Luke.
And this morning, as we start this new series, we're actually going to start at the end, because the series that we're about to start up is one by which we'll be looking at the beginning of, of the story of the Old Testament hero Moses, where in the weeks to come, I'll be looking at the book of Exodus, looking at Moses life, particularly the beginning of his life from his birth all the way up to kind of like the launching of his more public ministry and leadership, which famously involved Moses boldly approaching the Pharaoh of Egypt, demanding that Pharaoh release God's people who were in bondage, in slavery with the Egypt, which you may remember as Moses boldly approached Pharaoh, demanding that he would let God's people go. The Lord then hardened Pharaoh's heart where Pharaoh refused to let God's people go. And as Pharaoh continued to refuse, the Lord continued to have his hard heart. The Lord then performed a series of plagues through Moses, which are plagues that seem to actually confronting like false gods of Israel, where God proved that he alone is God. And as the Lord performed these series of plagues through Moses, it culminated in a final plague that involved the Lord sending his death angel who came to Egypt to kill all the firstborn of the land.
That is, unless blood of a lamb was spread around the door of one's home. As the death angel came, as he saw the blood of the lamb, he would pass over, sparing that home from judgment. As you remember, after this final plague, Pharaoh finally let God's people go and sent them on an exodus to a promised land, which would be an exodus that would last 40 years because of the hardness of heart of God's people. Have you read through the story of Moses or at least watched one of my all time favorite movies, the classic ten Commandments. You know how the Lord used Moses to just do incredible things, things we're actually going to see in our study, things over the 40 years on the wilderness.
Whereas Moses on the receiving end of like some unique privileges unique to like anyone else that was able to ever experience. I remember how he like split the Red Sea manna and quail from heaven came to eat. There's a pillar of cloud to follow by day and a pillar of fire by night. Moses, the one who received the ten commandments on Mount Sinai. It's actually Moses able to see the afterglow of God's glory as Moses head and his in the cleft of a rock.
It was Moses who helped build the tabernacle. Among so many other incredible things that Moses was a part of where God used Moses to be the leader of his people. So really the public ministry, the leadership of Moses, it was incredible. This is why he's such a hero to us from the Old Testament. And today as we start at the end, we start on a passage centered on Moses last moments passage that centers actually on his death.
And the reason why I want to start with the end in mind is just to hopefully help us to pay attention to all the things that we're going to be working through in the weeks to come as we look at the start of Moses life. So by starting at the end today, we'll hopefully have a little bit of like 2020 hindsight to help us better see, better appreciate, better pay attention to all the work that you God was doing in Moses's early life to prepare him for all the incredible things that I just mentioned that filled his life as a leader of God's people. So as mentioned today, we're starting at the end of his life. Before we go back to the beginning, before we work through our text to study today, let me just give you some real brief overview of the book of Deuteronomy, which is where our text is from. And I want to give this to you just maybe to like kind of like spur your interest a little bit to read through this book if you have not read through it in the past.
So this book is the fifth of the final books of Moses, which these five books often refer to as either like the Torah in Hebrew or the Pentateuch in Greek. So first, let me just mention that this name, Deuteronomy, basically means second law. And the reason why throughout church history this book has been called Deuteronomy or second law, is because of how this book emphasizes, or maybe better said, re emphasizes the law of God that was given to his people, Israel, which the law was first given to Israel through Moses at Mount Sinai, which is in the book of Exodus, and now given again to Israel through Moses in this book of Deuteronomy. But this time this law was given to a next generation of God's people where Moses was reaffirming God's good law to this present generation. The second thing I want to point out, so this book of Deuteronomy is basically a series of sermons from Moses to this new or next generation, where Moses is now pleading with this new generation like he did the prior generation, pleading the same basic message to follow and obey God, to be holy before God and others, which is something the previous generation failed to do.
If you read through the book of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, the previous generation sinned and continued to to sin against the Lord as they complained and grumbled about God's rule over their life, as well as Moses leadership over them. And this continued sin of God's people, kind of mentioned in passing, resulted in them wandering in the wilderness for 40 years as God would not allow that generation into his promised land. A promised land that's going to be central in our passage today. Which actually leads to the third thing. As Moses gave this series of sermons, he did so with the understanding that this present generation was about to leave the wandering in the wilderness and entered into the promised land, where the promised land, this desire that God had for his people is actually the same as they entered in that we were to be holy, set apart for him, holy before him, holy before all peoples, including the various pagan peoples that filled the promised land.
A large part of the sermons of Moses in this book was to encourage God's people towards this end. It was perhaps like the capstone phrase of the entire sermon in this book, really capstone of the entire Pentateuch, which captures what the holy life looks like. Moses preached this famous phrase, sometimes referred to as a Shema, says, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your might. Fourth, let's work through this passage.
Today, as God's people are about to enter into the promised land, we're gonna see that Moses was not going to be going with them, even though he was their leader, leader for the past 40 years, even though he was the one used by the Lord in Incredible, unique ways throughout their time. As you may remember, the reason Moses was not going to be going into the promised land with them was actually because of his own own sin. This is in Numbers 20. So God commanded Moses to speak to a rock by which God would bring forth water. However, because Moses was, like, angry, like he's mad at God, mad at God's people, he actually struck the rock twice.
So don't speak it, speak to it, but struck it twice. And not only is this like an act of disobedience towards God, but in that moment, it's actually a very public rejection of God. Where in the New Testament we see just how severe of an act this was of Moses, we see in the New Testament that the rock was Christ. Moses would find forgiveness of that sin, which ultimately was purchased years later through the Christ, the one who died for sin. Yet in this life, even though we can be forgiven of sin, there still can be consequences of sin.
And for Moses, it meant he would not be entered into the promised land, which is mentioned in our text today. Let me give you just one more thing. So, as mentioned, Moses is the author of the Pentateuch, including Deuteronomy. But there's questions about our text today in terms of who wrote it, because as we see in our text today, it speaks about Moses death. It's almost like an obituary passage.
Now, church history, there's been a number of thoughts on who wrote this obituary. So many have actually believed Moses himself wrote this before his death, which is certainly possible. So I kind of mentioned this last week at the end of the sermon. So my grandma just passed away, but before she did, she actually planned out a good number of things on her funeral, and she wrote a good number of things for us, including, actually, she wrote me a card for officiating her funeral. Something actually she wrote before she passed that I got the day of the funeral.
So it's possible that maybe Moses likewise wrote out this passage before he died. Maybe on a little side note, that'd actually be something good for us all to do, I think, is maybe write the obituary of our life that we would love to have be true of us. Others believe that perhaps it wasn't Moses who wrote it, but it was the high priest at the time, actually, Moses nephew, man named Eleazar. Certainly possible he wrote the end of Deuteronomy. Others believe that this was actually written perhaps like sometime later, maybe even generations later, as a story of Moses being, like, passed down from generation to generation, where someone eventually added that oral story that was being passed down to the end of this book.
Possible? I don't think it's as likely. And then fourth, which I do think is likely, is Joshua, the one who is being trained by Moses, discipled by Moses, would take over from Moses as God entered, or God's people entered the promised land, that he wrote it. You know, there's good discussion throughout church history on who wrote the passage, but Joshua to me, is the one I think most likely. And that's actually the one who most throughout history have kind of helped to passage about Moses's end of his life, which is the most passage I mentioned earlier.
Hope serves as a helpful reminder for us in our summer series on the start of Moses life. So as we look through the passage today, we'll go through the series with hindsight by looking at the end of his life to help us pay attention to see God's work in the beginning of his life. Okay, so that's a little bit longer introduction. If you want to look back with me in the text during verse one, we're going to kind of walk through verse by verse. So see in verse one that after Moses gave his final blessing to his people, which he did in his final sermon, which you can read about in chapter 33, we see then Moses went up the plains of Moab and made a climb up the mountain Nebo to the very top of the Mizvah, the high point.
And as Moses climbed the mountain, this is a mountain that stood opposite of Jericho, one that's located near the Dead Sea, opposite side of the Jordan river, which are Jericho Sat, which would be the very river that God's people would soon be crossing to enter into the promised land. And in the text, as Moses went up to Mount Nebo to this high point, we see he did there because from that site he would get a great view where he would be able to see for like miles and miles into the distance. As from there, the Lord would show Moses all the land that he's about to give to his people as their promised land, which in the text was the land of Gilead, as far as Dan, all of Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah, as far as the Western Sea, verse three, the land that also included the Nigba and the plain that is the valley of Jericho, the City of Palms. And this promised land would go as far as Zor. Now, let me hit pause here for a few things.
So first, this promised land that God is about to give his people would actually be far More than Moses could physically see on that day from the mountain. Even though in our text we're about to see, even though in his advanced age, he still had sharp eyes. So as Moses looked down the mountain, you could see a lot, but you wouldn't see everything. So you'd actually need to like look by faith as well, not simply by sight. That being said, even what Moses could see on that day with his sharp eyes and his physical eyes from the mountain, even that would have been impressive.
To think that God in his grace and kindness would give all that to his people. Even though, as mentioned, as Moses knew time and time again, God's people sinned against him in the wilderness, breaking covenant from God. God's people were faithless here, as they're about to enter into the promised land, God proved himself to be faithful to them, faithful to his promises, which is always our hope that God will be faithful to us, faithful to the promises he has given. So on that day on the mountain, as Moses looked out, he could see all the land. What he was seeing was grace upon grace from the Lord.
Second, this land that God is about to give his people, that Moses in part can see from the mountain, was a land filled with, as mentioned earlier, various like pagan people who worship false gods were idol worshipers. Remember years back, at the very beginning of Exodus, God let his people know that this is the land he's about to give them. And so God's people sent spies in the land to see what kind of land this is like and who also might be living in the land. So you may remember as the spies came back to the people with the report, they shared that this land was a bountiful land flowing with milk and honey. But this land also was filled with pagan nations, powerful pagan nations, including a giant people who lived in the land.
In Exodus. You may remember as God's people heard this report, it put them onto like full on panic mode. When they're panicked, they start to question, start to doubt God, they start to murmur and complain about God. Or in short, like they refuse to trust him, trust in his plan, trust in his goodness. Since they refused to go into his promised land.
Result of them not only wandering the wilderness for years and years to come, as mentioned start, those people refused to trust in God and his plan, his promises. That's part of the previous generation before Deuteronomy, because of the hardness of their heart, they were forbidden by God to enter the land that is outside of Joshua and Caleb were the two spies who tried to encourage people to trust God and enter the land. So back to our text. As Moses looked out on the land, he was able to see those nations still there. The nations that put the previous generation into a panic, into sinful questioning, complaining.
They're still there. Which by the way, the book of Joshua, if you ever read that, basically is a history of what happens as God's people entered into the land to face off against these various pagan nations who filled it back to our text. Keep going. Verse 4. As Moses looked upon the promised land, the Lord reminded him that this promised land is one that God made 400 years earlier that he's going to give to his people as part of the promise that he made to his Abraham, who was the father of the people of God.
We're in this promise of God to Abraham. Our text tells us this promise is like passed down to Abraham's son Isaac, his grandson Jacob, as God promised that he would give the promised land to their offspring. A few things just on this. So first, as Abraham received this promise, this surely felt too good to be true. Now you may remember this promise of God that came to Abraham.
This is part of like his patient plan. Remember how both Abraham and Sarah were advanced in age when this promise was given. And Sarah actually was barren her entire life. So surely this felt too good to be true, that a great nation would come from them. I'm sure they felt this basically impossible for this to be true because of their age and the barrenness.
However, what is impossible with man is possible with God, as indeed a great family came from Abraham and Sarah, a great offspring which the beginning of Exodus actually reminds us of, which we'll talk about next week in the birth of Moses. Second, as Moses received this promise, as mentioned, this is one that's tied to God's patience here. I'm not just referring to the patience that he had with Abraham and Sarah, who are advanced in age, but here I'm actually referring to the patience of 400 years of patience, 400 years before God fulfilled it. So we're going to circle back to this at the end. This will be part of our hindsight 2020 for our study that we're about to embark on.
God is very patient as he works in us, very patient as he works to complete his plan. He's very patient to fulfill his promises. It's important for us to see New Testament actually tells us the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some might count slowness, but he's patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should Reach repentance. Back to the text middle of verse four. That's reminding Moses of the promise that God made to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, their offspring.
God told Moses, moses, in my grace, as you look out, I'm here to let you see the promised land with your very own eyes. However, Moses, as you know, but you shall not go over there. That is not for you to move forward into because of your sin when you struck the rock. So know as I'm about to move my people into the promised land, just know your time as a leader of my people has drawn to an end with that verse five of the text. Moses, the servant of the Lord, the great leader of God's people, the very one who led them for decades, starting with leading them out of the bondage of slavery in Egypt.
The one who actually, for that current generation, he is the only leader they ever knew. The text, he died, verse six. And as he died in the text, for he, meaning the Lord himself, he would then take up the body of Moses and bury him in the land of Moab, opposite of Beth Pure. By the way, we don't have time to work this today, but Jude9 is a very interesting passage about this scene. If you're looking for a challenging text to try to study and think through this week that we want to go through.
So Jude 9. 4, Our text today, as the Lord himself buried Moses, we see that he did so in ways where he didn't tell anyone where the burial place would be. It was a mystery, seeming to prevent what others might try to do to Moses, what in time they were actually going to do. For Joseph, who is a name that maybe you remember from the book of Genesis, where after Joseph died, which actually hundreds of years before in Egypt, before God's people were put into slavery, when he died, Joseph's remains were kept. And in time, those remains are actually buried inside the promised land, which is Joshua 24.
But for Moses, because of his sin that we talked about earlier, even having his remains, even they would not be able to enter into the promised land. Because of that. The text tells us, to this day, bones of Moses, they remain in the same place, hidden from everyone and for us. I actually think this is part of the 2020 vision. Even Moses the great Moses died.
It should be sobering to us and remind us that one day even we will die. It's actually one of the great pieces of wisdom that Moses left us with. This is in Psalm 90. He says, if we're gonna have a heart of wisdom, we are to live life in such a way that we're actually like numbering our days, knowing that through reality, unless the Lord returns first, that we all are going to die, we all are gonna have an obituary. So we must pay attention to our life in ways that we're not wasting it, but we're using it to serve God, to serve others, which is Moses example for us.
So at the end of our life, when our obituary is written, hopefully it's one that represents a life lived by faith. So what we see in our text, starting in verse seven, if we take is there. This is really where the start of the obituary of Moses begins. Read this. Moses was 120 years old when he died.
By the way, just some quick math, even from rural Wisconsin, where I grew up, I can figure this one out. So if he died at 120, and the exodus of the wilderness lasted 40 years, so that means Moses was 80, 80 years old at the start of his, like, public ministry. 80. So from the start of his life to where we're going to end in Exodus 7, the middle of July, 80 years will go by, which further emphasizes just how patient God is. It took the Lord 80 years to get Moses ready for the work that he was about to do through him.
By the way, maybe a little side note on this. It's a good reminder that sure, we might retire from our vocations, but we never retire from doing the work of the ministry. Now, perhaps with age, our ministries might look different from when we were younger. But perhaps the best ministry, the most fruitful ministry of our lives, will actually be like, well into our lifespan. Text back to the obituary.
Even though Moses lived to 120, we're in those 120 years. He had so much hardship and difficulty, so many stressful experiences, he had to suffer because of God's people. You see that he died. As mentioned earlier, his eyes were still undimmed, his vigor unabated, still strong in the Lord, still strong in mind, in body. So for me, guessing for God's people, as they got the news that Moses died, they were probably shocked.
And in verse eight, as they were shocked, this news also was like crushing to them. Moses was the only leader that generation ever would have known. So the people of God, they're shocked. They're crushed by Moses death. So in the text we read that they wept, they mourned over him in the days or in the plains of Moab, with a weeping, with a mourning that lasted 30 days, 30 long days.
By the way, I also think there's maybe something we can learn on this end as well, they took real time to weep, to mourn. In the business of our society, when a loved one dies, there's almost like this urgency to try to move back as quickly as you can to normal life. So we don't take time to mourn, to grieve, to process death. Not that returning to normal life can't in some levels be helpful to us after a death of a loved one occurs. But friends, it's also helpful and right and important to weep, to mourn, to grieve, to take real time, to process, to take real time to work through the sadness, to trust God with the sadness that comes with death, rather than trying to like ignore or suppress the sense of loss.
In verse 8, after 30 days of weeping mourning, we see that the days of weeping and mourning came to an end. There's now time for God's people to move into the promised land, which they would do so under the leadership of newly appointed leader Joshua. The one in verse nine tells us Joshua was the son of Nun. He was a man like Moses, full of the spirit of wisdom. I think a large part of that reason why is Moses trained, discipled, prepared Moses for this day to follow his aim and conduct in life.
He was also a great model for us. This is actually something we see throughout the life of Moses. As great as a leader as he was, he would raise other up, he'd delegate responsibilities. So as he came to the end of his life, his ministry would continue to carry on through others. May we do the same for us?
However the Lord may be using you. Find someone, someones who you can train up so they can watch you, your aim, your conduct in life. Knowing that one day you're gonna be handing things off as well. Here text today is Moses raised up Joshua. He did so in ways that Joshua would be actually the one to lead God's people in this next most important thing they do.
Crossing the Jordan, crossing into the promised land. In the text, Moses prayerfully laid his hands on Joshua to affirm this responsibility that was being taken from Moses and given and entrusted to Joshua. And because of Moses, blessing on Joshua. Because of Joshua's or God's call and Joshua's life. We see in the text that the Israelites listened to him and did what the Lord had commanded.
Moses, take note here just on this as well, this call of God that's now in Joshua. This is also one that came through patience. We're like Moses for many, many years. God is preparing Joshua for this moment. There's a real lesson I think for us to see here of patience.
Finally, we're going to end our text today, which ends the obituary of Moses, which ends the book of Deuteronomy, which indeed ends the Torah starting in verse 10 in his obituary. Read this. Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. Just a great, great man of God, unique among others. Verse 11. Who did all those signs and wonders that I mentioned at the start.
The signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all the officials and to his whole land. For no one has ever shown the mighty power, performed awesome deeds that Moses did, and the sight of all Israel for us. That's where we're going to end our text today. With 2020 hindsight of Moses and his life, the great prophet used by the Lord to do great awesome deeds, by which the Lord would put his glory and his power on display for all the sea. As through Moses the Lord proved he is the one who makes and keeps his covenant with his people.
Let's close this time real quick. I just want to pass on just a few things. I do think it'd be good for us to pay attention to, not just concerning trying to think through this passage. Let's mention as we start this new sermon series. Let me just give you a couple things here to just pay attention to as we look at the passages in the weeks to come with 2020 vision.
So first to go through our sermon series, pay attention to the patience of God. That's actually one of the real big takeaways from life of Moses. Just how patient God was with him in the sermon. God is so patient to mold, to shape Moses. It was 80 years, 80 years before he entered into Egypt to be the deliverer.
We're in those patient 80 years. God was like chipping away at all the areas of Moses life that needed growth where he is patient with Moses. Even though Moses stumbled and FEAR in those 80 years, Moses actually had some significant sin issues that God had to deal with. Furthermore, he also mentioned in those 80 years of patience, a large portion of God's patient work in Moses life involved Moses like toiling in obscurity as a lowly shepherd. Yet even then, God is patiently at work to mold to shape Moses, not shepherd sheep with the shepherd, his people.
For us, as we go through the study again, we must pay attention, pay attention here to remember just how patient God is when he's at work, which hopefully helps us to see God's patient work even in our own lives. Even in the lives of those around us, particularly maybe others in the church where God is patient to prepare us for the different ministries that he has set before us. Second, as we go through this sermon series, pay attention to the plan of God, which is a sovereign plan, a plan that is in line with his patience, also in line with his promises.
A plan by which he will bring glory to Himself through the salvation of his people. That's really at the heart of the study that we studied up on the story of Moses. How through Moses, God was faithful to work out his great plan by which he would save his people from the bondage of slavery and save them all the way to a promised land, the very promised land in our text that the Lord promised to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their offspring. So church, pay attention to this. God is always at work to work out his plan, even if we might not see it, even when it feels like we're just kind of toiling in obscurity.
By the way, for generations of God's people who were in Egypt before Moses came, just think how hard it had to be for them to see God's hand at work as he had to wait generations for the deliverer to come for us. Every situation, always including the ones that has us down, discouraged, frustrated. Even the ones this last week that has down, discouraged, frustrated.
We must be patient. We must pay attention, we must trust that somehow God is at work to work out his good sovereign plan by which he will extend his great salvation, by which he is leading his people to the eternal promised land to come. He's doing it all for his glory. Don't miss that as you go through his study. Rather by faith.
Pay attention. Last one third. Pay attention to the prophet of God. Yes, where our text ends today, there never was a prophet before like Moses, even to that day. However, the book of Deuteronomy tells us in chapter 18 that Moses wrote about a different a better prophet who was to come after him.
One who actually had a lot of similarities to Moses. We learned our text next week, the birth of Moses. So Moses and his prophets to come were both born during a murderous reign. His babies were getting murdered by the powers that be. In addition, both Moses and this prophet who was to come, they both preached God's word, giving incredible sermons.
Both Moses and this prophets to come that Moses foretold also performed incredible signs in wonders, putting God's power on display. Both Moses and this prophet who was to come actually were both called out of Egypt. Both Moses and this prophet who was to come ushered in Covenants for God's people with God. Both Moses and this prophet to come brought about salvation for God's people through blood that was shed.
Both Moses and this prophet to come, this one we must pay attention to, were deliverers who set God's people free from bondage. For Moses, it was bondage from physical slavery. But this prophet who was to come would free from the bondage, the slavery of sin, where both Moses and this prophet who was to come would spend time in the wilderness. Moses for 40 years. This prophet was to come for 40 days, as both this Moses and this prophet who was to come, they both died on a mountain, Moses and Nebo.
But this prophet was a khan that we must pay attention to, would die on a mount called Calvary. For the friends wept for both these prophets.
For Moses, they wept for 30 days. But this prophet with the Kam, they would weep only for three days. Where after Moses and the prophet Dukkham died, they both were buried.
However, unlike Moses, this prophet who was to come, this one who was greater than even the great Moses, this one did not die because of his own sin, like Moses. Rather, this prophet was sinless and he died for the sins of his people.
And unlike Moses, this prophet is to come, this one that we must pay attention to, the one who is greater than even Moses, this one did not stay dead. Rather, on the third day, this prophet, he would rise again from the dead, where through his death and resurrection, this prophet, this one who is greater than even Moses, is now leading his people all the way to a better and truer promised land. One that he actually entered in beforehand to prepare it for his people of faith. So as they enter in, they may be with him forever. Which, by the way, this better promised land of this better prophet Moses actually did enter into this promised land.
This better, this truer prophet is to come. The one who's better than even the great Moses, the one that we must pay attention. He's actually the one who's able to lead us into this eternal promised land. Because this prophet who was to come is none other than eternal Son of God, the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us, who came for us to see his glory. Glory as the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
For sure, the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came from this one, the one who is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who in the end, even Moses himself wrote about. All throughout the Torah, the church has worked through a sermon series. Yes, we must see God's work in and through Moses. It would be good for us to pay attention to that work.
But in the end, it is Jesus that's the one we ultimately must see and must pay attention to with hope that the end of our life at the end of our life through 2020 hindsight, that the obituary of our life that is written will be a life well spent by paying attention to Jesus Christ where our life is spent walking with him, faithfully ministering, serving his people, the church, testifying about him to the world around us that we might share of his great salvation that he purchased for us with his own blood.
Church. As we start this new sermon series, may God give us the grace that we need to see and to pay attention for our good and his glory. Let's pray.
Lord, I do pray to by faith see the better, the truer prophet, the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, help us to center our hearts that we may always pay attention to him.
That our lives would be filled with faithful joyful obedience to him. The one who died rose again.
One who is leading his people to the eternal promised land that is to come.
Lord, thank you for your word. Lord, I pray that you would bless the preaching of your word as we dive into this new series through it that you would speak to us very real and powerful ways.
Lord, please help us to be patient knowing that you are patient.
Lord, please help us to trust your plan even when it does not make sense to us.
Pray this on Jesus name, Amen.