And Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died; his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.
Moses dies at a hundred and twenty. The record pauses to note something unexpected: his sight and his strength had not failed at all. So why did a man in that condition die, and why does Scripture record it?
Nothing in Moses was wearing out. His death was an act of God at a moment God had fixed.
The age of Moses at his death was 120 years, yet his eyes were not dim nor his natural vigor diminished (v.7). He did not die of disease nor of old age, but God took his life at God's appointed time. What a life of faithful devotion to God, in the face of almost every kind of opposition! Yet he was a man with the same sinful tendencies as we have. He is a striking proof that God will give the grace and strength needed to carry out any responsibility He may put on any believer.
His body had not failed, yet he was still shut out of the land. The man who gave Israel the law came under that law himself.
The great plea for God is finished. The life-work of Moses is over. Nothing is left but for him to bear witness, in his death, to the unbending justice of the law he had mediated and spoken for. He must come under its severity himself. By being shut out of the promised land he shows that "by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight."
Moses had told Israel he could no longer go out and come in. That sounds like a failing old man. How does it fit with this verse?
There he stood, a hundred and twenty years old, a witness to the grace of his God. His eye was still the eye of youth, for it knew no dimness. And his frame was not bowed down by old age; there was no sign of feebleness about him (34:7). The words "I am no longer able to go out and come in" are not in conflict with the statement about his physical condition. He knew that he had to die because the Lord had told him so.
Moses is the author of Psalm 90, the psalm that measures a human life at seventy years, eighty at the outside. He outlived that limit by forty years.
Moses wrote Psalm 90. It tells us: "The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away" (v. 10). But God made Moses himself a striking exception!
Undimmed eyes are more than good health. One writer contrasts Moses with Eli.
Think of the closing days of Eli, by way of contrast. There was no open vision then, and of Eli himself we read that his eyes were dim. The sad end of his life is one of departed glory. Turning back to Moses, we suggest there is a link between Deuteronomy 34:7 and Hebrews 11:27. In both verses we have what is equivalent to vision and vitality! In the pathway of faith these two features are complementary. It was the "seeing him who is invisible" which made Moses endure. He had seen the glory of Egypt and tasted its pleasures. But faith's vision laid hold of Him who is outside all sight and sense, and so Moses refused, chose, valued and endured!
The people who had followed him for forty years never watched him fade.
Never before nor since had a man died as Moses died. He was a hundred and twenty years old, but his eye was not dimmed nor his natural force reduced. When the time came for him to go, God would not let the people see any decline of strength in him. He had led them with such patience and faithfulness.
Another writer traces the whole shape of that life to its close.
He died, not as a withered and feeble old man, but in all the freshness and vigour of matured manhood… The life of Moses fell into three important, clearly marked periods of forty years each. He spent forty years in the house of Pharaoh; forty years at the back of the desert; and forty years in the wilderness… Trace him from the river's edge, where he lay a helpless baby, to the top of Pisgah. There he stood with his Lord and gazed with undimmed sight on the fair inheritance of the Israel of God.
- Strength given. God gave Moses the strength his task needed. He does the same for any responsibility He gives a believer.
- Strength kept. No disease, no decay, no fading in front of the people — God protected His servant's testimony to the last day.
- Strength no shield. Vigour did not buy him entrance to the land; the lawgiver came under the law's own justice and stayed outside.
- Sight behind the strength. Moses endured by seeing Him who is invisible. In faith's path, vision and vitality go together.
- Strength that outlives the psalm. Moses wrote that a life runs seventy years; God made him the exception, then took him at the hour He had named.
And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days; and the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.
Moses is dead, and a whole nation stands weeping on the far side of the Jordan, in sight of a land their leader never entered. Two questions arise: why a full month of grief, and why did that grief have to stop?
Israel had no body to bury, yet they stopped for a month. One commentator notes that the pause was not wasted time. God was preparing the people before He sent them to fight.
Though they could not attend his funeral, the children of Israel mourned for Moses in the plains of Moab for thirty days (v.8). Nothing suggests that Israel thought Moses might just be lost on the mountain. They sent out no search party, as the sons of the prophets did when God took Elijah up (2 Kings 2:15-18). Israel did not rush ahead to press into the land. God would have them in a state of calm submission to Him and to His working before He called them to attack their enemies.
The people mourned in the open, not at a tomb, because God Himself had buried Moses. One writer points to the danger God was avoiding.
But Israel could have no burial service for him. Instead, God buried Moses Himself, with no one watching — an honour given to no one else. Not even Satan knew his burying place. Jude 9 tells us that Michael the archangel and the devil disputed over the body of Moses, and Michael settled it with wise words: "The Lord rebuke you." If Satan had known where Moses' body lay, how likely it is he would have moved people to build a shrine of idolatrous worship there. But Moses, faithful man of God as he was, must not be worshiped.
Was all this weeping a failure of faith? Writing about Abraham's grief at Sarah's death, one commentator draws a line between sorrow and hopelessness.
Faith does not set aside natural affection. So we read, "Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her" (v. 2). Faith knows well that our loved ones who die in the Lord will rise again, and that for them death is gain. Even so, we are right to mourn and feel their loss. Our sure hope of resurrection tells us, as the apostle reminds us, that our sorrow is not the sorrow of those who have no hope. But there is no word to say we are not to sorrow. No one could know the power of resurrection like the One who is Himself the resurrection and the life. Yet He wept at the grave of Lazarus.
Moses died outside the land because of his own fault. One writer argues that this discipline took nothing from God's love for him — and spared him sights that would have grieved him.
God could not overlook the fault of Moses without weakening the authority of law. There was real righteousness in the ways of God. But this did not in the smallest degree hinder the perfectness of His love to Moses. It was part of His government to chasten his fault: His grace to Moses remained entire. Suppose Moses had entered the land — which God's ways did not allow. What grief it would have been for him to see the unfaithfulness of His people! They slighted His law. They only half conquered the enemy. They were ready to turn back to sin and idolatry even in that land.
The man they mourned was never the one appointed to bring them into the land.
Look at this beloved and honoured man in his official role. It is very plain that it was not his job to lead Israel into the promised land. The wilderness was his sphere of action. He was not the one to lead the people across the river of death into their destined inheritance. His ministry had to do with man's responsibility under law and the government of God. So it never could lead the people into the enjoyment of the promise.
God had already prepared the next leader. So the weeping could end without the work stopping.
However, God had prepared Joshua as a successor to Moses, He gave him a spirit of wisdom for the service he was now to take up... Whatever service needs to be done, only the person God prepares for it will be able to do it.
- Ended, not endless. The weeping was long — a full month — but they were days, and days end. God gave grief room, then gave it a limit.
- Ended by God's care. They had no grave to weep over. God buried Moses Himself, so a loved leader could never become an object of worship.
- Ended without hurry. The pause was not delay. God wanted Israel in calm submission to Him before He sent them against their enemies.
- Ended with love intact. God kept Moses out of the land, chastening his fault, yet God's grace toward him remained entire.
- Ended so the march could start. The wilderness was Moses' sphere. The inheritance was Joshua's. Only the person God prepares for a service can do it.