We move from God being gracious to the death of Moses. This follows a long blessing, to close his work.

First, I recommend Dennis Olson. Deuteronomy and the Death of Moses.

Second, Look at Kugel's the Bible As It Was. It walks one through developments about the death of Moses from M oses fighting death with tears, to b fight between an angel and an associate of satan that shows up in Jude 9, to the idea that Moses was assumed into heaven based on slight issues about "he was buried."

This is a eulogy. He did not fade away. Here God calls a close to a life. By all measures here, Moses was healthy. Natural force could have a sense of virility, but it more likely has a sense of being fresh and alive, even youthful. (This goes against his complaint in 31:2 of having a hard time getting around. His power and his prophetic stature are highlighted, with his intimacy with God. Still, god worked through Moses, as God works through all of us.

The grief is as for anyone, but then it does come to an end, and the new stage for the people begins. For spiritual development, one could go very far with envisioning our futures, alone and together. Where do we stand on the cusp of the promise, and when do we actively work toward it? In what way is heaven, a spiritual version fo the land of promise?

Most of us find it heart-breaking that Moses can come to the edge of the Promised Land and be given no more than a panoramic view. In a way, Moses dies as he lived. He would not permit himself to become the symbol of the nation. God, not he, was the leader for Israel. No grave would become a shrine. Olson (p.167) notes that cult for the dead is forbidden (Dt. 14:1)

Why doe she fail to enter the Promised Land. Dt. repeatedly intimates (1:37, 3:26,4:21) that he is dying for the people. At the end of 32, we are told that it is due to the sin at Meribah, with an added sense of holiness betrayed.

This refers us back to Numbers 20;2-13. At first, it seems a repeat of Ex. 17 at Meribah, but here something goes amiss. God tells Moses to speak to a rock, with a rod, maybe Aaron’s rod that has blossoms, in hand. Water will come. Instead, Moses calls the people rebels. Then he strikes the rock twice. A pun for the word for holiness (kaddish) emerges for a place name appended to Meribah (place of contention/trial/quarrel) I’m not sure what that means, other than Moses did not follow the special instructions to the letter.

Most people are mystified as to how this becomes the cause for Moses to be forbidden entry into the Promised Land. I suspect that his frustration has gotten the better of him, an dhe feels empowered to use God’s command as a baseline, instead of following it to the letter. In other words, he is starting to fall victim to power