1) I am glad that Moses is granted such a panorama of the Promised Land. I find it heartbreaking that the is unable to enter the land. It reminds me a bit of the universal tour that God gives Job as part of his response to Job’s complaint.
2) Moses is buried there on the other side of the Jordan. The secret burial makes it difficult to create a shrine of his burial spot.
3) He is accorded proper mourning, but the people then start to move on. This could be a good place to discuss mourning rituals and how a ritual period puts a boundary around open-ended grief.
4) He gets a well-deserved coda at the the end of Torah’s five books. What would you like to be said about you? Who were the greatest public figures in your life? part of our envy of the great is that not only will we not measure up to them, but we will not fulfill even our own personal expectations.
5) the secret burial led later to a tradition that he was indeed assumed into heaven (see Jude) . Also the prophet like Moses would be a base for messianic expectations in some circles.
6) Moses dies with his great task unfinished. Do you have a bucket list? What pieces are accomplished? what will bother you if you don;t accomplish some of your goals/ Do you have unfinished emotional business? even if we do accomplish our goals, is that enough for the ravening maw of human covetousness?
7) Moses’s death has hints that it will be for the benefit of all the people (Ex. 4:21, 3 26, 1:37)
No comments:
Post a Comment