Day 61. Deuteronomy 32-34

Our readings for today from Deuteronomy are principally occupied with the two final songs of Moses. The first and longer of these might well be called The Hymn of the Rock. It recalls and celebrates the absolute dependability of God, using the image of the Rock to extol the protection his strength gives to those to trust in him. "The Rock, his work is perfect," the voice of Moses sings, "and all his ways are just" (Deuteronomy 32:4). God is the "Rock of [Israel's] salvation" (32:15); all other "rocks" are false and deceptive.
Israel is the sole possession of its God. Just as the land of Canaan has been allotted to Israel, so Israel itself has been apportioned to the LORD as his personal possession (32:9).
The images of rocks and stone recur throughout the hymn. Moses recalls how, during the wilderness sojourn, the people drew sustenance out of rocks—the LORD "nursed [Israel] with honey from the crags, with oil from the flinty rock" (32:13), referring to the mirages of feeding that took place in the desert.
But in spite of the LORD's nurturing care, the people have repeatedly proved to be "children in whom there is no faithfulness" (32:20). The LORD is portrayed as a loving and patient mother; but in spite of the care shone the children of Israel, they "were unmindful of the Rock that bore [them]," they "forgot the God who gave [them] birth" (32:18).
As a result of their forgetfulness, they have been "sold" by "their Rock"—the LORD has abandoned them (32:30). Israel has been defeated by its own fears and left to face the consequences of its rebellion.
Yet Israel's God remains sovereign over all other gods--all other "rocks"—he will not abandon his people forever. The LORD says, "See now that I, even I, am he; there is no god besides me. I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and no one can deliver from my hand" (32:39). Against the strength of the LORD human beings are helpless, and that strength will ultimately save his personal possession if they remember the covenant he made with them and are mindful of him."This is no trifling matter for you," Moses warns (32:47), "but your very life." God is always a power to be reckoned with and to be ignored only with terrible consequences.
In the second of Moses' songs, he blesses the tribes of Israel individually, just as Jacob had blesses them one by one at the end of the Book of Genesis (chapter 49). And having done so, we are told that Moses "went up . . . to Mount Nebo," which is at the northeast corner of the Dead Sea, and there he was granted a panoramic vision of the Promised Land, which for reasons never made fully clear in the Book of Deuteronomy God would not allow him to enter.
There on Mount Nebo he died. We are told that "no one knows his burial place to this day" (34:6). There was no place of pilgrimage associated with him. This gave rise to a later belief that he did not die at all, but that like Elijah in later times God's friend, "whom the LORD knew face to face" (34:10) had not died, but had in fact been "translated"—taken up bodily into heaven.
It is for this reason that when Jesus is transfigured on the mountain (see Luke 9:30) Moses and Elijah are there to meet with him "in glory." Both are representatives of the prophetic tradition of Israel, of which Jesus is both the heir and the fulfillment.
But Moses is unique among the prophets of Israel because he not only spoke God's message to the people, he also pleaded repeatedly for the people and saved them from God's wrath. He was a true intermediary, a conduit of divine power and authority, the greatest of prophets.
And at Moses death his charisma, his divine power and authority, passed by the laying on of hands (34:9) to Joshua. Charismatic gifts are always given for a particular purpose. Moses' charisma was particularly in his God-given ability to do "mighty deeds" and "terrifying displays of power" (34:12) in freeing Israel from bondage in Egypt. Joshua's charisma will be in the area of generalship, because military leadership is what the people of Israel now need as they begin the conquest of Canaan. It is the story of Joshua in tomorrow's reading from the book that bears his name. . . . .