May 1929
232
T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
Paul, led by the Spirit, brings before his Corinthian Church the shining face of Moses. “The children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory o f his countenance,” he tells them (2 Cor. 3 :7). In Hebrews there is a testimony to his character. “And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a ser vant for a testimony o f those things which were to be spoken after.” No mention anywhere of Moses’ one fail ure! “Love covereth!” Again, in the great “ faith chapter” of Hebrews (eleven), he is extolled because he chose “rather to suffer affliction with the children o f God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches,” and so on. Read i t ! It’s glorious! Finally, at the very last, when he comes to his end and goes up to his death on Pisgah, he is not alone. He had been accustomed to being with the Lord, only, upon a mountain top. And after God had shown him a panorama of the Promised Land, and Moses had been received up into glory, you will note that his body was not left to the elements nor to other forces. Let us quickly flick over the leaves of this Book from Deuteronomy 34 to the wonderful little interlude of Jude. A book which is so packed full of valuable truths that its worth cannot be estimated. In verse 9 we read: “Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body o f Moses,” etc. Now turn back to Deuteronomy 34 and when we read of God jn verse 6: “And He buried him [Moses] in a val ley in the land o f Moab, over against Beth-Peor; but no man knoweth his sepulcher unto this day,” we know by what agency God cared for His servant’s body and that not even to the most consecrated human hands was left the disposition of the earthly tabernacle of Moses, “whom the Lord knew face to face.” H arold ( after a long pause, pulling a scrap o f paper out o f his waistcoat pocket'). Take it, Bill. B il l . What is it? H arold . The poem ! It won’t bother me now. You’re a good defender of the faith. I ’m glad I came in tonight. B ill ( hastily glancing through poem). How’s this! Why didn’t these lines trip you up ? “And though in soberer moments No Moses there can be,” etc. Why didn’t that doubt strike home ? H arold . Gh, I noticed th a t! But my sister Elise is an archeology shark and she has me all coached in “Moses and the Monuments” and Urquhart’s “Biblical Guide,” and so on. I took that hurdle in one flying leap. It was the subtle suggestion that God, whom I always believed to be perfect Justice as well as Love, had been unfair, that bothered me. It was just like a buzzing fly that you cannot hit. But, thanks to you, the matter is settled; I am no longer bothered. B il l . I ’m glad it happened, because you’ll know how to meet the next onslaught better. H arold . ( slightly alarmed). Do you think there will be another? B ill . We shall all have to meet them until the King comes back, “when the great dragon will be cast out, that old serpent called the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world.” Don’t let him deceive you. H arold . I ’m wiser now, Bill. When I ’m afraid and begin to sink, like Peter, I ’ll cry, “Lord, save me!” B ill . And He will answer, “0 thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” H arold . W ell! Like all His real followers, I ’ll always be sure to reply, “O f a truth thou art the Son of God”
Mount Horeb and the shoes from off the feet—and then the being led from glory to glory in God’s revelation of Himself ! Wonders in Egypt—the plagues—the Red Sea pas sage ! And after that an actual visible Pillar of Cloud by day and of Fire by night ! Then bread from heaven—i actual bread, mind you, that you could see and touch and live by ! And then, wonder upon wonder on Sinai’s height ! Moses alone with God up there when He came in a thick cloud with thunders and lightnings for the people, and Mount Sinai “altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire.” Remember that “the Lord spake unto Moses face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend.” Remember how He hid Moses in the cleft of the rock and wholly satis fied him when he begged, “Show me thy glory.” Remember how the leaders of Israel saw their God on the Mount “and there was under His feet, as it were, a paved work o f a sapphire stone, and as it were the body ó f heaven in his clearness . . . and the sight of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire.” It was in spite of these, and many other manifestations of his heavenly Friend that Moses, after all his faithful leadership, stumbled as he did. Now! Take the long look ahead. This life was not all there was for Moses. Most certainly the joys of Canaan were not to be compared with the joys of heaven, and the slipping off of the heavy yoke of service he would always have to bear with the children of Israel. God had a rich reward waiting for this servant of His. Just take the New Testament and follow up Moses* name in it—see what it says of him. The Pentateuch is not the end of Moses. It was Moses who appeared in glory with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration. Elijah was with him. And those two talked with the Lord Jesus about “His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem." So that Moses was in the very counsels of eternity. He evidently still had the privilege of intimacy with his Lord, so that he and Elijah were the ones chosen to meet with Him in that high place, in that rapt hour, when our great Redeemer was gathering His eternal purposes toward the Atonement He was to accomplish upon the cross. And as Moses talked with his Lord the familiar cloud that had come down upon him at Sinai, that had led him through the wilderness days of old, this same close-fold ing cloud “overshadowed them” and the Voice which had spoken from it on that other mount now sent forth a new commandment :— “This is my beloved Son: H EAR H IM !” Oh, yes ! We find Moses acknowledged of God again and again! That is God’s way. He always looks after His own. John the Baptist begins his ministry by saying, “The Law was given by Moses —” When Christ was giving His great account of the rich man and Lazarus, and was quoting Abraham who spoke from the reaches of God’s eternity to one in torment, He did not allow Abraham to group Moses with other proph ets but made him say:— “They have Moses AND THE PROPHETS ; let them hear them.” In His interview with Nicodemus, when setting forth the momentous and wonderful truth of the New Birth, and the mysteries that the natural man cannot grasp in the Spirit-born ones, Jesus Christ, in the very flowering of this discourse on regeneration, uses the figure of Moses and the brazen serpent, setting forth that even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so He must be lifted up.
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