^ A. Maclaren. DEUT.-ESTH. — 7
98 THE DEATH AND BURIAL OF MOSES
written." In every way he was of the people, bone of their bone, and flesh of their flesh ; Israel was hidden in his heart ; and out of that master-passion of sympathy with the people came the weak- ness which at last made him speak unadvisedly with his lips. They strove with God ; and though Moses never yielded a point to them in that wicked contest, yet their unbelief so far influenced him that he spake in anger, and said, " Hear now, ye rebels ; must we fetch you water out of this rock ? " Then " the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them " (Num. XX. 10, 12). Three times in the Book of Deuteronomy Moses tells the people that the Lord was angry with him for their sakes. It was not so much what Moses did personally that involved him in judgment ; but he suffered because of his being mixed up with Israel. As the Lord had spared the people aforetime for Moses' sake, it became necessary that, when he in any measure shared in their great sin of unbelief, he should be chastened for their sake as well as his own. His faith had saved them, and now his unbelief, being backed by theirs, secures for him the sentence of exclusion from the land.
^Were not the Israelites much more guilty? Why were they allowed to enter the land from which he was shut out ? We are called by Christ's name ; we believe the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ ; and we ought to be able to see the answer in the Psalmist's words : " They angered him also at the waters of strife, BO that it went ill with Moses for their sakes." " For their sakes." " By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin " ; by one man's endurance of the curse we are all redeemed to God. The Christian doctrine of Atonement is neither an evasion of the law afifixing penalty to sin, nor an after-thought supplying the deficiencies of that law ; it is the doctrine of human life ; it is part of the very constitution of society, that we bear the sins of one another, and are helped by one another's endurance of penalty. If we find it hard to beheve that God is, righteously and graciously, thus visiting the sins of Israel on Moses, is it not because we have not rightly apprehended the righteousness and grace of God in our own redemption? The constitution of society which makes it inevitable that a man shall share in the transgression of his fellows is an integral part of the law which God " magnified and made honourable " in the
DEUTERONOMY xxxiv. 5, 6 99
Cross; it is this that made possible Christ's sacrifice and mediation,
2. There is sometimes success in failure, sublimity in defeat. If we will consider it, there is nothing more sublime in the history of Moses than the story of his death. Tried by a worldly standard, it seems a poor and shameful ending to such a life. Who so fit, we might ask, to lead the children of Israel into the promised land as he who had, for their sakes, defied the wrath of Pharaoh ; who had led them out of Egypt, and shared with them the wanderings of the wilderness ; endured their perversity, and often interceded with God on their behalf ? But when we speak thus, the poverty and shame are in our way of judging character and its rewards. Whether is better ? — honour, or a resolute and chastened spirit ? Who is the nobler man ? — he who rejoices in the fulfilment of his hopes, or he who knows how to endure, and see the fruit of disappointment ?
^ If we believe to be a meek and humble man is better than any blare of trumpets or pompous triumph, we shall see that God had provided some better thing for Moses than to lead the tribes into the promised land. To me it seems that the man Moses, with eye undimmed and natural force not abated, resigning to another the office he was still fit to bear, quietly accepting the decree which took his leadership from him, is surrounded with a purer lustre than had ever before rested on him ; the ascent of Nebo is more glorious than the descent of Sinai.^
Moses, the patriot fierce, became
The meekest man on earth. To show us how love's quick'ning flame
Can give our souls new birth.
Moses, the man of meekest heart,
Lost Canaan by self-will, To show, where Grace has done its part,
How sin defiles us still.
Thou, who hast taught me in Thy fear,
Yet seest me frail at best, 0 grant me loss with Moses here.
To gain his future rest!^
^ There is little that is wise or noble about Euskin hitherto. It had been a career of unbroken success of a small and self-
* A. Mackennal. ^ .T. H. Newman.