LET'S GO UP ON THE MOUNTAIN TOP

DEUTERONOMY 34:1-4

It is interesting to go on top of a mountain and look over the valleys and let your mind open up and see far distances that otherwise you can't see. In the valleys you can only look up and wonder what might be beyond you.

Moses had been in some valleys before he bad been brought to the place of going up to Mt. Nebo to the top of Pisgah. I can imagine that Moses had a lot of memory of his life in earlier days. If you would ask Moses after he got to the top of the mount to stop and reflect just for a few moments with you as to how things have been with him the last few years, I believe we could hear him say, "I have had some valleys and some rough roads and I have had a lot of victories that I never dreamed could come to me since  started on this journey."

Moses might say, "I remember my youth and some of the things I thought strange at that time and how God worked out those confusing days for me. I lived with the Egyptians and it was obvious I was different from them in so many ways. One day I began to look for my own people and then a lot of my questions were answered."

Moses might say, "There was a lot of joy come to me as I began to enjoy my family and make new friends but this was short-lived, for one day I saw an Egyptian hurting one of my own and in defense of my fellow Israelite I killed the Egyptian. This only made things worse. A little later on, I saw two Israelites fighting and, feeling it was wrong for brothers to fight, I said, "You are brethren and should be kind to each other." This turned on me as one of them said, "Will you kill us as you did the Egyptian?" Moses then began another journey in life that he had never been on. He has now lost his position in Egypt and is now alienated from his own family for the next forty years. In the back of the desert, Moses finds some one who cares for him and gives him shelter in return for his labors as a caretaker for his sheep.

Here in the desert Moses begins to understand, there is a God in Heaven that is interested in the affairs of mankind. One day as he was caring for the sheep of someone else, Moses saw a bush begin to burn but it was not consumed. As he drew near to the bush he heard the Lord speak to him. "Remove your shoes Moses, for the ground you are standing on is holy ground." Here Moses' life was given the direction God had for him. The Lord said, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows and I am come down to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians, and bring them up out of that land and bring them unto a good land flowing with milk and honey."

Moses' greatest task was now ahead of him. God has already promised the forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that the land belonged to their children and now Moses, take the children home where they belong. This journey begins in Exodus 1:1.