Deuteronomy 34:1 - Meaning and Application

Here we see Moses climbing upward toward heaven, as high as the top of Pisgah, there to die, since that was the place God had chosen for him (Deuteronomy 32:49-50). Israel was camped on the flat ground in the plains of Moab, and from there Moses went up, as ordered, to Mount Nebo, to its highest ridge, called Pisgah. Pisgah seems to be a general name for high places like this.

It seems Moses went up to the top of Pisgah alone, without help, which shows that his strength had not failed even on the last day of his life. He could still walk up a steep hill without the support he once needed when his hands grew tired (Exodus 17:12). He also went up without company. After he finished blessing Israel, we may suppose, he said a solemn farewell to Joshua, Eleazar, and the rest of his friends, who likely brought him to the foot of the hill. Then he gave them a charge like Abraham gave his servants at another hill, “Stay here while I go over there and die.” They must not see him die, because they must not know where he would be buried.

Whether this happened exactly that way or not, Moses went up to the top of Pisgah for two reasons. First, to show that he was willing to die. When he knew where he would die, he did not shrink from it. Instead, he gladly climbed a steep hill to meet it. Those who, by God’s grace, have come to know the life to come and have often thought about it, need not fear leaving this world.

Second, he went up to show that he looked on death as his ascent. The soul of a person, especially a good person, goes upward when it leaves the body (Ecclesiastes 3:21). In keeping with that movement of the soul, Moses’ body would go upward as far as the earth could carry it. When God sends for his servants out of this world, the summons is, “Go up and die.”

Next, Moses looked down on this earth again to see the earthly Canaan, the land he would never enter, and by faith he also looked ahead to the heavenly Canaan, which he would soon enter. God had said that Moses would not come into Canaan, and that warning was now fulfilled. But God had also promised him a view of it, and that promise was now kept: “The Lord showed him all that good land” (verse 1).

Even if Moses went up alone to the top of Pisgah, he was not truly alone, because the Father was with him (John 16:32). If a person has friends, they are often near at the time of death. But if, because of God’s providence or other people’s unkindness, we must face death alone, we still need fear no evil if the great and good Shepherd is with us (Psalm 23:4).

Though Moses had good sight and the best view a high place could give him, he could not have seen all of Canaan, from end to end, about fifty or sixty miles, unless his sight had been miraculously helped and enlarged. That is why it says, “The Lord showed it to him.” All the pleasant views we have of the better country come from God’s grace. He gives the spirit of wisdom as well as the spirit of revelation, the eye as well as the object.

This sight God gave Moses of Canaan may have been something the devil tried to copy later, when he showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and their glory in an airy vision, while placing him on a very high mountain. But the devil did this all at once, unlike the careful view God gave Moses, first one land and then another.

Moses saw Canaan from a distance. In the same way, the Old Testament believers saw the Messiah’s kingdom from far off. Abraham, long before this, saw Christ’s day and was fully persuaded of it, so he embraced the promise even though others would enjoy it later when it was fulfilled (Hebrews 11:13). Believers now also have, by grace, a distant but real view of their future blessedness and glory. The word and the ordinances are to them what Mount Pisgah was to Moses. Through them, they catch comforting glimpses of the glory that will be revealed, and they rejoice in hope of it.

Moses saw the land, but he was never meant to enjoy it. Sometimes God takes his people out of the world before the evil to come. At other times, he takes them away before the good to come, meaning the good that will later be enjoyed by the church in this present world. Glorious things are spoken of Christ’s kingdom in the later days, its growth, spread, and flourishing state. We may see it ahead, but we may not live to see it. We trust that those who come after us will enter that promised land, and that comforts us when we see our own bodies failing in this wilderness (2 Kings 7:2).

Moses saw all this just before his death. At times, God saves his brightest displays of grace for the end, to support his people in their dying moments. Canaan was Immanuel’s land, the land of God with us (Isaiah 8:8), so in seeing it, Moses also saw the blessings we enjoy through Christ. It was a picture of heaven (Hebrews 11:16), and faith is the sure proof and evidence of that hope. Those who die trusting in Christ, hoping in heaven, and with Canaan before their eyes, may leave this world with great peace. After seeing God’s salvation, we can rightly say, “Lord, now let your servant depart in peace.”