Today’s lectionary reading (Deut. 34) involves Moses dying in the land of Moab before reaching the Promised Land. There are two elements of this story that to me add to the drama and make for quite a depressing tale, even though one does find the positive statements about Moses at the end.
- Notice where Moses dies – Moses dies in Moab. For those unfamiliar with the Bible’s claims about the origin of the Moabites this may not really strike a cord. However, when one realizes that the Moabites are supposedly the descendants of Lot by his oldest daughter (Gen. 19.30ff), it changes things a bit. Amy-Jill Levine (if you are interested in Levine’s audio course on the Old Testament get a discount HERE) says that this story in Genesis was the Ancient Israelite way of saying the Moabites were “incestuous bastards.” Moab is not really the ideal place for an Old Testament figure to die. It is not like being buried in the Cave of Machpelah or your bones being brought back down to the land of promise. But, Moab is not only where Moses dies, but also where he is buried (verse 6 – though the exact location is unspecified).
- It also appears that Moses is dying before his time. Of course, the story says that Moses is 120 years old. That does not really sound like a person dying before his time; however, when one reads the description of his physical state, the point is clearer. Verse 7 relates, “His eyes had noted faded (were not dim) and his strength had not fled.” We get the image of 120 year old Moses as “bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.” So, what happens? God commands that he be dead, and he is dead (verse 6). Perhaps I am taking the idiom in verse 7 too far, but the incongruence does seem real enough to inspire later traditions like that found in the Assumption of Moses.
Of course, if I had been Moses, I might have been happy to have died before the conquest narratives of Joshua (or is it Judges?). Considering all the slaughtering of man, woman, and child, perhaps God is sparing him further bloodshed. Yet I doubt that is the point of Deuteronomy. Rather, severe is the penalty penalty for disobeying the Lord. You will meet your end before your time in the land of incest.