Moses on Nebo: A Final Vision of the Promised Kingdom

2487 AM (1273 BCE) — Hundred-Twenty

Moshe looked across the valley into the land of Canaan. This was the land promised to his father Abram more than four hundred years before. It was a land to which the Torah was the title deed given to his people on Mount Moriah, the mountain of teaching. Moshe pondered his time there, the forty days, as Adonai carved the commandments into their hearts and spoke to Moshe about teaching and dignity and morality and values.

That time on the mountain was the sign Adonai had promised, one of many signs. Just like Shabbat would be a sign unto the nation, the Torah on Shavuot would be a sign to the nations to come, testified to by the heavens and the earth. And as long as the heavens and the earth were there to testify to the Torah, not one jot or tittle would be lost from it.

Still, Moshe felt a tinge of anger. Why couldn’t they have just listened to Joshua and Caleb? They would not have spent forty years wandering and dying until only the young remained. But as he thought more about it, he could see changes that happened. Slaves were replaced with warriors, complainers with those capable of thriving in the hostile, inhospitable sands. Where others would perish, they learned to thrive, with a little help from Adonai, of course.

Moshe stepped forward. His old friend, the Angel of Adonai, was with him. In a sense they had come full circle. The angel stood, but there was no illumination or “burning” bush. He looked, more or less, like any other man. Moshe imagined this was the same appearance that Abraham had seen when he was visited by the same Angel of Adonai. He stood there stoically, patiently, waiting, but also with warmth and kindness. He was in no rush, and certainly neither was Moshe.

Moshe knew he had come up to this place to die. He had not lost his strength. He was not going blind. His hearing was excellent. His mind wasn’t afflicted with the fog of age. He was one hundred and twenty years old, and the Israelites were ready to enter Canaan. He would not be allowed to join them, because of his impulsivity and anger. It was the same passionate anger that started his journeys in the desert with the rock and the Egyptian, and this impulsive act also involved a rock … and water, of course. But because of it—because of that—because the great Moshe could not once again control his anger and outrage, Moshe misrepresented Adonai to the people, a thing one ought not do.

Moshe sighed. He had already buried his beloved brother Aharon, and a little less recently he also buried his most precious sister, Miriam. Perhaps it was time for him to finally sleep and rest with his fathers and his family.

Moreover, this was the last promise to Moshe not fulfilled by Adonai—that he would at least see the land flowing with milk and honey given to the Hebrews, but that he would not be allowed to enter it, because of his actions.

Had Adonai ever failed to fulfill His promises? Ever? Would He ever?

Moshe sighed and glanced about. The river was nice. The land looked nice as well. Though the land looked pretty similar to the land they had just spent the last forty years wandering through, at least from his current vantage point. It was definitely a little greener, especially near the river. But Moshe still felt like there was so much that he would never see, so much he would miss.

Then the Angel of Adonai, knowing both Moshe’s heart and mind, did one last wonder for Moshe. He opened Moshe’s eyes and showed him the entire land. It was not just Jericho, that would eventually fall at the behest of Joshua, or the kingdom of David and Solomon that would one day rule, but also the kingdom of the Mashiach that would one day rule not only in Israel, but the whole world in perfect justice and righteousness.

The Angel of Adonai showed Moshe the teachings that would go into all the lands—first as seeds, but then generations later, they would turn people away from evil, like temple prostitution, child sacrifice, idolatry, and all the evils of self.

Adonai then showed Moshe the great, unbelievable cost—the souls that would be lost to the sanctification of Adonai’s name as witnesses to the truth of the Torah and the truth of Adonai and to the truth of Adonai’s promises.

Moshe saw the fallen kingdoms and desecrated temples. He saw glimpses of the great statue with a gold head and arms of silver, and he heard of places like Assyria and Babylon, Media and Persia, Greece and Rome, and many places even far, far worse.

And then Adonai showed him faces of people like Nebuchadnezzar and Haman, Marx and Darwin, Stalin and Hitler, and faces of even far, far worse. These were the faces of people who taught self over truth, who led people and nations away from Adonai and back to the ways that had been left—child sacrifice and temple prostitutes, along with slavery and oppression of the kind that Adonai and Moshe had liberated the Hebrews from just forty short years before.

Not only did Moshe have to witness the ghastly sight of tens of millions of Jewish souls lost over the millennia, but he also witnessed the hundreds of millions of souls from all the Nations who also perished by the hands of those who murdered in the name of self.

Finally, the Angel of Adonai showed him the billions of souls who took Adonai’s name and shared in Moshe’s inheritance. But they were also hated because of the name of Adonai, and they were murdered in the name of the “sustainability” of the planet.

Moshe was in full contempt of the future. Was it not Adonai who held the foundations of the planet? After all the hardship he endured? The plagues Egypt endured? The wandering for forty years his people endured? And all that was just barely the birth pangs of the consequence of ethical monotheism being taught to humanity. The Hebrews, and those who feared and trusted Adonai, would have to pay an even higher price, if that were possible.

Moshe began to wail. He wailed for his own people anew and for those of his people who were meant to save, and for all those people his people did save, and for all those who were still murdered by those who followed the Nachash, the Dragon, that serpent of old.

But then the Angel of Adonai spoke, “Moshe, take heart. All of this must come. People must be free to hate if they are to be free to love. They must be free to rebel if they are to have the freedom to choose obedience. It will take until even the Mashiach comes to restore order. But one day, justice will prevail over all who teach against Torah, for out of Zion will go forth My Torah and My word from Jerusalem.”

And then Moshe slept with his fathers.

Used with permission by the author. Find the author’s complete works online: Complete Works of Mack Samuels