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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadGreater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 192. Mount Nebo
Subjects in this Topic:
XIII
Mount Nebo
Literature
Beaumont, J. A., Walking Circumspectly (1905), 131.
Bersier, E., in The Foreign Protestant Pulpit, ii. (1870) 70.
Brooke, S. A., The Old Testament and Modern Life (1896), 157.
Cox, S., Expositions, iii. (1887) 181.
Davies, J., The Kingdom without Observation (1895), 187.
Hamilton, J., Works, v. (1871) 313.
Ker, John, Sermons, i. (1885) 153.
Lockyer, T. F., The Inspirations of the Christian Life (1894), 158.
Macmillan, H., The Daisies of Nazareth (1894), 204.
Matheson, G., Messages of Hope (1908), 50.
Parkhurst, C. H., A Little Lower than the Angels (1908), 174.
Trench, R. C., Sermons Preached for the Most Part in Ireland (1873), 238.
Wright, D., The Power of an Endless Life (1897), 40.
The great parable of the wilderness wanderings of the Israelites has one of its profoundest applications in the death of the two great leaders of the people, Moses and Aaron. Life is more dramatic and tragic than we know; and when we read of the fate of these two illustrious brothers (the men who, above all others, seemed entitled to enter the Land of Promise)-neither of them falling in battle but both of them doomed to die by the sentence of Jehovah, whom they served and under whom they were leading the people-we are startled into a recognition of the true tragedy of life that there is in this. The indubitable impress of reality is upon it. How differently fable would have constructed the story! How different the apotheosis of mythical heroes! Moses and Aaron would have led the people into the Land of Promise, and ruled them there in triumph and honour; their sepulchres would have been proudly built in Jerusalem, and would have been among the shrines of the world. The destinies of real life are different; men do not so complete the cycle of their thought, the purpose of their work.
Aaron was the high priest of God, and, some infirmities notwithstanding, he was a noble and saintly man; in character and service second only to his brother Moses. But Aaron must die in Mount Hor, because, with Moses, he “waxed wroth with the people, and disobeyed the Lord at Meribah.” Arrayed in his priestly robes, like a garlanded victim, he is led by Moses his brother and Eleazar his son out of the midst of the wondering, weeping people, to the lonely summit of the mountain in Edom, where he dies. Imagination fails us when we try to realize the mystic solemnity of the position; the farewell glances upon the tented host in the Arabah valley below; the last words of affection and regret, of penitence and faith; the solemn awe of brother and son, as suddenly they looked upon the dead, unconscious body; the stern fortitude which dug his grave and buried him there, amid the weird limestone crags of that storm-worn summit. And then the submissive piety, the calm, tender heroism of faith, with which they descended to tell the people of the issue, and to mourn for Aaron forty days.
In like manner, Moses must die upon Nebo. Only, Moses must die alone. Neither son nor brother may close his dying eyes, or receive his last words. He, moreover, looks down, not only upon the host which for forty years he has led through the wilderness, but also upon the Land of Promise which they were just about to possess; and he, their deliverer from Egypt, their guide and legislator, their captain and ruler, is forbidden to enter it with them.