Moses’ death is an interesting subject and is filled with life lessons. Verse 5 says that Moses died, not of old age, (he had just climbed a mountain!), but “by the Word of the Lord.” Only God determines the number of our days. But more important is the lesson that God’s Word rules His people, not any man. The reformers simply said “Law is King.” Even kings are subject to the Law. God’s Word is King. Leaders come and go, but each generation has to go on. God does not want us to put our hopes in man, but in Him and His word.
They mourned Moses for 30 days. The normal period in Israel was 7 days. But then verse 8 says, “Then the days of weeping and mourning were ended…” God did not want his people to be caught up with their grief as to keep them from moving on with His plan for them. He kept the location of Moses’ grave a secret because of the tendency of the people to want to build shrines over grave sites. This was a common practice in Egypt and Israel still tended towards what they had learned in Egypt. Shrines might keep people from moving on. Shrines might direct our focus to the past, God wants His people to respect their past but focus on their future. Shrines might endear us to places of loss and death. God wants our focus to be on life and good deeds. The constant exhortation Moses gave the people after speaking God’s Words to them was “choose life.” As we grieve in our losses, we too must let go of the past and move on with God’s will for our lives. God was not finished with Israel yet, Joshua is next. God is not finished with us, and if we look, there is a Joshua in each and every one of us.