Moses' Final Ascent

The Mountaintop Moments: Finding Hope in God's Enduring Promises

There's something profound about mountaintop experiences—those pivotal moments when we encounter God in ways that fundamentally shift our perspective. These aren't always literal mountain climbs, though sometimes they are. More often, they're those sacred spaces where God's presence becomes unmistakably clear, where His voice cuts through the noise of our daily lives, and where we're forever changed.

The story of Moses' final ascent up Mount Nebo offers us one of the most poignant mountaintop encounters in all of Scripture. Here was a man who had spent 120 years living a life marked by divine encounters. From the burning bush at Mount Sinai to receiving the Law on that same mountain, from seeing God's glory so intensely that his face radiated light to leading an entire nation through the wilderness—Moses knew what it meant to meet God on the mountain.

Yet this final climb would be different. This time, he wouldn't descend.

When God's Plans Don't Match Our Desires
The narrative in Deuteronomy 32 and 34 presents us with a tension that resonates deeply with the human experience. Moses had led Israel for forty years through the wilderness. He had endured their complaints, interceded for them countless times, and faithfully delivered God's law. He longed to enter the Promised Land. He begged God repeatedly to let him cross over.

But God said no.

The reason? Moses had broken faith at the waters of Meribah. When God told him to speak to the rock, Moses struck it instead. In that moment of frustration, he failed to treat God as holy before the people. The consequence was severe: he could see the land, but not enter it.

This feels harsh to our modern sensibilities. Doesn't Moses deserve better after all he's done? But this perspective reveals something crucial about how we often view God—as if His will should conform to our sense of fairness, as if His plans should align with our desires.

The truth is far more beautiful and terrifying: God's will always prevails, regardless of our understanding or approval.

Three Anchors of Hope
As we witness Moses' final moments, three profound truths emerge that anchor our hope in both life and death:

1. God's Word Endures Forever: Moses was dying, but God's promises weren't. The covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would continue. The law given at Sinai would remain. Israel would enter the land, just as God had sworn.
2. God's Work Always Gets Finished
Moses' death could have spelled the end of Israel's journey. In most movements throughout history, when the leader dies, the movement dies with them. But not with God's work.
Joshua would lead them into the land. God would fight their battles. The walls of Jericho would fall not by human strength but by divine power. What God starts, God finishes—and He often does it through the most unlikely people in the most unexpected ways.

Consider the Israelites standing at the edge of the Promised Land the first time. They sent spies who returned with reports of giants and fortified cities. "These people are too powerful for us," they said. They forgot that the battle was never theirs to fight in their own strength. God was the one who would give them victory.

How often do we make the same mistake? We look at what we can accomplish in our own power and conclude something is impossible. We forget that what is impossible with man is possible with God.

Human frailty doesn't hinder God's work—it's often the very context in which His power is most clearly displayed. Paul understood this when he wrote that God's power is made perfect in weakness.

3. God's Will Always Prevails
Perhaps the most challenging truth is that God's will is not subject to our approval. If it were, chaos would reign. Whose will would take precedence—yours or mine? Thankfully, God's wisdom infinitely surpasses our understanding.

Moses' exclusion from the Promised Land wasn't a mistake or a plan gone wrong. It was always part of God's purpose. The leadership needed to transition to demonstrate that this was God's work, not Moses' work. The people needed to learn that Moses wasn't their ultimate deliverer.

In fact, Moses' exclusion points forward to an even greater exclusion—Jesus' rejection and death. Like Moses, Jesus climbed a mountain to His death. But there's a crucial difference: Moses' bones still rest somewhere in Moab, but Jesus' tomb is empty.

The one who leads Israel into the land is named Joshua—in Hebrew, Yeshua, the same name as Jesus. "The Lord saves." This isn't coincidence; it's divine orchestration.

Standing in the Promised Land
The most astonishing part of Moses' story doesn't end on Mount Nebo. Hundreds of years later, on another mountaintop, Moses appears again. On the Mount of Transfiguration, he stands alongside Elijah and Jesus, discussing the exodus that Jesus would accomplish.
Moses finally stood in the Promised Land—not through his own merit, but through the work of Christ.

This is our hope too. Not that we'll earn our way into God's promises through perfect obedience, but that Christ has accomplished what we could never accomplish. His work is finished. His Word endures. His will prevails.

Living in Light of Eternal Hope
What does this mean for us today? When our desires don't align with God's will, when death takes those we love, when our own end approaches—we have this anchor: God's Word endures, His work gets finished, and His will always prevails.

The question isn't whether we approve of God's plan. The question is whether we'll trust Him enough to shape our desires to His will rather than demanding He shape His will to our desires.

When we do, we discover something remarkable: satisfaction doesn't come from getting what we want, but from wanting what God gives. When God Himself becomes the desire of our hearts, He gives us everything our hearts truly need.

This is the hope that transcends death itself—that the God who buried Moses in Moab, who raised Jesus from the dead, who has promised to return and make all things new, is the same God who holds your life in His hands today.

Trust Him. His Word endures forever. His work always gets finished. And His will always prevails.