Numbers 27.
THE five daughters of Zelophehad, bold in faith, asked for a possession in the land, and God commended them. He loves to see faith in His people, and always honors it.
In verse 12 we begin the last chapter of Moses’ long life. He had been told before that he should not enter the land because of his one disobedience, the record of which is in chapter twenty, (see verse 12), but he was to look from a mountain into the possession of the people he had led there. The leaders God raises up for His people must be faithful to Him, must “sanctify” Him “before their eyes,” or they will be set aside by Him.
Moses, submitting as far as we are told by the Divine Penman, without a murmur, though it must have been a deep sorrow to him, only asks for someone to be appointed to lead the people—God’s congregation, or assembly, —that they “be not as sheep which have no shepherd.” Joshua, “a man in whom is the Spirit,” the young man of whom we first read in Exodus 17:9-14, is to be the new leader. His name means “God saves;” it is the same name, in a different language, as “Jesus,” the name given to our blessed Lord when He became man.
“And Moses did as the Lord commanded him” (verse 22). It was not a question with him of pleasing himself; God came first in his plans and in his heart, even though there were disappointments and griefs in the way, for we may be sure that Moses’ deepest joys were in serving that God who had watched over him from his birth in the land of Egypt.
Is this your God, my reader, and do you, like Moses, love and seek to serve Him? Be assured that if this be true, the rewards will be as real as Moses found them.
“By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt.” Heb. 11:24-26.
ML 06/01/1924