Good Night Moses Sleep Tight

Deuteronomy 34: 1 – 12

Good Night Moses Sleep Tight

34 Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is across from Jericho. And the LORD showed him all the land of Gilead as far as Dan, 2 all Naphtali and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, 3 the South, and the plain of the Valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar. 4 Then the LORD said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have caused you to see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there.” 5 So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD. 6 And He buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth Peor; but no one knows his grave to this day. 7 Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died. His eyes were not dim nor his natural vigor diminished. 8 And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days. So the days of weeping and mourning for Moses ended. 9 Now Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him; so the children of Israel heeded him, and did as the LORD had commanded Moses. 10 But since then there has not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, 11 in all the signs and wonders which the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt, before Pharaoh, before all his servants, and in all his land, 12 and by all that mighty power and all the great terror which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.

My favorite verse that I use to start off each funeral/Memorial Service is from the book of Revelation chapter 14 verse 13, “13 Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.”

Stop and think about this verse for a minute. We sinful humans tend to rejoice when we see the bad guy get his rightfully due punishment and we are heartbroken when someone we know dies. In Heaven however we have just the opposite view. In Heaven there is rejoicing when a believer dies and sadness when the evil person life is ended.

Why is this?

The answer lies in the fact that the believer has eternity in store for him/her in being with the Lord Jesus and other love ones while the non-believer is cut off for eternity with all connections in hell.

If you ever have the time, look up the word ‘sleep’. You will note that when a believer dies he/she is referred to as sleeping. Let me give you just a couple from the mouth of our Holy Lord and Savior Jesus Christ;

Matthew 9, “He said to them, “Make room, for the girl is not dead, but sleeping.” And they ridiculed Him

John 11, “These things He said, and after that He said to them, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.”

1 Corinthians 15, “Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—“

Romans 13, “And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.”

Some people have argued with me about the resurrection. They state, ‘How do you know that there will actually be a resurrection. Have you personally seen someone rise from the dead?’

I respond, ‘that question is an easy one to answer. In fact our Holy and Marvelous God shows us all each night the experience of resurrection.’

Now I’ve got their attention.

I continue, ‘For believers when one dies it is referred to as sleeping. For all of us each night we fall asleep. Our Holy God Is so great that He gives us movies to keep us occupied. We call them dreams. We experience a resurrection when we wake up. If you do not have prostate problems then many times hours go by and you are oblivious to missing the time. A person dying does the same thing. He or she falls asleep and instead of waking up to the alarm clock they hear the voice of our sweet Savior saying ‘Tom’ (put your own name here) it’s time to wake up.”