Leftovers - Deuteronomy 34

Happy Monday Pastor Matt, back in with you.

Pastor Chris is here on the ERC Leftovers podcast talking about

the sermon from this weekend. We wrapped up Moses, not an

Exodus. Deuteronomy 34 is the actual end

of the story of Moses. You wore a suit to church.

Yesterday, I mean, it happens, it happens.

It was a little, it was a little toasty.

I, I forget that wearing like a, a suit jacket and you know,

having the whole neck thing in the tie, like you get a little

toast. The neck thing.

My words, my words like I am. I am a verbal master.

I have such a large. Vocabulary and the tie though.

So like you mean the collar when you when you say neck thing is.

That is that what I'm trying? To say so, So let me let me try

that. Just before we were talking, we

were having a conversation about about the V-neck shirt that

you're wearing currently. So let's should we add a little

more like fashion verbiage too? I don't think I can take

anymore. I don't.

I don't have. Yeah, that's the fashion stuff.

I'm not great at it. You know, I actually realized

yesterday and I almost made a joke about it from on stage, but

I thought it'd be too distracting.

So I actually filtered myself for once because as as I like,

put on the jacket and the white shirt and the black tie and all

that kind of stuff. I instantly thought, Oh my gosh,

I'm wearing the Men in black suit like from the movies

because they always wear the same thing and it's white shirt,

black tie, black Sport coat, whatever.

And, And, but I didn't want to make that joke from stage

because then I thought nobody else is going to hear anything I

say because they're just going to think about the movie Men in

Black and how I'm dressed that way.

Yeah, it's all. I mean, it's also the John Wick

suit, I mean. It's oh, I suppose.

It's, I mean, it's just black suit you, you wore the

appropriate funeral attire. It's also a wedding attire and.

I think I would have gone with the colorful tie for a wedding.

But you can't like if you're if you're going to like

traditional, like cathedral wedding, like you're.

I don't know if if there would have been like a wedding in the

John Wick movies or even a wedding like Doctor Strange.

Two. He he goes to the wedding and

he's he's in. Yeah.

Black suit, white white shirt. Yeah, black tie.

That's true. Rips it off.

And the. Yeah.

And then we go off into superhero madness, right?

Yeah, so naturally that's if you had your superhero suit on,

you'd wear the. Oh my God.

The black suit, white tie I. Don't know what my superhero

suit would look like or what my powers would be.

I I just, I cannot fathom what that would be.

Theology, man, Just. What?

Why did I set you off for that? Come on, you.

Really did and you really didn't see it coming see this is you

have a picture of what your suit would look like that's.

Not your office. You took it down finally.

Well, yeah, gosh, I, I see, I understand the fact I, I was, I

was against it for a while during my life because somebody

called me, they said I was really gullible and I was like,

dude, I'm, I'm pretty offended. Like, how dare you.

And then I realized, Nope, that's accurate.

I just, sometimes, yeah, like I, I just, I, I either set myself

up for things that I should have seen coming or like, I believe

probably like certain people a little bit too easily.

Like I can I, I understand people's sarcasm, but like, if

it's subtle enough, like I'm not, I'm not catching on.

So I just, you know, I've, I've experienced that in my life.

And I used to be angry that people would say that about me,

but now I just own it. I'm like, you know what?

If you're subtle, I'm not going to know if you're joking or not.

Sometimes it's just going to happen.

Did you catch the sarcasm in the text that I sent you yesterday

about after you told me which message you liked?

That was sarcastic. It was, it was a little bit.

I didn't. No, I Oh my gosh.

See, you're proving the point. I did not realize that.

Like not in a mean way. I just thought it was just a

little razz you because now that we're at 2 services, like we,

the preacher has like decided like which message first or

second and like they're, they're both pretty close, but like just

which delivery felt better? That's the one that we're going

to put on the podcast and publish that that message.

And you we were we were driving home from I point yesterday.

So we listened to the second service live and then you

messaged me after the second service and said you should post

the first one. I liked it better.

And I just text you back. OK, sounds good.

We'll go back and listen to the first one then.

I didn't. We listened to the second one

and you were like, the first one was better.

So I. Just oh, Oh my gosh, I see

again, until this very moment when you said that, that was

right over my head. I, I, I didn't even, I didn't

even process. I was like, oh, I guess he wants

to hear it to make sure that I was right.

Like, I don't know. So like, you want to apologize

for me being gullible? Like, you know, I just do.

It to be mean either, I just thought it was funny.

And sometimes, sometimes people, and it has happened in my life

where people will from there and they're clearly joking or being

sarcastic, whatever. And I don't pick up on it.

And so then they feel bad that they made me feel like, you

know, and I'm like, oh, well, you really care about me.

I can tell. But like I just some of these

sometimes I just don't pick up on those things.

And I don't know why it's true though.

Like you can, you can get me if, if, if you really wanted to, you

can get me. If you're giving some level of

seriousness and you're being sarcastic, you can you can

usually catch me. All right, now you know.

Now you know. Yep, it's true.

All right, well, it is Thanksgiving week.

We're going to talk a little bit as we break into the show about

Thanksgiving dishes. There's I'm going to, I'm going

to link, maybe we'll even post on Facebook.

I thought there was some funny things I saw, I guess the trend

for this year posting Christian artists, if they were dishes of

on the Thanksgiving table there there was, there was one.

I won't go through all of them. I'll just start off with Brandon

Lake because we do a lot of Brandon Lake songs.

But the first one they did, Brandon Lake is the butter.

Let's be honest, he's on everything.

Potatoes, Brandon, rolls, Brandon, your life, Brandon.

You can't make anything without him showing up to make it richer

and more annoyed. So we'll, we'll post the link to

the right. They go through like 6 or seven

of them. And I think it's all pretty

funny and pretty accurate. But it got me thinking.

Just simple conversation on what's on the Thanksgiving table

this this week. Are you guys a ham or Turkey

family? You know what?

It ends up being Both. OK if you can compromise

everything. Yeah, OK, well, but.

But. Well.

And I've got stories about my son who just doesn't like

Thanksgiving food at all. No.

He will, he will go get like, you know, chicken strips from

Quickstar. I'm not joking.

You did that last year. He's like, dad, I, I really

don't like Thanksgiving food. You know, I don't can I go to

Quickstar? And I went really?

And he's like, yeah, man. And he brought back like an 8

pack of chicken strips and he ate that at Thanksgiving.

And I end up having one because that's who I am.

But you're like, you're both like you.

You'll eat ham and Turkey. Oh well.

And usually I'll put them on the same kind of fork load and.

I'll just. Oh.

Yeah, I'm a food combiner all day.

I am. I am.

I combine all my food. So Thanksgiving is like

something where like, if you don't like that or, or if that

bothers you, please don't sit near me at Thanksgiving because

I'm just going to raw, you know, and, and it's, it's kind of an

ugly way to eat, I suspect, but. I am preferential towards ham

because I only prefer fried Turkey.

Oh yeah, baked Turkey. I'm not really interested if it

if like Turkey leg, baked Turkey leg.

You might you might get me like dark meat.

Well, no, it's really more about the bone.

Just to feel like I'm like a Viking eating like.

I'm a. Man, yeah, it's really more

about like the actual art of being able to hold and eat the

Turkey leg. But in general preferred fried

Turkey and most we never fried. Well, my parents just liked ham

anyway. But we we mostly grew up with

ham and most people that I know don't like deep do do the deep

fried. Turkey.

Have you ever tried it? I prefer deep fried Turkey.

Yeah, but I mean, like, have you ever done it at Thanksgiving?

Like me physically done it. Yeah.

No, I don't. I have enough chaos in my life.

I don't. I don't need to deal with a VAT

of burning flaming oil and and and a bird and a bird the size

of a small child that I'm trying to dunk into it.

Like I just. I have enough small children is.

That like the baptism of a Turkey, right?

Right. That's exactly what that is.

No, but also most of the time we never host Thanksgiving like.

We're going. With my parents or Emily's

parents and they're 4 hours away and I'm usually not part of the

Turkey cooking. So see, I guess it's mostly

mostly ham for US. Number one, what's your favorite

side dish has to be on the Thanksgiving table.

What you're going for besides the meat?

I don't think you can I don't I. Can't pick one?

Well, no, I, I, I think I can because it's so essential to

everything on the plate. Again, as somebody who tends to

mix food, I, I don't eat anything by itself, not really.

So like, as somebody who's always mixing food, mashed

potatoes are the glue that holds Thanksgiving dinner together

both literally and figuratively for me.

And, and so I think like if, if you it's true, I'm not even

joking. I wish I was.

That's what's sticking the ham and the Turkey together.

Yeah, you Mashed potato in between.

It's like a sandwich of sorts, you know?

And so if you don't have mashed potatoes, I don't know what

you're doing with your life. I don't know.

Talk to me about texture. Are there are there is a little

little chunky or do you like the full whipped like are these is

it real potatoes? Are you a boxed potato person?

I mean, but I can go either way 'cause I'm just not

indiscriminate. Yeah, but everybody that I'm

around who actually has good taste 'cause I don't assume

that's me. They're they're like natural

potato people. Are you a box guy?

No. Oh no, absolutely not.

OK, I should have known. But I still want like they can

be over mashed. There should still be like I I

want like pea sized chunks of potatoes still like mixed in

there really with the master. Yeah, I want a little.

I need a little coarseness to the Mashed potato.

Do you leave the skins in? No, no, I would prefer not, no.

'Cause I think that gives you the.

I think that gives the texture I want without still having potato

chunks in there. No, I just want, no, no, I just

want the little smaller potato. I don't want like the rindy

skin. No.

OK, lots of butter. Yeah, so semi cream.

Do you concede then that mashed potatoes, that's like the thing

besides the the main course that you have to have or yeah, 'cause

you can. Literally, you can literally put

any, like green bean casserole. Yeah, I'm eating that with

mashed potatoes. Yeah.

The if the Turkey's a little dry.

Yeah. Just heaping mashed potatoes and

making a bite out of that. Absolutely.

Yeah. So I, I think that's, that's the

necessity and I'll even concede to like mash sweet potatoes.

I don't know if I don't know if you're.

Oh yeah, I don't know. Sure, I.

Don't know if you're a sweet potato, a regular potato person,

but like that's that's fine. If you're oh, do you do the

sweet potato casserole with like the marshmallows on?

It I think, well, I mean. It's not my favorite.

It's, but it's a it's a way to get me to eat.

Is is the sweet potato a vegetable technically?

Sure. OK, I don't.

I don't really know, but that's a way to get me to eat

vegetables is if you drowned it in sugar, like marshmallows and

you know, brown sugar and stuff. OK, yeah.

And sweet potatoes, starchy, fleshy root vegetable.

Yeah, right on. I get.

Yeah, I just. I don't know what I what else I

thought it's not like a legume or a fruit.

So yeah, of course the vegetable.

But yeah, I don't know what else I thought it would be, but you.

You. Question fuse me and I'm like.

Why wouldn't it be a vegetable, But maybe it's not a vegetable.

No, it's definitely a vegetable. All right, these so for for me

too, I think I think mashed potatoes is that.

I also love cranberry sauce though, and I know.

That sauce, cranberry sauce, or like the like stuff that looks

like jello and it comes out of a can and it just, it just kind of

wiggles. Right, my kids like that kind.

Oh OK, I prefer the non jellied cran like even if it's in a can,

but like that has the the sauce that has the cranberries in it

still it's not a solid mass like you again, texture guy.

I. Like I like the the pea.

Sized cranberry chunks in the sauce as well, because that can

go on Turkey, that can go on. It doesn't go great on mashed

potatoes. Actually.

I don't. I don't love doing that, but so

no, you're not. From the look on your face,

cranberry sauce is just like, not in your psyche at all.

I mean, we have cranberry salad, cranberry salad.

So you take actual cranberries and you put them in a blender

with orange peel and, and, and eventually you top it.

I, I believe with like walnuts and it and it's very, it's very

tart, but it's a little sweet and it's, it's very good.

My my mother-in-law makes. Awesome cranberry and onion and

orange. Orange peel and I think I can't

remember if she sometimes and sometimes I can't remember if

she adds it's a. Salad.

There's no part. What is it that is a salad?

I don't know what it is then if we just.

Trio mix. Well, but it's very liquidy, you

know, kind of, I mean, you know, I don't know it's.

What salad is liquid? That's a soup salad liquid.

It's not like you. It's not like liquid liquid.

I don't think you know what words are.

I don't think you eat salad. Actually, I don't.

I guess I don't know I I feel all sorts of out of sorts and

confused and I, I won't share the whole story, but I will tell

you that I have done liquid Thanksgiving I took.

So I don't like any of those words.

The the day after and again, not a lot of details here, but the

day after Thanksgiving, I took all the ingredients and I used

milk as like a liquid base and I put it all in the blender and I

drank it. I'm not even joking.

I did that. There's a video of it somewhere.

No, I did. That's not OK.

Well, I did. How old were you when you did

this? Like 5 years ago, like as a

grown as a grown man, I did that.

I feel like from now on that should be like a an application

question. Like at this, you're applying

for a job at this church. Have you ever done Liquid

Thanksgiving? Have you ever blended?

And that's like an automatic no. I can't say I'm super proud of

it, but I can say I'm super proud of how I entertained

teenagers because it was it was during COVID.

And so like, we weren't really at the church.

I was working out, We weren't really meeting as a youth group

anymore. And so like we did some funny

videos and I thought, you know what?

This video is going to be hilarious.

I'm going to film myself making it and then drinking it.

And, you know, reactions were, of course, mixed, as was my

food. And some people were like, I

wish I never saw that. And other people were like,

that's the funniest thing I've ever seen.

So, you know, it depends on so gross.

Depends on who you are. I don't like that at all.

Yeah, well, I didn't love it. It was not the greatest tasting

thing I've ever had. All right, what is what is your

least favorite side? What's What's the unnecessary

thing at the Thanksgiving table? Oh my gosh, I don't like what is

it? Is it called green?

Green bean casserole. OK.

That's also. My thought, it's usually made of

cream of mushroom and green beans and it's just you.

You top it with those little onion straw things and it's just

kind of gross, the whole thing. Both thumbs down on green bean

casserole. We might that might be a

polarizing take, but Nope, it's gross.

We're going to get so much green bean casserole next week.

If people bring, if they bring leftovers of that, first of all,

I'm going to knock them because, and here's my argument, there's

leftovers because we're not the only ones who hate it.

That's why there's leftovers. It's because it's gross.

It's true. Didn't get eaten.

Yeah, that's why it's gross. All right, couple more rabbit

fire. Best pie.

Pecan, pecan. Pie that didn't even OK, I

wasn't. I went.

I went pumpkin and apple before I even got to pecan.

But really, you're straight pumpkin.

No, not in sorry, not in hierarchy, but like ones that

crossed my mind. Oh, sure.

No, it's, it's just the best pie on the planet.

OK, Just for any holiday, for any event, it's just great.

Do you know people who don't like pie at all 'cause I have a

couple. People like that in my life.

I think I have family members that don't like pie at all.

So do you have alternative desserts at your Thanksgiving

gathering? Yes, my parents are big Costco

people. And there's usually this like

tiramisu cake, which is also very good.

It's just like nothing about it's Thanksgiving, but like it's

just very good. But usually like, I mean, apple

pie, pumpkin pie are are usually pretty prevalent.

Yeah. And then this tiramisu and

there's like a a black tuxedo cake.

Oh, that's also from Costco. Yeah.

My parents hit up the Costco bakery before most big holidays

so those are both good but not like nothing intrinsically

Thanksgiving about those things. I don't think so.

Nor is there with, you know, chicken fingers from Quikstar.

But it always ends up at my table, so it's fine.

It's. Weird.

All right, so, so pecan. Just straight up do you?

Does you or Alyssa make the pecan pie?

No, neither of us are pie makers.

OK, I I think I. Wait for mom on that.

Well, no, I think we they're always store bought.

I don't know. I don't know that maybe maybe my

sister-in-law makes a pie. I can't, I can't remember.

But now are you, let me ask you this then.

Are you really involved in the process of food making for

Thanksgiving? Because what is typically

transpired in my family is like, I don't know that there's really

a guy involved in any of the food making.

I think, I think our our women are they're fantastic.

They do amazing work that day to feed everybody and none of us,

none of the guys are really involved.

I have I can't really recall there might have been 1

Thanksgiving when Oliver was first born.

I think that we even hosted Thanksgiving.

And then other than that, I'm not like you can go somewhere

else and help prepare food while you're there, but generally we

don't. I I just feel like I'm not

innately part of the food preparation usually which.

Is crazy because you are so good at like you make amazing food

in. General I love it, but I don't

know the chaos of yeah, kids in a different place and being out

of sorts. Not in mine usual.

I don't know environs for for making the food.

It's just I don't know. I haven't pursued it hard

either. I've never like gone to my

parents house and been like and I'm cooking or especially I'm

definitely not my in laws house and been like hey.

I'm taking over. I'm taking over, yeah.

Yeah, I just haven't done that. That's fair.

So. Well, there we are.

All right, that's that's it. I'm sorry, I just.

Got. Really distracted by a text

message that came through my computer.

You were like buffering there for a second.

It was glitching. It's just stuck.

We are jumping to Deuteronomy 34 and the conclusion of this Moses

our deliverer series. You started the message

yesterday in full on funeral garb, did the obituary and he is

he is survived by part of part of everything with with Moses.

There's a lot of interesting things in this passage, even

even more so than you harped on. I love how you got to the end

and talked about the transfiguration and and that

being the fulfillment of of God's goodness, God's promises

to to Moses and the people of Israel.

Obvious parallels there between Moses climate, Moses ascending

and descending, Jesus ascending and descending and, and those

things. So we're in Deuteronomy 34.

What are some of the nuanced things in here that you wished

we could either you could either speak more about, maybe weren't

preachy but are just like historically worthy to know, or

maybe some extra things at the end that you wish you could have

fleshed out more. Yeah.

Well, I think first and foremost, one of the things that

is interesting is that when you read the text, it is not clear

that anyone is with Moses except God himself.

If you just read the text at face value, we, we have no

indication that anybody followed him up the mountain.

And even leading up to this, if you read the chapters before,

God pretty clearly says you're going, you're going to go up by

yourself. And so, you know, and this is

where scholars just disagree, but you can never prove an

angle. But it's worth kind of noting

where they come from, you know? So some scholars believe that

Joshua as Moses's right hand man was nearby, that he went up with

him, maybe didn't go all the way up with him, but he was nearby

and that he was somehow a part of the burial process.

But honestly, I disagree with that one because you know, the

the one of the key things that the text tells us and that we

understand is that nobody knows where Moses's body was laid.

So it would then indicate if that's true.

And especially if Joshua is the one writing post humanistly for

Moses, there was no way he'd be able to say that if he was

there. So I think that debunks that

scholarly angle. Another angle is that there are

angels, so God being holy and glorified and other than that he

would not himself have moved Moses's body into a resting

place, but that angels of God did that while God was present.

And again, you can't prove that and you can't totally debunk it

either. So I just think it's a, it's

kind of an interesting thing to note or to to maybe wonder about

like who is actually there. Yeah, and I mean in the literal

reading of the text, I mean verse one, then Moses went up

from the plains of Moab, could have explicitly said to others,

if there were others with him. And and even going on later in

verse one, the Lord showed him all the land Gilead as far as

all Dan and as far as Dan all Naftali, the land of Ephraim and

Manasseh and the land of Judah as far as the western sea.

It seems like this is something that God is doing for Moses and

Moses alone, right? Like it, it'd be a little weird

to have all this like resplendent revelation for Moses

and his homies, right? Like.

Moses and the Gang. Might be a fun band name.

Yep, Yep. So yeah, I, I, I would agree

with, I tend to agree with you just by the reading of the text

and the fact that so verse 6 it it can be translated.

I mean, my ESV says and he buried him in the valley in the

land. The only other he that's present

here is the Lord who has shown Moses these things and he's the

only other he in this passage so far to verse 5 and 6.

It can it can also be translated because we're missing Hebrew

doesn't have always have all the words everywhere in in all the

places. Like it could also be this

phrase could also be taken. He he was buried in the valley.

Like you could just simply be that.

And that's a little more ambiguous.

We don't know who did the burying, but it's certainly not

outside of the scope of God's power to just bury Moses right,

whether by angels or snapping his fingers like he could.

He could just bury him right, Like that's not too grand or

beneath him. So no, I think I'm think I'm

with you on that. That most likely this was this

was an experience for him and him alone right rising up the

mountain and and the other part of reinforcing that I think is

is because it was Jesus and Jesus alone.

Yes at at the foot of the cross what was was his his mother and

and his brother his like his disciples there with him too

right. James and John were most

pointedly there, but I I think that would also like there there

wasn't anyone who went up there and did it with him, at least at

least for Jesus. And I think there's too many

other strong stark parallels in this story.

Like I think it just makes sense that this was this was Moses and

God and and that was it. Yeah.

And the other, the other interesting thing that happens

there is, you know, so Moses has this really special kind of

sweet moment with God in his death.

And quite the opposite happens with Jesus on the cross is he

has this terrible moment where God is just not with him at all.

He's turned his back on him so that he can take the judgment

and the punishment that all of us have earned.

And so I mean the, the parallels and the opposites, they're so

they're, they're magnificent between, you know, Moses dying

and Jesus's death. It's, it's pretty, it's, it's a

fantastic parallel. And so I, I think it's

interesting in some ways for, for, for Jewish people in

particular that Jesus so fulfills and he's so parallels

all of the Old Testament so perfectly.

And for some reason that's either hard to accept or hard

for them to to see those connections and I and that's

unfortunate. Yeah, because you did a really

good job at the end too, especially in talking about the

transfiguration, Moses. So Moses ascended to receive the

the 10 commandments came down to a people that were already

breaking them, right, like he he's coming down with, hey, this

is this is the plan. This this is it.

And then he quite literally breaks the law, right smashes

the tablets Jesus cast Philippines to casting heaven a

side coming down to a world that it's already broken the law that

that's that's already living in that shattered state of

rebellion, right. So Jesus comes down not not to

condemn them, but to to fulfill the law, right.

And and in the same as a Moses goes back up to receive the law

again and even to offer himself to God, say spare these people

take me right. We talked about that a couple a

couple weeks ago. Jesus no, and and you, you

touched on that tender moment too, for for God as as the

father of the pleading son saying take it's it's again

opposite parallels almost, because Moses was saying take

me, spare the spare the people. Jesus has that phrase of, of if

it be possible, take this cup from me or he's pleading spare

me, right and, and you're right. So the father has this, this

touching intimate moment with, with Moses in his death and in

Jesus's death, the father turns his face away, right.

And and let's say they both, they both ascend Moses, of

course, transfiguration in in the promised land on the

mountain with, with the Savior. And then those and those

parallels there too. But Jesus ascending to the cross

and ultimately ascending to to the Father.

But man. Well, you're, you're drawing

that out beautifully. And there's some things you just

said just there where I was like, oh man, I I wish I kind of

almost would have said it that way, but I think, yeah, how

you're helping draw that out. It's it's so true and it's, it's

fantastic and it's heartbreaking at the same time, You know, even

thinking about, you know, that that little riff on like God

being unchangeable because if he changed based on his feelings,

we would, we would be lost. But I mean, like, that's such a

heartbreaking thing to think about.

And I, I felt that all week, to be honest, Like I was feeling

that all week. It was just like, gosh, I, I, I

understand why he doesn't change.

I understand why he, why he wouldn't change.

But like, there are certainly moments and times in my life

where I'm like, I don't, I don't feel like I'm worth the well

and, and like I'm not worth that cost, you know, And so, I mean,

I think that's a, a humbling reality for Christians.

Like if that gets in your head and your heart, you know, you'll

feel the sense like I'm not, I'm not worth what you went through,

but you're argued against by Jesus and the Father himself.

No, you are worth it. I do love you that much.

And I think for the Christian who like owns that truth, that

is an incredibly humbling experience in it.

And it ought to change how we live out our faith, because it

is so humbling that I know I'm not worth that cost.

But you did it anyway. And that's that that cost

discussion or worth. I think it's really interesting

in verse 8, the Israelites grieved for Moses in the plains

of Moab for 30 days until the time of weeping and mourning was

over. This people is all over the

place, man. Like he was on the mountain for

40 days and he was dead. They didn't, they didn't mourn

him. That's what that's like.

Maybe they did because he was up on the mountain.

They didn't know he was coming back.

Maybe there was parts of them, but they didn't think he was

dead. Then they were like, we got to

move on. We, we, we need a different God.

We need somebody else to lead us.

Give, give us this stuff. Aaron here.

They deeply feel the loss of Moses.

Like I don't. Know what is happening.

I think it goes back to that, that ever popular phrase, you

don't know what you've got until it's gone.

And so I mean, even though Moses has clearly anointed Joshua as

their next leader, militarily and otherwise, you know, they

gosh, they were hard on him. They were, they were a

difficult, stiff necked people to deal with.

And maybe maybe it wasn't really until his death that they looked

backwards and went, man, we could have been a lot kinder to

that guy. He gave his he gave his life to

serve us, to bring us out of slavery, to do all these things

for us. And I don't think we ever really

appreciated him as much as we should have while he was still

here. And we get that sense sometimes

with people, you know, like you get wrapped up in the in the

day-to-day things, you know, maybe you don't like the way

they do certain things. And so, but man, there's a level

of appreciation that can come, you know, in relationships with

people sometimes after death. And, and I wish that wasn't the

case because I think we would be more loving, sensitive people in

general if we were more willing to express those good things

while people are still here. But for whatever reason, a lot

of us as humans, we have a hard time expressing that

appreciation while people are standing right in front of us.

And and to continue on, I think you said that really well to

continue on with the irony of it all like not appreciate what

they've got till it's gone. Verse 9 Obviously the handoff

now Joshua son of nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom

because Moses had laid his hands on him.

So the Israelites listened to him and did what the Lord had

commanded Moses it they they wouldn't listen to Moses saying

the things, but Joshua who's saying the same things that

Moses did. Now they're now they're ready to

listen. Now they're.

Ready to follow Now they're going to do it.

And it's like, man, come on, give this guy a break.

Like let's let's appreciate him for who he is and what he's

sacrificed and what he's done and Oh my gosh, for whatever

reason. And that and and that's I don't,

I wonder if Moses felt that disappointment.

I mean, we talked briefly about like the disappointment he may

have felt not being able to cross over into land during his

natural life. But I mean, I wonder if there

was some sense of like disappointment of like, well,

because, OK, so like, how do, how do we create our identities?

I think first and foremost, we ought to create our identities

around who God says we are. We are his children, we're

beloved, You know, where's his inheritance?

OK, if I can start with my identity there, But it is

inevitable that part of my, what I think about myself, my

identity will be how other people think about me, how they

treat me, how they talk about me.

And, and so I mean, like, I almost wonder like if Moses was

like, man, I, I wish they could have seen me for who I am.

And it seems like they did not see him that way.

They saw him as like this guy who maybe they felt like often

times failed him because they, he led them in the wrong

direction, you know, geographically or whatever.

And, and I just, I think it's unfortunate.

It's, it's sad really, in some ways.

Yeah, no, it definitely is because he didn't he didn't

really see the results that he was hoping for while living.

It's it was more of a legacy thing passed on.

They didn't get it till he was gone.

Yeah. Anything else towards the end

here that you wanted to draw on? Oh my gosh.

Well, there was this. There's this, there's this thing

that happens outside of outside of the writing about Moses's

life. If you go to Jude Book of Jude

in the New Testament. So Jude, if you don't know,

that's actually short. His proper name would have been

Judas. But this is also like James, the

half brother of Jesus. So we've got Jude and he's got

this little 1 chapter writing in the New Testament.

And in that he he recounts something that like is nowhere

else in the Bible. And so it's worth it.

Jude verse nine. Oh wait, maybe I should start

earlier. Let's see here.

Oh yeah, Jude verse 9. Let's start there.

OK, so it says yet Michael the Archangel in contending with the

devil when he disputed about the body of Moses dared not bring

against him a reviling accusation, but said the Lord

rebuke you. So in the New Testament we get

this angle that's at some point Satan and the Archangel Michael

had to dispute about who gets Moses body.

And you're like, where did that come from?

So doing a little digging on this, I mean, and I'm heavily

leaning on one commentator here, the enduring word commentary,

which we use fairly frequently. Very trustworthy source, but

couple of things that he writes here.

Jude mentioned two kinds of inject beings.

Michael is among angelic beings being faithful to God who are

servants of God and man. The devil is among the angelic

beings rebelling against God who are enemies of man.

And ultimately, like the source of this, they're saying that

there is kind of an apocryphilical.

Is that a word like an apocryphy writing that Jude and other

Jewish people at the time had access to that was limited and

did not make it into the Old Testament, But that's where his

source of understanding that Satan and and Michael were

fighting over Jews, Moses's body.

And I just, the whole thing is really interesting and you're

like, I, I don't know why. Why would Satan want his body?

Why would he want it? Is it to defile it?

Is it to? Well, in the other angle that

you could take on this, there's a reason why Moses's grave went

unmarked and unknown. Because what would happen if it

was known? Likely his own people would have

turned it into this kind of ceremonial worship site.

And Moses was never meant to be worshipped, hence the whole rock

incident that we talked about yesterday in the sermon.

Like he was never meant to be looked at as God or their

savior. And so there's there's plenty of

scholarly material that would say that God did that on purpose

so that Moses wouldn't be worshipped or his or his

gravesite wouldn't be worshipped.

And so perhaps that was Satan's angle.

If we're taking Jude very seriously here, which we ought

to, perhaps that was Satan's angle, as if he could reveal

Moses's burial site or his body all of a sudden.

Like the focus goes off of God and it goes back on Moses.

Yeah. Well, and that's it's really

interesting that Jude has this again like 1500 years later,

right? Jude all of a sudden dropping.

Hey, yeah, this these guys were disputing over over Moses body.

So did he have a specific unique revelation or or or was it this

book the the assumption of Moses that we just have fragments of

this this historical book from that.

But to your point about about like God and unlike God the the

other, the other part of this Michael and I love that he

points out in in this commentary, Michael and Satan

are the equals here. I think so often we think as of

of Satan as like God's opposite. Oh yeah, or we think of him as

the enemy of God. But I think within that we give

him similar power to God, right. When, when in reality it's God

and then and Satan is on like field as the angels, right?

Like as as far as power and influence.

So, so really Michael and Satan are are equal level of of sorts

here. And yeah, just just something to

point. I, I, I think we often elevate

Satan's influence to be, to like have a fighting chance with God

and he and he really doesn't. Him and him and Michael are

peers, not Satan and God. Another interesting thing that

kind of comes out of not only this commentary, but just in

general as you think about this is that if the commentary points

out that in this Jude passage, Michael as a as an Angel does

not belittle Satan. He doesn't he doesn't tread all

over him. He actually goes back to the

power of God and says the Lord rebuke you.

And so the commentary will make the argument that like it is not

our job to attempt to be little Satan or to trounce all over

him. And in that, in that way, it's

actually to point back to God, the way that Jesus does when

he's being tempted in tempted in the wilderness, and to use the

word of the Lord against him, not our own power, not our own

way of like trying to put him down, but use the word of the

Lord against him. Yeah.

And and in a similar way, he's also kind of submitting to.

It's not my authority. I'm.

I'm not. I'm not saying this is wrong in

my power. I'm submitting to God as and I'm

calling you out under God's authority as well.

Well, and towards the end of the passage, of course, we we get

again kind of this summary of Moses's life.

None was like him For all the signs and the wonders that the

Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and to all

of his servants and to all of his land for and for all the

mighty of power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses

did in the sight of Israel. So we, we do very much get the

sense that, you know, until Jesus shows up, there is no one

like Moses, not King David, like there's nobody like him.

God had really picked him up and said, OK, you are going to be my

servant who I used to do incredible and ridiculous things

in the sight of people. And so not until Jesus shows up

do we see anything of that stature again.

I mean, we have Elijah and we have Elijah and we have these

are the prophets who do some pretty remarkable things, but

nothing like this. This is truly remarkable.

Yeah, yeah. So and that's it.

We did. We did the story of Moses, the

life of Moses, the sort of Christological preamble that

that he is to the person of Jesus, the ultimate deliverer in

the New Testament and and for us.

And moving on as we, as we look forward after the funeral of

Moses, now we, we stay in the Old Testament, though we, we

move forward in the Old Testament for Advent, but we

stay there with Isaiah the, the pre, the one who speaks maybe

most clearly or most often about the coming Messiah.

And so super looking forward to Advent and how Isaiah, as a

prophet of God just spoke really plainly and clearly about what's

coming. Yeah, no, it's going to be

great. And that's this week.

Advent starts this week, November 30th.

It's happening. So yeah, chime in on the funny

memes of the Christian artists and the and the Thanksgiving

dishes that that they are. We'll we'll post that under the

episode as well. I thought it was a funny thing

because they're wildly accurate in how they portrayed it and

it's really funny. Somebody took some real time to

think that through. Who you can tell.

Yeah, it's well done. So wanted to share that

enjoyment with you all as well. Thanks for tuning in, listening

along as we continue the conversation from the message

this weekend. Thanks for being a part of our

Community Church. Have a blessed week.