Hindsight is twenty-twenty they say. Here we are at the end of Moses’ life and our attention is drawn to his vision. Standing on top of a mountain on the edge of the Holy Land, Moses, like Superman, sees it all. Canaan is one hundred and sixty miles in length and fifty or sixty in breadth. At 120 years old Exodus tells us that Moses’ eyesight was sharp. John Wesley mused that even so his sight must have been “miraculously assisted and enlarged.” Moses had good vision.
And as he was looking forward to the Land where the Israelites would finally call home, he also looked back. The Lord reminded him that Moses was on the brink of the fulfillment of God’s promise to give this land to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their descendants, more numerous than the stars. Mountain top experiences are often times when we pause to reflect on our lives, to look back and see all the missteps, the hardships, the times of wonder and joy along the path we took along the way. Did Moses stop to remember his mother and sister, the kindly Egyptian princess who adopted him, the person he killed in his youth, the work he did leading flocks of sheep. Could he now see how earlier parts of his life prepared him for the bigger tasks that the Lord would set before him, to lead the Israelites out of slavery, to help them to become reacquainted with their Lord and learn to observe God’s commands? I suspect he could. Hindsight is twenty-twenty.
The vision of a life of freedom in the Land of Canaan that God gave to Moses was about to be realized. The time was at hand. And yet, Moses himself would not live long enough to make his home there, or even to step foot in the land himself. He died on that mountain. An honorable death, a well-earned rest, embraced by the Lord – Jewish tradition has it that Moses’ soul went out with a kiss from God both the kiss of death and the kiss of peace.
How unfair it seems to us that after all of his hard labor, fighting with the people when they grumbled and complained, reprimanding them when they rebelled, begging the Lord for forgiveness on their behalf – how unfair that Moses should not be allowed to join his people in their final destination.
I heard a student voice a similar complaint the other day. In the process of trying to line up a field placement sight she discovered a mistake in the process that would adversely affect anyone trying to work at a particular location. Her work at alerting the people in charge made a difference for the future. But she was not going to reap the benefit of the changes she initiated.
Yet this is often the way. It is indeed mysterious that “those who lead God’s people, intercede for them and reprimand them when they transgress, the true servants of the Lord (v. 5), do not necessarily see the fulfillment of God’s promise.” Take Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for example. He alluded to the last chapter from Deuteronomy in the last sermon he preached entitled “I See the Promised Land.” Like Moses, Dr. King was fairly clear at this point that his life was about to end. His sermon alludes to the many death threats that had been made in the spring of 1968. And like Moses, who gave a pep talk to the Israelites, Dr. King was aiming to encourage his followers to continue the work after he was gone. He said,
I see God working in this period of the twentieth century in a way that men, in some strange way, are responding – something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up. And wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; New York City; Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi, or Memphis Tennessee – the cry is always the same – “We want to be free.”…Now I’m just happy that God has allowed me to live in this period, to see what is unfolding.
Dr. King did not live to see his dream of little black boys an black girls being able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers realized. Yet because of his work and those who followed his lead in promoting not only civil rights, but caring relationships between peoples of different races two generations of American children have grown up with tv shows like Sesame Street where people with different races and genders and physical abilities, (not to mention different colored fur!) interact with one another in friendship and respect. Because of Dr. King’s vision and the vision of others like him our school curricula across the country have been rewritten with the purpose of writing in the lives of the women, the slaves, the workers, the Native Americans, the immigrants. Because of visions like this the year 2009 will see either an African American president or a woman vice president
It is a testimony to Dr. King’s faith in God, and his conviction that his vision came from God whose will, in the end, will be done, that he could honestly say.
it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land. And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.
Such vision comes as a gift from God. As John Wesley said, “Such a sight the Old Testament believers had of the kingdom of the Messiah. And such a sight believers have now of the glory that shall be revealed. Such a sight have we now, of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, which shall cover the earth. Those that come after us shall undoubtedly enter into that promised land: which is a comfort to us, when we find our own carcases falling in this wilderness.
These reflections on vision – the vision of the Patriarchs, the vision of Dr. King, the vision of women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Frances Willard – thinking on their vision begs us to pause and think about our own vision. What vision has the Lord given you and where are you in your life with that vision. Those at the end like Moses are invited to look around and find someone to share that vision with. Whom has the Lord put in your life who might carry on the good work you’ve been doing? Who is your Joshua, standing beside you, eager to receive your wisdom and continue your work? For those who are at the middle, or closer to the beginning of our lives it is fitting to ponder what vision is the Lord giving us. What work are we being called to take up as we move with God’s people toward the life in God’s kingdom that it may fully come here on earth as it is in heaven.
Let us pray for one another, that each of us, like Moses, may have twenty-twenty vision.
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