Deuteronomy 34:10 - Death, Burial, And Encomium Of Moses.

Face to face; or, the secret of power.

"Whom the Lord knew face to face." Such is the remarkable expression used with regard to Moses. This certainly implies that there was in his case unwonted closeness of fellowship with God. There are expressions not dissimilar in Numbers 12:7 , Numbers 12:8 , but yet we must make allowance for the prevalence of the vividness of Eastern imagery, and not press the literalness of the words too closely. In fact, we are guarded against that by the words in Exodus 33:20 .

To what extent Moses saw any manifested form, it is not likely we shall ever in this state of being, be able to tell. It is the duty of thoughtful men to penetrate beneath the archaisms and Orientalisms of the ancient text, and to seize the permanent truth which underlies them. The thought which we here detect as that which is under the surface is this—that Moses had very close communion with God.

Every spirit which yearns after God may hold communion with God. And inasmuch as "every man's life is a plan of God," God may make that fellowship serve any purposes he has for the man to fulfill. By such communion there may be:

Now, there is a specific term for each of these three effects of communion with God. When it simply subserves the life of holiness which all may lead, we call it religion ; when it is made tributary to a special form of service, we call it inspiration ; when it is made the means of causing new truth to appeal', we call it revelation .

The latter has been realized by those few—extremely few—of the human race by whom God has unfolded new truth. The medial one has been experienced by the more numerous souls who have been borne along as by a special outside force to the fulfillment of a great mission. The first-named is the common privilege of all God-fearing souls.

Moses was one of the very few who enjoyed the privilege of "seeing the Unseen One" for all three purposes; and the four following sentences will sum up his life:—

I. By the power of RELIGION he lived the life of the saint.

II. By that of INSPIRATION he discharged the functions of leader, administrator, and recorder.

III. By that of REVELATION he had the visions of the seer.

IV. COMMUNION WITH GOD was the secret of all: "face to face."

To those who understand communion with God, either of the three will be regarded as in the highest degree reasonable, intelligible, and credible. Those who do not know what it is to pour out the soul unto God, may indeed accept all three in a formal manner, but they can go no further. And if such formal believers should chance to be subject to the fierce storms of modern criticism, there is no telling but they may come to deny them all; yea, they may come to think that religion, inspiration, and revelation are swept clean away; and all because they understand nothing of man's highest privilege —Communion with God!

HOMILIES BY R.M. EDGAR