Parashah 54: V’Zot Habrachah (This is the Blessing)
(Deuteronomy 33:1-34:12) Final Week; 54
There are thoughts to ponder as the final days of Moses life, face to face with ADONAI and face to face with His Nation wind down to an end. The Lord Himself buried Moshe in an unidentified, selective tomb location, that to this day is still unknown!
Here are a few of the amazing relational details of how the God of Israel poured out His testimony and His spirit into his ordained ‘Deliverer of the Nation of Israel’!
- The Lord prepared Moses to lead the new Nation out of over 400 years of slavery, during a 40-Year Wilderness experience as a Shepherd in Midian, very near Mount Sinai!
- Moses conversed with ADONAI Face to Face. (Panim el Panim) Moshe was the only prophet of the Lord to have experienced this level of relational friendship with ADONAI.
- Moses has been identified by ADONAI as the greatest prophet ever to be sent by God to the Nation of Israel as: deliverer, teacher, prophet, and His intermediary ~ representative.
- Consistent with Jewish tradition, Moses’ Habrachah or Blessing fits the description of a dying Patriarch’s final blessing over his children.
- Each Tribe is given its own blessing by Moshe. The intimate knowledge of each Tribe and Leader is evident in the very personal blessings Moshe prayed over them individually.
- The blessings of Moshe prayed over each Tribe mirrors the Aaronic Blessing given by the Lord to Aaron and his descendants; to be prayed over the people of Israel not only to usher in blessings from heaven, but to put the Lord’s GREAT NAME on the Nation of Israel for all to witness and acknowledge. Israel will be blessed by ADONAI, forever!
The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them,
The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.’
So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.”
Numbers 6:22-27
At 120 years of age at the time of his death, Moses was neither weakened nor was his sight diminished! He climbed ~ ascended from the plains of Mo’av up to Mount N’vo as commanded by ADONAI, in order to gaze upon the promised land from a far distance. He would never step one foot onto the land of milk and honey.
ADONAI said to him: “This is the land concerning which I swore to Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya’akov, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over there.” Deuteronomy 34: 4
Moses was not only a prophet, teacher, friend and deliverer of the Nation of Israel, he was the servant to the Most High God, Elohim. Moses acted as a Scribe for the Lord by recording the details of his wilderness journey with the new Nation of Israel beginning with the burning bush that was not consumed as he shepherded his flocks around Mount Sinai; as deliverer of the Nation of Hebrews out of their bondage in Egypt; and all the details of the 40 year Wilderness Wandering around the Sinai desert; including every encampment experience as the Nation moved out deeper into the wilderness, following the Lord’s lead by following the cloud of presence by day, and the cloud of fire by night.
The blessing ends…as Moshe’s mission ends! Moshe’s leadership and obedient recordings of history end, just as Joshua, son of Nun, who was full of the Spirit of wisdom because of Moshe’s Habrachah over him, takes up the pen and the quill, the sword and the staff, as the new leader over the Nation of Israel just in time, as they advance into their inheritance!
“Since that time there has not arisen in Isra’el a prophet like Moshe, whom ADONAI knew face to face.”
Deuteronomy 34:10