IT was not God's will that Moses should lead the Israelites into the promised land, but he was to die on the east side of the river Jordan; and so he would have his rest above instead of in the land of promise.
But first God told him he might see the land. So he went up into a very high hill: and there God made him able to see all the home of his people--the snowy hill of Hermon, and Mount Lebanon where the cedar trees grow, and the hills and valleys where Abraham had wandered and Isaac and Jacob had lived, and which he had hoped for all his life; and green fields, and corn-fields, and vineyards, on to the great blue sea stretching out to the westward.
That was where his people were to live; but there was a better home for Moses. Nobody saw him any more after he went up into the mountain. There he died, and the Lord buried him, and no one knows of his grave--only the children of Israel wept and mourned for him.
1. Where had the Israelites come? 2. Who had led them? 3. But where was Moses not to go? 4. But what did God allow him to see? 5. Where was he to go? 6. What did God show him there? 7. What kind of place was it? 8. Where had he brought the people from? 9. Who was to lead them in? 10. What was to happen to Moses? 11. Did any one ever see him again? 12. What does no one know? 13. Why do we think so much of Moses? 14. Where did he speak with God? 15. Was he not the greatest man of all in the Old Testament?
"Be strong and of good courage."--_Joshua 1:6_
AFTER Moses had gone out of sight on the mountain, God Himself told Joshua that Moses was dead, and that he must lead the children of Israel into the good land God had promised them. Moses had laid his hands on Joshua's head, and God's Holy Spirit had come to help him to see what was right, and to lead the people. He must be strong and brave, and do all that God commanded, and then he would be quite sure to be able to drive away all the strange people out of the land, and to make a home for the people in the land that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, had loved so well.
All the people promised they would do as Joshua bade them. So he was their captain instead of Moses.
1. Who was the old leader of the children of Israel? 2. Where had Moses led them from? 3. Where were they going? 4. Where did Moses go? 5. What became of Moses on the mountain? 6. Whom did God make captain instead of Moses? 7. What did God tell Joshua? 8. What did God promise him? 9. What is the way to be helped by God? 10. What were the Israelites to be helped to do? 11. Who were to be driven away? 12. Why did the children of Israel wish to live in the land of Canaan? 13. What had God promised Abraham? 14. And does God always keep his promises?