The still small voice- A Funeral

One morning as I traveled to my clinic, I was thinking about a certain servant of God who had died a couple of days back and that day his funeral was to taking place. As I approached the place where the cremation was to take place there was such a big queue for the last time view of the servant of God. There was a mammoth crowd and people were thronging around the place.

Certain thoughts regarding the event came to my mind and I was making my own conclusions-Certainly this man deserved this kind of a last minute send off, if one could call it that. He had labored for Christ for so many years that such a heavy crowd had turned out for his funeral. Surely any one so great will naturally have many admirers and it was logical that people had to wait in large queues to get a last glimpse.

Quite unexpectedly Lord spoke to me and very clearly said something unique. He said, “There was no one around when I buried Moses.”

Now this was something extraordinary. I could never have brought up this thought by myself. It’s just the way that the Lord speaks to us. “Out of the blue” on certain occasions. He didn’t say another word but just what He had already said, but that itself was worth a day’s thinking.

Moses was a great servant of God. The Bible does vouch for that.

So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the LORD’s word. He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth Peor, but no man knows where his tomb is to this day. Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died. His eye was not dim, nor his strength gone. The children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the days of weeping in the mourning for Moses were ended. Since then, there has not arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, in all the signs and the wonders which the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land, and in all the mighty hand, and in all the awesome deeds, which Moses did in the sight of all Israel.

(Deuteronomy 34:5-8, 10-12)

Wonderful, isn’t it?....All the things that are written about this great servant of God. Perhaps some critics may argue that He deserved a better burial but there couldn’t have been a better burial for Him. God Himself set the time and place and conducted the funeral rites.

Of course before the actual burial took place there was a fight for his dead body as we read in the book of Jude.

“But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, The Lord rebuke you!” (Jude 9)

I often wonder why devil contended for the body of Moses. Perhaps he was trying to establish the view point that Moses disobeyed God regarding speaking to the rock instead of hitting it. Well, the devil has all sorts of tricks up his sleeve. But he got the right reply from the archangel Michael who said that his accusations against Moses and his contending for his body deserved a rebuke from the Lord.

The Bible says that the Lord knows them who are his and He knows them who are truly faithful to Him even though the devil may bring all sorts of allegations and accusations against them.

Praise the Lord for He is always just in all His ways.

Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are your ways, you King of the nations. (Revelation 15:3)