Today’s Reading: Numbers 26 & 27

It would be a strange thing to know when you were going to die. I mean, imagine if you knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you were going to die next week. What would you do? What would you say? How would you arrange your days? Would you have a dying wish for those around you?

Moses experienced that unusual phenomenon when God spoke clearly to him and told him when he was going to die. And not only did he know it was going to happen, but he had seen the very same kind of death happen to his brother Aaron. And so, faced with the reality that his death was coming soon, Moses must have had a million things going through his head.

Some in Moses’ position might have, as Moses was known to do on occasion, begged God for mercy – to change his mind. Others might have prayed for peace or provision for their family. Others might have gotten angry and said, “Why me?” But Moses had other things on his mind. You see, these people that he had been leading around the desert were precious to him. They mattered to him personally, but, perhaps more than that, they mattered to him because they mattered to God.

You’ll notice that just prior to Moses being told he was going to die, he conducted another census. And the results of the census were that there were just as many people as there had been before – except this was a unique group of people. This was the second generation of nomadic Israelites. This was a group of men and women – young men and women – who had been roaming through the dessert their entire lives. I can imagine that, in their eyes, Moses was god-like. He was the one who had freed their parents from Egyptian slavery. He was the one that was going to lead them to the promised land. He was, in a way, their father.

And so, this father – a father to an entire nation of young men and women – voiced his dying wish to his father in heaven:

Moses said to the Lord, “May the Lord, the God who gives breath to all living things, appoint someone over this community to go out and come in before them, one who will lead them out and bring them in, so the Lord’s people will not be like sheep without a shepherd.” (Numbers 27:15-17)

Moses realized the incredible leadership void that would be left in his absence and he prayed to God for someone to take his place. His brother Aaron was gone. All of those wise old men who had been around for so many years to help Moses lead the nation were gone, too. From the first census, there were only 3 people left: Moses, Caleb and Joshua. And so, God told Moses to appoint Joshua, “a man in whom is the spirit of leadership,” to lead the people into the promised land.

Moses laid his hands on Joshua, commissioned him and, in the process, was witness to God fulfilling his dying wish for the people of Israel.