It occurred to me today I’ve never felt jealous of Moses. We read in the Torah various kinds of events in his life during the early days of God’s people. And throughout them I’ve never thought Oh I wish I had done that. I don’t think there’s any particular reason for this. But this morning my lack of jealousy settled in on me when reading Numbers 31.
The first two verses say, “Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Take vengeance on the Midianites for the sons of Israel; afterward you will be gathered to your people.”
This passage caught my attention for obvious reasons. The Lord tells Moses how his life will end. Basically He says, “Ok Moses. Time to kill the Midianites. Then that’ll be it for you.”
Wow. Can you imagine having such clarity on the timing of your life’s end? I don’t think I’d do well with it. Some people say they’d love to know exactly when and how it will all end. But I’d probably fret and worry about it, so no thank you.
On top of that, surely Moses struggled in some ways with the realization that he was not to make it all the way to the Promised Land. All he’d worked for was about to fall short of the goal. I wonder how the hard news hit Moses.
I think the point emerging to me goes to show that in this life we will not have closure. Closure comes in the next life, when Jesus puts all things to straights (a turn of phrase I loved reading in a book by C.S. Lewis). For now, things will remain crooked; but crooked for His good purposes. Thus it seems we don’t actually need closure, contrary to what we open hear and think.
In this we gain yet another reason to see Jesus is better than what we could think or imagine. Think you need closure? Jesus is better.
