A Face to Face Legacy
If you can't "go into all of the world" who will go in your place?
Pastor Joe Palmer delivered a one-off sermon Sunday, which isn’t tied to a series. He mentioned checking the lectionary for inspiration and settled on Deuteronomy 14:1-12. This is the very last chapter of this book in the Bible in its entirety.
1Now Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land, Gilead as far as Dan,
2and all Naphtali and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah as far as the western sea,
3and the Negev and the plain in the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar.
4Then the Lord said to him, “This is the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants’; I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.”
5So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord.
6And He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor; but no man knows his burial place to this day.
7Although Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died, his eye was not dim, nor his vigor abated.
8So the sons of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days; then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses came to an end.
9Now Joshua the son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him; and the sons of Israel listened to him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses.
10Since that time no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face,
11for all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to perform in the land of Egypt against Pharaoh, all his servants, and all his land,
12and for all the mighty power and for all the great terror which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.
Deuteronomy 34:1–12 (NASB95)
My reflections prior to the sermon on this passage of scripture are as follows. Verses 1-4 really outline the land of Israel, where it has always been and sits today. At the end of verse four, God tells Moses this is the promised land but that he won’t get to enter it. Verse six pointed out that God Himself buried Moses there, and no one knows where. I didn’t catch that until it was said, but that’s an amazing statement that God is the one who buried Moses, which means He took his body from Joshua and the people. I wonder if anyone saw that or witnessed the taking of Moses’ body? The sermon centers around mentors and mentees. Verse nine highlights Joshua as Moses’ mentee and Moses as the mentor.
Pastor Joe started the sermon by telling about the day he was ordained. He mentioned how everyone told him he would be filled with the Holy Spirit, in tears, and filled with this sense of awe at the event. He wasn’t, and that alarmed him somewhat.
Later, after the laying on of hands, he received a packet of paperwork. While going through that packet, a sense of awe struck him. It was when he read through a sheet of paper that connected the people who laid hands on him all the way back to John Wesley. He said, “It made me realize I am a part of his [Wesley’s] legacy.”
“God called me to lead in this period of time,” Pastor Palmer said.
That got me thinking. This is our time. As much as we might like to live in a time gone by or a time in the uncertain future that might be different, we don’t. We live now, here, in this place, with these people. That realization and the sermon brought a question to mind.
What will our time look like when history looks back on it?
Now, I realize history looks back at events through the lens of those who write the words, but that also is a product of our time. We influence who those people will be, what they think, and ultimately, their worldview, which shapes the words they write. So, again, what will the people who write about our time say about us?
Pastor Joe began listing some things a mentor and a mentee gain from the relationship. He sighted indeed.com as the website he researched from but ran through his list too fast for me to write down everything. I did a quick DuckDuckGo search and found this page from Indeed HERE; you can use it to see what I think his list came from. His point was that becoming a pastor is a calling and a legacy.
Joe mentioned here that he started his sermon preparations by looking at the lectionary for the week. He noted a passage about “loving your neighbor,” and while that’s always a good one-off sermon, that was covered recently, so he discarded that. Then, he noticed the scripture from Deuteronomy and the death of Moses. He joked, “Ah yes, the death of Moses is a perfect sermon to give after ‘Love Your Neighbor.’” It was funny.
He began by pointing out that Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when God showed him the promised land and told him he would not enter it. That might strike some as unfair of God, given all that Moses did for the people. However, God is doing exactly what He said He would do because Moses was disobedient to the Lord.
7and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
8“Take the rod; and you and your brother Aaron assemble the congregation and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it may yield its water. You shall thus bring forth water for them out of the rock and let the congregation and their beasts drink.”
9So Moses took the rod from before the Lord, just as He had commanded him;
10and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. And he said to them, “Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?”
11Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their beasts drank.
12But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”
Numbers 20:7–12 (NASB95)
God gives us free will to make decisions. He says He will be with us always and help us, but He does not say we will be free of the consequences of our decisions.
1Now it came about after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, that the Lord spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ servant, saying,
2“Moses My servant is dead; now therefore arise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel.
3“Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses.
4“From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun will be your territory.
5“No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.
6“Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.
7“Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go.
8“This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.
9“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Joshua 1:1–9 (NASB95)
Each of us will bear the burdens of our own decisions. We will not be held to account for someone else's actions, words, or inactions.
10But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.
11For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall give praise to God.”
12So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.
13Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this—not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother’s way.
Romans 14:10–13 (NASB95)
God loved Moses, but actions have consequences. Moses didn’t do as God commanded and spoke at the rock but hit it with his rod. That seems like a little thing, but because Moses hit the rock with his stick, the skeptics in the crowd could claim he spotted a crack that just needed a little help to open up, and that’s how the people got water rather than God doing it. Had Moses simply commanded the rock to give forth water, no one would be able to deny that God did it, thus showcasing the glory of the Lord as God intended.
Pastor Joe began talking about how God and Moses knew each other “face to face,” as in verse ten. This causes me a little concern because later in the New Testament in the beginning of John’s Gospel, John states no one has seen God. Perhaps John means no one has seen Jesus because here in Deuteronomy, we clearly see it recounted that Moses and God knew each other face to face.
14And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
15John testified about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’ ”
16For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.
17For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
18No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.
John 1:14–18 (NASB95)
This is one of those things that I don’t fully understand yet. John is clearly talking about God the Father as having not been seen, yet we are told in the sermon scripture Moses did, in fact, see the face of God. This seeming contradiction doesn’t impact my faith at all. It is just something I don’t understand. Even Halley’s Bible Handbook doesn’t have anything that clears this up.
John 1:14-18 The Incarnation
God became a man to win humanity to Himself. God could have made human beings with an instinct to do His will, but He chose rather to give them the power to decide for themselves their attitude toward their Creator. But God is Spirit, and we are hedged in by the limitations of a material body and have little conception of what a spirit is. So the Creator came to His creatures as one of them to give them an idea of the kind of Being He is. God is like Jesus. Jesus is like God.
Henry Hampton Halley, Halley’s Bible Handbook with the New International Version., Completely rev. and expanded. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2000), 688.
I’m not sure what I’m supposed to take from that, but it’s sticking out to me.
Pastor Joe’s point was that was the epitaph given to Moses that God so loved him that He saw him face to face. That prompted the question of what kind of epitaph do we want? Being so loved by God, He shows you His face is a pretty good one. I’m not sure what I would want on mine, and I’m inclined to leave that be for now.
This point where the children of Israel are getting ready to cross over the Jordan River, stop wandering in the desert, and take possession of the promised land is a great point to pass the baton. It works well into God’s plan to have Joshua lead the people into this new land, whereas Moses led them through the desert with Joshua by his side the entire time. Now, Joshua will lead them into taking possession of the promised land after Moses’ passing. It appears as though the goal has changed now for the children of Israel, but it really hasn’t. Joshua knows exactly what God has been saying to Moses because he’s been there all along. The goal of God is the same, to set His children apart and teach them right living. Now, they are doing it in a new land rather than in the desert. The mission is still the same, but the work to accomplish it has changed along with the earthly leadership who guides it.
Pastor Joe tied that together with his legacy back to Wesley at this point. The goal of Wesley never changed from then all the way to his ordination. It is still to share the gospel, and now that task is on Joe Palmer’s shoulders.
We are no different, and this is where Pastor Joe brought the message down to earth for each of his listeners.
“We can’t do all the work in a lifetime, and we can’t do it all alone.”
The legacy of Wesley and all those back to Jesus before him is the same. We aren’t meant to make disciples of all the world alone. That’s what the congregation of saints is for. That’s what the cloud of witnesses is for. That’s what the leadership ensuring the same values from the beginning are still held today are for.
Moses knew his legacy was in good hands because he’d trained Joshua in the way he should go. God knew Joshua would do what He wanted him to do. The question to us is, who are we mentoring? Who will pick up our mantel and carry on with God’s work when we are gone?
Joe paused to play a video from Martin Luther King, Jr. It was the last speech he ever gave just hours before he would be assassinated. If you want to listen to the speech, you can find a video HERE. This is MLK, Jr. speaking in Memphis during the sanitation strike.
The words at the end of this speech sound a lot like he knew what was coming. It’s fairly chilling listening to the words after the 1:30 minute mark, knowing these are the last recorded words he would speak. I wonder if he knew? I wonder if he knew what was coming and if he could have avoided it had he not spoken those words? Yet he did it anyway.
Our mission, which we should continue to do despite any consequences anyway, is to make disciples of all the nations. We are to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ regardless of the consequences, and as we do that, we should ensure we are mentoring the next generation to do as we have done.
So, who is your Joshua? Who are you mentoring that will pick up your mantel and carry on as you have done? In whom are you encouraging the gifts of faith, hope, and love so that those magnificent gifts we were bestowed by the Holy Spirit do not go to waste for a future generation?