I have had two conversations with dear friends in the past week who are struggling with the loss of loved ones. The holidays magnify that loss. Both had prayed with faith for healing; both eventually lost a spouse to cancer. One loss is a few months old, the other lost his wife two years ago on Christmas Eve. Both had been married for decades. Both had loving marriages. Now both are still grieving and can’t seem to get a vision for their lives beyond the loss. Both will have to walk out the process of grieving their loss and then moving on. That is not always easy. Those two conversations also reminded me of people I have known who had lost a spouse or a child years ago but who were still unable to get past that moment. For them it is as if life ended when their loved one died and will be on hold until they join that loved one in eternity. The loss of the life of the one still living doubles the tragedy of the one who died.
Loss is part of life. Those who love us will lose us eventually unless Jesus returns in our lifetime. Some losses seem natural as when a 95 year old saint passes quietly in her sleep while others seem out of time and tragic. When they do occur, we need direction from the Lord. I think an unexpected template for moving ahead after loss may be found in the Book of Joshua.
“After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people get ready to cross the Jordon River into the land I am about to give to them – to the Israelites. I will give you every place where you set your foot as I promised Moses…be strong and courageous because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them’” (Josh 1:1-3,6).
We need to try to grasp the impact of Moses’ death on the nation and on Joshua. Moses was the George Washington of Israel. He had confronted Pharaoh, led the people out of Egypt, and through the Red Sea. It was Moses who had gone up on Sinai in the face of darkness, rock-shattering thunder, and fire. It was Moses who had personally received the Law, directed the building of the tabernacle, and had stood between God and Israel on several occasions pleading their cause. It was Moses who stood face-to-face with God each day receiving directions for the people. And it was Moses who had led Israel to the banks of the Jordon River to take the land after forty years in the wilderness. Moses had truly been the Father of Israel, the mediator, the peacemaker, the prophet, and the one legitimate leader of this nation since its inception.
The loss of Moses must have been staggering. Who could have imagined entering the Promised Land without him? His entire life had been about leading God’s people into Canaan to take possession of the land God had promised to Abraham and his descendants. But at the last minute, God had told him he could not enter the promise land and shortly after that he had died on top of Mount Nebo with no human companion present. The Bible says that God buried him but no one knew where his final resting place was. Israel mourned for thirty days.
Joshua had been his aide and I’m sure Moses had been more than a father to him. I sense that Joshua never anticipated entering Canaan without Moses. Scripture tells us that Moses was 120 years old but “his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone” (Dt.34:7). God simply told him to climb Mt. Nebo one day and he died in the presence of God. The suddenness of his unexpected death must have made the transition more difficult. Suddenly, the mantle of leadership that had been on Moses for 40 years was thrust onto Joshua.
Moses was prohibited from entering the promised land because he had “rebelled” against the Lord in the desert. God had directly commanded Moses to speak to a rock from which he would provide water for Israel, but Moses, in anger, struck the rock with his staff. Water came forth from the rock but not in the way God had directed. God responded, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them” (Num.20:12). As the time approached for Israel to possess Canaan, Moses was taken from them since he could not enter with them. I have to say that my first to response to the consequence of Moses striking the rock seems extremely harsh and even unfair. After the faithfulness that Moses had shown in the midst of an unbelieving Israel for 40 years, it seems that God should have forgiven the moment and allowed Moses to enter the land to which he had guided the Hebrews.
Sometimes we make the mistake of looking at consequences in the natural realm as if they reflect our standing with God in the spiritual realm. Jesus says that to whom much is given, much is required. Leadership is judged more strictly than those who follow because leaders set the tone for those they lead. The issue (sin) that Israel had demonstrated for 40 years was the issue of rebellion, going their own way, and disregarding the word of the Lord. Unfortunately, in a moment of anger, Moses had done the same.
If there had been no consequence for the leader of the nation, the rest of the Israelites would have felt free to disregard the word of the Lord as well when it suited them. I know that Moses was forgiven still held in high regard by the Lord, because on the Mt. of Transfiguration, it was Moses and Elijah who were chosen to meet with Jesus. Trust and obedience would be the key to Israel’s ability to possess the land God had given them and so the consequence of disobedience had to be demonstrated. And yet, I still wonder, how Joshua felt about that as he was dealing with the loss of Moses and the challenges that lay ahead of him. Did the loss of his spiritual father, mentor, and hero challenge his view of the goodness of God? I don’t now, but these men and women of scripture were flesh and blood just as we are, not superheroes. They struggled with the same doubts and fears that we experience in the face of loss and disappointment. They too had to find a way to move ahead.
God’s pronouncement that Moses was dead in the first chapter of Joshua was not news to Joshua. Essentially, God was making the point that for Israel and for Joshua, one chapter had ended, while another chapter was beginning. A man once said, “Life is lived in chapters, and it is a wise man who knows what page he is on.” Moses had fulfilled his destiny, now it was time for Joshua to fulfill his.
Very often, we tie our own lives and futures so closely to another person that if we lose him or her, we feel as if our life has ended as well. But for those who still live, there is always more. Being willing to step into the other things that God still has for you is an expression of faith. It is also the way out of grief and sorrow. Certainly, there is a needed time to mourn. It is longer for some than for others. Israel and Joshua mourned for 30 days, but then it was time to step into the next chapter of life. The same is true for us.
To do so does not mean that the person you have lost was not loved or should not be honored. Many people refuse to go on with their lives or to rejoice in God’s blessings because they feel that to do so would somehow diminishe their love and their loss. You will continue to love and honor that person as Moses has been loved and honored for millennia, but God has more. Life is a gift and a stewardship that is ours to unwrap and live. God told Joshua that it was time to move on because there was still an inheritance to be claimed. In fact, moving ahead and claiming the inheritance was the very legacy Moses had left. There was still a path laid out for Joshua and Israel to follow and everywhere they set their feet, God would give that portion of their inheritance to them. The corollary is important. Wherever they did not set their feet, they would not receive what had already been provided by the Lord.
Our inheritance in the Lord is like a field that he has cleared, tilled, planted, and watered. It has come to fullness and he has given us the harvest…but we must go into the field and pick or glean what is there. It is all ours, but we only enjoy and benefit from that part that we take hold of…the part where we set our feet. After a loss or disappointment, there is still an inheritance that he wants us to go after. There is a time to close the chapter we have been living and move on to the next. Paul put it this way. “Forgetting those things are behind, I press forward.” This is not to say that we forget the people we have loved but we recognize that there is still more of the field to be harvested and to do less dishonors God. Moving ahead into Canaan and taking the land without Moses, still honored his vision and so honored him.
There are times when we must simply make a decision that it is time to move on and steward the rest of out lives. It is time to see what is written in the next chapter. It is time to grab hold of the destiny God still has for us. The same is true after a failure. Failure can stop us in our tracks just like a loss and we can stay stuck in a place of feeling disqualified for years. That is from Satan. David experienced a huge moral failure in his life – adultery and murder – but in Psalm 51, David prayed to God, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation …then I will teach transgressors your way and sinners will turn back to you.” David realized that his shame, his feelings of disqualification, and his own sense of guilt was robbing God of his service. He had already confessed and was already forgiven, but stepping back into a role of spiritual and political leadership was daunting. Somehow it seemed better to pine away with self-condemnation than to attempt to move ahead and fulfill his destiny. Yet moving ahead was the will of God for him. To do less was to give the enemy a victory and to rob God of the fruit that David’s life could still produce.
We will all experience loss, failure and disappointment in life. It is the fabric of a fallen world. The holidays seem to magnify all those feelings because Christmas calls us to an ideal and we live in the real. But whether it is loss or failure that has taken all the momentum out of your life, remember that God still has more for you. Don’t put it off too long. Honor God and you honor those you have lost. Move ahead in obedience and you redeem the failures in your past. This Christmas may you look forward to the chapters that lie ahead while you reflect on the chapters you are closing.
