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(Preached at Bishop Street 3/7/1948)

Deuteronomy 34.1–4 “And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo to the top of Pisgah . . . and the LORD shewed unto him all the land . . . and the LORD said unto him . . . I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither.”

There are some pictures which, once seen, are never forgotten. By their beauty or awfulness they lay hold of the imagination and forever retain their place in the memory. You can recall, here and there, great pictures from the Bible Gallery. David waiting for tidings of his rebellious but loved son Absalom. Daniel kneeling at his open window. Judas kissing his master in the garden. Paul before Agrippa. Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane.

The text set before us is one of the most beautiful pictures in the Old Testament Gallery—Moses on Mount Nebo. He is looking down on the land, not far away, that he has been trying to reach and which his feet are never to tread. The land which for forty years he has looked forward prayerfully to gain and which is not to be his home: the promised land, which for him is never to be the Possessed Land. God made it clear to him that he would not enter it. Moses might have used the poetic lines of one of our poets: “There’s the life lying, and I see all of it, once I’m dying.”13

It is a great picture, and small wonder that poets have made it the theme of their poems and artists have reproduced on canvas the picture of this lonely man viewing the longed for land and knowing that his feet would never cross the river. One would linger over that, wondering what was pouring through the brain behind that face. Was there angry resentment, the feeling that it was not fair that after forty years of traveling and leading, another should cross the Jordan ahead of the people into the land God gave to their fathers? Was he looking back and painfully regretting and repeating the pride and disobedience which had brought about the calamity and thinking the consequences out? Or, was he quietly and calmly accepting God’s will, knowing that it was best, and content that another man was fitted for finalizing the work he had begun? We do not know and it is idle to speculate. What we can do and benefit from is to—

SEE IN THE PICTURE A PARABLE OF LIFE

Even if the reality is not always so dramatic or pathetic, life has many similar pictures. Here and there you find a man whose purposes are accomplished and who is complacent over his achievements. I do not want to be unfair, but often that means that such men sought lesser things to do and their cheap satisfaction is over no great decision completed. Most of us feel that our lives are of an unfinished character. We seldom attain all we strive for. Abraham left home to seek a country and found only a grave in it. David projected a temple he never built. Livingstone died with the source of the Nile undiscovered. “So much to do, so little done,” sighed a great man.

In our own little ways, we are often unfinished and frustrated with our incompleteness. We set our hearts on things that evade us. Our dreams do not become deeds. Our futures are broken off. Sometimes the best is dangled before our eyes, within our grasp, and we reach for it and it changes to the second best or what seems the very worst. We see our promised land and it is shown before us, and then it is as if we are told “thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not enter it.” That is all very pathetic, and very true, but it does not help much. What is there to say in view of these unrealized dreams, frustrated hopes, and incomplete lives?

First of all, that unfinished work and incomplete lives are neither fruitless nor wasted. They seem so to us, but not to God who is working this tapestry. He is weaving our lives into His great design. He cannot accomplish the whole through any one of us. He allocates one for this work and causes that work to be through other hands. You can almost hear Moses saying, “I have come myself and brought my people to the very border of Canaan and now the work of my life comes to naught.” If you are reverent you will hear God say, “You have not failed, you have brought my people in sight of the land. That was your task and it is finished.”

My friends, there is no failure if you have attested and accomplished the work God gave you to do. That life is not wasted which realized what God brought it into the world to do. Then “well done” is over the work that seems unfinished but that is what He asked. And remember this—the work you have done reaches onto the work others will do. Joshua was properly fitted for the work ahead, but he could never have done it but for what Moses had done before him. A little while ago, passing through Darlington, I saw one of the first of Stephenson’s railway engines. It looked a truly little, insignificant thing. But it has made possible the mighty engines that can take us from London to Newcastle in a few hours. Your bit of work, faithfully done, though it seems incomplete, is preparing the way for others who will carry it forward and nearer God’s ideal.

Now let us learn that divine judgment is of the heart. The world judges outward results, giving its flatteries and its favor to men who have succeeded. It thinks of “making good” use in terms of material conquests, it gives no credit for earnest effort that ends in apparent failure. But at God’s judgment bar, the verdict is not given that way. “Man looketh on the outward appearance, but God looketh upon the heart.”

That means this—you stand on your Pisgah looking at your unfinished work and know that you will never carry it to a successful conclusion. Maybe, like Moses, you think of something that has frustrated your progress and robbed you of success. But at that moment God is looking on your heart. That is where the greatest work is done. There is no true success for us apart from God’s success and that is always in our hearts. Have you learned through success and influence, through disablement and frustration, through all of these forgiveness, to be patient, humble, tender, to accept God’s will though it checks your will? Then have no fear. God has work in you and where he looks for success he sees it.

It means this too—God gives the victor’s crown to the virtuous person. You have not accomplished all you meant to. Many things you projected have not been performed. You know that you will not enter the land of your vision. God judges you by your earnest venture. He knows the limitations that have beset you, the pressures under which you balanced, the blunders you have encountered. He knows what you have tried to be and measures you by what you have endeavored to do.

DO NOT OVERLOOK THAT PISGAH IS THE MOUNT OF VISION

Moses knew he would not enter the promised land, but he was granted a vision of it, and he knew his people would enter. Faith always has the Pisgah which commands a view of the glorious land ahead. It may be a disappointment that we shall never enter, but we know it is there. Our eyes see the glory of the coming glorious man, caught the glimpse of the dawn on the mountain summits. The golden age is in the future. God’s day is dawning. We may not live to see the final triumph, but Jesus shall reign. Above all the ailments and doubts, we have seen a vision of a redeemed world and we shall not fail nor be discouraged. Our task is to do our part to hasten the coming of the glorious day. We must learn that—

INCOMPLETENESS IS THE PROPHECY OF CONTINUANCE AND COMPLETION

What does it mean that this world, for all its beauty, for all we achieve in it, so often disappoints and frustrates us? Surely this—there is a beyond for which this life is a preparation. We have longings that are not satisfied, hopes that are unrealized, work that is unfinished. I simply cannot believe that all this is intended to mock us in what will be written at the end of this life. There must be, my heart’s faith is that there is a “land of pure delight where everlasting spring abides and never withering flowers.”14 We do not often hear this song now, but there is a Promise of Life that “Heaven shall make perfect our imperfect lives.”

13. This comes from a poem by Robert Browning entitled “Pisgah-Sights.”

14. This is a quote from an Isaac Watts hymn, “There Is a Land of Pure Delight.”