Last words

April 2, 2009

Today's Reading: Deuteronomy 31-32 and Romans 11

It would appear that the books of Moses are about to come to a close, as is Moses. As he is about to be buried at Mt. Nebo, he probably wants to know what everyone wants to know at the end of his or her life.

I know if I discovered that I was about to die, I would want to know if my life meant anything to anyone. Assuming that I started something that was long-lasting, who would maintain it while I am gone.

I believe that Shakespeare said in Julius Ceasar that “the evil that men do oft lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones”. In other words, mafia leaders and dictators always have some worse guy who wants to take the bad guy’s place, but really good people don’t always get the luxury of a successor.

I would think that someone like Moses would have a lot of people saying a lot of good things at his funeral. Things like: “I would still be a slave if it wasn’t for you”, or “I still remember when the Red Sea was parted”.

Do you know what God tells Moses? The people will eventually fall away. I mean, he tells Moses that all the work you did to help make the people holy is just going to be in vain.

Boy, you know what that reminds me of? The Green Mile. There is a scene where a prisoner named Delacroix who is about to be sent to the chair, but he is worried about his pet mouse, Mr. Jingles. The jailers, who really have this man’s best interests at heart, tell a white lie about sending Mr. Jingles to “Mouseville”, a theme park in Florida for mice. Delacroix feels better about going into the hereafter, but then a nasty man named Percy tells Delacroix, while he is about to die, that Mouseville is just a big lie.

Man, is that a slap in the face or what? I would like to think that God would give Moses a compliment like: “These people will forever follow the Lord thanks to your example”. No, God tells it like it is.

Yeah, there really is no guarantee that our lives, lived well, will result in the betterment of others. We would like to think that our death might result in some great event happening, like at the end of Gladiator, but most of the time, it just means: “Okay, he’s dead, now we don’t have any righteous example. Let’s party!”

Sad but true. I didn’t say that isn’t always the case, and we should still live our lives in as much of a Christ-like example as possible.