The Exodus story ends with the death of Moses after he had viewed the Promised Land from Mount Nebo. "This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go there." And so, Moses died and, apparently, the Lord buried him in an unmarked grave "in the valley of the land of Moab;" his grave-site has been lost forever. God alone knows where Moses is buried. God really seems to have taken Moses to himself at the end of the story, at least in this way, and that seems to be a most appropriate conclusion to this chapter in the history of the people of God.

To see the land that God had promised and now was about to give to the Israelites must have pleased Moses greatly. The whole broad expanse…