You may remember hearing about Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, when he had cancer and was dying.  It was said that he was not a religious man.  In fact, he never wanted Apple devices to have an “on/off” switch because it reminded him of what death may be like – When we are alive, we are on, but when we die, we just turn ‘off.’  Like most of us, I would say that Steve Jobs was afraid of death.  It is fear of the unknown.

It took 40 years, from the time Moses freed the Israelites from the Egyptians, to the time they actually get to the promised land.  That’s a really- long time to be wandering in the wilderness with a bunch of grumpy people!  In Deuteronomy 34, Moses has reached the end of the line.  He is now 120 years old when God lets him see the promised land, but not allowed to enter into it.  This is really sad to me – to have worked so hard to get the people to where God wanted them and then die before he even had the opportunity to experience it.

However, I am thinking that Moses saw something even more glorious than the promised land for the Israelites.  When Steve Jobs passed away, I read that as he took his last breaths, he said, “Oh wow, Oh wow!”

The unknown is scary.  I think about it every single day because we never know when our day is going to come.  But, with Jesus Christ we can have assurance that we will see a promised land that we could never create or fathom.  Moses was the only prophet to have been known to see God face-to-face.  In our eternal life, we too will see God face-to-face!

Let us pray…Gracious God, we look forward to seeing you face-to-face in our eternal life.  Give us the strength and the faith to hold tight to the future that you have planned for each one of us – giving us joy as we live out our days here on earth. Amen.