 Bible Q&A: Where is Moses' body buried? August 13, 2001
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Bible Question: "Where is Moses' body buried? Does anybody know?"
Bible Answer: I've been answering questions about the Bible for more than 20 years as a Sunday School teacher and lay speaker, and I'll have to say this question almost tops last week's, which had to be the hardest question I've ever been asked, “Did God create Himself?”
Unfortunately, the short answer to your question about Moses is essentially the same as to the previous question, “Nobody knows.”
But let's discuss what we do know, rather than what we don't.
In the last book Moses wrote – appropriately as it is hard to write books after you die – in Deuteronomy 34: 5-6, we read, “So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. And He buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth Peor; but no one knows his grave to this day.”
We must assume Joshua or another of Moses' followers wrote these words, because obviously Moses could not have done so.
Exactly where Moab and Beth Peor were is hard enough to determine now, much less exactly where in what valley Moses was buried. But even more than that, the Scripture says God Himself buried Moses and “no one knows his grave to this day.”
When the Bible says, “no one knows” I think we can leave it at that. But there is one other Scripture on this topic we can consider.
In the Epistle of Jude, who is believed to be one of Jesus' brothers as well as the brother of James, another brother of the Lord, who wrote the New Testament epistle of James, we find a puzzling reference to Moses' body. So far as I know, this is the only other Scripture in the Bible that has anything to say about Moses' body.
“Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, 'The Lord rebuke you!'” in Jude 9.
Why was Michael the archangel and the devil, the fallen angel formerly named Lucifer, disputing over the body of Moses?
And what were they disputing about? Sorry, we just don't know.
We can speculate that it may have something to do with God's future plans for Moses, as many Bible scholars believe Moses will be one of the two witnesses who will preach against the Antichrist during the Great Tribulation, as told in the Book of Revelation.
But the two witnesses are not named, even though most Bible scholars believe they will be the resurrected Old Testament saints Elijah and Moses.
Elijah is not buried here on earth as God took him to heaven on a chariot of fire. And Moses was buried, but no one knows where, so perhaps God has future plans for those two, and will resurrect them bodily for another round of preaching just before the triumphal return of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth.
But again, we just don't know that for sure, we only speculate.
Now, can't somebody send me in a question that's a little easier?
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