Num 27:15-17, Then Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, "May the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation, who will go out and come in before them, and who will lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be like sheep which have no shepherd." 
	In our reading of Numbers, we now come to a most pivotal place in the history of the Children of Israel. We have seen that the entire first generation of the people, from 20 years and older at the time of their not trusting the Lord to lead them into the Promised Land are now gone, dead and buried in the sands of the wilderness. Only Moses and Joshua and Caleb remain of that generation. Of these, Moses must die before the second generation can enter the Promised Land. 
As well, with his death there would be a transfer of leadership of this Nation, the very first transfer. What will be the course of that change and how will the people respond? Will it be a fight for power as was so often the history of nations when filling the void of such leadership and prestige and reputation? How will the new generation respond to the changing of the guard and the tremendous loss of the one who represented God before Pharaoh on behalf of the Children of Israel?  
	We also have the passage of verses 12-14 wherein God again made known to Moses that he would not be able to enter the land because of his sinful actions toward God in not honoring the Lord as Holy. God’s holiness is always to be at the forefront of our considerations and our actions and our behavior. Moses and Aaron had allowed their anger and their frustration with the people to cause them to act as if the holiness of God meant nothing before the nation. Now, at the end of his earthly life, Moses was allowed by the graciousness of God, to see the land from a distance. He could not enter it, but he would be able to see it before he died. Then the new generation could enter therein. 
	Num 27:12-14, Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go up to this mountain of Abarim, and see the land which I have given to the sons of Israel. And when you have seen it, you too shall be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother was; for in the wilderness of Zin, during the strife of the congregation, you rebelled against My command to treat Me as holy before their eyes at the water. "(These are the waters of Meribah of Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.) 
	When we consider Moses and all that he had done for the people despite their complaining and their whining and their sniveling and their ingratitude and their rebelliousness and their accusations and their cowardice and their faithlessness and their idolatrousness, we see a man whom God had chosen. God had prepared him to lead this stubborn and miserable people. Moses had gone before God often for the sake of the Children of Israel, counting the testimony of God as precious. The Lord’s glory and honor would be seen in how the nation survived despite their unworthiness to be kept by God. Moses was the one who had sought the Lord not to destroy this people and had set before Jehovah his dire concern that God would not receive the honor that God, Alone, was due if the nation had perished in the wilderness. 
	Still, it must have been a bittersweet time for Moses looking at the Land of Promise and knowing that the people were almost ready to cross over to conquer and to inhabit the land that was their Godly heritage. He would only glimpse it from the heights of the mountain top, never to set foot into it. He had invested his whole being into this moment in time, and yet it was not his to receive. Moses would not physically know the pleasure of the feasting on the milk and honey and the bounty and the joy of being an actual recipient of that divine fulfillment of this Canaan land. It was so close and yet so far away. This would be the end of his sojourn with this Chosen Nation of God’s people. 
	Yet, despite the reasons that he might have had to complain to God and to get lost in the misery of being excluded from enjoying the fruits of his labor, Moses remained the leader that God had made him. He could have just gone to the mountain, seen the Promised Land, washed his hands of the responsibility for the people and lay down and died. None would be the wiser and none could blame him. But this man of God, this servant of the Lord God Jehovah faced his mortality and then besought the Lord to choose a leader who could shepherd the people as they entered the land of their heritage.
	We turn again to Dr. Allen sharing a quote concerning this heart of Moses for the blessing of God and for the Lord’s choice of a leader to go before them into Canaan. Quote, Moses now requests, in the light of his own impending death, that the Lord will appoint a successor for him, even as He clearly indicated a successor for Aaron the priest… Without such a leader, the people will be like shepherdless sheep, wandering each his own way across the wastelands. In his request to God, Moses uses an unusual form of address: “Yahweh God of the spirits of all flesh”….This is an expressive title of the Lord that speaks of His ultimate sovereignty over all peoples. If God is sovereign of all, then surely God will wish to show His sovereignty over His people in their evident need for a shepherd to follow Moses. End quote.
	 Let us briefly consider the fact of the blessing that Moses pronounced upon the Lord God Jehovah. Rather than argue with the Lord, rather than complain that it wasn’t fair or right of God to prevent him from entering the land, Moses blessed the Lord in the following manner. "May the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation…. 
Moses addressed the Lord in a manner which emphasized exactly Who God is. He is the God of the spirits of all flesh. Everyone who breathes is under the hand of the Sovereign Lord God Almighty. That means every man, woman, or child who has ever lived, is living, or will live, is under the plan and the purpose and the will of the Lord God Creator of Heaven and Earth. There is no other! He is the only living and awesome and holy and majestic One! All men owe their lives to Him because He is the One who gives life! 
	Job knew this truth as we read in Job 12:7-13. Job 12:7-13, "But now ask the beasts, and let them teach you; And the birds of the heavens, and let them tell you. "Or speak to the earth, and let it teach you; And let the fish of the sea declare to you. "Who among all these does not know That the hand of the Lord has done this, In whose hand is the life of every living thing, And the breath of all mankind? "Does not the ear test words, As the palate tastes its food? "Wisdom is with aged men, With long life is understanding. "With Him are wisdom and might; To Him belong counsel and understanding. 
	This is the reality of the magnificence of God. So many people utterly refuse to acknowledge what even the animals of nature and the heavens and the earth itself declare, the glory of God. It is us, the supposedly wisest of His creation, and yet the most obstinate and selfish and bombast and opinionated and vile and self-righteous and fickle and dim-witted and dense humanity, who have the audacity to thumb our noses at the Creator of all and declare that there is no God!    
The Psalmist of old joins his heart with Job in the tremendous certainty that nature declares the glory of its Creator… the God of the spirits of all flesh…. He expresses the fact that all of God’s creation declares Who He is and what He has done. We find this truth throughout the Psalms. Please open to the Psalms and we will reinforce this wondrous reality beginning with the awesome pronouncement of Ps 19:1-6. 
Ps 19:1-6, The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; Their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their utterances to the end of the world. In them He has placed a tent for the sun, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber; It rejoices as a strong man to run his course. Its rising is from one end of the heavens, And its circuit to the other end of them; And there is nothing hidden from its heat. 
	Then consider the entire 97th Psalm as we read it together. Ps 97, The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice; Let the many islands be glad. Clouds and thick darkness surround Him; Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. Fire goes before Him, And burns up His adversaries round about. His lightnings lit up the world; The earth saw and trembled. The mountains melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. The heavens declare His righteousness, And all the peoples have seen His glory. Let all those be ashamed who serve graven images, Who boast themselves of idols; Worship Him, all you gods. Zion heard this and was glad, And the daughters of Judah have rejoiced Because of Thy judgments, O Lord. For Thou art the Lord Most High over all the earth; Thou art exalted far above all gods. Hate evil, you who love the Lord, Who preserves the souls of His godly ones; He delivers them from the hand of the wicked. Light is sown like seed for the righteous, And gladness for the upright in heart. Be glad in the Lord, you righteous ones; And give thanks to His holy name. 
 We know from our readings in the New Testament that man is absolutely without excuse when he stands before the throne of God’s judgment seat. As much as he would like to expound and pontificate forth the doctrines and the ideologies and the teachings of other mere mortals, when faced with the awesome splendor and majesty and reality of the God whom man so arrogantly shunned, there will be that instant realization that has been fully before his eyes as detailed in Rom 1:20-23.   	
Rom 1:20-23, For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. 
When we truly look for the truth of life, all of creation points to God and speaks forth the praise of God …the God of the spirits of all flesh. It is the Lord God Almighty Who has done it all. He, Alone, is the source and the essence of life, giving animation to everything that has breath. He is the only foundation of understanding, and wisdom, and knowledge. He is the One Who makes our spirits alive in Jesus Christ. 
Please open to Heb 12:1-11, as we will highlight the depth of Moses’ blessing upon God with the ultimate conclusion of that blessing. We do not know how far Moses was enabled to see of the grace and the mercy and the love of God, but he did know that God had far more in mind for His Chosen Nation than what had transpired to that point. Moses blessed …the God of the spirits of all flesh… because He knew God could be trusted to bring to fruition everything that the Lord had promised and was putting into place. God is faithful and true and righteous altogether!
In that, as Moses was not to descend from that mountain, as the new leader needed to be ordained as the shepherd of the flock, as the Lord would lead forth His nation into the Land of Promise, Moses would be joining all those who had gone before. He became a witness of what God would ultimately bring into place under His Hand of Sovereignty and Justice and Holiness and Love. It is what the Writer to the Hebrews so brilliant details for us.
Heb 12:1-11, Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved by Him; For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives." It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.    
	Next time, Lord willing, we will look at the need and the supply of the shepherd, chosen by God for the leading of the people into their inheritance in the Promised Land. This fully includes you and me and all those who are chosen and called by the Lord Jesus Christ. So be it!
Then Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, "May the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation, who will go out and come in before them, and who will lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be like sheep which have no shepherd." Amen. 
												
This morning’s benediction is Deut 4:30+31. When you are in distress and all these things have come upon you, in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice. For the Lord your God is a compassionate God; He will not fail you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them. Amen.