Mount Nebo is remembered as the last resting place of Moses, the servant of God. The lofty heights of this famous mountain is easily distinguishable across the Dead Sea on the eastern shore. It rises to the height of 2,740 feet above sea level and 4,030 above the Dead Sea. It is a part of the Abrim range mentioned in Numbers 33:47. The account of the death and burial of Moses can be found in Deut. 31:1?8 and Deut. 34.

The life of Moses is divided into three periods of forty years each. It began with his birth to a poor, enslaved family and the romantic scene of the floating cradle and the Egyptian princess. Amid the luxuries and splendor of the royal court he grew up and received his training. Tradition has it that Moses was being prepared to become the next Pharaoh of Egypt. But he sympathized and sided with his real people, the enslaved children of Israel, and at the age of forty he broke away from royal favor, and fled to the land of Midian, where he lived the life of a lonely shepherd. At the age of eighty the quietness of the shepherd life was broken by a divine call which came from a burning bush, a bush that burned but was not consumed. He responded to that call, and, after forty years of almost superhuman effort, guided his people to the border of the promised land. Though he fulfilled the divine mission, he failed to realize his personal ambition of entering into the land and making it his home. He died in mysterious solitude and was buried by the secret hand of God. Jewish tradition says that "God kissed him and he fell asleep." (cf Deut. 31:16; Acts 7:60). No other mortal has been so honored in death. According to Jude 9 the Archangel Michael was given responsibility of protecting his body.

When the final hour came, his thoughts were not of himself, but of his people. He prepared for his death with encouraging and comforting words. He provided them with a competent leader, Joshua, to complete his work, to whom he also spoke the encouraging words: "Be strong and of good courage." Then "Moses went up", the historian relates. Perhaps, on the mountain side he paused for a last lingering look at his people encamped in the valley below. From the summit of the mount he viewed the landscape o'er from the south where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had spent much of their lives to the snow?capped Mt. Hermon in the far north. The Bible tells us that his vision was clear. He was above the mist and his eyes were "undimmed". Here he fell asleep and laid to rest, and no man knows the location of his sepulcher. In this we can see the wisdom of God, for if the site had been known it might have become a place of idolatrous worship.

Others died on mountains. Aaron, the brother of Moses, died on Mt. Hor after being stripped of his priestly robes. Saul later died on Mt. Gilboah as a rejected king because of his sin.

The death of Moses reminds us that death is universal! - even the vest of men must die -- and man, like Moses, must die without accomplishing all that they dream of. Moses also teaches us how to die ? without a murmur nor complaint. It is said that "a good man knows how to die as well as live." To God's people death is a door that leads to the possession of their full reward. Also Moses was denied Canaan because of sin, it is certain that he entered through the door into God's great spiritual realm. (Matt. 17:1?5)