The Story of the Bible

Then Moses was satisfied with the promise that they had given, and he divided the land on the east of the Jordan to these tribes. To the men of Reuben he gave the land on the south; to the men of Gad the land in the middle; and to the half-tribe of Manasseh the land on the north, the country called Bashan. And after their wives and children and flocks had been placed safely, the men of war came to the camp, ready to go with the other tribes across the river when God should call them.

And now the work of Moses was almost done. God said to him:

"Gather the children of Israel together, and speak to them your last words, for you are not to lead the people across the Jordan. You are to die in this land, as I said to you at Kadesh." (See Story Thirty-one.)

Then Moses called the leaders of the twelve tribes before his tent, and said to them many things, which you can read in the book of the Bible called Deuteronomy. There all the long speech of Moses is given. He told them what wonderful things God had done for their fathers and for them. He gave them again all the words of God's law. He told them that they must not only keep God's law themselves, but must teach it to their children, so that it might never be forgotten. And Moses sang a song of farewell and wrote down all his last words.

Then he gave a charge to Joshua, whom God had chosen to take his place as the ruler and leader of the people; though no man could take Moses' place as a prophet of God and the giver of God's law. He laid his hands on Joshua's head; and God gave to Joshua some of his Spirit that had been on Moses.

Then Moses, all alone, went out of the camp, while all the people looked at him and wept. Slowly he walked up the mountain side, until they saw him no more. He climbed to the top of Mount Nebo, and stood alone upon the height, and looked at the Land of Promise, which lay spread out before him. Far in the north he could see the white crown of Mount Hermon, where there is always snow. At his feet, but far below, the river Jordan was winding its way down to the Dead Sea. Across the river, at the foot of the mountains, was standing the city of Jericho, surrounded with a high wall. On the summits of the mountains beyond he could see Hebron, where Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob were buried; he could see Jerusalem, and Bethel, and the two mountains where Shechem lay hidden in the center of the land. And here and there, through the valleys, he could see afar in the west the gleaming water of the Great Sea.

MOSES LOOKS UPON THE PROMISED LAND

Then Moses, all alone, lay down on the mountain's top, and died. Aaron and Hur, who had held up the hands of Moses in battle (see Story Twenty-five), had both died and there was no man on Mount Nebo to bury Moses; so God himself buried him, and no man knows where God laid the body of Moses, who had served God so faithfully.

MOSES' HANDS UPHELD

And after Moses there was never a man who lived so near to God, and talked with God so freely, as one would talk face to face with his friend, until long afterward Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and greater than Moses, came among men.

The Story of Job

Job i: 1, to ii: 13; xlii: 1 to 17.

At some time in those early days—we do not know just at what time, whether in the days of Moses or later—there was living a good man named Job. His home was in the land of Uz, which may have been on the edge of the desert, east of the land of Israel. Job was a very rich man. He had sheep, and camels, and oxen, and asses, counted by the thousand. In all the east there was no other man so rich as Job.

THE WELL OF JOB

And Job was a good man. He served the Lord God, and prayed to God every day, with an offering upon God's altar, as men worshipped in those times. He tried to live as God wished him to live, and was always kind and gentle. Every day, when his sons were out in the field, or were having a feast together in the house of any of them, Job went out to his altar, and offered a burnt-offering for each one of his sons and his daughters, and prayed to God for them; for he said:

"It may be that my sons have sinned or have turned away from God in their hearts; and I will pray God to forgive them."

At one time, when the angels of God stood before the Lord, Satan the Evil One came also, and stood among them, as though he were one of God's angels. The Lord God saw Satan, and said to him, "Satan, from what place have you come?" "I have come," answered Satan, "from going up and down in the earth and looking at the people upon it."