Readers Guide: “The Word for Today” Friday, October 19, 2012 Read – Deuteronomy 31 & 34 The life of Moses, the greatest leader of God’s people in the Old Testament is about to come to an end. Chapter 31 tells the story of the passing on of the torch of leadership to Joshua. Joshua has been an important person in the story of Moses – something of an apprentice to Moses. We are not surprised to learn that Joshua will be Moses’ successor. As this story moves further in time it is important to notice that, unlike Moses, Joshua has no apprentice that he is preparing for leadership. That may well have been part of the reason for the demise of the people in the years after Joshua’s death. But that is getting ahead of the story. Chapters 32 and 33 are two more “songs” that tell the story in a poetic way. We are going to skip them in our reading. Chapter 34 tells the story of Moses’ death. The story is surrounded with mystery – no one knows where Moses is buried – no one actually witnesses his death. It is for that reason that Moses, like Enoch, whose death is also mysterious since “God took him”, and Elijah, who was taken into heaven on the wings of a chariot of fire are often used by later writers as pseudonyms for their writings at a much later time. Some of that same idea might be in the background of the story of Jesus with Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration.