• Read Deuteronomy 33:26-29; 34

MORNING— Held by Everlasting Arms

• Focal Passage: Deuteronomy 33:27

“The eternal God is a dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms”

Moses’ final words are not commands or warnings. They are blessings.

After forty years of wilderness wandering, after rebellions, failures, and mercies too numerous to count, Moses lifts his voice and reminds Israel who has carried them all along. Before he ever speaks of land or future battles, he anchors them in a deeper truth: they have been held.

“The eternal God is a dwelling place.”
Not a stop along the way. Not a shelter for emergencies only. A home.

And “underneath are the everlasting arms.”
Before Israel chose obedience or disobedience—before they succeeded or failed—there were arms beneath them, steady and unseen.

Moses had taught them to choose life only a few chapters earlier (30:28-29). Now he shows them why that choice was even possible: life had been choosing them all along.

This is how faith endures—not by pretending strength, but by remembering support. The God who carried Israel through the wilderness would carry them into the land. And the God who carried Moses through his life would carry him through death.

To live well is not merely to obey rightly.
It is to rest confidently in the One who has never let go.

• Reflection:  What burden are you carrying today that might feel lighter if you remembered that you are not holding everything up on your own?

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EVENING— Finishing Well

• Focal Passage: Deuteronomy 34:7, 10

“So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord.  …Although Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died, his eye was not dim, nor his vigor abated.  …Since that time no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.”

The Bible does not rush past Moses’ death. It lingers—not on accomplishments alone, but on character.

Moses does not enter the land he spent his life leading others toward. Yet Scripture never frames his life as incomplete. He saw the promise. He trusted the Giver. And he died as he lived—in the presence of God.

What makes Moses’ life “worth living” is not that he finished everything he started, but that he finished faithful.

Dr. W. Lee Warren, MD, a neurosurgeon and Christian author, recounts the true story of a patient he called Rupert (name changed for privacy). Rupert was a godly man diagnosed with an aggressive, terminal brain cancer. The night before surgery, Rupert prayed that if his disease would strip him of meaningful life, God would take him home instead. He feared not death, but living without purpose.

Rupert died unexpectedly during the procedure.

Later, his wife and children met with Dr. Warren—not in anger, but with gratitude. They explained that Rupert had prayed for release if life could no longer be lived fully before God. They believed God had answered mercifully. Rupert had written a letter to be read only if he died, asking his family to remember his whole life, not merely its end—to celebrate the love, faith, and direction that had shaped their years together.

Dr. Warren writes that Rupert faced death having already settled the most important matters. His life had been aimed somewhere higher long before his final day.

Moses’ life was the same.

He did not merely lead Israel out of Egypt; he walked with God. He did not merely speak God’s words; he knew God’s presence. His death mattered because his life had meaning.

A life worth living is not measured by how long it lasts, how far it goes, or how much it accumulates—but by who it walks with.

• Reflection:  If your life were remembered as a whole, what direction would it reveal?
• Closing Prayer:  Eternal God, You have been our dwelling place in every season.  You have carried us when we were strong and when we were weary.  Teach us to live with our hearts set toward You, to walk closely, to finish faithfully, and to trust that what You begin, You complete.
  Amen.