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Bible Question:
Can you please explain the dispute over the body of Moses between
the angel Michael and the devil in Jude 9? I cannot find
anything in the Old Testament that talks about this event.
Bible Answer:
Here is the passage in Jude 9.
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But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the
devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare
pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, “The
Lord rebuke you.” (NASB) Jude 9
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Moses' Body.
Moses' life ended prematurely due to his refusal to obey God
in the wilderness of Zin (Num. 20:1-13). Therefore, God told
Moses that he would not be allowed to enter the Promised Land.
So when the time came for the Jewish people to return to the
Promised Land, God took Moses' life (Deut. 34:1) and buried
him in Moab.
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So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land
of Moab, according to the word of the LORD. And He
buried him in the valley in the land of Moab, opposite
Beth-peor; but no man knows his burial place to this
day. (NASB) Deut. 34:5-6
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It appears from Jude 9 that God commanded Michael, the archangel,
to bury him.
The Dispute.
Apparently, the dispute between Michael and the devil occurred
at the time of the burial. We do not know what the dispute
was about
because scripture never tells us. There are references to this
event in a non-biblical book entitled the "Assumption
of Moses."
The book does not speculate about the reason for the dispute
either.
Conclusion:
It is amazing to me how much the Bible does not explain. The
Bible rarely gives us very many details about any event.
It is not interested in details but in giving us a sense
of the flow of God's work. The Bible is faithful to history
rather than being a sensationally religious book. The authors
of the Bible could have tried to impress us with a wide variety
of details but they do not. The Bible is not primarily sensational
but a faithful account of what has happened. So, this is
another event with missing details - details that God did
not choose to provide. They were not that important in God's
thinking.
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