The wonder connected with the
disappearance of Moses and the translation of Elijah now finds some
measure of explanation. None doubt the translation of Elijah. John the
Baptist was not Elias, except he was to go before Christ in the spirit
and power of Elias; in this sense John stood for Elias. John the Baptist
prepared the way of Christ the first time, so will Elias for Christ's
second coming. The record of Moses's departure from this world is as
mysterious as it is dramatic. But, certainly, neither the mysterious nor
the dramatic have any meaning excepting we allow something Divinely
special. To die as other people, would mean nothing on the line of
specialities; but he did not so die. He went from the people alive; no
one saw him die or dead. He went up into Mount Horeb and never returned.
So, so far as the people were concerned, he was to them a dead man, for
he went from them no more to return. The word death in Hebrew has not
less than six meanings, one of which is simply to disappear. This is the
meaning that we must attach to the death of Moses. Neither his grave nor
body have ever been found.

There is a peculiar passage in the book of Jude where "Michael the
archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of
Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The
Lord rebuke thee." Now, Satan then had power over death in some way
Divinely permitted. Paul says (Heb. ii. 14), speaking of Christ,
"Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also
Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might
destroy him _that had the power of death_--that is, the devil." When God
was translating Moses, passing him by death, Satan fought with Michael,
who was God's messenger, to inflict the sting of death on Moses, and
although Michael carried Moses on by death into the presence of God,
Satan durst not bring a railing accusation against him.

Jude, in his epistle, probably quoted from one of the now lost books of
Revelation, which was entitled, "The Ascension or Assumption of Moses the
servant of God." The Church father, Origen, makes mention of this work,
but, like the book and prophecies of Enoch, from which Jude makes a
quotation, it has been lost, they having served their purpose. The
fairest and most generous interpretation, then, is, that Moses did not
die the ordinary death, but disappeared, was, in fact, translated,
anointed