Deuteronomy 31:2
And he said unto them, I am an hundred and twenty years old this day; I can no more go out and come in: also the LORD hath said unto me, Thou shalt not go over this Jordan. And he said unto them, I am an hundred and twenty years old this day; I can no more go out and come in: also the LORD hath said unto me, Thou shalt not go over this Jordan.
Deuteronomy 31:2 marks the moment when Moses was about to lay down the office he had so long filled as the visible leader of the hosts of Israel. In that farewell address he rehearsed openly before the people how God had dealt with them and restated the rules and regulations God had given them. His burden was to impress upon their minds the supreme importance of obeying God's law. He urged them to make its sacred precepts the rule of daily life, living as children of God who would suffer any inconvenience rather than break a single commandment, for such conscientious obedience pleases God more than mere professions of loyalty or words of praise.
He taught that obedience would preserve harmony between man and man and between man and his Maker. It would cause Israel to be regarded by others as a wise and understanding people, and it alone gave safety both to individuals and to the nation as a whole. Only obedience would secure divine favor and ensure happiness and prosperity in the land they were about to enter, because the rich promises were given on condition of obedience, and God had plainly declared that if they did not keep His commandments He would not — He could not — fulfill them. Israel was highly honored of God, entrusted with laws and discipline in every way superior to those of other nations. And though Moses as visible leader and lawgiver stands superior in wisdom and integrity to all earthly sovereigns and statesmen, he ever acknowledged himself only the servant of God, speaking and acting according to divine direction, taking no credit to himself but pointing the people to God as the source of power and wisdom.