120

The Bible reports several things about the end of Moses’ life:

• He saw the promised land but never got there
• He was 120 when he died
• He could still see perfectly and had not lost his vigor - up until the time he died
• He was buried somewhere in a valley in Moab
• The respect and awe for Moses as the most important prophet persisted for years and years.

120 with no significant ill health effects? Really? Why add that bit of information to this story?  Is it there as a clarifying contradiction to what Moses said to the people in Deuteronomy 31:2? "I am now one hundred twenty years old. I am no longer able to get about, and the LORD has told me, 'You shall not cross over this Jordan.’ Why would it matter anyway? What if Moses was in failing health? I understand a little about it saying that he could still see well, as he just looked at the whole land he wasn’t going to go to, but this whole insinuation that he was really old and still in perfect health puzzles me. And while I’m asking questions about things that puzzle me about this week’s Bible reading from Deuteronomy 34:1-12,what about the bit that says that his vigor hadn’t abated? Does that have to do with strength or is it really referring to his ability to still perform sexually? Is it a combination of both? (Another way to understand it is that he still had a “spring in his step” or he hadn’t dried up.) At any rate, why would that be part of the story? Why would that matter at all?

Maybe I’m just asking too many questions. But seriously – why have that stuff in there? What’s it all about and why does it matter?