If the reader of the first four books of the Torah still harbors any doubts as to the paramount importance of Moses to Israel’s history, the book of Deuteronomy makes the matter crystal clear. The book consists almost entirely of Moses giving speeches, and no other individual human takes any action, not even his successor Joshua. And if the way Deuteronomy centers Moses points indirectly to his singular greatness, the closing verses of the book– and of the Torah itself– explicitly declare that Moses is the greatest prophet and leader who Israel has had and will ever have. To be sure, the steps that God takes at the end of Deuteronomy ultimately curtail Moses’s ambitions and indeed his life. But they also reinforce the impression of his unique status. No previous patriarch was given a virtual aerial tour of the Promised Land; no one else is escorted to his death by God himself (“and he died… at God’s word” 34:5); and no one else has his burial place obscured such that “no man knew of his [place of] burial until this very day” (34:6).
Some have suggested that the purpose of this was to prevent Moses’ burial site from becoming an object of worship or idolatry for the people of Israel. However, this does not seem consistent to me, since this apparently did not occur with the known burial places of other prominent individuals (such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Genesis 25:9; Genesis 49:29-32) and David (Kings 2:10; Acts 2:29)) who might have also been considered worthy of such veneration.
I personally believe that God’s burial of Moses was indicative of God’s intention that Moses was not to remain buried. After Moses’ death there was apparently a dispute over his body (referenced in Jude 1:9) between Satan and the archangel Michael, with God’s intention being to resurrect Moses and take him to heaven, and Satan seeking to prevent this from happening. (What else could they have been disputing about, since Moses was already dead?) However, Michael prevailed, as indicated when Moses appeared in bodily form, along with Elijah (who was taken to heaven without dying (2 Kings 2:11-12)) — figuratively representing the Law and the Prophets that testified of Jesus’ coming (Luke 24:44) — with Jesus at the Transfiguration (Luke
