The end of Deuteronomy is both depressing and encouraging.  It's depressing because Moses is informed by the Lord about the future of Israel – they will fall away from Him, and they will suffer as a result.  That isn't good news for someone on his day of death: that the nation he tirelessly led is destined for ruin.  At the same time, Moses had the privilege of seeing the Promised Land from on top of a mountain.  He saw the very thing he had been leading the Israelites to for so many years.  And though he was not able to enter in, he was able to see it from a distance and to know that the dream and the promise was finally realized.  

I think that Moses' final days serve as a reminder for us that, as a result of sin, the future looks bleak.  But there is hope – a greater hope than even Moses understood.  We have the privilege of living after Jesus' selfless sacrifice, and we have the privilege of knowing that sin and death do not win this time.  Moses used his life to point the people to the Lord.  What will you use your life for?