For death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity.  

死亡只是我们从今生迈入永恒的转折点。

God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 1 Thessalonians 4:14

那已经在耶稣里睡了的人，上帝也必将他与耶稣一同带来。-帖撒罗尼迦前书4章14节

I have a treasured memory of gatherings with family friends when our boys were small. The adults would talk into the night; our children, weary with play would curl up on a couch or chair and fall asleep.

过去我们家和几个朋友的家庭相聚的时光，让我留下了美好的回忆。那时孩子们都还很小，我们这些大人聊天到深夜，孩子们玩累了，就蜷缩在沙发或椅子上睡着了。

When it was time to leave, I would gather our boys into my arms, carry them to the car, lay them in the back seat, and take them home. When we arrived, I would pick them up again, tuck them into their beds, kiss them goodnight, and turn out the light. In the morning they would awaken—at home.

在离开的时候，我会先把孩子抱到车上，让他们躺在汽车后座，开车载他们回家。到家后，我又把他们抱起来，让他们舒服地睡在床上，亲吻他们道晚安，然后关灯。翌日早晨当他们一觉醒来，已经是在家里了。

This has become a rich metaphor for me of the night on which we “sleep in Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 4:14 ). We slumber . . . and awaken in our eternal home, the home that will heal the weariness that has marked our days.

对我来说，用这样的情景来比拟“在耶稣里睡了”（帖撒罗尼迦前书4章14节）最为贴切传神。我们沉睡之后……在永恒的天家醒来，世上一切的疲惫愁烦，在天家都烟消云散。

I came across an Old Testament text the other day that surprised me—a closing comment in Deuteronomy: “Moses . . . died there in Moab, as the  had said” (34:5). The Hebrew means literally, “Moses died . . . with the mouth of the ,” a phrase ancient rabbis translated, “With the kiss of the .”

前几天，我偶然读到旧约圣经，申命记最后一章的一句话令我惊叹：“摩西死在摩押地，正如耶和华所说的”（34章5节）。这句话的希伯来文字意是“摩西死了，上帝以嘴碰触他”，古时拉比将此翻译成“上帝亲吻他”。

Is it too much to envision God bending over us on our final night on earth, tucking us in and kissing us goodnight? Then, as John Donne so eloquently put it, “One short sleep past, we wake eternally.”

你想，在我们人生旅程的最后一夜，上帝俯身拥抱我们，亲吻我们道晚安，这是不是很不可思议呢？正如约翰·铎恩（John Donne）的珠玑妙语：“一觉醒来，已是永恒。”

Heavenly Father, because Your arms carry us, we can sleep in peace.

天父，在祢怀抱里，我们可以安然入睡。

Deuteronomy 34:1-8    NIV

34 Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There the Lord showed him the whole land—from Gilead to Dan, 2 all of Naphtali, the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Mediterranean Sea, 3 the Negev and the whole region from the Valley of Jericho, the City of Palms, as far as Zoar. 4 Then the Lord said to him, “This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacobwhen I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.” 5 And Moses the servant of the Lord died there in Moab, as the Lordhad said. 6 He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor,but to this day no one knows where his grave is. 7 Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone. 8 The Israelites grieved for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the time of weeping and mourning was over.

申命记 34:1-8 

34 摩西从摩押平原登尼波山，上了那与耶利哥相对的毗斯迦山顶。耶和华把基列全地直到但， 2 拿弗他利全地，以法莲、玛拿西的地，犹大全地直到西海， 3 南地和棕树城耶利哥的平原，直到琐珥，都指给他看。 4 耶和华对他说：“这就是我向亚伯拉罕、以撒、雅各起誓应许之地，说：‘我必将这地赐给你的后裔。’现在我使你眼睛看见了，你却不得过到那里去。” 5 于是，耶和华的仆人摩西死在摩押地，正如耶和华所说的。 6 耶和华将他埋葬在摩押地，伯毗珥对面的谷中，只是到今日没有人知道他的坟墓。 7 摩西死的时候年一百二十岁，眼目没有昏花，精神没有衰败。8 以色列人在摩押平原为摩西哀哭了三十日，为摩西居丧哀哭的日子就满了。

INSIGHT

灵粮透视

Deuteronomy gives us the last written words of Moses. Speaking with the warmth of a father who is about to leave his children, he reminisces about how the Lord, who rescued them from Egypt, miraculously fed, led, and protected the Israelites in an uninhabitable wilderness (1:1–4:40). He reminds them of what the Lord had said to them at Sinai (5:1–26:19). Then he describes how wonderful or terrible their life would be depending on whether or not they continue to remember and trust the God who had led them to the threshold of a promised homeland (chs. 27–30). Moses’s heart must have ached as he expressed what the Lord had told him—that the people he loved would eventually suffer greatly for forgetting the God who had done so much for them (31:29). With a song (ch. 32) and words of blessing (ch. 33), Moses entrusted Israel to God and to the leadership of Moses’s assistant, Joshua (34:9).

申命记是摩西所写的最后一卷书。正如一位即将要离开儿女的父亲一般，摩西语重心长地讲述上帝如何拯救以色列人出埃及，如何在荒凉的旷野施行神迹供应他们食物，带领并保护他们（1章1节-4章40节）。摩西提醒以色列百姓，不要忘记上帝在西奈山对他们所说的话（5章1节-26章19节）。他清楚指出，他们的生活或是美好或是悲惨，完全取决于他们是否不断地记念并倚靠上帝，也就是那位即将带领他们进入应许之地的上帝（27-30章）。当摩西向百姓传讲上帝对他所说的话时，他的心里必定非常痛苦，因为他已从上帝那里得知，他所挚爱的百姓，最终会忘记为他们成就许多大事的上帝，从而遭受极大的苦难（31章29节）。摩西用一首歌（32章）和一段祝福（33章），将以色列民交托给上帝，并且让他的助手约书亚来带领他们（34章9节）。

整理：于姊妹