Reading: "Moses" by M. G. Kyle ISBE

MOSES

mo'-zez, mo'-ziz (mosheh; Egyptian mes, "drawn out," "born"; Septuagint Mouse(s)). The great Hebrew national hero, leader, author, law-giver and prophet.

I. LIFE

1. Son of Levi

2. Foundling Prince

3. Friend of the People

4. Refugee in Midian

5. Leader of Israel

II. WORK AND CHARACTER

1. The Prophet

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The biographical narrative of the Hebrew national hero, Moses, is a continuous thread of history in the Pentateuch (first five books of the Bible). That story in all its simplicity, but with acknowledgment of its difficulties as they arise, is here to be followed.

I. Life.

1. Son of Levi:

The recorded story of Moses' life falls naturally into five rather unequal parts:

"And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi" (Exodus 2:1). The son of Levi born of that union became one of the greatest men among mere men in the whole history of the world. How far he was removed in genealogy from Levi it is impossible to know. The genealogical lists (Genesis 46:11; Exodus 6:16-20; Numbers 3:14-28; 26:57-59; 1 Chronicles 6:1-3) show only 4 generations from Levi to Moses, while the account given of the numbers of Israel at the exodus (Exodus 12:37; 38:26; Numbers 1:46; 11:21) imperatively demand at least 10 or 12 generations. The males alone of the sons of Kohath "from a month old and upward" numbered at Sinai 8,600 (Numbers 3:27-28). It is evident that the extract from the genealogy here, as in many other places (1Chronicles 23:15; 26:24; Ezra 7:1-5; 8:1-2; compare 1 Chronicles 6:3-14; Matthew 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-38) is not complete, but follows the common method of giving important heads of families. The statement concerning Jochebed: "And she bare unto Amram Aaron and Moses, and Miriam their sister" (Numbers 26:59)) really creates no difficulty, as it is likewise said of Zilpah, after the mention of her grandsons, "And these she bare unto Jacob" (Genesis 46:17-18; compare 46:24,25). The mother "saw him that he was a goodly child" (Exodus 2:2). So they defied the commandment of the king (Exodus 1:22), and for 3 months hid him instead of throwing him into the river.

2. Foundling Prince:

The time soon came when it was impossible longer to hide the child (Josephus, Ant, II, ix, 3-6). The mother resolved upon a plan which was at once a creative imitation of obedience to the commandment of the king, an adroit appeal to womanly sympathy, and, if it succeeded, a subtle scheme to bring the cruelty of the king home to his own attention. Her faith succeeded. She took an ark of bulrushes (Exodus 2:3-4), daubed it with bitumen mixed with the sticky slime of the river, placed in this floating vessel the child of her love and faith, and put it into the river at a place among the sedge in the shallow water where the royal ladies from the palace would be likely to come down to bathe. A sister, probably Miriam, stood afar off to watch (Exodus 2:3-4). The daughter of Pharaoh came down with her great ladies to the river (Exodus 2:5-10). The princess saw the ark among the reeds and sent a maid to fetch it. The expectation of the mother was not disappointed. The womanly sympathy of the princess was touched. She resolved to save the child by adopting him. Through the intervention of the watching sister, he was given to his own mother to be nursed (Exodus 2:7-9). "And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son" (Exodus 2:10). Thus, he would receive her family name.

Royal family names in Egypt then were usually compounded of some expression of reverence or faith or submission and the name of a god, for example, "loved of," "chosen of," "born of," Thoth, Ptah, Ra or Amon. At this period of Egyptian history, "born of" (Egyptian mes, "drawn out") was joined sometimes to Ah, the name of the moon-god, making Ahmes, or Thoth, the scribe-god, so Thothmes, but usually with Ra, the sun-god, giving Rames, usually anglicized Rameses or Ramoses.

It was the time of the Ramesside dynasty, and the king on the throne was Rameses II. Thus the foundling adopted by Pharaoh's daughter would have the family name Mes or Moses. That it would be joined in the Egyptian to the name of the sungod Ra is practically certain. His name at court would be Ramoses. The usual meaning of this royal name was that the child was "born of" a princess through the intervention of the god Ra. But this child was not "born of" the princess, so falling back upon the primary meaning of the word, "drawn out," she said, "because I drew him out of the water" (Exodus 2:10). Thus, Moses received his name. Pharaoh's daughter may have been the eldest daughter of Rameses II, but more probably was the daughter and eldest child of Seti Merenptah I, and sister of the king on the throne. She would be lineal heir to the crown but debarred by her sex. Instead, she bore the title "Pharaoh's Daughter," and, according to Egyptian custom, retained the right to the crown for her first-born son. A not improbable tradition (Josephus, Ant, II, ix, 7) relates that she had no natural son, and Moses thus became heir to the throne, not with the right to supplant the reigning Pharaoh, but to supersede any of his sons.

Very little is known of Moses' youth and early manhood at the court of Pharaoh. He would certainly be educated as a prince, whose right it probably was to be initiated into the mysteries. Thus he was "instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians" (Acts 7:22), included in which, according to many Egyptologists, was the doctrine of one Supreme God.

3. Friend of the People:

But the faith of which the Epistle to the Hebrews speaks (Hebrews 11:23-28) was at work. Moses "refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter" (Exodus 2:11-14; Acts 7:24; Hebrews 11:24). Whether he did so in word, by definite renunciation, or by his espousal of the cause of the slave against the oppressive policy of Pharaoh is of little importance. In either case he became practically a traitor, and greatly imperiled his throne rights and probably his civil rights as well. During some intervention to make better the condition of the state slaves, an altercation arose and he slew an Egyptian (Exodus 2:11-12). Thus, his constructive treason became an overt act. Discovering through the ungrateful reproaches of his own kinsmen (Exodus 2:14; Acts 7:25) that his act was known, he quickly made a decision, "choosing rather to share ill treatment with the people of God," casting in his lot with slaves of the empire, rather than "to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season". "He considered the reproach of  Christ as greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt" (Hebrews 11:24-26; Acts 7:25-29).

4. Refugee in Midian:

Moses fled, "not fearing the wrath of the king" (Hebrews 11:27), but, like any person would, he did fear the daily threats to his well-being (Exodus 2:14-15). He went out as a poor wanderer (Exodus 2:15). We are told nothing of the escape and the journey, how he eluded the vigilance of the court guards and of the frontier-line of sentinels. The friend of slaves is strangely safe while within their territory. At last he reached the land of Midian (Exodus 2:15). The romance of the well and the shepherdesses and the grateful father and the future wife is all quite in accord with the simplicity of desert life (Exodus 2:16-22). The "Egyptian" saw the rude, selfish herdsmen of the desert imposing upon the helpless shepherd girls, and, partly by the authority of a manly man, partly, doubtless, by the authority of his Egyptian appearance in an age when "Egypt" was a word with which to frighten men in all that part of the world, he compelled them to give way. The "Egyptian" was called, thanked, given a home and eventually a wife. There in Midian, while the anguish of Israel continued under the taskmaster's lash, and the weakening of Israel's strength by the destruction of the male children went on, with what more or less rigor we know not, Moses was left by Providence to mellow and mature, that the haughty, impetuous prince, "instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," might be transformed into the wise, well-poised, masterful leader, statesman, lawgiver, poet and prophet. God usually prepares His great ones in the desert or in some of the quiet places of earth, farthest away from the busy haunts of men and near to the Most High. David keeping his father's flocks, Elijah on the mountain slopes of Gilead, John the Baptist in the wilderness of Judea, Jesus in the shop of a Galilean carpenter; so Moses a shepherd in the Bedouin wilderness.

5. Leader of Israel:

(1) The Commission.

One day Moses led the flocks to "the west side of the wilderness" (Exodus 3:1-12). Moses received his commission, the most appalling commission ever given to a mere man (Exodus 3:10)--a commission to a solitary man, and he a refugee--to go back home and deliver his kinsmen from a dreadful slavery at the hand of the most powerful nation on earth. Let us not be critical of Moses' questioning faith in the face of such a task, for think how would we would react to such overwhelming responsibility (Exodus 3:11-13; 4:1,10-13). "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" (Exodus 3:14), was the encouragement God gave him. He gave him also Aaron for a spokesman (Exodus 4:14-16), the return to the Mount of God as a sign (Exodus 3:12), and the rod of power for working wonders (Exodus 4:17).

With the signs for identification (Exodus 4:1-10), Moses was ready for his mission. He went down from the "holy ground" to obey the high summons and fulfill the commission (Exodus 4:18-23). After the perplexing controversy with his wife, a controversy of stormy ending (Exodus 4:24-26), he seems to have left his family to his father-in-law's care while he went to respond to the call of God (Exodus 18:6). He met Aaron, his brother, at the Mount of God (Exodus 4:27-28), and together they returned to Egypt to collect the elders of Israel (Exodus 4:29-31), who were easily won over to the scheme of emancipation. Was ever a slave people not ready to listen to plans for freedom?

(2) The Conflict with Pharaoh.

The next move was the bold request to the king to allow the people to go into the wilderness to hold a feast unto Yahweh (Exodus 5:1). How did Moses gain admittance past the jealous guards of an Egyptian court to the presence of the Pharaoh himself? Egyptology affords a not too distinct answer. Rameses II was dead (Exodus 4:19); Merenptah II was on the throne with an insecure tenure, for the times were troubled. Did some remember the "son of Pharaoh's daughter" who, had he remained loyal, would have been the Pharaoh? Probably so. Thus he would gain admittance, and thus, too, in the precarious condition of the throne, it might well not be safe to molest him. The original form of the request made to the king, with some slight modification, was continued throughout (Exodus 8:27;10:9), though God promised that the Egyptians should thrust them out altogether when the end should come, and it was so (Exodus 11:1; 12:31,33,39). Yet Pharaoh remembered the form of their request and bestirred himself when it was reported that they had indeed gone "from serving" them (Exodus 14:5). The request for temporary departure upon which the contest was made put Pharaoh's call to duty in the easiest form and thus, also, his obstinacy appears as the greater heinousness. Then came the challenge of Pharaoh in his contemptuous demand, "Who is Yahweh?" (Exodus 5:2), and Moses' prompt acceptance of the challenge, in the beginning of the long series of plagues (Exodus 8:1; 12:29-36; 14:31). Pharaoh, having made the issue, was justly required to afford full presentation of it. So Pharaoh's heart was "hardened" (Exodus 4:21; 7:3,13; 9:12,35; 10:1; 14:8) until the vindication of Yahweh as God of all the earth was complete. This proving of Yahweh was so conducted that the gods of Egypt were shown to be of no avail against Him, but that He is God of all the earth, and until the faith of the people of Israel was confirmed (Exodus 14:31).

(3) Institution of the Passover.

It was now time for the next step in revelation (Exodus 12; 13:1-16). At the burning bush God had declared His purpose to be a saviour, not a destroyer. In this contest in Egypt, His absolute sovereignty was being established; and now the method of deliverance by Him, that He might not be a destroyer, was to be revealed. Moses called together the elders (Exodus 12:21-28) and instituted the Passover feast. As God always in revelation chooses the known and the familiar--the tree, the bow, circumcision, baptism, and the Supper--by which to convey the unknown, so the Passover was a combination of the household feast with the widespread idea of safety through blood-sacrifice, which, however it may have come into the world, was not new at that time. Some think there is evidence of an old Semitic festival at that season which was utilized for the institution of the Passover.

The lamb was chosen and its use was kept up (Exodus 12:3-6). On the appointed night it was killed and "roasted with fire" and eaten with bitter herbs (Exodus 12:8), while they all stood ready girded, with their shoes on their feet and their staff in hand (Exodus 12:11). They ate in safety and in hope, because the blood of the lamb was on the door (Exodus 12:23). That night the firstborn of Egypt were slain. Among the Egyptians "there was not a house where there was not one dead" (Exodus 12:30), from the house of the maid-servant, who sat with her handmill before her, to the palace of the king that "sat on the throne," and even among the cattle in the pasture. If the plague was employed as the agency of the angel of Yahweh, as some think, its peculiarity is that it takes the strongest and the best and culminates in one great stunning blow and then immediately subsides. Who can tell the horror of that night when the Israelites were thrust out of the terror-stricken land (Exodus 12:39)?

As they went out, they "asked," after the fashion of departing servants in the East, and God gave them favor in the sight of the over-awed Egyptians that they lavished gifts upon them in extravagance. Thus "they despoiled the Egyptians" (Exodus 12:36). "Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people" (Exodus 11:3; 12:35,36).

(4) The Exodus.

"At the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt" (Exodus 12:41). The great oppressor was Rameses II, and the culmination and the revolution came, most probably, in connection with the building of Pithom and Raamses, as these are the works of Israel mentioned in the Bible narrative (Exodus 1:11). Rameses said that he built Pithom at the "mouth of the east" (Budge, History of Exodus, V, 123). The troubled times which came to Egypt with the beginning of the reign of Merenptah II afforded the psychological moment for the return of the "son of Pharaoh's daughter" and his access to the royal court. The presence and power of Yahweh vindicated His claim to be the Lord of all the earth, and Merenptah let the children of Israel go.

A little later when Israel turned back from the border of Khar (Palestine) into the wilderness and disappeared, and Merenptah's affairs were somewhat settled in the empire, he set up the usual boastful tablet claiming as his own many of the victories of his royal ancestors, added a few which he himself could truly boast, and inserted, near the end, an exultation over Israel's discomfiture, accounting himself as having finally won the victory:

"Tehennu is devastation, Kheta peace, the Canaan the prisoner of all ills; 

"Asgalon led out, taken with Gezer, Yenoamam made naught;

"The People of Israel is ruined, his posterity is not; Khar is become as the widows of Egypt."

The people of Israel went out from Succoth (Egyptian "Thuku," Budge, History of Egypt, V, 122, 129), carrying the bones of Joseph with them as he had commanded (Exodus 13:19; Genesis 50:25). The northeast route was the direct way to the promised land, but it was guarded. Pithom itself was built at "the mouth of the East," as a part of the great frontier defenses (Budge, op. cit., V, 123). The "wall" on this frontier was well guarded (Exodus 14), and attempts might be made to stop them. So they went not "by the way of the land of the Philistines .... Lest the people change their minds when they see war" (Exodus 13:17). The Lord Himself took the leadership and went ahead of the host of Israel in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Exodus 13:21). He led them by "the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea" (Exodus 13:18). They pitched before Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon between Migdol and the sea (Exodus 14:2). The journeys before and after the crossing, the time, and the configuration of the land and the coast-line of the sea, together with all the necessities imposed by the narrative, are best met by a crossing near the modern town of Suez (Naville, Route of the Exodus; Palmer, The Desert of the Exodus), where Ras `Ataka comes down to the sea, upon whose heights a migdhol or "watch-tower," as the southern outpost of the eastern line of Egyptian defenses, would most probably be erected.

Word was carried from the frontier to Pharaoh that the Israelites had "fled" (Exodus 14:5). They had taken the impassioned thrusting out by the frenzied people of Egypt in good faith and had gone never to return. Pharaoh took immediate steps to arrest and bring back the fugitives. The troops at hand (Exodus 14:6) and the chariot corps, including 600 "chosen chariots," were sent at once in pursuit, Pharaoh going out in person at least to start the expedition (Exodus 14:6,7). The Israelites seemed to be "entangled in the land," and, since "the wilderness (had) shut them in" (Exodus 14:3), must easily fall a prey to the Egyptian army. The Israelites, terror-stricken, cried to the LORD and to Moses. God answered and commanded the pillar of cloud to turn back from its place before the host of Israel and stand between them and the approaching Egyptians, so that while the Egyptians were in the darkness Israel had the light (Exodus 14:19,20). The mountain came down on their right, the sea on the left to meet the foot of the mountain in front of them; the Egyptians were hastening on after them and the pillar of cloud and fire was their rearward. Moses with the rod of God stood at the head of the fleeing host. Then God wrought. Moses stretched out the rod of God over the sea and "Yahweh caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all the night" (Exodus 14:16-21). A pathway was before them and the sea on the right hand, and on the left was a "wall unto them," and they passed through (Exodus 14:21,22). No clearer statement could possibly be made of the means used and of the miraculous timing of God's providence with the obedience of the people to His command to Moses. The host of Israel passed over on the hard, sandy bottom of the sea. The Egyptians coming up in the dark and finding it impossible to tell exactly where the coastline had been on this beach, and where the point of safety would lie when the wind should abate and the tide come in again, impetuously rushed on after the fleeing slaves. In the morning, Yahweh looked forth and troubled the Egyptians "clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily" (Exodus 14:24,25). The Egyptians found that they had gone too far and were unable to escape. The rushing waters caught them (Exodus 14:27,28). When the day had come, "horse and rider" were but the subject of a song of triumph (Exodus 15:1-19; Psalm 106:9-12) and Miriam led the women in praise with her tambourine (Exodus 15:20,21). The host of Pharaoh was overthrown in the Red Sea (Psalm 136:15). But Merenptah lived to erect his boastful inscription concerning the failure of Israel, when turned back from Kadesh-barnea, and their disappearance in the wilderness of Paran. His mummy, identified by the late Professor Groff, lies among the royal mummies in the Cairo Museum. Thus at the Red Sea was wrought the final victory of Yahweh over Pharaoh; and the people believed (Exodus 14:31).

(5) Special Providences.

Next the people of Israel experienced special providences, miraculous timing of events, and multiplying of natural agencies which began with the crossing of the Red Sea and ended only when they "did eat of the fruit of the land" (Joshua 5:12). God promised freedom from the diseases of the Egyptians (Exodus 15:26) at the bitter waters of Marah, on the condition of obedience. Moses was directed to a tree, the wood of which should counteract the alkaline character of the water (Exodus 15:23-25). A little later they were at Elim (Wady Gharandel, in present-day geography), where were "twelve springs of water and three score and ten palm trees" (Exodus 15:27). The enumeration of the trees signifies nothing but their scarcity, and is understood by everyone who has traveled in that desert and counted, again and again, every little clump of trees that has appeared. The course of least resistance here is to turn a little to the right and come out again at the Red Sea in order to pass around the point of the plateau into the wilderness of Sin. This is the course travel takes now, and it took the same course then (Exodus 16:1). Here Israel murmured (Exodus 16:2), and every traveler who crosses this blistering, dusty, wearisome, hungry wilderness joins in the murmuring, and wishes, at least a little, that he had stayed in the land of Egypt (Exodus 16:3). Provisions brought from Egypt were about exhausted and the land supplied but little. Judging from the complaints of the people about the barrenness of the land, it was not much different then from what it is now (Numbers 20:1-6). Now special providential provision began. "In the evening quail came up and covered the camp," and in the morning, after the dew, the manna was found (Exodus 16:4-36).

At Rephidim was the first of the instances when Moses was called upon to help the people to some water. He smote the rock with the rod of God, and there came forth an abundant supply of water (Exodus 17:1-6). There is plenty of water in the wady near this point now. The Amalekites, considering the events immediately following, had probably shut the Israelites off from the springs, so God opened some hidden source in the mountain side. "Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel" (Exodus 17:8). Moses held up his hand as a hand stretched up to God in prayer and allegiance, and the battle with Amalek, then as now, fluctuates according as the hand is lifted up or lowered (Exodus 17:8-16).

Here Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, met him and brought his wife and children to him (Exodus 18:5,6; compare Numbers 10:29). A sacrificial feast was held with the distinguished guest (Exodus 18:7-12). In the wise counsel of this great desert-priest we see one of the many natural sources of supply for Moses' legal lore and statesmanship. A suggestion of Jethro gave rise to one of the wisest and most far-reaching elements in the civil institutions of Israel, the elaborate system of civil courts (Exodus 18:13-26).

(6) Receiving the Law.

At Sinai Moses reached the pinnacle of his career, though perhaps not the pinnacle of his faith. The time, the stages of the journey, the description of the way, the topography of this place, especially its admirable adaptability to be the cathedral of Yahweh upon earth, and, above all, the collocation of all the events of the narrative along this route to this spot and to no other--all these exercise an overwhelming influence upon one. Here one of the greatest events between Creation and Calvary took place.

Here the people assembled. "Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke," and above appeared the glory of God. Boundaries were set about the mountain to keep the people back (Exodus 19:12,13). God was upon the mountain:

"There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness" (Exodus 19:16-20; 24:10,16,17), "and God spoke all these words" (Exodus 20:1-17). Back over the summit of the plain between these two mountain ridges in front, the people fled in terror to the place "far off" (Exodus 20:18), and somewhere about the foot of this mountain a little later the tabernacle of grace was set up (Exodus 40:17). At this place the affairs of Moses mounted up to such a pinnacle of greatness in the religious history of the world as none other among men has attained unto. He gave formal announcement of the perfect law of God as a rule of life, and the redeeming mercy of God as the hope through repentance for a world of sinners that fall short. Other men have sought God and taught men to seek God, some by the works of the law and some by the way of atonement, but where else in the history of the world has any one man caught sight of both great truths and given them out?

Moses gathered the people together to make the covenant (Exodus 24:1-8), and the chief men of Israel ate a covenant meal there before God (Exodus 24:11). God called Moses again to the mountain with the elders of Israel (Exodus 24:12). There Moses was with God, fasting 40 days (Exodus 34:28). Joshua accompanied Moses into the mount in Exodus 24:13. There God gave directions concerning the plan of the tabernacle:

"See .... that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain" (Hebrews 8:5-12, summing up Exodus 25:40; 26:30; 27:8). This was the statement of the architect to the builder. We can only learn what the pattern was by studying the tabernacle. While Moses was engaged in his study of the things of the tabernacle on the mountain, the people grew restless and appealed to Aaron (Exodus 32:1). In weakness Aaron yielded to them and made them a golden calf and they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt" (Exodus 32:2-6). This was probably, like the later calf-worship at Bethel and Dan, ancient Semitic bull-worship and a violation of the second commandment. The judgment of God was swift and terrible (32:7-35), and Levi was made the Divine agent (32:25-29). Here first the "tent of meeting" comes into prominence as the official headquarters of the leader of Israel (33:7-11). Henceforth independent and distinct from the tabernacle, though on account of the similarity of names liable to be confused with that building, it holds its place and purpose all through the wanderings to the plain of Moab by Jordan (Deuteronomy 31:14). Moses is given a vision of God to strengthen his own faith (Exodus 33:12-23; 34:1-35). On his return from communion with God, the skin of Moses' face shone because he had been talking to God and this caused terror among the multitude (a foreshadowing of that other and more glorious transfiguration at which Moses should also appear (Matthew 17:1-13; Mark 9:2-10; Luke 9:28-36)).

(7) Uncertainties of History.

From this time on to the end of Moses' life, the materials are scant, there are long stretches of silence, and a biographer may well hesitate. The tabernacle was set up at the foot of the "mountain of the law" (Exodus 40:17-19), and the world from that day to this has been able to find a mercy-seat at the foot of the mountain of the law. Nadab and Abihu presumptuously offered strange fire and were smitten (Leviticus 10:1-7). The people were numbered (Numbers 1:1). The Passover was kept (Numbers 9:1-5).

(8) Journey to Canaan Resumed.

The journey to Canaan began again (Numbers 10:11-13). From this time until near the close of the life of Moses the events associated with his name belong for the most part to the story of the wanderings in the wilderness and other subjects, rather than to a biography of Moses. The subjects and references are as follows:

The March (Numbers 2:10-18; 9:15-23)

The Complaining (Numbers 11:1-15)

The 70 Elders/Prophets (Numbers 11:16-25)

The Quail and the Plague (Numbers 11:31-35)

Miriam and Aaron Oppose Moses (Numbers 12)

(9) The Border of the Land:

Kadesh-barnea (Numbers 13:3-26)

The Spies (Deuteronomy 1:22; Numbers 13:2,21; 23:27,28-33; 14:1-38)

The Plagues (Numbers 14:36,37,40-45)

(10) The Wanderings:

Korah, Dathan and Abiram (Numbers 16:1-40)

The Plague (Numbers 16:41-50; 17)

Death of Miriam (Numbers 20:1)

Sin of Moses and Aaron (Numbers 20:2-13; Psalm 106:32)

Unfriendliness of Edom (Numbers 20:14-21)

Death of Aaron (Numbers 20:22-29)

Arad (Numbers 21:1-3)

Compassing of Edom and murmuring (Numbers 21:4-7)

Brazen Serpent (Numbers 21:8,9; John 3:14)

The Song of the Well (Numbers 21:10-20)

King Sihon defeated (Numbers 21:21-30)

King Og defeated (Numbers 21:31-35)

Balak and Balaam (Numbers 22-24)

Pollution of the People (Numbers 25)

Numbering of the People (Numbers 26)

The Daughters of Zelophehad (Numbers 27:1-11)

Joshua Chosen (Numbers 27:12-23)

Midianites Punished (Numbers 31)

(11) Tribes East of Jordan (Numbers 32)

(12) Moses' Final Acts.

Moses was now ready for the final instruction of the people. They were assembled and a great farewell address was given (Deuteronomy 1:1-30:20). Joshua was formally inducted into office (Deuteronomy 31:1-8), and to the priests was delivered a written copy of this last announcement of the Law now adapted to the progress made during 40 years (Deuteronomy 31:9-13; compare 31:24-29). Moses then called Joshua into the tabernacle for a final charge (Deuteronomy 31:14-23), gave to the assembled elders of the people "the words of this song" (Deuteronomy 31:30-32:1-47) and blessed the people (Deuteronomy 33). And then Moses, who "by faith" had triumphed in Egypt, had been the great revelator at Sinai, had turned back to walk with the people of little faith for 40 years, reached the greatest triumph of his faith, when, from the top of Nebo, the towering pinnacle of Pisgah, he lifted up his eyes to the goodly land of promise and gave way to Joshua to lead the people in (Deuteronomy 34). And there Moses died and was buried, "but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day" (Deuteronomy 34:5,6), "and Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died" (Deuteronomy 34:7).

Later references to Moses as leader, lawgiver and prophet run all through the Bible; only some will be mentioned:

Joshua 8:30-35; 24:5; 1 Samuel 12:6-8; 1 Chronicle 23:14-17; Psalm 77:20; 99:6; 105; 106; Isaiah 63:11,12; Jeremiah 15:1; Daniel 9:11-13; Hosea 12:13; Micah 6:4; Malachi 4:4.

The place held by Moses in the New Testament is as unique as in the Old Testament, though far less prominent. Indeed, he holds the same place, though presented in a different light. In the Old Testament he is the type of the Prophet to be raised up "like unto" him. It is the time of types, and Moses, the type, is most conspicuous. In the New Testament the Prophet "like unto Moses" has come. He now stands out the greatest One in human history, while Moses, the type, fades away in the shadow. It is thus he appears in Christ's remarkable reference to him:

"He wrote of me" (John 5:46). The principal thing which Moses wrote specifically of Christ is this passage: "The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers" (Deuteronomy 18-15-18). Again in the epistle to the Hebrews, which is the formal passing over from the types of the Old Testament to the fulfillment in the New Testament, Jesus is made to stand out as greater than Moses (Hebrews 3; 12:18-29). Other important New Testament references to Moses are Matthew 17:3; Mark 9:4; Luke 9:30; John 1:17,45; 3:14; Romans 5:14; Jude 1:9; Revelation 15:3.

II. Work and Character

1. The Prophet:

The career and the works and the character of Moses culminate in the prophetic office. It was as prophet that Moses was essentially leader. It was as prophet that he held the place of eminence in the world until a greater than Moses came.

(1) The statesman-prophet framed a civil government which illustrated the kingdom of God upon earth. The theocracy did not simulate any government of earth, monarchy, republic or socialistic state. It combined the best elements in all of these and set up the most effective checks which have ever been devised against the evils of each.

(2) The lawgiver-prophet inculcated maxims and laws which set the feet of the people in the way of life, so that, while failing as a law of life in a sinful world, these precepts ever remain as a rule of conduct.

(3) The priest-prophet prepared and gave to Israel a ritual of worship which most completely typified the redemptive mercy of God and which is so wonderfully unfolded in the Epistle to the Hebrews, as it has been more wonderfully fulfilled in the life and atoning death of Christ.

M. G. Kyle