Moses the Man of God: the main figure in the Old Testament

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Moses the Man of God –the main figure in the Old Testament 20/01/2021

Derrick Harrison 1/20/2021

1. Moses was chosen and called by God Moses is an elect child who is chosen by God; - at birth his parents recognise this when they describe their new-born baby as “a proper child.” This awareness caused faith to rise up in their hearts, “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months by his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king's commandment (Heb.11:23).”

His election demonstrated by supernatural preservation. (cf. Daniel’s 3 friends).

2. Moses was given a mammoth task Called by God he rescued 2.5 million slaves from the super-power of the ancient world and led them to Canaan.

Moses first encounter with God who commissions him to lead His people out of Egypt. Forty years after his departure from Egypt, God appears to him in the burning bush, bringing his exile/isolation to a close.

“Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” So, He said, “I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain” (Ex.3:10-12).

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“Therefore, say to the children of Israel: ‘I am the Lord; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I will give it to you as a heritage: I am the Lord” (Ex.6:6-8).

“So the Lord said to Moses: “See, I have made you as God to

Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you. And Aaron your brother shall tell Pharaoh to send the children of Israel out of his land. And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh will not heed you, so that I may lay My hand on Egypt and bring My armies and My people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them” (Ex.7:1-5).

3. Moses had an Intimacy with God (God spoke about it) The LORD spells out His relationship with Moses and his esteem for him Moses has 3 strategic meetings with God, Ex.3 and 6, and a later, a crucial meeting in ch.33 and ch.34 (I have counted this as one event).

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Of course, Moses spent two periods of 40 days alone with God in the mountain. At the end of the first 40 days (Ex.33/34), he encounters the LORD, this is his third specific and strategic meeting with God. Ex.ch.3 Moses’ first meeting, when He speaks His Name, Ex.Ch.6 Moses’ second meeting with God, when He reveals His primary name of LORD/Jehovah/Yahweh to Moses, And God spoke to Moses and said to him: “I am the LORD, I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name LORD, I was not known to them” (Ex.6:2-3).

Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures two chief names are used for the one true divine Being - ELOHIM, commonly translated God in our version,1 and JEHOVAH translated LORD. The importance of this name for God is translated in capital letters in the Bible as LORD throughout the Old Testament and is the central paradigm of Moses’ theology. The word LORD is the principal word for God in the Old Testament. It is not a title for God but God says that it is His actual Name. Moses was going to discover the power of this Name in his confrontation with Pharaoh and the evil powers which ruled Egypt. This name LORD henceforth will dominate Moses’ writing from Genesis onwards and is the proof of Moses’ authorship of the Pentateuch. It is the signet ring which represents God’s authority, declaring his credibility to write Scripture and is the reason why the stamp of God is on all his writings.

Ex.33-34; Moses third meeting with God 1

Elohim is the plural of Eloah; it is often used in the short form EL (a word signifying strength, as in EL‐SHADDAI, God Almighty, the name by which God was known to the patriarchs (Gen.17:1; 28:3; Ex.6:3).

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“And he said, “Please, show me Your glory.”

Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. So, it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen” (Ex.33:18-23).

“Now the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation (Ex.34:5-9).

So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped. Then he said, “If now I have found grace in Your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance.” “(Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth)” (Nu.12:1-3).

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It is this third verse which declares Moses’ character/nature of humility, the verse is even written as a parenthesis! I think that when Moses was challenged he remained silent and it was at that point that the Lord stepped in and vindicated His humble servant. We could ask ourselves the question where that humility came from. Where, indeed was he humbled? He was humbled by his sin in murdering a man, a sin which loomed large in his thinking as daily he led Jethro’s sheep to the foot of Sinai. He was also humbled by domestic failure especially with regard to his marriage; he was humbled by his lowly station in comparison to his upbringing and training in Pharaoh’s palace. In comparison, his ordinary life and his daily routine of work must have humbled him; - the absence of people, of books, of a future, the fact that he was self-emptied of all that was dear and of value and worth to him must have been at the root of his humility. Paul describes a similar experience when at the end of the process of humbling he declares, “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ” (Phil.3:7-8).

Moses counted all things as loss to him and yet he did not have the magnet of Christ to attract him. I do believe that his humility was the fruit of those 40 years in Midian. It is humility that teaches us our true worth. It is then that we recognise who we are truly and can then rest comfortably in who we are. God is pleased with us, but lots of people are not really aware of that fact and therefore do not enjoy contentment in God and in themselves, “I have learned, in whatsoever

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state I am, therewith to be content” (Phil.4:11). 2 Paul chooses carefully his words here because contentment does not come naturally, it is the fruit of the Spirit’s discipline, Jesus was perfected in His human nature by the things He suffered (Heb.2:10). Contentment comes from finding grace in the trials of life.

In the face of Aaron’s and Miriam’s failure to honour Moses, the Lord speaks about His intimate relationship with Moses, “And He said, Hear, now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them; and he departed” (Nu.12:69).

The LORD points to their intimacy by comparing the prophet who speaks God’s words, who sees visions and dreams of God and in contrast, Moses who knows God, “mouth to mouth” which reminds us of the Song of Songs, “let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth” (1:3). The LORD uses two other words, “apparently” (plainly and surely) and not in dark speeches (parables or similitudes), and the “similitude” of the Lord shall he behold (not the face or essence of God, who is invisible (Ex.33:20; Col.1:15; Jn.1:18), but some unmistakable evidence of His glorious and holy presence (Ex.33:2; 2

George Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment https://www.preachtheword.com/bookstore/contentment.pdf

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34:5). This takes me to Ex.33-34; when this actually happened between the LORD and Moses. I am also reminded of Moses’ teaching in Deuteronomy, “And the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire: you heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only you heard a voice” (4:12, 15, 16). The word is repeated in v15 and v16. There can be no material or visual representation of God who is invisible, hence the lie of idolatry. The first commandment prohibits idols, “any graven image” (Ex.20:3-5). We cannot visualize God who is invisible, but we can see Him visually in the face of Jesus Christ. The tabernacle expressed the beauty of God’s character in a million ways but there was no picture of God hanging up in the tabernacle, nor in the home of any Israelite. I would like to draw your attention to the importance of the voice of the LORD, which comes to the fore here as throughout Scripture. Because there is on Sinai no material representation of the LORD, not even the sight of an angel, our attention is focused entirely on the voice and what the voice conveys to us and the words God speaks to us.

4. Moses’ miracle ministry 10 Judgments, Red Sea deliverance, miracles which took place on their journey to Canaan: water, manna, leprosy, etc.

5. Moses was a prophet - he wrote Scripture (like David/Paul) “The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear” (Deut.18:15) … “I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from New Life Radio – Talk No 15

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among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of hi” (vv18-19). Prophecy produces Scripture, prophecy is the backbone of Scripture.

The final statement of Deuteronomy says: “And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like Moses, who the Lord knew face to face” (Deut.34:10).

6. Moses founded a nation He gave them - God, his Laws, government, sacrificial system, tabernacle (judges, priests, elders).

The fact was Moses had a unique position of authority and he had a unique ministry of prophecy and teaching, it was Moses who had, under God established Israel’s entire constitution, their legal, civil and sacrificial system, absolutely everything had been initiated by him following his time alone with the LORD in the mountain. No other man in the entire history of the nation of Israel played such a pivotal role.

No one was to follow him and no other person fulfilled such a singular role in the nation, not even David or Solomon. Everywhere you look in the Pentateuch you will see the powerful hand of Moses.

7. Moses appears at the transfiguration of Jesus “And as He prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering. And, behold, there New Life Radio – Talk No 15

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talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elijah who appeared in glory, and spoke of His EXODUS which He would accomplish at Jerusalem” (Lk.9:29-31).

8. The Song of Moses and the Lamb “They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying: “Great and marvellous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the saints!” (Rev.15:3).

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