What the Bible says about Moses
(From Forerunner Commentary)

Exodus 2:9-10

In this long process of faith- and conviction-building in Moses, God was laying a foundation in him, in that people of faith parented him during his most formative years. One should never conclude that the first several years of a child's life are unimportant; in fact, it is in those first couple of years that he is started down the path of the rest of his life. What path will it be?

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6).

Train means "to hedge in," "to put walls around," "to narrow the way." God was doing this through Amram and Jochebed: They were starting Moses down the right path.

We do not know for sure how long Moses was with his real parents. It was at least until he was weaned. In those days, it seems to have been customary for a child to be on the breast for about two years before he was weaned. It is possible, some commentators say, understanding the culture of Egypt, it is likely that Moses was with Amram and Jochebed until he was about six years old. The reason, they say, was to get the child through those "bad years," for instance, "the terrible twos," because they had them too. By the time he was turned over to Pharaoh's daughter, he was over the hump, and she would not have such a hard time taking care of him. So, he may actually have lived with Amram and Jochebed through what we could call the pre-school years.

In verses 9-10, there is an ironic twist. God worked it out that the child who, by order of Pharaoh, should have been killed at birth is now under the secure protection of the powerful family that ordered his death. God has a sense of humor, does He not?

Not only that, the family of Moses not only received their precious baby back, but they were paid wages for doing something that they would gladly have done for free had the situation been different. It is examples like this that caused later writers to comment that God knows how to deliver the godly out of their temptations and trials. For instance, in Ephesians 3:20, Paul says that God can do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us, the Holy Spirit.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Conviction and Moses

Exodus 3:7-10

God is already calling them, "My people." What had they done? Had they pledged themselves to God? Had they repented? They had not done a thing yet, and God is already calling them His own.

Does He have a similar feeling of possessiveness toward those that He is going to deal with in terms of salvation? Definitely! "They are Mine!" What will He do for His own? Who will hold back the hand of God? Nobody, and that is the story. Israel got out of Egypt because God set His mind to do it. He said, "I have chosen them, and they are Mine" and they had not done a thing yet. In fact, it would be weeks before they even knew that Moses existed anymore than just what they had heard about what occurred forty years before.

There is no indication that Moses had any contact with anybody in Egypt during those forty years. He was not sending letters every couple of weeks saying, "Get ready—I am just about to return now." No, he was in the wilderness learning what it is like to be a shepherd, tending sheep, because he was going to pastor a whole nation of millions of people. He was getting his attitude straightened out. God had sent him to school to prepare. The wilderness was the school of hard knocks for someone like Moses who had been reared in a cushy palace. God probably had to knock a great deal of pride, vanity, and cockiness out of him before He could use him.

Thus, the salvation of Israel was already underway. Who does the Bible say is in charge? Who does the Bible show to be the one who has the answers to their problems? Who took the initiative? Who is doing the leading? Who is doing the providing? Even at this point, we can see that God is the One doing all these things.

By the time they begin to realize that God is involved, we find that all they needed to do is to agree with what He wanted them to do, and He would do the work to bring them out of Egypt.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Unleavened Bread and Pentecost

Exodus 4:27

This episode takes place when the forty years that Moses spent in the wilderness tending Jethro's sheep has come to an end, and God has sent him back to Egypt. However, Moses' faith is not really all that strong, so he complains to God that he does not know how to speak, which is interesting because, when Moses was in Egypt, he was a leader, a champion of men, apparently a general of the armies, and in line to become Pharaoh. Those responsibilities would entail that he communicate to others and maybe give speeches before thousands of people.

Yet now, suddenly, he does not know how to speak. Perhaps during that forty years, God had worked on him in such a way that, not that he had really forgotten how to speak, but he had learned enough about himself that he was no longer as self-confident as he had been in Egypt. Now he would have to put his confidence in somebody else. He may not have felt all that confident that God would be with him. So God came to his aid by providing his brother, Aaron, to do the speaking.

We all have failings of faith, but we should not feel overly bad about this because God supplies the need to overcome them in some way. He does not dump us as too weak but works things out another way. It is for experiences like this that the concept in I Corinthians 10:13 comes into play. God will make a way of escape that we may be able to bear, overcome, or endure our trials. In Moses' case, the way out was provided in the person of Aaron, who, apparently, had no fear of public speaking.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Faith (Part One)

Exodus 6:16-20

Moses' family was not one of any distinction in Israel. He was descended from Levi through Kohath to Amram who married Jochebed. Jochebed was Amram's aunt, strangely enough; she was his father's sister. She was probably about the same age as Amram or maybe even younger. From that marriage, Moses was born. It is interesting to consider that, in Leviticus 18:12, such marriages were forbidden, but this was before that injunction. Nevertheless, Moses was the product of an interesting relationship.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Conviction and Moses

Related Topics: Amram and Jochebed. | Kohath | Levi | Moses


 

Exodus 7:1-2

Aaron was Moses' prophet, and Moses was God's prophet. The prophet is a message carrier from one of greater authority. In this case, Moses was in the position of God to Aaron, as well as to Pharaoh. By combining Exodus 4:10-16 with Exodus 7:1-2, the biblical usage of a prophet has a good foundation. A prophet is one who expresses the will of God in words and sometimes with signs given to confirm what is said.

Through Moses, the function of a prophet begins to be established: to cry aloud and show men their sins (Isaiah 58:1). It does not stop there, though, because they were also pastors and ministerial monitors of the peoples' conduct and attitudes. Their function differed from that of priests in that the priest approached God by means of sacrifice on behalf of the people. The prophets, by contrast, approached men as ambassadors of God, beseeching them to turn from their evil ways and live (Ezekiel 33:11).

The difference between a prophet and a priest is a matter of direction, in that one goes from God to man (the prophet), and the other goes from men to God (the priest). It is also a matter of directness. The priest is indirect, while the prophet is direct. We have things going in opposite directions here, yet both working to accomplish essentially the same thing, which is to bring man and God into a relationship with one another. This has direct application to us under the New Covenant (II Corinthians 5:20-21).

John W. Ritenbaugh
Prophets and Prophecy (Part One)

Numbers 12:4-9

How would we like to be accused as Moses was, then witness God Himself make a dramatic entrance and hear His voice boom out in poetry in our defense, saying that we are without peer amongst all the people? God says to Moses, "There is no one like you." He was without peer among the holy. That is pretty impressive! It has not happened very often in mankind's history.

But, on the other hand, there has only been one Moses. There were a number of ordinary prophets, who had to be content with visions and dreams, but God spoke to Moses personally. Moses was in a class by himself. Nobody on earth was more intimate with God than Moses, and, as a result, Moses was entrusted with God's estate. And Hebrews 3:2 comments, "Moses also was faithful in all His house."

"All His house" is a figure of speech, indicating that "house" is put for itself (that is, the building) and everything in it. What is normally in a house is a family. Moses, then, was faithful—he was without peer—in all of God's Household, God's Family.

Nobody was faithful like Moses was faithful, therefore he could interpret God's will to Israel with full authority. God backed His prophet up, saying that Miriam and Aaron were completely out of line. This is why He says, "Why were you not afraid to speak against [or, accuse] My servant Moses?"

It is clear what set Moses apart from others: He was faithful. This can be seen when he is contrasted to the rest of Israel, the very people that he was leading, who comprised God's Family at that time. They were anything but faithful! In fact, the reason that the Israelites failed was because of their lack of faith. And without faith, of course, one cannot be faithful.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Conviction and Moses

Deuteronomy 18:15-18

Note the association of the word "prophet" with the phrase, "I will put my words in his mouth." This is what God told Moses He would do, so a chain of communication is set up—from God to Moses, from Moses to Aaron, and from Aaron to Pharaoh or to the people.

Contrary to what it shows in The Ten Commandments movie, the Bible suggests that Aaron did the bulk of the speaking before the people rather than Moses. This does not mean that Moses was excluded from speaking to the people, because eventually, even though it is likely that he never overcame his lack of eloquence (Exodus 4:10), he nonetheless became secure in his position as the leader. As the forty-year trial went on, he more often spoke directly to the people. When Israel finally got away from Pharaoh, Moses probably did the bulk of the speaking before the people, and Aaron faded into the background in that regard.

Every other prophet, except Christ, only built on the foundation laid in Moses. These verses particularly foretell of Christ, but it applies in principle to all the prophets that followed Moses. They all were spoken to by God, and they in turn did what Moses did: delivered the message to the ones it was addressed to.

Until New Testament times, prophets have been God's way of reaching the people. Whenever the people needed a prophet or a mediator with God, as He says in verses 16-17, God would raise up a prophet and put His words in his mouth.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Prophets and Prophecy (Part One)

Deuteronomy 18:16

This verse is linked to the last phrase of the previous verse: "Him you shall hear, according to all you desired. . . ." The Israelites are to listen to the Prophet because, in their fear at Mount Sinai (Exodus 20:18-19), they had begged not to have any further direct contact with God Himself.

Staff
The Prophet

Acts 7:22-23

Forty years had passed since Exodus 1, and Moses is now 40 years old. We do not know a great many specifics about his life, but there are a few historical tidbits that can be put together. From archaeological finds as well as some written histories, we know that Egypt was the greatest land of its day, the United States of America of that time.

Moses probably lived in the palace with his mother (Pharaoh's daughter), Pharaoh, and the rest of his family, for about 35 years. We can understand from this conjecture, that Moses had access to the cream of everything in Egypt. Being part of the Royal Family, if he rode out on a chariot, the people on the street bowed. He would have had the best. If Moses traveled down the Nile by barge, it was among the finest in Egypt.

When it came to education, he probably had the finest tutors available in the land. We know for sure, from written records, that they had a great university, in its time comparable in esteem to an Oxford or a Harvard today. He would have been instructed in astronomy, chemistry, mathematics, engineering, music, and art. The movie, The Ten Commandments, depicted this well. Undoubtedly, much of what he was taught was nothing more than sheer foolishness—just as much in our modern universities also teach a lot of foolishness. Nevertheless, the overall effect of what he learned filled him with knowledge and understanding that would stand him in good stead later.

In reading between the lines of Scripture, during his 35 years in the palace, Moses never really lost contact with the people of Israel and with his real family, even though Jochebed and Amram turned him over to Pharaoh's daughter. From time to time, he would have been able to visit with them. He would, then, have had access to the language, history, and expectations of Israel. His mind, to be used later by God, was being formed by being filled with knowledge.

Stephen says that he was "mighty in words and deeds." He became a statesman, representing Egypt to foreign peoples and leaders. Ancient historians say that he was a soldier. The years passed. But despite being prepared for high office in Egypt, the memories of his early childhood and his real parents—the knowledge that they were slaves and that his kinsmen were groaning in the brickyards—never left him.

A mind was being formed during those years. Please do not forget yourself in all of this. God has been dealing with us a great deal longer than our conversion, perhaps from our earliest years.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Conviction and Moses

Hebrews 3:5

Moses is among that "great cloud of witnesses," and we can learn a great deal from his life. Here, the author says he was faithful as a servant. Can God give any higher tribute to a man than that? Nobody receives the accolades from God that Moses does. For instance, "Moses, the servant of God"—only five people in the Bible are called that.

He did the job God gave him, and he did it well. This is what set him apart: He was faithful. He fulfilled his responsibilities so well that, in verse 2, our Messiah—our Savior—is compared to Moses (not the other way around). The text says, ". . . even as Moses." That is pretty high praise.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Conviction and Moses

Hebrews 6:19-20

This word "forerunner" is the Greek prodromos, used in Scripture only this one time. It means "scout," "guide," or "one sent before a king to prepare the way." The Greeks also used prodromos to mean "firstfruits."

In the story of Daniel Boone, he went first to scout out Kentucky, then later took a party of thirty woodsmen to improve the trail, and after that, even more people followed. Boone was the forerunner, but so were those who went with him to develop the route. That first small group was the firstfruits. Spiritually, Christ has gone ahead, showing us the way, and we, as the firstfruits, improve the trail so that others will someday walk it more easily.

The concept of a forerunner runs throughout the Bible. We could say that Adam was a forerunner, as well as Noah, Abraham, Moses, Elijah, John the Baptist, and of course, Christ. Notice that each of these forerunners had followers—their firstfruits. Adam had Eve and their sons and daughters that followed them. Noah had his wife and family. Abraham had Sarah and Lot, and later were added Ishmael and Isaac, and then Jacob and his children. Moses had Aaron and Miriam and then all the children of Israel. Elijah led to Elisha. John the Baptist proclaimed the coming of Christ, who called His disciples—us.

In other words, we have a part to play as well. It is not the leading role but a supporting one. Nonetheless, it is a necessary part. There is no call for a "big head" here: God could have called someone else or raised up stones, as John the Baptist says in Matthew 3:9. However, He did not; He called us specifically (John 6:44). Therefore, we should not waste our opportunity.

Mike Ford
Blazing a Trail Through the Wilderness

Hebrews 11:23

Like us, Moses was born at the end of an age. However, he had an advantage of birth that most of us do not have: He was born into a truly God-fearing family, a family that had faith. This verse witnesses to the faith of his mother and father. God has always reserved to Himself a remnant of people that have faith, and Moses "happened" to be born into such a family.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Conviction and Moses

Hebrews 11:23

Moses was born into a terrible situation. We may think we were born into unfortunate circumstances, but our situations pale in comparison to Moses' start. However, he had one thing going for him humanly: his parents, Amram and Jochebed.

Moses, of course, was unaware of these things, but God supplied the saving grace in the form of Amram and Jochebed. The Exodus account focuses on the part of Jochebed because it was she, undoubtedly, along with Miriam, who actually carried out the casting of Moses on the Nile. Hebrews 11:23, though, uses the term "parents," so that we understand that Amram was also involved—with his faith.

Notice that they were not afraid of the king's command. The Bible does not say what strengthened their faith, but they did a pretty dangerous thing. They put their lives on the line, as well as Moses' life, by putting him out on the water. Did God speak to them in a dream? Did God give them a vision? Did God send an angel? Or did they rely on the promise given to Abraham, knowing that they were coming to the end of an age? We cannot know because God does not say.

Whatever it was, in a way it does not matter. All that matters is that, somehow, they believed it and followed through by doing this thing that, at least on the surface, appears to have been very risky. Were they convicted that what they were doing was right? Certainly! Even the power of Egypt could not turn them aside from their conviction. Even the fear or the threat of losing their lives could not dissuade them. They did not have a preference—they were convicted! They put their lives, and their son's life, on the line because they trusted the word of their God.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Conviction and Moses


Find more Bible verses about Moses:
Moses {Nave's}
 

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