Moses: the prophet to God’s people

Moses: the prophet to God’s people

Today I want to examine the life of a man:

• who was born during a time when Israel was under foreign domination
• who was born during a time of a disturbed king, who wanted to protect his position of power and gave the order to kill all the innocent baby boys.
• rejected by his brothers
• who fasted 40 days and 40 nights
• who sent forth 12 men
• who performed miracles as a sign of his authority
• whose authority was challenged
• whose brothers were almost ready to stone him
• was called God’s servant
• was considered faithful before God
• who was the mediator of a Covenant
• who gave the law of God to people from the mount
• who God’s prophet to His people
• delivered his people from bondage

You guessed it.  I want to examine the life of Jesus Christ.  But I want to do so by examining the life of Moses a man to whom the above statements also apply…

Let’s open our Bibles to Matt 2; find your place, mark it and turn with me to Exodus 1.  As you do, I’d like to remind you

WHERE WE’VE BEEN FOR THE PAST FEW WEEKS.  We have been walking through the OT with an emphasis on types of Christ.  A type is an OT person place or thing that points forward to a NT reality.  We started by looking at Adam, the first man ever created.  We moved on to Melchizedek.  In studying him we met Abraham.  From there we went on to Abraham’s son Isaac.  Isaac married Rebekah and together they had twin sons, Jacob and Esau.  Jacob’s name was changed to Israel and his 12 sons became the 12 tribes of Israel.  One of those 12 sons was Joseph, who we focused on last week.  Joseph’s life foreshadowed Jesus in a multitude of ways.  

JOSEPH’S STORY was that his brothers sold him into slavery.  He ended up in Egypt.  Due to his ability to interpret dreams he rose to 2^nd in power only to Pharaoh.  According to Pharaoh’s dreams, which he interpreted, there were 7 years of plenty followed by 7 years of famine.  Due to Joseph’s wisdom he urged Pharaoh to save some of the grain during the plenty to provide during the famine.  Joseph’s brothers came from the land of Canaan to Egypt in order to get food.  Due to his favor with Pharaoh, his brothers and their family found favor with Pharaoh.  Pharaoh had Joseph tell his brothers to return to their homeland and bring the rest of their families to Egypt and enjoy the best of the land.

That’s where we pick up in Exodus 1:1 (with all of the Israelites in Egypt) ¹These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family: ² Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah; ³Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin; ⁴ Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher. ⁵ The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all; Joseph was already in Egypt.

 ⁶ Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, ⁷ but the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.  (I seem to remember reading of a promise of God – sand on the seashore)

 ⁸ Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt. ⁹ “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become much too numerous for us. ¹⁰ Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”

 ¹¹ So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. ¹² But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites ¹³and worked them ruthlessly. ¹⁴ They made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their hard labor the Egyptians used them ruthlessly.

15The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16 "When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth and observe them on the delivery stool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live." 

Here we have a king who wants to protect his position of power and gives the order to kill all the innocent baby boys.  17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. 18 Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, "Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?"

 19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, "Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive."

 20 So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.

 22 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: "Every boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live."

It is here in Egypt, under these circumstances that Moses is born.  Moses is born at a time WHEN ISRAEL IS UNDER FOREIGN DOMINATION.  They are being oppressed by Egypt.  This foreshadows the birth of Christ which was also at a time when Israel was under foreign domination, namely Rome.

FURTHERMORE, MOSES WAS BORN DURING THE REIGN OF A DISTURBED KING WHO WANTED TO PROTECT HIS POSITION OF POWER AND GAVE THE ORDER TO KILL ALL THE INNOCENT BABY BOYS.  Recall that Pharaoh, in fear of the multiplying Israelites requested that every boy that is born must be killed.  Well the midwives feared God and wouldn’t do that.  They said that the Hebrew women are tough.  They just give birth before the midwives arrive.  Pharaoh said, “Okay, take those boys and throw them into the Nile.”  It was at this time that Moses was born.  This foreshadows the birth of Christ, which was also during the reign of a disturbed king, who wanted to protect his position gave the order to kill all the innocent baby boys.

Flip over to Matthew 2:1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."   3When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.

So here again, during the birth of Christ we have a disturbed king concerned with his position of power.  What does he do in attempts to protect his position?  Skip down to v13When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him." 14So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son."

 16When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.

Sound familiar?  LIKE MOSES, JESUS WAS BORN DURING A TIME OF A DISTURBED KING, WHO WANTED TO PROTECT HIS POSITION AND GAVE THE ORDER TO KILL ALL THE INNOCENT BABY BOYS.

God preserved the life of both Moses & Jesus in the midst of it all.  

EVEN FROM BIRTH MOSES FORESHADOWS JESUS CHRIST.

Let’s pick up in Exodus 2:11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. 12 Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, "Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?"

 14 The man said, "Who made you ruler and judge over us?  Look at this attitude toward Moses that his Hebrew brothers have toward him.  He is God’s chosen deliverer and they rejected him.  THIS FORESHADOWS JESUS, GOD’S CHOSEN DELIVERER WHO WAS ALSO REJECTED BY HIS BROTHERS.

BOTH MOSES AND CHRIST FASTED 40 DAYS AND 40 NIGHTS.  Ex 34:28  Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water.  Matt 4:1-2  Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.  After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.

MOSES AND CHRIST SENT FORTH 12 MEN.  Numbers 13:1-16 lists off 12 men that Moses sent.  Luke 6:13 When morning came he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles (means sent ones).  vv14-16 lists them by name.

MOSES AND CHRIST PERFORMED MIRACLES AS A SIGN OF THEIR AUTHORITY.  Ex 4:17 (God said to Moses) But take this staff in your hand so you can perform miraculous signs with it.  Mark 6:2 (speaking of Jesus, the people say) What’s this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles?

MOSES AND CHRIST HAD THEIR AUTHORITY CHALLENGED BY THEIR BROTHERS.  Numbers 16:3  They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far!  The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the LORD is with them.  Why then do you set yourselves above the LORD’s assembly?”  Matt 21:23 Jesus entered the temple courts, and, while he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him, “By what authority are you doing these things?  They asked.  “And who gave you this authority?”

BOTH MOSES’ AND JESUS’ BROTHERS WERE ALMOST READY TO STONE THEM.  Exodus 17:4  Then Moses cried out to the LORD, “What am I to do with these people?  They are almost ready to stone me.”  John 8:58-59  “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered,  “before Abraham was born, I am!”  At this they picked up stones to stone him.  Again in John 10:31.

MOSES AND CHRIST WERE BOTH CALLED GOD’S SERVANT.  Numbers 12:7 (God speaking) But this is not true of my servant, Moses; he is faithful in all my house.  Matt 12:18 (speaking of Jesus) Here is my servant whom I have chosen.

BOTH MOSES AND CHRIST WERE CONSIDERED FAITHFUL BEFORE GOD.  Heb 3:1 Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. 2He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God's house. 3Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. 4For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. 5Moses was faithful as a servant in all God's house, testifying to what would be said in the future. 6But Christ is faithful as a son over God's house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.  Jesus worthy of greater honor than Moses – as always with antitype.

BOTH MOSES AND CHRIST WERE THE MEDIATOR OF A COVENANT.  Exodus 34:27 & 32  ²⁷ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”  –  ³² Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai.  Luke 22:20  In the same way, after the supper he took the cup saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

BOTH MOSES AND CHRIST GAVE THE LAW OF GOD FROM THE MOUNT.  Exodus 24:12  The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and commands I have written for their instruction.”  Jesus essentially gives the fulfillment of the law in his sermon on the mount in Matt 5 – 7.

THERE HAVE BEEN NUMEROUS PROPHETS OF GOD IN THE HISTORY OF ISRAEL, BUT MOSES WAS NOT JUST A PROPHET, HE WAS THE PROPHET.  THIS FORESHADOWED JESUS WHO WAS THE PROPHET.  Flip over to Deut 18.  These are the words of Moses.  The audience is the Israelites.  Deut 18:14 The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the LORD your God has not permitted you to do so. 15 The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. 16 For this is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, "Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die."

 17 The LORD said to me: "What they say is good. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. 19 If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account.

Moses said that God would raise up a prophet like him.  Look at these elements that describe this prophet:

• Like Moses
• From among their brothers (Israel)
• God would put his words in this prophet’s mouth
• He will tell the people everything God commands him
• If anyone does not listen to the prophet, God will call him to account or cut him off from among the people.

Jesus is like Moses.  Remember, Moses was unique.  God will raise up for them a prophet like me (unique).  (Listen to what God says about Moses) Num 12:6-8  6 he said, "Listen to my words: "When a prophet of the LORD is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams.  7 But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house.

 8 With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?"  This foreshadows Jesus…

John 1:18 No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, had made him known.  

Jesus came from among their brothers – a fellow Israelite.

God the Father did put His words in Jesus mouth 

and He told the Jews everything God the Father commanded Him. John 8:28 So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am the one I claim to be and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.

We know that for those who did not listen to Jesus’ words from God were called to account or completely cut off from among God’s people.  (Matt 3, Rom 11)

I would say that we have pretty clearly identified Jesus as the fulfillment of this prophecy about the prophet like Moses.  

However, Peter positively identifies Jesus as the fulfillment of this prophecy in Deut 18.

Let’s take a look at Acts 3.  Picking up in Acts 3:17

 17"Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. 18But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer. 19Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, 20and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus. 21He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. 22For Moses said, 'The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you. 23Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from among his people.'

 24"Indeed, all the prophets from Samuel on, as many as have spoken, have foretold these days. 25And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, 'Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.'26When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways."

Who was it that God raised up as his servant but Jesus?  What is it that turned men from their wicked ways but Jesus?

MOSES WAS NOT JUST A PROPHET, BUT THE PROPHET.  In Deut 18 he foretold a prophet that God would raise up like him from among the people, a prophet in whose mouth God would put His words and who would speak forth those words to the people and anyone who would not listen to those words would be cut off from among the people.  This is none other than Jesus, NOT JUST A PROPHET, BUT THE PROPHET.

John 6:14 After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”

There are a few things I walk away with from a study like this:

• How awesome God is
• How much greater is Jesus than Moses
• Giving of the law
• His deliverance from bondage
• The covenant of which he is mediator

As always, with types and shadows, the antitype is always far greater, vastly superior, more glorious and worthy of greater honor than the type.  We have already read this in Heb 3:3-6 3Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. 4For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. 5Moses was faithful as a servant in all God's house, testifying to what would be said in the future. 6But Christ is faithful as a son over God's house.  Jesus is worthy of greater honor than Moses.  He is not just a servant in God’s house, but a son over it.

Jesus is greater than Moses in his giving of the Law.  Look at the way the law was given to Israel.  Deut 5:1 Moses summoned all Israel and said: 
      Hear, O Israel, the decrees and laws I declare in your hearing today. Learn them and be sure to follow them. 2 The LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. 3 It was not with our fathers that the LORD made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today. 4 The LORD spoke to you face to face out of the fire on the mountain. 5 (At that time I stood between the LORD and you to declare to you the word of the LORD, because you were afraid of the fire and did not go up the mountain.) 

The Law was given to the Israelites by Moses, who was given them by God on a mountain.  The people did not go up the mountain into the presence of God.  They stood afar off as the thundering voice of God was too much for them.  The giving of the Law of Moses was marked by rumblings and peals of thunder, thick clouds of darkness and fire.  The presence of God was overwhelming and too much for the people.  The people did not experience God intimately, but stood at a distance.  They received the words second hand from Moses on stone tablets.  

This was cold and impersonal.  However, Jesus’ giving of the Law from the mount was warm, intimate and personal.

In Matthew 5, Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down.  His disciples came to Him and He began to teach them

Moses was given the Law on a mountain.  Jesus came and brought fullness to the Law on a mountain.  The giving of the Law on Sinai was very impersonal and cold.  It lacked intimacy with God and brought about fear.  However, when Jesus came as the antitype, the substance, the reality, the fulfillment, we see that He, who is God in the flesh, sat down on a mountainside.  His disciples did not stand afar off in fear, but came to Him and He began to teach them, intimately.

John 1:17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.  

Moses was great, but Christ is infinitely greater, vastly superior, far more glorious, and worthy of greater honor.

So the giving of the law through Moses was very cold and impersonal, but the fulfillment of the law in Christ was warm, personal and intimate.

That brings us to the next point.  The very next thing that is said in the text- Deut 5:6 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

GOD USED MOSES TO DELIVER HIS PEOPLE OUT OF SLAVERY TO THE EGYPTIANS.  THIS FORESHADOWED CHRIST, WHO GOD USED TO DELIVER HIS PEOPLE OUT OF SLAVERY TO SIN.  I am not minimizing the deliverance from physical slavery.  But I do want to take a moment to maximize the deliverance from spiritual slavery that God’s people have in Christ.  Believers have been delivered from the bondage to sin.  We don’t have to sin.  Those in Christ are no longer slaves to sin and death.  

What a blessing it is to be free from bondage to sin.  What a glorious deliverance we have in Christ!  In the same way that God gave Israel the victory over Egypt, God has given us the victory over sin and death.  Let’s live victoriously.  We don’t have to sin.  When we do it’s because we chose to.  When we look down and see the handcuffs of sin around our wrists, we see that the cuffs are unlocked and opened and we can simply take our hands out of them.  They no longer bind us.  Let’s live in the victory that is ours in Christ.

Moses’ deliverance of God’s people from bondage in Egypt foreshadowed Christ’s deliverance of God’s people from bondage to sin and what a glorious deliverance it was.

Finally, the ministry of Jesus, the ministry of the NC is exceedingly greater than the ministry of Moses in the OC.

Heb 8:5-6  This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” ⁶ But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises.

Again, the ministry of Jesus, the ministry of the NC is exceedingly greater than that of Moses in the OC.  And in this I rejoice.  I rejoice that we do not live under the ministry of Moses which says do this and live, but under the ministry of Jesus which says live and do this.  I rejoice that we live in the Messianic age and that we partake in the covenant that brings life and not that which brings death.

I’d like to end by reading from 2 Cor 3, which is a contrast between the covenants a contrast between the ministry of Moses and that of Jesus.

2 Cor 3:6-11  ⁶ He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 

⁷ Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, ⁸ will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? ⁹ If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! ¹⁰ For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. ¹¹ And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!

The ministry of Moses, the OC the Law engraved on stone, brought condemnation and death.  Though it came with glory, that glory faded to make way for a more glorious ministry – the ministry of Christ, the NC wrought by the Spirit, written not on stone but on human hearts, bringing not condemnation and death, but righteousness and life.  How exceedingly glorious is the ministry of Christ.  I rejoice that we are ministers of a NC, not of the letter – not of the Law, but of the Spirit and that our ministry brings life.

John 1:17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.