Moses had one of the toughest lives in the Bible. Born into slavery, under death sentence at birth and again in his maturity, leading a rebellious nation out of an evil regime; and finally dying in sight of the land he would hand over to his people.
Educated to the highest degree in the palace of the king, he then became a shepherd in Midian, a foreign country. Called by the I AM at the burning bush, he further shepherded the Lord’s people for forty years in the wilderness.
He literally gave his life for a nation of thankless, murmuring people who often wanted him gone. Yet, at one time after his people committed dreadful idolatry, he said to God if you won’t forgive them, then destroy me along with them.
He took responsibility for their sins and was prepared to die with them. So God said ‘I will not blot you from my book but a day will come when I shall punish the people for their sins.’
He died at the age of 120 years – the same amount of time Noah preached about the coming flood – on a lonely mountain and was buried in an obscure grave.
After his death on Mount Pisgah, the archangel of heaven disputed with Satan over his body and won, Jude 9. Moses was resurrected and taken to heaven, he and Elijah appearing to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration.
Like Moses, Jesus also lived in the palace of the King and left it to go into a rebellious nation to restore people to God. His life as a babe was under threat and he was forced to flee into Egypt, the land Moses was called out of to lead God’s people.
Then, like Moses, Jesus shepherded God’s people, leading them to a new life and he took responsibility for their sins. He died for them on a lonely hillside with just a few faithful followers and was quietly placed in a tomb.
Jesus, like Moses, arose from the dead, the ‘firstfruits of the harvest of the dead’ and was taken to heaven. Just as the Son was the only one of the Trinity to die, so Moses was the only one of the three humans in heaven, Enoch, Elijah and Moses, to die and be resurrected.
Moses lost his life because of the sins of his people, ‘they roused the Lord’s anger at the waters of Meribah, and it went ill with Moses because of them,’ Psalm 106:32. Jesus was crucified as were the worst of sinners because the people shouted, ‘Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!” John 19:15,16, ‘We have no king but Caesar.’
Good news comes in threes; Father, Creator and Holy Spirit; Enoch, Moses and Elijah, three of the best stories in the Bible.
Moses was man’s witness in heaven to the events that brought Jesus to earth to die for his people. And it was Jesus who said, ‘It was of me that he [Moses] wrote. But if you do not believe what he wrote, how are you to believe what I say?’ John 5:46,47.
How indeed!
Elizabeth Price
(To access the entire “Three Good News Stories” mini-series, please click here.)