A LIVING PROPHECY
It is not always appreciated how many parallels there are between the life of Moses and the life of Christ. Here are nineteen striking similarities.
By Peter MastersFROM SWORD & TROWEL 1999 No
3
The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of
thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken . . . I will raise them up a
Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and
he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him (Deuteronomy 18.15, 18).
MOSES WAS INSPIRED to announce that God would raise up a Prophet for the
children of Israel, like himself. A Saviour would come, someone far, far greater than Moses,
but someone who answered to the events and circumstances of Moses’ life in a remarkable
way. The numerous similarities between Moses and the Lord Jesus Christ are striking.
1 Moses, like Christ, was a most significant child - a special
child. He was - in the language of the Authorised Version - ‘a goodly child’.
In Acts 7.20 the baby Moses is described as ‘exceeding fair’, which is
translated from the Greek, ‘divinely fair’. Moses was not merely beautiful in the eyes of his
parents - he carried the clear stamp of God upon him, and they realised that God had some
great purpose for Him. Hebrews 11.23 tells us that his parents exercised faith
when they hid him, which means faith in God’s plan to preserve and use the child.
It was the same with the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. His birth was
surrounded with wonderful indications of His specialness. He was the Messiah and His
birth was extraordinary.
2 The second respect in which Moses is like the Messiah is that they
were both saved as children from certain death by remarkable acts of God. The
discovery and rescue of Moses is well-known. But we should remember that the Lord also
was diverted from danger when the wise men were - ‘warned of God in a dream that they
should not return to Herod . . . And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord
appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and
flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young
child to destroy him. When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and
departed into Egypt.’
Moses was miraculously saved, and so was the supreme Prophet
Who would be like him.
3 This leads us to another respect in which Moses resembles Christ. Both
were called out of Egypt. Moses was called out at the age of 40, and the Lord soon
after His birth. Matthew 2.15 tells us that He was kept in Egypt - ‘until the
death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet,
saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.’
4 A fourth parallel between Moses and Christ is that they both left a
glorious situation in order to work for the people of God. Moses forsook the
pleasures of Egypt, his princely status, his sure future, and his life of luxury. He did not
forsake these things because he was afraid of Pharaoh. Hebrews 11.27 clearly
tells us - ‘By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king.’
Moses forsook Egypt to preserve his calling and his work of deliverance. He
left a situation of glory and honour expressly for the service of his people. And so did
Christ, in an infinitely greater way, leave the glorious courts of Heaven in order to come
down and suffer for His people.
5 This reminds us of a similarity between Moses and Christ related to
the previous one. Both suffered great humiliation. Moses had all the learning
of Egypt at his fingertips. It is likely he was a chief general of the Egyptian army (for any
prince in Pharaoh’s house would surely have been). Yet he became a fugitive and a
shepherd, tilling land in a far country and all in pursuit of a saving objective. Christ, of
course, suffered the ultimate humiliation at Calvary.
6 Another parallel is seen in the fact that both Moses and Christ were
rejected by their own people. With Moses it occurred just before his exile, when his
people spurned him with the words - ‘Who made thee a prince and a judge over us?’ Jesus Christ also ‘came unto his own, and his own received him not’.
7 A very obvious similarity is that both Moses and the Lord were
prophets and teachers. How much Moses prophesied! Through him the Lord gave
doctrines and procedures of worship. He also was given great and far-reaching foretelling
prophecies. The captivity of Babylon, for example, was revealed to Moses. And everything
which Moses prophesied certainly came to pass.
Jesus Christ was the principal Prophet. ‘Never man spake like this man,’ said
His hearers. He taught as one with authority. He was the supreme Teacher. No one in the
history of the human race has been able to explain profound things with such simplicity as
Jesus Christ. He gave short-range prophecies to vindicate His authority, such as the
destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. He gave long-range prophecies extending to the end of
the age. Moses rightly said that God would raise up someone like himself, but his own lamp
would never shine as brightly as that of the Light of the World.
8 Moses resembled Christ also in that both were priests. It was
Moses who was commissioned to introduce the system of ceremonial and sacrificial
worship to the children of Israel. He offered the first sacrifices (Exodus 29.19-35;
Leviticus 8.22-30). Jesus Christ is our great High Priest Who has offered Himself as
the sacrificial lamb, and inaugurated a system of worship without ceremonies, in spirit and
in truth.
9 Another parallel is seen in the fact that Moses was a lawgiver, and so
is Christ Jesus. Moses did not invent the law, but was the channel for it. Jesus
Christ has given His laws to His church. Strictly speaking He is the original lawgiver, for
Moses only received that of which Christ was the author. Nevertheless, as a type, he
foreshadows Christ, Who gave in the New Testament a fresh burst of revelation - the royal
law of liberty - and His instructions to His church.
10 Moses was a judge, and so is Jesus Christ. Moses judged the
people en masse. He pronounced God’s sentences upon them, as well as His
warnings. He was the senior and presiding judge for all the hard cases that other judges
could not determine. Jesus Christ is the Judge of all the earth, into Whose hands the Father
has committed all judgement.
11 Moses, like Christ, was a great intercessor. Whenever there was
trouble and difficulty, he pleaded for the children of Israel. In their disobedience and folly,
he spread his hands before the Lord.
Jesus Christ ever lives to make intercession for His people. Even on the
cross, He prayed for human souls.
12 Both Moses and the Lord Jesus were shepherds. Away in the land of
Midian, for forty years Moses cared for the sheep, foreshadowing Jesus Christ - that great
Shepherd of the sheep.
13 Moses and Christ were both miracle-workers. Moses received power
from God to do mighty things, and these authenticated his office and his message. Jesus
Christ was the mightiest worker of miracles, being authenticated by them as the Son of God,
sent from Heaven.
14 Both Moses and Christ were founders of a nation. Even the secular
dictionaries call Moses the founder of a nation. By God’s hand he led them out. By God’s
hand he organised them. By God’s hand the nation was born as a visible organisation. In
this he foreshadows Jesus Christ, Who is visibly the founder of a nation. He is the author
and finisher of our faith, and the forerunner of a new people.
15 Moses and Christ were both of royal status, Moses not by birth,
but by upbringing and training. Jesus Christ came into the world as the ultimate prince - the
Son of God.
16 Both Moses and Christ are deliverers who lead people from one
situation to another. Moses led the people out of bondage to a land flowing with
milk and honey, and Jesus Christ is the wonderful Deliverer Who leads us from bondage
under Satan to an eternal inheritance.
17 Both Moses and the Lord wielded executive power on behalf of God. Mighty things were done by the hand of Moses. He
stretched forth his rod, he lifted his arms, he pronounced the word.
God chose to do almost everything He did by the visible authority of Moses. This man was
the enactor who put into effect so many of the mighty works of God. In this respect he
perfectly foreshadows Jesus Christ, because the Lord, in a far greater way, gave effect to the
will of God and carried it out. He said He did nothing without the Father. Supremely He
went to Calvary and personally secured our redemption. He effected these
things. He did not just promise them or announce them. He secured them. He
was the operating agency that brought the will of God to pass.
18 Both Moses and Jesus Christ were faithful to a plan. Moses is
justly famed for carrying out the commands of God to the letter. He ‘was faithful in all his
house’ (Hebrews 3.2). He made every detail of the Tabernacle and its
furnishings according to the pattern shown him by God in the mount. With only one real
deviation (showing that Moses was a mere man and a sinner) he was utterly faithful in all
that God gave him to do. He did not merely obey in a general way, accepting the outline and
devising the detail by himself. He was meticulously faithful to God’s pattern. In this he
remarkably foreshadows Jesus Christ, Who did and taught exactly what all the Godhead had
determined, to the last detail, to the last second.
He lived a perfect life in obedience to the moral and ceremonial law. He
spent exactly the number of days on this earth that was predetermined for Him and by Him.
Every miracle, every act was exactly in conformity to the will of the Triune Godhead. There
has never been such a perfect life of obedience in every single required detail. Moses, in
this, feebly but truly foreshadows Jesus Christ.
19 Finally, Moses prefigured the Lord Jesus Christ by his great meekness. ‘Now the man Moses,’ says Numbers 12.3, ‘was very meek, above all
the men which were upon the face of the earth.’ We compare this with the gracious
invitation of the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 11.28-29 - ‘Come unto
me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you,
and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.’
That meekness bore Him through the rigours and humiliation of His life on
earth, and sustained Him when He bore indescribable punishment on behalf of His people.
That same meekness makes Him our most approachable and patient Saviour.
Beyond all doubt the Lord Jesus Christ is that Prophet ‘like unto thee’. But
He is, of course, far, far greater than Solomon, or Jonas, or Moses, or Abraham, for He is
King of kings and Lord of lords.
|
