In what ways was Moses like Jesus?

As to Moses — the Scriptures quoted by our questioner would establish quite definitely the features of priest and king, but that of prophet is perhaps not quiet so definitely stated. The reference by Peter in Acts 3 makes it clear that the One in mind is Christ personally — and in Deuteronomy 18 (and again in Deut. 34) the stress seems to be on the precious fact of Christ's humanity — "Of thy brethren, like unto me." Perhaps the outstanding feature in relation to Moses is the intimacy he enjoyed with God, and the freedom he had (even beyond that of Aaron) in going into the presence of Jehovah (see Exodus 25:22 and other Scriptures; see also collected Writings Expos. Vol. 1 p. 364). The words "like unto me" would happily remind us of the perfect communion between the Lord Jesus as Man, and the Father (John's Gospel). After saying this we are of the opinion that our contributor may not press the word "exclusively" in his paper — although Moses is not actually called a prophet.

Our Lord Jesus is the Prophet like unto Moses Who had been promised of old. God saw Moses face to face. He spake with him, as a man speaketh unto his friend, saying of him, "With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold." In all this high prerogative Moses was the shadow of the Son of God. Moses had access to God. He was on the heights of the hill with Him, beyond the region of thunder and tempest; then within the cloud of glory, as it stood at the door of the temporary tabernacle; and lastly, in the very holy of holies, when the tabernacle itself was reared. Ex. 24; 33; Ex. 25:22. And he stood in all that nearness to God without blood — though even Aaron, we know, could be there only once a year, and that not without blood — all this telling us, in affecting and intelligible language, of the divine personal worthiness of our Prophet — of the God-head glory of Him Whose shadow Moses was, Who is in the bosom of the Father, and has now spoken to us. Heb. 1:1-2.

In verse 22 Peter quotes Moses (Deut.18:15-19) as telling that God would raise up a prophet of the Jewish nation, similar to Moses, but having such authority that His words would allow no ignoring of them. Anyone who would not hear that prophet would be destroyed from among the people. This could apply to no-one but Christ. Leaders in Israel knew of that scripture, and had John the Baptist questioned if he were that prophet (John 1:21); but John bore witness to the fact that the Lord Jesus was far greater than he (John 3:38-31), and the evidence of Christ's own life and ministry was transparently clear. John did no miracle, but the miracles of the Lord Jesus were tremendous in number. In fact, Israel knows that neither before nor since has there been such a prophet.

Before the people could reply, Peter added a warning based upon Deut. 18:15-19. Moses had predicted the coming of a prophet — man like himself, to whom the nation must hearken on pain of destruction. This prophecy was fulfilled in Jesus; who, though the Eternal Son, condescended to become Man in our midst — as truly human as Moses or any other. No mere expounder of Moses' law was He, but proclaimer of a new and more glorious order of things altogether. This is shown in the words: "Him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever He shall say to you." All the prophets from Samuel onward had pointed to His day. Israel had been privileged indeed, to have first the prophets in long succession, and finally the Son of God Himself speaking in their midst. And now, in spite of their slaughter of Him, it was divinely proposed to give Him to them a second time; and thus blessing — full and final — should be brought in, not for Israel only, but for all the nations of the earth. Alas, for the hopeless evil of the human heart! The gracious overture was spurned with the result that the world drags on century by century in its weary way, feeling ever more deeply its need of peace and rest, yet never attaining thereunto. The rejected Jesus is men's only true hope, could they but see it.

In contrast to the deluded prophets of idolatry, the Lord would raise up a prophet like Moses (but infinitely greater than Moses) from the midst of Israel (v.1). Israel is commanded to listen to Him. Moses was at the point of being taken away in death. But God remembered how Israel had been terrified at the thought of hearing God Himself speaking to them at Sinai (Ex.20:18-20), and had asked for an intermediary between themselves and God. Therefore the Prophet spoken of in verse 18 is the "one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim.2:5). He would speak faithfully the words He received from God (v.18).

In how pre-eminently greater measure do we see this exemplified in the coming into the world of One incomparably greater than Moses, and of whom Moses has said: "Jehovah thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me, unto Him shall ye hearken" (Deut. 18:15). That this refers exclusively to Christ is placed beyond all dispute, by Peter in Acts 3:18-22, and Stephen in Acts 7, who are both moved by the Spirit to quote this Scripture. Moses stands out very distinctly as a type of the Lord Jesus, particularly in his mediatorial character and as one who occupied a place of remark-able and unprecedented nearness to God, for "The Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh to his friend." Jehovah alludes to this when vindicating Moses against the aspersions of Miriam and Aaron, saying: "My servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. Mouth to mouth do I speak to him openly, and not in riddles; and the form of Jehovah doth he behold" (Num. 12:7-8).

This remarkable pronouncement from God concerning Moses serves to throw into stronger and brighter relief the superlative excellence of the One of whom Moses was but a figure, even as it is recorded in Hebrews 3:5-6: "And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a ministering servant for a testimony of the things to be spoken after; but Christ, as Son over His house, whose house are we." The house is God's house, and the contrast is between Moses as a servant in and Christ as Son over it.

Thus then, turning our attention to the Lord as the Apostle, we are invited to consider a comparison between Him and Moses, but to learn as well how marked are the contrasts. The contrasts will appear when truth about their respective persons is elicited, and when their position in relation to God's house is understood. Of both the one and of the other faithfulness is declared. The Lord was faithful to Him that appointed Him. In His ministry in life we see that; witness that one day at Capernaum described for us by Mark (1:21-37), and His reply to Peter, "Let us go elsewhere into the next towns, that I may preach there also; for to this end came I forth. And He went" (as we should probably read) "into their synagogues throughout all Galilee, preaching and casting out devils" (38, 39). His twofold line of service, ministering to the soul and to the body, is thus briefly indicated, Then too see that prophetic statement about His labours in Psalm 40:9, and His statement to the Jews, and then to His Father (John 5:17, 36; 17:4). Faithful in service He certainly was. But if the Hebrews would dwell on that in converse with their unbelieving brethren, these latter might remark that faithfulness had been also predicated of Moses; and they would rightly press that it was not any attestation from the lawgiver's contemporaries, nor any statement of his own, to which they referred, but to the unequivocal announcement by God at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, when He came down in the cloud to rebuke Aaron and Miriam (Num, xii.). Aaron was high priest, Miriam was a prophetess, and both averred that they, like Moses, had been recipients of Divine communications, God having spoken by them or with them. Accepting this assertion as true, Moses nevertheless stood out apart from and above them, seeing that he was faithful, as God declared, "in all Mine house," i.e. the tabernacle of the congregation, we presume, for that was called the house of God (Deut. 23:18; Joshua 6:24, 9:23; Judges 19:18; 1 Sam. 1:7, 24).

Moses and Christ. — Faithfulness, then, was predicated of Moses. It was also predicated of the Lord (Heb. 3:2). Were they therefore to be regarded as on an equality, the Apostle of the Hebrews no better than the lawgiver of old? The differences were great indeed, and that in more ways than one. First, all must admit that he who builds a house has more honour than the house. Moses was not a builder, though according to God's directions he reared up the tabernacle at Sinai. But the Son, the Apostle for the Hebrews, was a builder, and in that none could equal Him. He built all things, as the testimony to Him in chap. 1:10 unhesitatingly asserts. Far, far superior therefore to Moses is the Son. Moses was a creature. He is God. And this superiority shall be demonstrated in yet another way, and none will be able to controvert it who accept the Hebrew Scriptures as the Word of God. Our Apostle is the Son. Moses was only a servant. Undeniably a son is greater than a servant. We have, however, not yet exhausted the contrasts. For Moses was a servant in God's house. The Son is over God's house; for God's house, not the Son's house, is the teaching of Heb. 3:6, as the Revised Version will show. And He is over such a house as Moses never knew. Moses was faithful for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after (Heb. 3:5). He foretold the advent of the Prophet who was to come, directing all to expect Him, whom we know as the Son. As a servant in God's house he was, and never rose, or could rise, higher. But Jesus, whom perhaps some then addressed may have seen, or at all events must have been acquainted with some who had — this Jesus was really God's Son, and was over God's house — a relationship to God and a position far above that in which Moses had ever stood.

The champions for Moses were completely put out of court. What was here advanced in reference to him was based on the word of God in the Old Testament Scriptures, to which the Jews tenaciously clung. None, then, could discredit this testimony. The Scripture settled the position of Moses in the house, and demonstrated that he could not equal the Lord Jesus. One little word in the original, "My servant," settled it. A word this which might as to its import have been easily overlooked. When, however, attention is drawn to it, the opponents of Christianity in favour of Judaism must be dumb. Then, too, all that was advanced about the person of the Son was based on the inspired Word, even Old Testament scriptures, which have already passed before us. The Hebrews therefore might rest assured that, forsaking Judaism and embracing Christianity, they were not leaving the greater for the less. The Son must be greater than the servant. Nor could their friends or acquaintances, who still upheld the Mosaic ritual as that to which they should all conform, overthrow by appeals to the Divine Word the teaching here set forth. This last was scriptural. It was plain. It was unanswerable. It left the opponents without an answer in support of that for which they contended. The word of God had spoken. Any question of the superiority of Moses over the exalted Jesus was definitely decided, and decided, not in favour of the lawgiver, but of the crucified One. To Him then, as the Apostle, all ought to hearken, even to the Son, and not merely to the servant.

In returning now to Israel with the two tables of stone, Moses did not realize that the skin of his face was shining. This was a reflection of the glory of the Lord, not a full manifestation of God's glory, which is seen only in the Lord Jesus. In Matthew 17:2 we read of the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus, and that “His face shone as the sun.” Only the skin of Moses' face shone, for this was a reflection exterior to Moses himself. But the face of the Lord Jesus shines with a brightness that comes from within, not a reflection (2 Cor. 4:6), for He is God.

The glory in the face of Moses was not something inherent in himself; indeed he was unconscious of it at first. Moreover presently it faded - it was "done away" (2 Cor. 3:11). Here again we see the contrast, for the glory in the face of Jesus abides for ever. And further, it has a transforming effect on those who by faith behold it, whereas the glory in the face of Moses only produced fear.

In the previous chapter we had Israel hungry and crying out for bread. In contrast to this, we find in Matthew 4, that our Lord was tested by hunger in the wilderness, but waited on God and would not act for Himself. Now we have the people tempting God at Massah and Meribah, whereas the Lord, when faced with the second temptation in the wilderness, quoted, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." In Exodus 32, we find Israel worshipping the golden calf, but in contrast to this the Lord replied to the third temptation by saying, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." Israel had 40 years in the wilderness and Jesus 40 days, but He re-trod their wilderness way, and where they failed He displayed His perfection.