What did Jesus say about Moses?

(2) They have their objection from the law ready: "Why then did Moses command to give her a writing of divorcement and to put her away?" But they did not apprehend aright either Moses or themselves; and their argument is turned against them in the simplest manner: "Moses, for the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your wives; but from the beginning it was not so." It was Moses himself who was furnishing the evidence, and what an evidence, of their own condition! The law, which was "weak through the flesh," could not perfect anything because of the resistance to it of a carnal people. That which they objected proved but at the same time their own evil and the hopelessness of it under law. And He turns upon them with one of those imperial sayings which put aside all power of resistance as with the lightning-flash of truth: "And I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife except for fornication, and shall marry another committeth adultery; and whoso marrieth her that is put away committeth adultery."

The people of Israel, in spite of their vaunted veneration of Moses, did not in reality receive him as the messenger of God. They rejected him in Egypt, saying, "Who made thee a prince or a judge over us?" (Exodus 2:14.) And afterwards, when, sent of God, he presented himself again with the manifest tokens of the reality of his mission, they murmured against him again and again. At the close too he bears testimony to them, "Ye have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you." (Deut. 9:. 24.) "For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the Lord; and how much more after my death?" (Deut. 31:27.) But when Jesus, "the true and faithful witness," "the true light," came, the Jews rejected His claims by putting forth those of Moses. This is one of the traits of the evil heart and perverted will of man. He refuses constantly to own the rights of God. Despisers of His grace in Christ, they pretend to own His rights in the law, and use the law to reject Christ. But Jesus would not admit the pretended submission of the Jews to Moses: "Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me: for he wrote of Me. But if ye believe not his writings, how can ye believe My words?" (John 5:40-47.) The vail was upon their hearts when they read Moses.

It was at once felt that this was to claim more and more on God's part, although He refused to be made a king by man. "They said therefore to Him, What sign doest Thou, then, that we may see and believe Thee? What dost Thou work? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, according as it is written, Bread out of heaven He gave them to eat. Jesus therefore said to them, Verily, verily, I say to you, Not Moses hath given you the bread out of heaven, but my Father giveth you the True Bread out of heaven. For the Bread of God is He that descendeth out of heaven, and giveth life to the world" (verses 30-33). Such is unbelief, ever dissatisfied with the admirably suited and magnificent signs of God, refusing perhaps to ask a sign when God offers, despising those He does give. They did not on this occasion say outright what they meant, but it seems to have been some such thought as this: "You ask us to believe; yet, after all, what was the miracle of the loaves to that of the manna? Give us food from heaven, as Moses did, for forty years; and then it will be time enough to speak of believing. Do a work to match his, if you cannot surpass it." The Lord answers that it was not Moses that had given the bread out of heaven, but His Father was giving them the True Bread out of heaven. The Bread of God is Jesus Himself, and these two great characteristics are His alone of all men; He comes down out of heaven, and He gives life to the world. He is a Divine Person, yet a man here below, the Bread of God for every one that needs Him. It is no mere question of Israel in the desert: He gives life to the world. Less is not the truth, nor would it suit God. So the majority of uncials with ℵA [Weiss], etc. But BDL, etc., have ἔδωκεν, "gave" [Blass, as W. and H. (text)].

286 The Pharisees, drawing near, ask Jesus if it is permitted that a husband should put away his wife. The Lord takes the occasion to insist upon this truth, that that which God had established from the beginning of the creation was always valid in itself. Moses had allowed a man to put away his wife in the law; but this was only the patience of God with the hardness of man's heart; but it was not according to God's own heart and will. In the creation at the beginning God made that which was good - weak, but good. He allowed other things when He ordered provisionally the state of His people, of fallen man; but He had made things differently when He created them. God had united husband and wife, and man had no right to separate them. The bond is not to be broken.

To the healed leper He said, "Go thy way, show thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded." (Matt. 8:4.) He appeals also to the words of Moses in the matter of divorce: "Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning, made them male and female … for this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh?" And what these words of Moses teach He regards as of God. "What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder," etc. The whole context proves that the Lord owned the words to be of, and by Moses. And the Pharisees acknowledged the truth of this, Matthew 19:3-8. See also, Mark 1:44, And offer for thy cleansing those things which Moses commanded, for a testimony to them." "For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother," etc. This Jesus regarded as the commandment of God. (Mark 7:9-10.) To the Pharisees on another occasion He said, "What did Moses command you?" (Mark 10:3.) "Have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake to him, saying, I am the God of Abraham," etc. (Mark 12:26-31.) "They have Moses and the prophets … If they hear not Moses and the prophets," etc. (Luke 16:29-31.) "And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself." Thus Moses and all the prophets are declared to be the scriptures by the risen Son of God. "And he said to them, These are the words which I spake to you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which was written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures." (Luke 24:27-45.) Do we need any clearer proof than the plain teaching of Christ? "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." (John 1:17.) Let us agree with Philip, "We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets did write." (Ver. 45.)

Jesus constantly refers to facts recorded in the books of Moses. He says, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up." (John 3:14.) "For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?" (John 5:45-47.) "Did not Moses give you the law? … Moses therefore gave you circumcision," etc. (John 7:22.) Such is the uniform teaching of Christ. Thus the puerile attempt to repudiate the true authorship of Moses, or the inspiration of Moses (the law), the psalms, and the prophets — as God truly speaking to us by them — is a wicked attempt to make Jesus a liar and a deceiver. My soul, be thou found with Him, the light and life and the truth; and not lost in the wanderings of modern thought.

The Pharisees endeavour to quote Moses against the Lord, but He at once shows them that Moses, instead of condemning Him, condemned them. Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered — not commanded — her to be put away. Here, as on another occasion, Moses, instead of becoming their vindicator, becomes their accuser and judge. "There is one," the Lord says, "that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust" (John 5:45). It is ever a dangerous thing for a sinner to take his stand upon the law, which can only expose and condemn him with no power to pardon and forgive.

The story of the serpent of brass is calculated, by the Spirit's teaching, to give peace to anxious souls, because it so plainly sets forth the way of God in grace with men as ruined sinners. Our blessed Lord expounded it to Nicodemus, so that we have not only the inspired narrative, but also the Divine comment upon it, as teaching us the only way of eternal salvation. The testimony of Moses, by the Spirit in the Old Testament, and the explanation of Christ Himself in the New, stamp the subject with the deepest interest and importance. Little, perhaps, did the ancient lawgiver feel, when lifting up the brazen serpent in order that the dying Israelite might behold it and live, that he was shadowing forth that unequalled event, when Christ, in unparalleled love, was willingly lifted up upon the cross for the salvation of lost sinners. But so it was, as the Lord Himself touchingly testified, when He said, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:14-15.)

And now in concluding the Lord would take away the last plank, as it were, to which they might cling. They boasted, in rejecting Him, of being true disciples of Moses (John 9:28). But Moses would be their accuser. "For if ye believed Moses," the Lord adds, "ye would believe Me: for he wrote of Me" (v. 46). But where shall we find that? Now there is one special prediction of the lawgiver, quoted both by Peter (Acts 3:22-23) and by Stephen (Acts 7:37), foretelling the coming of a Prophet like to him, to whom they were to hearken. And the likeness referred to, which is explained in Deut. 34:10, awaited for its fulfilment — the coming of Christ. No prophet in Israel, however eminent, for fifteen centuries ever thought of claiming for himself the special distinction of being known by God face to face. The mediator of the old covenant and the Mediator of the new are the only ones of whom that has been true. Refusing, then, to hearken to Christ, they were guilty of direct disobedience to Moses. The lawgiver would be their accuser. The professed disciples of Moses, jealous as they fancied for his honour, would find themselves accused before God by him! Was it unaccountable that they received not the Lord? "If ye believe not His writings, how shall ye believe My words?" (John 5:47) explained the matter. To the writings of Moses the Lord turned them. Then Moses wrote something. And New Testament teaching by Peter and Stephen expressly states that Deut. 18:15-19 are the words of the lawgiver — written, however, in vain for those people.

Yet the people in general were not aware how far hatred was impelling the leaders, and had no suspicion that they were bent on the death of Jesus. "The crowd answered, Thou hast a demon: who seeketh to kill Thee? Jesus answered and said to them, One work I did, and ye all wonder because of this.141 Moses hath given you circumcision (not that it is of Moses, but of the fathers), and on a sabbath ye circumcise a man. If a man receiveth circumcision on a sabbath, that the law of Moses may not be broken, are ye angry at Me because I made a man entirely sound on a sabbath?" (verses 20-23). In their ignorance the crowd spoke with rash irreverence and violence against the Lord, Who stops not to notice it, but draws attention to the absurdity of their quarrelling as well as of wondering at one work of His, the cure of the infirm at Bethesda on the sabbath. Yet it was a common matter of course to circumcise a male child on the eighth day spite of its being a sabbath, and this in honour of the law of Moses, though, in fact, circumcision was rather of the fathers. The Lord closes His reproof with an exhortation which touches the root of their cavils, "Judge not according to sight, but judge the righteous judgment" (verse 24). They had not brought in God, and were consequently wrong, not on the surface merely, but altogether. If the readings (as in Tischendorf's text) be κρίνετε … κρίνατε, the first warns against the evil habit in general, the second urges the righteous judgment they should follow on this occasion. It is clear that one wants Divine guidance, if we are not to judge according to appearance; but that is what God is so willing to vouchsafe His children, not teaching only, but direction and judgment. Knowing all, He knows also how to communicate what is needed by His own.

The Lord not only shows their sophism to be sheer misapprehension of the resurrection-state, but proves (and that from Moses too, without going further) that the resurrection of the dead is an essential part of God's purpose and truth. An additional statement is given in Luke as to the intermediate living of the separate spirit. But in our Gospel the one point is that the dead rise, because God declared Himself to be the God of the fathers even after their death; and confessedly He is not the God of the dead (the extinct, as the Sadducees thought), but of the living. If He were their God in their state when He spoke to Moses, He must be the God of the dead, which the Sadducees had been the first to deny. It was the more important so to reveal Himself to Moses, through whom the system of the law was given, and to which the Sadducees pretended to adhere.