Who lived first, Abraham or Moses?

And Abraham lived 400 years before Moses was born. Modernists do not like to be reminded of how dogmatic they were in their statement that Moses could not have written the Pentateuch because writing, they said, was then not known. Now we know differently.

Moses came upon the scene more than two centuries after Abraham's death, and if writing was in vogue before Abraham's day, it was not difficult for Moses to have written the books attributed to him.

Long before Socrates was born Abraham had the vision of the God of glory and became the father of the faithful for all time. Things were shaping in him and his descendants, in the ways of God, for the revelation of His holy word. Six centuries roll by, and we see Moses writing the inspired words that in time produced the Pentateuch. David wrote many psalms, prophets added their part. The Israelites were blessed with the presence of God in their midst and the knowledge of the Most High.

The creation of Adam 4004 The birth of Seth 3874 Enos born 3769 Cainan born 3679 Mahaleel born 3609 Jared born 3544 Enoch born 3382 Methuselah born 3317 Lamech born 3130 Adam's death 3074 Enoch's translation 3017 Noah's birth 2948 The Flood 2348 Peleg born 2247 Nahor born 2155 Terah's birth 2126 Noah's death 1998 Abraham's birth 1996 Abraham's call in Ur 1945 Terah's death 1921 Second call to Abraham 1921 Abraham in Egypt 1920 His return 1912 Abraham takes Hagar 1911 The birth of Ishmael 1910 The Covenant sign given 1897 Birth of Isaac 1896 Sarah's death 1859 Isaac's marriage 1856 Jacob born 1836 Abraham's death 1821 Marriage of Esau 1796 Death of Ishmael 1773 Jacob's flight 1759 His marriages 1752 Jacob's flight 1739 Meets his brother 1738 Jacob at Bethel 1731 Death of Rachel 1728 Joseph sold 1727 Joseph in Egypt 1717 Death of Isaac 1716 Joseph interprets dreams 1715 Egyptian famine 1707-01 Jacob's death 1689 Joseph's death 1635

There follows a period of similar duration from ABRAM to MOSES marked by the Promises that ABRAM'S posterity should inherit the land of CANAAN, and that he should be the father of a heavenly race to "plant the heavens," and of an earthly race through which all nations should be blessed.

The typical men of this period are quite obviously ABRAM and MOSES; the two most significant events the exoduses from UR and EGYPT, at the beginning and ending of this age.

H. This too is. The form of the world in nations and peoples is founded on it. God then called out Abraham from the midst of this idolatry, and after a lapse of some 400 years, so that a people should be formed, brings them out of Egypt with a high hand, leads them to Sinai to give them His law — the rule of life for a child of Adam. What did they do before they had time to get it graven on stone, though they had heard the voice of God out of the midst of the fire?

"It may be said that Moses was not a witness of the facts which he relates between the birth or the call of Abraham (when the history of the Hebrews may be properly said to commence) and his own time. But there were so few steps between Abraham and Moses that, though not a witness, he was an authentic reporter of evidence. In the following history, from the exodus to the rebuilding of the temple, all the writers were, strictly speaking, witnesses."

*"It may be said that Moses was not a witness of the facts which he relates between the birth or the call of Abraham (when the history of the Hebrews may be properly said to commence) and his own time. But there were so few steps between Abraham and Moses that, though not a witness, he was an authentic reporter of evidence. In the following history, from the exode to the rebuilding of the temple, all the writers were, strictly speaking, witnesses."

Abraham gives occasion to a large and varied scope of faith, and stands at the head of those who illustrate its patience, rather than its energy which wrought in Moses and those that follow. And this is the true moral order: first, waiting on God who had promised; secondly, overcoming difficulties and dangers in His power.

In the development of the divine ways Abraham comes next. He stands as a landmark at the beginning of a new departure in the testimony and such is the intimacy that he was called into that he is named the friend of God. Isaac, Jacob and Joseph each in their generation followed; men whose histories exhibit not only the ordinary exercise of supplication on the principle of faith but also divine communications both by visions and dreams. These three are, so to speak, the links of connection between Abraham and Moses the mediator, of whom it is said "The Lord spake unto Moses face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend." He is a witness of how a man may be drawn beyond the day and dispensation in which he lives in such a way that the glory of God shone in his face, and in holy confidence he could say "Show me Thy glory." The book of Job, belonging to these same days, indicates the apprehension of a good man and his friends which God had given to men at that time. Living in the full light of revelation we can see "the end of the Lord" as the blessed solution of all the Patriarch's distress. The three friends said many true things but they failed by limiting God. Elihu shows advance beyond Job himself and by his words prepares him for the manifestation of Him whose intervention brought all to an issue.