Who was Moses in the Bible?

Son of Amram and Jochebed, of the tribe of Levi, brother of Aaron and Miriam. He was born after the mandate by the king that all male children of the Hebrews were to be killed, but his parents by faith hid him three months, and when he could no longer be hidden he was put in an ark of bulrushes and placed among the reeds in the river. Being found there by Pharaoh's daughter he was named by her MOSES, signifying 'drawn out,' and adopted as her son, being nursed for her by his own mother. He became learned in all the wisdom of Egypt, and was mighty in words and deeds.

Moses — man of God, man of faith, deliverer, leader, shepherd, lawgiver, mediator, intercessor, prophet, and so frequently a type of Christ. This great figure of Moses remains before us unique and lonely so that considering the outcome of his conduct, we might imitate his faith (Heb. 13:7).

When Miriam and Aaron complained of Moses because he had married an Ethiopian woman, and said, "Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us?" it does not appear that Moses rebuked them; but on that very occasion it is recorded, "Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth." God had, however, heard them, and He defended Moses, and declared, He "is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches." Num. 12:1-8.

When Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and their company rose against Moses and Aaron, 'he fell on his face,' and left the matter in God's hands. "Even to-morrow the Lord will show who are his and who is holy;" and they were all consumed. Num. 16:1-35. God also called Moses up into the mount, dictated to him the law, gave him the ten commandments written on stone by the finger of God, and showed him the pattern of the tabernacle. He was the mediator, that is, he received all communications from God for the people. He was also called 'King in Jeshurun' (or Israel), Deut. 33:5; and was a prophet of a unique type. Deut. 34:10.

In one instance Moses failed. When without water, God told him to take the rod (namely, that of priesthood), and speak to the rock, and water would come forth. Moses took "the rod from before the Lord as he commanded him," and with Aaron said unto the people, "Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly." Moses then had to hear the voice of God saying "Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them." It was called the water of Meribah, that is 'strife.' Num. 20:7-13. After this Moses besought the Lord saying "I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon." But the Lord told him to speak no more to Him of that matter. He was to go up to the top of Pisgah, and view the land. There the Lord showed him all the land: after which he died in the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor; but no man knew where. He "was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated." Deut. 3:25-27; Deut. 34:1-7.

God constantly spoke to Moses and gave him instructions in all things. Though Aaron was the elder brother, Moses had the place of leader and apostle. He conducted them out of Egypt, and through the Red Sea. He led the song of triumph when they saw their enemies dead on the sea shore. The N.T. declares that it was by faith he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God. He forsook Egypt, not now fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible. Heb. 11:24-27.

The mother of Moses doubtless closed her eyes in death long before she could have realized the remarkable history her son would have. Trained in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, military and otherwise; disciplined in the backside of the desert for forty years by God; taught the presence of God and His commission to serve Him at the burning bush: behold him facing Pharaoh, bringing judgment upon judgment upon the land of Egypt, and leading the Israelites through the Red Sea on the passover night. Behold him on Sinai’s awful mount receiving the law by the disposition of angels, and with it all these wonderful types and shadows that spoke of the coming Christ and His work upon the cross. Behold him leading God’s people across the waste howling desert for forty years, and then with strength unabated and eye undimmed, viewing from Pisgah’s height at the behest of God the promised land, and dying at God’s appointment—God the sole Spectator of his demise, God burying him, perhaps by the agency of angel hands, no man knowing his sepulchre to this day.

Moses was a very faithful and highly favoured servant of God, of whom the Lord said, “My servant Moses…who is faithful in all mine house” (Num. 12:7). We are privileged to see God’s faithful servant in many aspects of life, from the time when he was born, adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter, prominent in Egypt, refusing all that Egypt offered to be identified with God’s people, spending forty years in the backside of the desert, then returning to Egypt to lead out the people of God after God had poured out His judgments upon Pharaoh and his land. The forty years spent in the wilderness were full of trials for Moses, but there was rich compensation in the intimacy he enjoyed with the God of Israel, having the peculiar privilege of communion with Jehovah in the holiest of all (Ex. 25:22). Another place of privilege that Moses had was on the mount with God, and there is much instruction for us in meditating on it.

At the end of the forty years God spoke to him out of the burning bush, telling him to go and deliver Israel out of the hand of the Egyptians. He who had once used an arm of flesh is now conscious of his own nothingness, but learns that God would be with him. He is to make known to the people the name of Jehovah, and to attest his mission, as sent by the God of their fathers, by doing certain signs in their sight.

That Moses was the writer of the first five books of the O.T., called the Pentateuch, there are many proofs in scripture; such as "have ye not read in the book of Moses?" Mark 12:26; "If they hear not Moses and the prophets," Luke 16:31; Luke 24:27; "When Moses is read," 2 Cor. 3:15. Of course the section where his death is recorded was added by a later hand. When the inspiration of scripture is fully held, God is known as the author of His word, and it becomes a secondary question who was the instrument that God used to write down what He wished to be recorded. Respecting some of the books of scripture we know not who wrote them; but that in no way touches their inspiration. It is plain, however, from the above and other passages that Moses was the writer of the Pentateuch, which is often called "the law of Moses."

Pharaoh's daughter drew him out of death in Egypt's waters, when he was a helpless babe, and Jehovah, after training him for eighty years to childlike faith, used him as His instrument to draw out Israel from their death in Egypt. Yet, Moses, the man of God, accomplished a greater work than that; wise in God's ways, mighty master in divine knowledge, he led Israel in spite of themselves to such submission that Jehovah dwelt amongst them! He saw in the mount the heavenly things, the sanctuary patterned, and he led Israel to establish it on the earth. Moses, the meekest and the greatest of men, lives before us a noble type of the Son of God, Who shall bring into full realization all that Moses gave in symbol. Of his inspired words the Son of God has declared: "If ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe My words?" (John 5:47.)

The Lord told Moses on Mount Nebo that this was the land He had promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and to their descendants, and though Moses had seen it, he would not cross over the Jordan to enter it. Thus this faithful servant of the Lord died as the Lord had told him he would (v.5). But Israel could have no burial service for him. Instead, Moses had the unique distinction of being buried by God with no observer present. Not even Satan knew his burying place, for Jude 9 tells us that there was a dispute between Michael the archangel and the devil concerning the body of Moses, which was settled by Michael's wise words, "The Lord rebuke you." If Satan had known where Moses' body was buried, how likely it is he would have moved people to build a shrine of idolatrous worship there. But Moses, faithful man of God as he was, is not to be worshiped.