Who is This Moses?

    I stand in awe at the relationship that Moses had with God, Moses held conversations with God. A conversation is two sided, it wasn't all Moses talking. Not only did God give Moses prophecies to instruct the Children of Israel but there were also occasions when Moses stood up for Israel. They would have been consumed by their evil ways if Moses had not asked God to stay the evil. [See Idiom of Permission]

    In Exodus 32 Moses is up on Mt. Sinai receiving instructions on how to build the arc of the covenant and the priestly responsibilities, and God tells Moses that the people have corrupted themselves and they have made a molten calf.

Exodus 32
:8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them:
    they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it,
    and have sacrificed thereunto, and said,
        These be thy gods, O Israel,
            which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
:9 And the Lord said unto Moses,
        I have seen this people, and, behold,
        it is a stiffnecked people:
:10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them,
    and that I may consume them:
    and I will make of thee a great nation.
:11 And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said,
        Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people,
            which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power,
            and with a mighty hand?
:12 Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say,
        For mischief did he bring them out,
        to slay them in the mountains,
        and to consume them from the face of the earth?
    Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people.
:13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants,
    to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them,
        I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven,
        and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed,
        and they shall inherit it for ever.
:14 And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do [let happen] unto his people.

    Moses stands up for Israel and pleads their case. Here is another stop and think opportunity. Stop and think of the relationship he had with God. God considered him a friend and would talk to him face to face. After the gross offenders were culled out of the Children of Israel (Ex 32:26 - 29) the Tabernacle is pitched outside of the camp and Moses goes in to talk with God.

Exodus 33:11a And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face,
as a man speaketh unto his friend.

    That is a grand friendship! Granted Moses was in an important position and had accepted a tremendous responsibility and God was there to help, guide and teach. God also calls Moses a Prophet. A prophet is a man of God called by God to be His spokesperson. When God called Moses via the burning bush he didn't have to answer. But Moses willingly-after a bit of discussion regarding his speaking ability-agreed to the charge. Now, not all of us are called to lead a great body of people out of bondage, but we are called and we do have responsibilities before God for our families and fellowships for we all occupy an integral part of the Body of Christ.

II Peter1
:1 Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ,
    to them that have obtained like precious faith with us
        through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:
:2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you
    through the knowledge of God,
    and of Jesus our Lord,
:3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things
    that pertain unto life and godliness,
    through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises:
    that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature,
        having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

    We are called! And we have been given all things--not just some things--that pertain unto life and godliness which is a true and vital spiritual relationship with God.

Romans 1
:1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
    called to be an apostle,
    separated unto the gospel of God,
:2 (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,)
:3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord,
        which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;
:4 And declared to be the Son of God with power,
        according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:
:5 By whom we have received grace and apostleship,
    for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:
:6 Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ:

    So what do we need to do??? Answer the phone!!! Be obedient to the faith and receive grace and apostleship, receive the exceeding great and precious promises, be partakers of his divine nature, escape the corruption of this world. It is available or God would not have written it in His Word.

    Here is another record about what God thinks of Moses and his faithfulness.

    Miriam is a prophetess and sister to Aaron (Ex 15:19 - 22).

Numbers 12
:1 And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses
    because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married:
        for he had married an Ethiopian woman.

    There is nothing in the Word at this time against marrying outside of God's people. Only Miriam and Aaron didn't like it, in their opinion marrying an Ethiopian was bad. They were the head family, they had an image to uphold I suppose.

:2 And they said,
        Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses?
        hath he not spoken also by us?
    And the Lord hear it.
:3 (Now the man Moses was very meek,
    above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.)

    Meek--when we hear the word meek, we need to consider it in the biblical context. Today the word has the connotation of weakness, easily pushed around. Well this doesn't describe Moses, he didn't let the children of Israel walk all over him, remember what he did when the people made the golden calf? He didn't just sweep it under the rug and give these guys a slap on the hand. He broke it up and made them drink it! He was one man (with God on his side) against many. So it is not that Moses was easily pushed around but when God spoke to him, he did it. When God told him something he believed it and acted on it.

:4 And the Lord spake suddenly unto Moses,
    and unto Aaron,
    and unto Miriam, [suddenly - like dad calling when you are in trouble]
        Come out ye three unto the tabernacle of the congregation.
    And they three came out.
:5 And the Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud,
    and stood in the door of the tabernacle,
    and called Aaron and Miriam:
    and they both came forth.
:6 And he said,
        Hear now my words:
        If there be a prophet among you,
        I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision,
        and will speak unto him in a dream.
:7 My servant Moses is not so, [not so = much greater, Bullinger The Companion Bible]
        who is faithful in all mine house.

    Moses is the faithful one.

:8 With him will I speak mouth to mouth, [plainly] even apparently,
    and not in dark speeches;
    and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold:
    wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?

    God says "Who are you to talk against my servant Moses?" "Why weren't you afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" God told Aaron and Miriam not to backbite! Always pay attention, there may be things we don't like personally, always measure it against the Word. God tells them that Moses is the faithful one--more than any man on earth--and it is with Moses that he will speak face to face. God didn't say Aaron was the faithful one. (Check out the rest of the record Numbers 12, Miriam comes down with leprosy because of her insolence yet God is merciful).

    The more we can take our eyes off of people and the circumstances and look to the one true God, the better the situation with people and circumstances will become. Many times we are so concerned with situations going right with people that we put all of our time and energy into the circumstances and the people. If we would spend more time looking to God and His Word and trusting Him to bring us victory the circumstances and situations with people would work out very nicely. They may not work out the we think they should but the outcome would be wonderful and usually better than what we had concocted anyway.

Hebrews 3
:1 Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling,
    consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus:
:2 Who was faithful to him that appointed him,
    as also Moses was faithful in all his house.

    There is a figure of speech called Ellipsis or Omission here. In the original "was faithful" in the last line which is in italics is indicating that it was not repeated in the Stephens text from which the King James Version was translated. Therefore it should read:

:2 Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses in all his house.

    This draws attention to being faithful, and the comparison that is drawn between Jesus Christ and Moses. Quite a comparison! We know from places like the gospel of John that Jesus Christ always did the will of the Father, he always did what God told him. For Jesus Christ to be compared to Moses is quite a testimony. Moses wasn't perfect like the Lord Jesus Christ, but he was faithful.

:5 And Moses verily was faithful in all his house,
    as a servant, for a testimony of those things
        which were to be spoken after;

    Aaron and Miriam were in Moses' family, but that did not guarantee that they would be faithful to the Lord. Aaron actually walked with Moses as his mouthpiece, and did many things faithfully, but that did not guarantee that he would remain faithful. The only thing that matters is continuing to believe God, not your family, not your background, not what you did a week ago, but do you faithfully believe God?

    Jesus Christ learned obedience as a young child. What about our hearts to obey authority? We develop a hardness in our hearts not to obey over the years. It makes the renewed mind hard, yet it is becomes easier once you decide to obey God and His Word. Habit patterns either help you to be meek or make you just plain stubborn.

    Look at the background of Moses, he spent 40 years in Pharaoh's household and he tried by his sense-knowledge to help the children of Israel and it did not work. He spent 40 more years under God's tutelage. After 80 years he finally arrived at the place where he could help the children of Israel, then he spent 40 years leading them. These were 40 very difficult years where he got nothing but harassment from the people, and nothing but faithfulness and results from the one true God. If Moses would have judged his success on how much the children of Israel believed and walked with God he would have been a dismal failure. There were very few times when anyone stood for God. But God does not judge him by what the children of Israel did, God speaks of him as being faithful in all of God's house, because when God told him to say something he did it. Moses was faithful, he was not circumstance controlled. Moses was not perfect like Jesus Christ but when God summarizes his life he says he is faithful in all His house.

    God will always keep making His Word available so we may believe. We have to decide what matters to us, what people think or what God says. Sometimes everybody will be right behind you cheering you on, sometimes nobody will be behind you. Sometimes there may be people behind you trying to stab you in the back, it depends, circumstances vary. But what does not change and what does not vary is God's promises and God's faithfulness. And if we make God's Word a foundation in our lives, it will not matter what other people think. What has to be the basis of our lives is simply believing God's promises.

    When you are believing God's Word you are then in the position to help somebody when they do want to believe. You run into somebody who does not want to believe and you have had your head in the Word and you have had your mind on God, you can help that person. If all of the time your mind is on what you don't have, and the people that are around you are not believing, then somebody walks through the door wanting to learn God's Word, your in no state to help them. It's a great challenge.

    We can learn a lot from these Old Testament Believers.

Romans 15
:4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime
    were written for our learning,
        that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures
        might have hope.

    What is written in the Old Testament is not addressed to us. God does not expect us to take our fellowships and wander around in the deserts for forty years. We do not do exactly what Moses did, but it is for our learning. We can learn from his believing, from his faithfulness, from his stand for God. Then as God's Word lives mightily in our hearts, then we can help people who want help. Some days you will have a lot of people who want help, some days nobody. But in any case you have the Word of God in your mind, then you are ready to help those people when they do want help.

    Had Moses allowed the children of Israel to beat him down, to where he did not believe God's Word, he would not have been able to receive revelation and speak God's Word when they did want to believe. They were in bondage in Egypt, they cried unto the Lord, Moses got the revelation and they got out. When they weren't believing but murmuring Moses went to God for them and they were delivered. They were out there and needed food, Moses got the revelation and God got them food. When they needed water, Moses got the revelation and God got them water. In every case Moses had his eyes on God and was able to bring them deliverance by believing God.

    The problem was, they did not look to God that much. They would wait until they would be in a real crisis situation and they would scream unto the Lord. Moses would walk with God and bring them deliverance and then in a few days they would forget all about it. But that did not stop Moses from being faithful. That is the great key. We have to decide that nothing is going to stop us from being faithful to the one true God no matter what people say or do. When we get our eyes off the situations and the people and onto God it is no longer a big deal. If there is a lot of people there believing--great. If there is no one there believing--so what. Our eyes are on God and His Word, it is a great way to live. That way you are relying on something that is reliable. If you are relying on things that are unreliable, like people, you will always be disappointed.

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