About Moses.

Acts 7

MOSES, the servant of the Lord lived for 120 years ere he received his home call from the top of Pisgah. In Acts 7, his life is divided up, by the Holy Ghost, into three parts. He was 40 years in Egypt, (verse 23) then 40 years in Midian, (verse 30) while the last 40 years he was engaged in carrying the children of Israel through the wilderness.

It was recently said by one of God’s children, that during the first 40 years he was learning to be somebody; in the second 40 years he was learning to be nobody; while during those final 40 years he was learning that God must be Everything. He also proved then how much God can do through a man who is willing to decrease, if so be that God shall thereby increase.

How thoroughly Moses had learned to be “somebody” may be gleaned from Acts 7:22,²²And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds. (Acts 7:22) where we are told he “was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.” This is not the fulsome flattery of some paid newspaper reporter, but is the testimony of the Holy Spirit as to the natural attainments and abilities of this remarkable man. It is difficult for us to fully realize the high grade of civilization in Egypt at that time, or to understand the advanced standard of education that then existed. Egypt possessed two Universities, and the ruins of the college at Seti in the Valley of the Kings—where it is believed Moses studied—are still standing. We are told that “literature, medicine, architecture, music, and art in general” were taught there.

Moses must have been a magnificent specimen of cultured manhood. From his subsequent history we know he was a prophet, legislator, historian, poet, administrator, judge, a fine soldier, and well acquainted with the laws of hygiene, astronomy and architecture, though, of course, then he was instructed and illumined by the Spirit of God. How magnificent his account of the Creation in Genesis 1:1¹In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. (Genesis 1:1) With what literary skill does he record the early history of God’s ancient people! How matchless the poetry of the two sublime “songs” with which he inaugurated and closed his public ministry, as also his peerless Psalm (90). Josephus tells us that Moses received a thorough military education, and became an illustrious General. Moreover, he led the Egyptian army against the Ethiopian city of Meroe, which he successfully took. No other human biography has ever shown the history of any man so brilliantly clever as Moses, or who excelled in such variety of attainments as he did. “Learned in all Egyptian wisdom.”

Then as regards his social position, we know that as the adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter, who was childless, Moses was near to the throne of the two Egypt’s. The power and territory of Egypt in those days was tremendous. Moses lived in royal state and dressed in princely apparel; servants waited upon his every need, and as he rode past in his splendid chariot, all bowed low before him. He had indeed learned to be somebody. If anyone ever climbed the greasy pole of earthly splendor, that one surely was Moses.

His own nation just then was passing through a time of dire calamity, and badly needed someone to deliver them from the thrall of their oppressor. Can we wonder that Moses thought he was the right man to attempt this hazardous undertaking? Are we surprised that he felt equal to the gigantic task of rescuing the children of Israel from their captivity? Who better able? We may conclude this from Acts 7:25,²⁵For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not. (Acts 7:25) “He supposed... that God by his hand would deliver them.” And so out to the fray in his own strength he rushed. He murdered an Egyptian, and was obliged ignominiously to flee in terror. All ended abruptly in defeat and disaster.

Then followed 40 years in God’s school. Forty years learning to be nobody. God’s university was in Midian, and He trained His servant in the back of the desert. How that intellectual and accomplished scholar must have loathed keeping sheep. He had been brought up amongst Egyptians, to whom even a shepherd was an abomination (see Gen. 46:34³⁴That ye shall say, Thy servants' trade hath been about cattle from our youth even until now, both we, and also our fathers: that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians. (Genesis 46:34)). Fresh from his college and his books, where he had been studying arts and sciences with the most brilliant intellects of that enlightened age, his companions now are witless sheep. After all the luxuries of palace life in Egypt, the drought by day and the frost by night, combined with all the menial labor ever connected with the care of sheep and little lambs, must have been uncongenial and unsupportable to him. We get a side light as to this, in the name Moses gave to his eldest child. He called him “Gershom, for he said, I have been an alien in a strange land.” “But Moses, have you forgotten it was in Midian you wooed and won your bride! ‘Twas there you experienced the sacred joy that comes only once in a man’s life, when his first-born son is laid in his arms.” Even with the flush of fatherhood fresh upon him, his subdued soul echoes, “Midian was a strange land to me, and I was only an alien in it.” Be it to his credit, Moses never ran away from his desert life, as he had previously done from Egypt.

For 40 years Moses endured this training under the hand of God. The wheels of God may grind slowly, but then they grind exceeding small. God saw that 80 years preparation was necessary to fit Moses for the 40 years service for which He needed him. As soon as sorrow’s work was done God sent relief, and Moses reached the third stage of his history, and he learns who God is. God honored His servant by revealing Himself to him by a Name never revealed before (See Ex. 3:14¹⁴And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. (Exodus 3:14)). How exquisite the time of communion he had with God by the burning bush. How surpassing sweet the intimacy of the conversation between them, as Moses listened to the voice of the Most High and was privileged to hear about Jehovah’s sympathy for His suffering people, and learned His future plans for them. No other man had been so honored. The Lord spake to him “face to face as a man speaketh to his friend.” (Ex. 33:11¹¹And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle. (Exodus 33:11)). Hagar might have learned “Thou God seest me,” but Moses knew something more sublime, for he saw God, who is invisible. His preparation for this, lay away back on the west side of the desert. Did Moses grudge those irksome years in Midian that enabled him to enjoy the friendship and the glory of God? Methinks not.

That he had learned his Midian lesson is evident by contrasting Acts 7:25²⁵For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not. (Acts 7:25) with the song of Exodus 15. For after he had, brought the children of Israel through the Red Sea, instead of ascribing any honor to his own hand as before, he says with worship, “Thy right hand Oh Lord, is become glorious in power; Thy right hand, Oh Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy.”

That Moses had learned his second lesson in God’s school may be inferred from Acts 7:34³⁴I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt. (Acts 7:34). In his early days he had sought to work for God in his own strength, and failure had been the result, but when an old man, 80 years of age he is a “Vessel meet for the Masters use” and Jehovah says to him, “And NOW come, and I will send thee into Egypt.”

It seems as though, after this, the Holy Spirit would heap honor upon honor on this servant of the Lord, designating him as “prophet,” (Deut. 18:15¹⁵The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken; (Deuteronomy 18:15)), “priest” (Psa. 99:6⁶Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among them that call upon his name; they called upon the Lord, and he answered them. (Psalm 99:6)), and “king” (Deut. 33:5⁵And he was king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered together. (Deuteronomy 33:5)), an accumulation of dignities bestowed on no other mortal man.

Moses lived 120 years. — Deuteronomy 34:7⁷And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. (Deuteronomy 34:7).