Moses: August 2012
Table of Contents
Moses
What is a man of God? Moses is the first servant of God who bore this honored title, and it is given to him five times (Deut. 33:1; Josh. 14:6; 1 Chron. 23:14; Ezra 3:2; Psa. 90 title). His whole course was one of singular devotedness to the Lord. Gladly he surrendered the honors and comforts of the Egyptian palace that he might identify himself with God’s downtrodden people; willingly he carried the burden of them during the forty years of “the provocation,” and with marvelous patience he bore their murmuring and ingratitude. What is still greater, he pleaded for them with God, even going so far as to pray that he might be blotted out of God’s book if thereby their sin might be pardoned. His jealousy for God’s holy name in connection with His people was truly marvelous. His familiar pleadings with God on their behalf, as recorded in Exodus 32:31-33, is almost matchless. Not that Moses was perfect — only One was ever that — but his fellowship with God and devotion mark him out as one of the most conspicuous characters in Bible history. In him we get some idea of what is involved in the title “the man of God.” W. W. Fereday
Moses, the Servant of the Lord
One great principle in all true service is the consciousness of being upheld in it by God. It was thus with the perfect servant, the Lord Jesus Christ. “Behold My servant, whom I uphold; Mine elect, in whom My soul delighteth” (Isa. 42:1). The great feature in His service was that He never acted of Himself. “I can of Mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and My judgment is just; because I seek not Mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent Me” (John 5:30). The moment a servant acts independently, he acts from himself and out of character.
Whenever we are living before men instead of before God, there will be restlessness and disquiet. There may be the desire to do many things that are written in the Word, but they will not be done in quiet and peaceful joy. We are never really preserved from hypocrisy unless we are living before God. It is the very best possible cure for the presumptuous conceit that is present by nature in all of us.
Let us look a little at Moses’ experience. The life of Moses is divided into three distinct periods of forty years each. Most of his first forty years were spent in Egypt as the “son of Pharaoh’s daughter.”
The next forty years were spent in the wilderness tending the flock of his father-in-law. There, at the mount of God, he had a vision of glory such as never could have been revealed to him in Egypt.
In the last forty years we have the account of the laborious and trying course he had to run, as the servant of God and his people Israel, in bearing the burden of that people.
Moses in Egypt
The first portion of his life was spent in Egypt. Stephen speaks of him as being “learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds” (Acts 7:22). But this wisdom of Egypt was insufficient to deliver Israel. Doubtless, Moses knew that God was about to use him as the “deliverer” of His people, but that which had been acquired in Egypt could not deliver the Lord’s people from Egypt.
“When he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel” (Acts 7:23). Whatever ease and comfort Moses might have enjoyed in Pharaoh’s house, his heart yearned over his brethren. He went out unto his brethren and looked on their burdens. “Seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian” (Acts 7:24). Moses was “mighty in ... deeds,” on behalf, too, of the people of God, but acting in the energy of the flesh, not as sent of God; he was thinking of how Moses was to deliver the people. As a result, “he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them,” but “they understood not” (Acts 7:25). Moses had to learn that God would be served only by the power and strength that come from Himself, not by the strength or wisdom of Egypt.
The Land of Midian
When Moses had spent forty years in the wilderness, doing as it were nothing, we find him answering God’s message, “Come now therefore, and I will send thee,” with the words, “Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?” (Ex. 3). And it is ever thus. When a saint feels that he is sent of God on any mission, there is always the deepest prostration of spirit. The end of God’s training is to break down self-confidence, so that when at last the person goes forth in service, it is with the feeling, “Who am I?” One great characteristic of the flesh we acquire by being so long in “Egypt” is the reluctance to say, “Who am I?” But God must produce this frame of mind before He uses us. The most cultivated understanding, human wisdom and research will not stand up in the service of God.
Many a saint runs on for a while (just after his conversion, perhaps) in the eagerness and zeal of the flesh, doing right things, but not in the spirit of dependence on God; by and by his energy flags and he feels as though he were entirely useless, as though God could never again employ him in His service. Now this is a profitable lesson, though a deeply humbling one. The Lord often trains an individual thus for much usefulness in the church afterwards. Just so was it with Moses.
Alone With God
During the next forty years Moses is lost to Egypt and to Israel, but then he is alone with God. It is in solitude that God chiefly teaches His people. The blessed Lord sought for refreshment on this earth in being alone with God. And this is the place where the saint learns his own weakness and God’s strength. He enters into the depths of his own evil, but also into the depths of God’s grace. He learns to deny self, to subdue imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. He proves the necessity of the cross.
One preparation had been forty years passed in solitude in secret training with God in the wilderness, but there was another thing needful — the manifestation of God’s glory.
The Glory of God
“When forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush” (Acts 7:30). “The bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed” (Ex. 3:2). There had never been a thing like this seen in Egypt. But unless we have wisdom to understand why the bush was not consumed, we have not the real wisdom of God. It is impossible in Egypt to see the glory of the living God. What a marvelous thing that there should be a little weak bush, as it were, on this earth, with everything against it, and yet nothing able to prevail.
What must Moses’ thoughts have been respecting all the glory of Egypt when he turned aside to see this “great sight”? And what would ours be, beloved, with regard to the world, were the eye always and steadily fixed on the glory? When Moses was engaged in solitarily feeding the flock in the wilderness, there might have been some longings after the glory of Egypt, but these must have ceased when he had this manifestation made to him of the glory of God, “the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
So it is with ourselves. When we think of the true glory of the church, we are able to look at the glory of “Egypt” and feel ourselves weaned from it, as well as weaned from the wisdom and power of “Egypt.” But if our souls are only looking at their own weakness, we shall very likely be tempted to long after “Egypt” and the things of “Egypt.” Very often there may be busy activity in service, but not the quiet sitting at the feet of Jesus, drinking in from His lips our knowledge of truth and grace.
Mark what follows: “Now come, I will send thee into Egypt. This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush” (Acts 7:34-35). But God must bring Moses out of Egypt first; He could not make such a communication to him there. When we get into the world, it is the same thing; communion is interrupted.
“Moses said unto God, Who am I?” (Ex. 3). After he had worshipped God as an unshod worshipper, there was a shrinking from that which God had laid on him, though, forty years before, he had been most eager to enter upon the same sort of service. It is a most solemn thing to have to do with the people of God. The responsibility involved is that under which we must sink if left to ourselves.
Dealing With Shame
and Dishonor
Moses now knew that he that would serve Israel must have a great deal of shame and dishonor to encounter. Hence the need of the training through which he had been put. So it is with service in the church. If Paul is a “chosen vessel,” the Lord in making this known to Ananias says, “I will show him how great things he must suffer for My name’s sake” (Acts 9:15-16). And what was Paul’s after experience? “I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches”; again, “I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved” (2 Cor. 12:10,15).
Paul had the flesh crushed at the outset, crushed again after he had been taken up into the third heaven, crushed all the way through. He never went on, in service, in the energy of the flesh, but as one who knew that it must be endurance to the very end.
How often does a young Christian think, I will tell others of the Lord’s love, and they must believe me, or, I will tell Christians of the security of the church, of the coming of the Lord, of the heavenly calling of the saints, and the like, and they must receive it. But no! We need to learn that we cannot carry everything before us. Where there is the most ascertained mission from God, there is always the deepest humility. Paul, in speaking of his arduous service, says, “I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me” (1 Cor. 15:10).
Fellowship With God
The preparation for active service is in secret with God, in learning ourselves in communion with Him. It is there that the battle is really fought. Power for active service is not acquired in active service, but in fellowship with God in secret. Whatever we do in service, we ought to do as worshippers. Our service would then be carried on in felt responsibility to God, and it would bring blessing to others and to our own souls.
There would be much more profitable, happy, useful service if we only saw more of God’s order. One delights to see activity in service, but then it should be connected with the being in secret with God and the seeing His purpose with regard to the church. Thus we should serve happily and holily, not as though God needed our service, but as desiring to glorify Him in our bodies which are His.
Adapted from Christian Truth
The Vail on Moses’ Face
The people of Israel had thoughtlessly entered into a covenant with God when they said, “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do” (Ex. 19:8). “All the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die” (Ex. 20:18-19). There was terror here, but no dimness; Moses had no covering over his face when he descended from the mountain after his first stay of forty days (Ex. 32). The sins of the people caused him to come down. “Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides ... and the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables” (Ex. 32:15-16). Here was the covenant in the hands of the mediator; all was plain and concise. “It came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount” (Ex. 32:19). This action was full of meaning. The people had broken the covenant; the mediator of the covenant bore testimony to it, and judgment follows. No veil was necessary on that occasion; the mediator had testified that the covenant was broken.
Intercession
Afterwards he intercedes for the people, and Jehovah proposes to send an angel to bring them into the land of Canaan which He had promised them (Ex. 32:30,34; also 33:1-3). But this could not satisfy the heart of Moses; he is troubled and asks Jehovah to show him His way and Himself to go with them. “If Thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known here that I and Thy people have found grace in Thy sight? Is it not in that Thou goest with us? So shall we be separated, I and Thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth. And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found favor in My sight, and I know thee by name” (Ex. 33:15-17). Moses is encouraged, and he continues his intercession and says, “I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory” (Ex. 33:18). Moses had seen the glory of God in a wonderful way when the law was given, but in the tent of the congregation erected outside the camp, Jehovah had spoken with Moses face to face, “as a man speaketh unto his friend” (Ex. 33:11), and he now seeks a more excellent glory than that of the law, for behind the law, a way of God and a glory of God remained, and the glory of the law served only to prepare and introduce these. It was that glory which Moses had to hide, because the time of its manifestation according to the counsels of God had not yet come.
This glory revealed to Moses is in reality the glory of God in the face (in the person) of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6). It was thus proclaimed: “I will make all My goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy” (Ex. 33:19). The sovereignty of God in grace is an essential part of His glory. Israel had ruined the basis of their blessing, and their only resource remained in Jehovah Himself — see Hosea 13:9. When all is lost, then is the time for grace to show itself, but the glory of this grace must be seen from a suitable standpoint.
Moses was to be put in the cleft of the rock that he might see the glory. For this purpose Moses, after he had hewn two tables of stone like the first two which were broken, ascends Mount Sinai a second time. “The Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord” (Ex. 34:5). After having passed forty days and forty nights upon the mount (Deut. 10:10), Moses descended from Mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in his hand, and he knew not “that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him [God]” (Ex. 34:29).
Grace
There is a transforming power inherent in grace. Forty days of intimate fellowship with God had exerted a wonderful influence upon Moses. On the one hand, he had learned, through the experience of his own heart, the blessing of the grace with which he had communed; on the other, he remained perfectly unconscious of the visible result which was the outcome of this fellowship. Blessed are we if we know the secret of communion with divine grace! The heart is refreshed, while the believer is kept in a humble path, wondering that anyone should look at him. In fact, we may be sure that we shall never be used in the service of God until we have come to count ourselves as nothing. When God makes our face shine before others, we ought to be the very last to know it.
The people fear the glory in the face of Moses more than the two tables in his hands. Such is man! He is quite ready to promise obedience to the law for his whole life, but the nearer God seeks to approach man in grace, the further he draws back.
Distance From God
Distance from God is the natural element of man, and gladly does he remain at this distance, even when it is proclaimed that the cross has removed all hindrances, so that a sinner may approach God. Jehovah bore with a people who were under the curse of a broken law, and Moses had thus learned the way of Jehovah. But it was just this glory which he was obliged to veil, because “the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished” (2 Cor. 3:13). For Moses, the question of human righteousness on the principle of law was settled. He could look on the end, “for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth” (Rom. 10:4). But the majority in Israel could not look beyond the law, but rather sought for righteousness through it, while all the time being under the curse. God, for His own sake, not on account of their righteousness, did bring Israel temporarily into the land, but as regards individual dealings He acted as He said to Moses, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious.” Everyone therefore who was quickened by His grace could, according to this principle, look beyond the law and see the glory in the face of Moses.
As long as the veil remained on the face of Moses, grace was necessarily hidden. But now, says the Apostle, no darkness exists. The ministry is the ministry of the glad tidings of the grace of God (Eph. 3:2; Acts 20:24), the glad tidings of the glory of Christ, “who is the image of God” (2 Cor. 4:4), the glad tidings of the blessed God (1 Tim. 1:11). It reveals fully the glory of this grace whose rays illuminated the face of Moses, and the tables of the law in his hand could not dim it. “Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).
J. N. Darby, adapted
Speak Ye Unto the Rock
The rebellion of Korah brought out the priesthood of Aaron more conspicuously than ever. Ministry is not priesthood, though it has its own important place. But priesthood alone can and will carry the failing people of God through the wilderness into Canaan. “If when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled we shall be saved by His life” (Rom. 5:10). “Wherefore He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25). On Christ, first as the sacrifice and next as the priest, rests everything unto salvation, for as yet we are passing through the wilderness, and with difficulty are the righteous saved.
The necessity for Aaron’s intercession was made apparent when the plague set in among the murmuring Israelites, and Aaron had to run into the midst, having put on incense and made an atonement for the people. Thus he stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stayed.
The Priest of God’s Choice
But God did more. He decided forever between the princes of the people and the priest of His choice, for every one of the twelve heads of Israel laid up their rods before the Lord that He might choose beyond controversy who should intercede with Him. “Behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds and bloomed blossoms and yielded almonds” (Num. 17:8). All the other rods were dry and fruitless. The question was once for all determined: He only was chosen to draw near. Israel in themselves were as sapless and dry as their dead rods; man needs a living priest. Aaron’s rod (and indeed Melchisedec yet more in this) but typifies Him in whom is the power of an endless life. Henceforth this is the rod, the living, unchanging witness of divine power and suited blessing before God for the people. The priest bears the iniquity of the sanctuary. Ministry is subordinate to priesthood, as the tribe of Levi was joined to the priest (Num. 18). And grace for all provided the ashes of the red heifer, that the defiled among the children of Israel might at no time lack a purification from sin. They were always exposed to uncleanness by the way, and they must then be sprinkled by the water of separation, in order to be purified. God would not lower His holiness by the allowance of defilement in His people, but He provides the water of separation for the defiled, that the unclean should be daily purified. Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Trial
Here the new generation is seen to be tried before the close of Exodus, as the old had been at the beginning. Now, as then, there was no water for the congregation, and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. “The people chode with Moses and spake saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord! And why have ye brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness that we and our cattle should die there? And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt to bring us in unto this evil place? It is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink” (Num. 20:3-5). No wonder Moses and Aaron fell upon their faces at such base unbelief. But the glory of Jehovah appeared, and without a reproach Jehovah said to Moses, “Take the rod, and gather the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink” (Num. 20:8).
The Two Rods
There was no misunderstanding, for “Moses took the rod from before the Lord, as He commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock” (Num. 20:9-10). From this point, however, all was wrong, for Moses, provoked by the exceeding ingratitude and revolt of the people, “spake unadvisedly with his lips.” “Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?” (vs. 10). Who asked this at his hands? Moses was overcome of evil instead of overcoming evil with good. He who had so long lived the meekest of men utterly failed at last in this very respect. When God was magnifying His mercy and calling attention expressly to the truth that nothing but priestly grace could bring an erring people through, Moses yielded to natural resentment and asserted his own authority, “so that it went ill with [him] for their sakes.” He had sunk so far to their level, instead of hiding himself, as faith would have done, behind the grace of God. And his deed was no better than his word at this critical moment. “Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod smote the rock twice” (vs. 11). It was total departure from the commandment of the Lord, who had told him to take “the rod,” not his rod but Aaron’s, and “speak unto the rock,” and it should give forth water. With his rod Moses struck the rock twice. The witness, hitherto faithful, misrepresented God and must die for his error. The rod of judgment misused brought death to himself; the rod of grace prevailed for the people, for he had brought out the rod that budded, the virtue of which alone was adequate for so failing a people.
In Exodus 17 it was according to God that Moses should strike the rock with his rod. There Moses alone appears; from the smitten rock water must come out. Jesus came by water and blood. Humiliation unto death must be the portion of Christ, if the people of God were to receive the Spirit. There must be a foundation of righteousness, and there is; the Son of Man must be lifted up.
Grace Alone Avails
For the journeying of the people through the wilderness, for passing into Canaan, grace alone avails, the grace of an ever-living priest. “Hear now ye rebels” might be true and just, if it were a question of man, but was it God’s word for that moment? Was He acting in grace or in judgment? And if it were added “must we fetch you water out of this rock,” was God before their eyes? Was it not self, wounded by the ingratitude of man? Wondrous to record, the servant’s error did not hinder this grace of God. “The water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank and their beasts also” (vs. 11).
“But [Jehovah] spake unto Moses and Aaron, 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. This is the water of Meribah, because the children of Israel strove with the Lord and He was sanctified in them” (vss. 12-13). Moses and Aaron sanctified Him not, but gave up grace for the vindication of their injured authority. Had this been God’s feeling, they had fetched no water out of the rock. Jehovah was sanctified, but it was in maintaining His own word, His own grace, notwithstanding the failure of Moses and Aaron — a failure which brought immediate reproof on themselves and the sharp chastening of dying outside the land, the land of Canaan, whither grace was conducting the people.
W. Kelly, adapted
No Shepherd
The last request of Moses found in Numbers 27 shows, not only his submission to Jehovah’s sovereign will, but also seems to savor of that love of which God Himself is the source and which makes channels for itself to flow into the hearts of His people.
Moses was released from the service of God before the Israelites crossed the Jordan on their way to the promised land, and the One that gave him his release was the One to whom he appealed at the time with a heart burdened with desire for the welfare of His people, for whom he made the following request:
“Moses spake unto the Lord, saying, Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation, which may go out before them, and which may go in before them, and which may lead them out, and which may bring them in; that the congregation of the Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd” (vss. 15-17).
Affection for the People
It would have been difficult for Moses to give a stronger proof of his affection for the people of God than that which is conveyed in this prayer, and the readiness with which it was responded to on the part of God was an evidence of His goodwill towards one that had sufficient interest in His people to make their future happiness his chief concern — even at the time when he himself was about to be set aside. His concern for them was so great that he could not die in peace and leave them in the wilderness “as sheep which have no shepherd.”
“The Lord said unto Moses, Take thee Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay thine hand upon him, and set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation; and give him a charge in their sight. ... And Moses did as the Lord commanded him” (vss. 18-22).
The request of Moses is in perfect keeping with the purpose of God and the blessing of His people. Therefore, in making the request he showed his regard for God and His people by requesting a man that would both lead them out and bring them in. He not only looked for power to be exercised in their behalf to this end, but requested of God that the personal presence of their leader might be known in the midst of His people by going out before them and by going in before them.
Moses, after he fled to Midian, had “kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law.” He was thus trained for his future mission, for, while he was so engaged, the Lord appeared to him and sent him back into Egypt as His messenger to Pharaoh and to become the leader and shepherd of His people in their exodus from the land of their bondage and in their journey through the wilderness.
Characteristics of
a Faithful Shepherd
We may learn from the example of Moses what are the leading characteristics of a faithful shepherd. Failure there may be, and surely was, in his case, but love there must be, whether the saints appreciate it, or whether there is no response, as was seen in the case of the Israelites, and also in the case of the Corinthians towards the Apostle Paul, compelling him to say, “The more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved” (2 Cor. 12:15).
A true shepherd lives for his sheep, studies their comfort, suffers in serving them, and seeks by every means to shield them from ill. If this be true in ordinary life, it is much more so with respect to the faithful shepherd of God’s sheep. And beautiful it is to see the devotedness of men like Moses and the Apostle Paul, who faced the worst of dangers, and even death itself, in order to serve and deliver the objects of their love. All this, we well know, is attributable to the grace of God. And the request of Moses, with respect to His people, was but a feeble reflection of what was in the mind of God respecting them, and it was used of Him as a means of giving us to know how tenderly He cared for His people.
H. H., adapted
Moses’ Heavenly Glory
At the end of his life, we see Moses on Mount Pisgah, viewing the land of Canaan stretched out beneath him (Deut. 34). That was a new mount of God to him. It lay a little outside the promised land, but it afforded him a full view of it. It was a high eminence, the top of Pisgah on Mount Nebo, in the mountains of Abarim. The earth had now ceased to own Moses; Israel also knew him no more. The wilderness too had all been passed, and the Lord alone is his company on the hill that overlooked the land of promise. What an expression of the place of the church or heavenly glory the whole of this is! On high with the Lord, Moses looks down on the earthly inheritance, the place of the tribes of Israel, Gilead and Dan, Naphtali, Ephraim and Manasseh, with all the land of Judah to the sea, the south too, and the valley of Jericho, with the city of palm trees unto Zoar! A place that could command such objects beneath, and in such company, is heavenly indeed! Moses is on high with the Lord, looking on the cities and plains where the redeemed and happy families of the earth were to dwell. It is from heaven alone that such blessing and occupation of the earth, in righteousness and peace, will be seen by the Lord and His children of the resurrection. (We have also a witness to the heavenly glory of Aaron, Moses’ associate, in Numbers 20. He dies as a priest on the top of the hill, the earthly people being beneath him and knowing him only as a priest in the high places.)
The Mount of the Transfiguration
Again, as another witness of Moses in the heavenly place, we see him in the New Testament, on another mount, the mount of the transfiguration. Peter, James and John are there, presenting Israel and the earthly people, and they are on the outside. But Moses is there, again in company with the Lord and another coheir of the heavenly glory, and they are within, enwrapped in the cloud of the excellent glory, the true veil that is to separate the holy place from the courts, or the heavens from the earth. Moses is on the heavenly side of that veil, glorified in the likeness of the very Lord of the glory Himself.
These are two strong and clear testimonies to the heavenly glory of Moses — striking exhibition of him in the heavenly place, being in company with the Lord on the top of two hills, from the one of which he sees the earthly inheritance beneath him, and from the other, the earthly people outside him. And thus I judge, from all these witnesses which we have here listened to, we gather both the heavenly calling and glory or the heavenly character and place of this honored and faithful servant of God. He is a child of the resurrection and a joint-heir of God with Jesus Christ.
Earth and Heaven
Thus Moses loses the earth, but gains heaven. He loses Canaan by his own wrong, trespassing, as we have seen, against the grace and power of the budding rod, but he gains glory on the top of the hill that overlooked Canaan, through the abounding kindness and love of God his Saviour. Law says that “no man shall take advantage of his own wrong,” and justly so, for righteousness forbids the thought that anyone shall gain a benefit by his own misdeed. But grace does not act by law, for the glory we reap through it, as pardoned sinners, is richer and brighter far than that which Adam in innocence knew. God’s riddle is solved in our history — the eater has yielded meat, and the strong man sweetness. Moses and the church both illustrate it; both are traveling onward through forfeiture of the earth, led by the hand of the Son of God, to the top of that hill which looks down on the goodly tents of Jacob beneath. O beloved, what manner of people should we be! May the life and energy of the indwelling Spirit keep us more and more separated to heavenly character and heavenly hopes!
J. G. Bellett, adapted
The Rod of God in the Hand of Moses
When Moses was told he should be the deliverer and was bidden of the Lord to visit Pharaoh and bring Israel up out of Egypt, he replied, “Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?” Once so eager to free Israel, now he was hesitating. He had learned to distrust himself; he had not learned to trust God. He made objections founded partly on his former failure. How should Israel know that he was indeed their deliverer? The answer was remarkable. In no sense because he was Moses, but altogether because God is what He is. “I AM THAT I AM.”
But Moses was not satisfied, and Jehovah gave him three signs as his credentials to Israel. First, his rod cast down upon the ground became a serpent, and the serpent being grasped by its tail reverted again into a rod. Second, his hand thrust into his bosom became leprous, and when returned to his bosom again became clean. Third, the water of the Nile being poured upon the dry ground should become blood — this sign could only be wrought in Egypt.
The rod in the East is emblematic of authority and power. Satan had power and authority in Pharaoh’s rod, and Jehovah would commit to Moses, as His servant, the rod of God. The serpent’s power should be nullified before the rod of God in the hand of the deliverer.
When Moses cast his rod upon the ground, up rose the serpent, and Moses fled before it! On the one hand, the bush burned with fire and yet was not consumed — Israel still held its own though in the furnace of affliction, for Jehovah was with them; on the other hand, the majesty of Egypt had the mastery, and Israel fled before it. But when Moses, at Jehovah’s bidding, took hold of the serpent by its tail, he held within his grasp the rod of God, divine power to deliver them.
The second token of leprosy figures sin. Man’s hand is unclean, and as placed upon the breast at the divine bidding symbolizes actions and secret thoughts as sinful. But God, who discovers to man his uncleanness, is able also to cleanse. He gave to Moses a hand and heart clean and pure, and wherewith to use His rod, wherewith to fulfill the trust committed to him.
As for the third token, the Nile was the very life of Egypt; this, by the sign of God, should become death. The life of Egypt, as in Moses’ own case, Pharaoh had willed should be the death of Jehovah’s Israel; now God would turn that life into death in His judgment upon the land of Israel’s bondage.
Satan’s power vanquished, the leprosy of the flesh cleansed, and the true character of the world manifested: Satan, the flesh and the world are to be seen in these three signs.
But Moses hesitated still. God’s name and God’s signs were not what he wanted exactly; he expected something in himself which should witness to his fitness for his work. “O my Lord,” he said, “I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant!” “O my Lord, send, I pray Thee, by the hand of him whom Thou wilt send.” Thus did one of the very greatest of God’s servants grieve God. He was angry at the unbelief, but mercifully stooped to the weakness of His servant and joined Aaron with him to accomplish the deliverance He had determined for Israel.
H. F. Witherby
The Way of the Kings of the East
Among the awful judgments that will fall on this world toward the end of the great tribulation, we find the following: “The sixth angel poured out his vial upon the river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared” (Rev. 16:12).
The latter clause of this verse might be more accurately rendered, “That the way of the kings from the rising of the sun might be prepared” (JND). It is noteworthy that there is a similar reference to the Euphrates river in Revelation 9:13-14, where we read that “the sixth angel sounded and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound at the great river Euphrates.”
The Euphrates River
With a length of nearly 1800 miles, the Euphrates River is the longest river in western Asia, and it has been associated with the trade and commerce of great cities and empires for thousands of years. Originating in what is now Turkey, it courses through Syria and Iraq and eventually joins with another well-known ancient river, the Tigris, before emptying into the Persian Gulf. It is mentioned many times in the Word of God, all the way back to the Garden of Eden, for the Euphrates was one of the four branches into which the river of Eden parted (Gen. 2:10-14). The land called Mesopotamia was the land between these two rivers, often referred to as the “fertile crescent,” and generally acknowledged as that part of the world where civilization began.
The Euphrates River has always been the traditional boundary between the East and the West. It is true that both the Persian Empire and that of Alexander the Great extended beyond this point, but the eastern boundary of the Roman empire was always considered to be the Euphrates river, and it is largely with this empire, in its revived form, that prophecy in the Book of Revelation is occupied.
The reference in Revelation 16:12 to the drying up of the Euphrates River, in order to prepare the way for the kings from the east, has been the subject of speculation among students of prophecy for many years. Does this verse mean that the river literally will dry up, or is the language symbolical? What role do the kings from the east play in the final scene of judgment? How will they interact with those who are part of the western confederacy, under the Roman beast? Will they be allies or enemies? Scripture does not answer these questions directly, but two recent developments in the world are worthy of notice in this respect.
First of all, there has been a remarkable drying up of the Euphrates River during the past five years, and this shows no sign of abating. The following quotation from the New York Times in July, 2009, sums it up: “Throughout the marshes, the reed gatherers, standing on land they once floated over, cry out to visitors in a passing boat. ‘Maaku mai!’ they shout, holding up their rusty sickles. ‘There is no water!’ The Euphrates is drying up. Strangled by the water policies of Iraq’s neighbors, Turkey and Syria, a two-year drought, and years of misuse by Iraq and its farmers, the river is significantly smaller than it was just a few years ago. Some officials worry that it could soon be half of what it is now.”
We would not place undue emphasis on this fact, as the problem is partially man-made. Turkey and Syria have constructed a number of dams on the river to serve their own needs, and Iraq itself has misused the water that has been flowing down to it. Nevertheless, it is clear that the rainfall has been far below normal for the past few years, and this has certainly contributed to the shortage of water.
Also, we must recognize that prophecy does not directly refer to events during the church period, and thus what we read in Revelation 16:12 will not occur until the latter part of the great tribulation. However, God may, in His warnings to man, allow the stage to be set for these judgments to come, and we as believers can surely “see the day approaching” (Heb. 10:25), as we observe these developments. One thing is certain: God will eventually remove any barrier between the East and the West, to the end that all mankind will be involved in God’s judgments on this world — judgments that will center in the land of Israel.
There is another development, however, that is far more sinister and important — that of the military rise of China. For centuries China has generally stayed out of the interaction of world powers and has been content to pursue its own ends. It has been recognized as one of the world’s great powers because of its large population, but until recently has not participated largely in world affairs. As recently as the Second World War, it was devastated by attacks by Japan. In the years following 1945, it was divided by civil war, which culminated in victory for the communists in 1949, forcing Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalist government out to the island now called Taiwan.
However, during the past twenty years China has “come of age,” and several years ago it displaced Japan to become the largest economic power in Asia today. As a result of a large pool of relatively cheap labor and some reforms which favored private enterprise, its products are now shipped around the globe in huge container ships, resulting in a flow of cash to that country that is unprecedented. In keeping with her status as a major world power, China has initiated a remarkable increase in military spending. In the past China generally relied on its large army (still the largest in the world numerically), but now it has also begun to acquire modern weapons. Even though its defense budget is less than 25% of that of the U.S.A., yet it has increased that budget by an average of 12% per year for the past decade. As we may well expect, all this has caused concern and even alarm among some of China’s neighbors. China insists that all of this buildup is defensive, but the end result could be an arms race in Asia, as other countries try to counter the threat by increasing their military spending. Countries like Japan, Australia, South Korea and India are all now spending more on defense, with an emphasis on sea power. Despite China’s assertions that its intentions are peaceful, there is concern that the direction taken by an authoritarian state could change rapidly and radically. This in turn could cause others to react, for man has seldom developed military potential that he did not eventually use. All of the Asian nations within China’s sphere of influence could very well be among those referred to as “the kings from the rising of the sun.”
Armageddon
All of this is very much in line with what we read in Scripture concerning God’s purposes. It is clear from prophecy that He will bring the whole world together for judgment. “He gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon” (Rev. 16:16). The western power (the revived Roman empire), the King of the North (probably a confederacy of Arab nations, perhaps supported by Russia), and the Russian power, all have their clear-cut places in the conflagration that will take place at the end of the tribulation. But the East will not be left out, for all will be gathered together at Armageddon. While China may see her increased military power as being necessary to safeguard her economic interests and protect her sovereignty claims, she has also made it clear that she is ready to use that power more aggressively if necessary. For example, China’s expanding economy has generated a rapid increase in her need for oil. If her access to oil is compromised, she may react rather strongly.
However, the Lord will have the final word. As we see an unholy trinity come together during the tribulation, composed of Satan, the Roman beast and the antichrist (Rev. 16:13-14), we are reminded that the Lord says, I “will come as a thief” (Rev. 16:15). “The haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day” (Isa. 2:17).
W. J. Prost
Moses on Pisgah
The sunshine sleeps upon the hills of Canaan’s land,
The fruitful vales and bubbling, gushing streams,
As when on Pisgah’s lonely height did Moses stand,
To view the prospect of his pilgrim dreams.
A land with milk and honey richly running o’er,
Whose city walls rose towering ’gainst the sky,
Where God’s impartial hand yields bounteous store,
And, steeped in luscious richness, sunny vineyards lie!
Unrealized to nature its possession, but to faith,
His heart the dazzling landscape could embrace,
And whilst he stands, with eye undim and unabated strength,
He can God’s promise and eternal purpose trace.
The conflict and the leadership are over now,
The burden and the heat of life’s long pilgrim days;
And he, with spirit stilled and peace-sealed brow,
Knows disappointment merged in glorious praise.
We stand, not on majestic heights, as Moses stood,
But in the vale, to view our promised land —
A vale of tears, where rolls death’s mighty flood,
But Christ has triumphed where no man could stand.
To contemplate and gaze on Christ will bring
Rich fruitfulness to each believer’s heart;
In Him such varied treasures cluster round and
spring,
That admiration lends a captive willing part.
Then stand with Him; thy heavenly portion taste;
Communion with Himself unveils all mystery;
His grasp of love forbids all needless haste,
And, lost in Him, my soul! lose all identity.
B. B.