Moses in the Bible

Moses is the towering prophet and deliverer of the Old Testament, the man God used to free Israel from slavery, give them his law, and lead them toward the promised land. His calling came at the burning bush, where "God called to him from within the bush, 'Moses! Moses!' And Moses said, 'Here I am'" (Exodus 3:4). There God commissioned him: "So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt" (Exodus 3:10). Reluctant and aware of his weaknesses, Moses obeyed, and through him God displayed his power before the most powerful empire of the age. The exodus is the defining act of Moses' ministry. At the Red Sea, "Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back... and turned it into dry land" (Exodus 14:21). Israel walked through on dry ground, delivered by the mighty hand of God. At Mount Sinai, Moses received the heart of God's covenant: "And God spoke all these words" (Exodus 20:1), the Ten Commandments that would shape the moral life of God's people for all generations. Scripture remembers Moses for both his humility and his unique closeness to God. "Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth" (Numbers 12:3), and "since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face" (Deuteronomy 34:10). Hebrews honors his faith, noting that "by faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter" (Hebrews 11:24), choosing to suffer with God's people rather than enjoy the fleeting pleasures of Egypt. Moses points beyond himself to Christ, the greater Prophet and Deliverer who leads his people out of bondage to sin into the freedom of the children of God.