1.06. Moses and Christ: An Analogy and Contrast

“The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thy brethren, like unto me; unto Him ye shall hearken; according to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see this great fire anymore, that I die not. And the Lord said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put My words in His mouth; and He shall speak unto them all that I shall command Him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto My words which He shall speak in My name, I will require it of him.”—Deuteronomy 18:15-19.

CHAPTER VI.

MOSES AND CHRIST: AN ANALOGY AND CONTRAST The first question which naturally occurs to my mind, on reading the above passage, is, Who is this Prophet, like unto Moses, Whom God promised to raise up unto Israel? Some Jewish commentators assert that Joshua was meant, but surely that cannot be, for after Joshua’s instalment into office as Moses’ successor, it is still declared that “the Prophet like unto Moses had not yet come.” “And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him: and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as the Lord commanded Moses;” and then, lest any should think that he was the prophet whom God promised to raise up, there follows immediately after the declaration on the authority of the Spirit of God, “And there arose not yet a prophet in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face” (Deuteronomy 34:10, Heb.). Who, then, is that Prophet?¹

¹ “The Rabbis and Jewish commentators are divided in their application of this passage, which shows that they have no authoritative interpretation, but that each one utters only his own private opinion.

“Abarbanel suggests that Jeremiah was the prophet like unto Moses, and gives fourteen points of resemblance, which, however, are not at all distinctive. He says, for instance, ‘Moses often reproved Israel for their sins, and so did Jeremiah.’ Yes; and so did Isaiah, Ezekiel, and all the other prophets. Again, he says, ‘Moses told Israel respecting their captivity and their deliverance therefrom, and so did Jeremiah;’ but did not Isaiah, Ezekiel, Amos, and almost all the other prophets, do the same? The fact is, Abarbanel was very unfortunate in his choice of a prophet to whom to apply this passage. ‘Moses was a deliverer, the beginner of Israel’s national independence, the author of the song of triumph, and, under God, supreme governor. Jeremiah was involved in the calamities of his people, a witness of national ruin, the author of the Lamentations, and the helpless victim of oppression. He is, therefore, not the prophet ‘like unto Moses.’

“Aben Ezra, and Bechai, and others, apply this passage to Joshua, but Joshua was not mediator, he was not the revealer of the will of God, neither had he any direct vision of the Almighty.

“Rashi, Kimchi, and Alshech say that the prophet like unto Moses implies a succession of prophets, one after the other. They acknowledge, therefore, that they could not find any individual to whom similarity to Moses could be ascribed. But against this interpretation we have, first, the fact that נָבִ֨יא (prophet) is singular—God says not prophets, but ‘a Prophet’—secondly, that this word נָבִ֨יא is never taken collectively, nor are the prophets elsewhere spoken of collectively; thirdly, that sacred history points out no such succession of one prophet; and fourthly, this and the preceding interpretations are all contrary to two plain passages of Scripture: Numbers 12:6-8 asserts distinctly that Moses was a prophet unlike the generality of prophets, and Deuteronomy 34:10-12, a passage inserted probably by Ezra, asserts that ‘there arose no prophet like unto Moses.’ ”—DR. ALEXANDER MCCAUL’S “Lectures on the Messiahship of Jesus,” Appendix of Interpretation.

More than eighteen centuries ago there appeared in Judea a wonderful Person, and the testimony of the multitudes who were attracted to Him, when they saw the miracles He did, was, “This is of a truth that Prophet that should come into the world” (John 6:14. See also John 3:18, John 3:22-23).

He to Whom the multitudes thus testified was none other than Jesus of Nazareth, of Whom it was not only written in that single passage, but in all the “scroll of the Book” (Psalms 40:7, Heb.), and to Whom not only Moses, but all the other prophets, from Samuel and those who follow after, “have borne record.” I am speaking here more particularly to those who, nominally at least, receive Jesus as the Prophet of the new covenant, “that Prophet that should come into the world,” so that all I have to do is to remind them, first, that whatever Moses was to Israel, that, and more than that, is the blessed Lord Jesus to us, and, secondly, that if we desire to be fully acquainted with Christ’s different relationships to us, we must be thoroughly acquainted with the different relationships in which Moses stood to the Jews. To obtain this knowledge we must bestow more study on the Old Testament Scriptures than is commonly done by most Christians.

Now it is not my purpose to enter here minutely into the life of Moses and to show in each detail a parallel in the history of Jesus, but I shall endeavour merely to give a brief outline of the most prominent features of the character of Moses in his different relations to Israel, especially those features in which he may fairly be taken as a type of Christ; and first, of course, we notice that Moses was a

PROPHET, and one superior in rank to any other (Numbers 12:1-8) who subsequently held that office in Judah or Israel,² inasmuch as the revelation communicated by God through him is the immutable basis of all God’s revelation to man, not one jot or tittle of which shall remain unfulfilled (Matthew 5:18), and his description (Deuteronomy 13:1 &c.; Deuteronomy 18:22) the criterion which throughout all the future was to decide between the true prophet and the false.

² “Jehovah distinctly maintains the supremacy of Moses, and traces that to His own sovereign appointment. It was true that the prophets among them spake as the Lord hath instructed them, but there were particularly three things in which the pre-eminence of Moses was conspicuous. That which was exceptional and ecstatic with them was ordinary and on the level of his common experience with him. The prophets needed a special preparation for the reception of God’s communications. They needed, as Kurtz has expressed it, ‘to pass out of the sphere of the senses, and that of intelligent consciousness, into a state of super-sensual perception.’ The Lord made Himself known to them in visions and dreams. But He spoke to Moses in his ordinary every-day condition. The great lawgiver received the Divine communications, not when he was in a trance, or when he was asleep, but in his usual intelligent consciousness; and so it came to pass that the partial obscurity which was necessarily connected with the revelations that came through others was conspicuously absent in those which were made by Moses. Again, Moses saw the similitude of Jehovah; and although this cannot mean that he beheld the unveiled glory of the Lord, it must denote that there was before him some visible and objective reality, which symbolised for him the presence of Jehovah, and from which, as from the mouth of a confidential friend, he received, not in dark and mysterious utterances, but in plain and unmistakable terms, the messages which he was to convey to his fellow-men. There was thus a difference, if not in the kind of inspiration which he enjoyed, at least in the nature of the revelations which were made to him; for as the mind of a man takes clearly in that which is only as a wonder or a dream to a child, so Moses distinctly perceived that which to other prophets was little better than a vague and incoherent vision.”—“Moses the Lawgiver,” by W. M. TAYLOR. A prophet is one who is filled with the Spirit of God, and by Him commissioned for a special mission—he is, as it were, God’s representative to the people to whom he is sent.

Under the term prophet are included three different functions, all of which were exercised by Moses. First, that of a teacher (Deuteronomy 4:5; Deuteronomy 31:22; 2 Kings 4:22-23), who was not only to communicate to the people the will of God, but to teach them how to bring their lives into harmony with His revealed will. Secondly, that of foretelling future events, for which in a special sense they had to be possessed with, and inspired by, the Spirit of God (Deuteronomy 18:15; Deuteronomy 28:1 &c; Deuteronomy 29:1 &c.; Deuteronomy 30:1 &c.). Thirdly, that of a judge, who, in the place of God, was arbitrator, particularly in points of dispute between man and his neighbour (Exodus 18:13; Judges 4:4-5).

Now, according to the Old Testament Scriptures, the Messiah too was to be a Teacher, Who, in an extraordinary manner, was to possess “the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of knowledge and counsel,” and Who, with “the tongue of the learned,” and “in parables,” was to teach all nations the fear of God and His purpose in and through them (Isaiah 11:1-2; Isaiah 2:3, Isaiah 42:4; Psalms 78:2; Matthew 13:35); and how abundantly has this anticipation been realised in the person of Jesus of Nazareth! Has there ever been a man who spake as this Man? Have not even His enemies, those who are unwilling to submit their hearts to Him, at all times been constrained to submit their intellects to His teaching and exclaim, like the Pharisees and Herodians, “Master, we know that Thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest Thou for any man, for Thou regardest not the person of man”? And what a glorious Teacher is Jesus to those who have circumcised ears and hearts, His followers, who, like Mary, sit at their Master’s feet, drinking in the gracious utterances that proceed out of His mouth! How incomparable and Divine are those wonderful words as they fall from His lips teaching us about our Father Who is in heaven, and how we may live to His glory and for the good of our fellow-men! How forcible and sublime are the lessons which He engraves on our hearts from the imagery of nature!—lessons of trust and confidence in the ever-living and ever-present God, Who, in whatsoever circumstances we are, knoweth the things we are in need of, and without Whose knowledge and consent nothing can happen to us (Matthew 6:25-34). Like a mighty river have the precious sayings and doctrines of the greater than Solomon been flowing on in this desert-world for more than eighteen centuries, and still the waters are full of life and refreshment to those who come and drink of it. Still it has quickening virtue, as it had at the commencement to the son of the widow of Nain; and convicting power, as it had to the scribes and Pharisees when they brought to Him the woman taken in adultery; and comfort, as it had to the sad hearts at Bethany. Oh blessed Teacher, Whose words are spirit and life (John 6:63), evermore instruct and teach Thy Church in the way that she should go; guide her with Thine eye!

And, as to foretelling future events, I would merely like to point out the fact, that, for the most part, there is a striking similarity in this respect between the prophecies of Christ and the prophecies of Moses. Moses predicted Israel’s dispersion and spiritual degradation, and spoke of the dreadful calamities that should come upon them during the time that they should be subservient to the Gentiles (Deuteronomy 28:1 &c.; Deuteronomy 29:1 &c.); and the song containing these predictions (Deuteronomy 31:19), which he composed for them, is cherished, even with superstitious reverence, by the Jews unto this day, proving both as a “witness against them” that they have wandered from their God and rebelled against His holy law, and also that God did indeed speak to Moses. But the present state of the Jews and their land, which proves the claims of Moses as a prophet of God, also testifies to the Divine commission of Jesus of Nazareth; for He too predicted Israel’s scattering and oppression by the Gentiles, and the desolation of Jerusalem, and that not one stone should be left upon another of their magnificent national structure—the Temple (Matthew 21:28-45; Matthew 23:37-39; Matthew 24:2). The Jews say often, “Give us evidences from the five books of Moses to the Messiahship of Jesus, and we will believe in Him.” Here is one point. According to Moses any one claiming to be a prophet was to be tested by this touchstone: “When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken; the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously” (Deuteronomy 18:22). But we naturally infer, that, if the thing he foretells do literally come to pass, that is a thing which the Lord hath spoken, and the prophet is a true one. Now the things which were prophesied by Jesus did come to pass; then, according to the test laid down by Moses, He is proved to be a true Prophet of God. Take, for instance, His prediction with regard to the utter destruction of the Temple. Has it not come to pass even as He foretold, that not one stone of it should be left upon another? Several times have the Jews made determined attempts to rebuild the Temple, but there its ruins stand, as a testimony to the foreknowledge of Jesus.³

³ “The Jews understood well the meaning of the above passage (Haggai 2:1-9), as also Malachi 3:1, where it is said that the Lord Messiah, for Whom they were looking, was to come ‘to His Temple,’ and acknowledging that it was a vain thing to look for the appearance of Messiah when there was no temple, they actually attempted several times to rebuild their temple in the reigns of Adrian, of Constantine, and especially in that of Julian, who, out of hatred to the Christians, himself offered to pay the expenses of it, and the heathen, for the same reason, with great zeal assisted them, but God Himself interposed and frustrated their purpose by terrible earthquakes, which threw up stones and globes of fire out of the very foundations of the Temple, destroying both the workmen and spectators and devouring the stones. This is recorded not only by heathen and Christian writers, but also by our own Rabbis” (“Shalsheteth Hakkaba,” p. 102; “Tzemach David,” p. 20)—Page 18 of my little book “What think ye of Christ?”

“This is recorded in ‘Socrat. Hist. Eccle.,’ L. iii. C. xx.; and in ‘Sosom,’ L. v. C. xxii., who appeals to several witnesses of it then living. Chrysostom (Orat. 2, contra Jud.) says, ‘We are all witnesses of this thing.’ But, beside these testimonies of Christians, this is likewise told by Ammianus Marcellinus (L. xxiii. C. i.), who was not a Christian.”—LESLIE’S “Short and Easy Method with the Jews.”

Take another and perhaps more striking prophecy of His. “And I, if I be lifted up,” He said, meaning His crucifixion, “will draw all men unto Me,” and with the Christian Church before us and the rapid progress Christianity is making before our very eyes, has it not already received—and is it not still increasingly receiving—a wonderful fulfilment? But Moses not only foretold Israel’s scattering and curse, but also their restoration to their land and to God’s favour, and their future blessing (Deuteronomy 30:1 &c.); and so Christ: He, too, spoke of the time when the now withered fig tree shall again bud and flower (Matthew 24:32-33), the time when Jerusalem shall no more be trodden down of the Gentiles, and when all the Jewish nation shall cry, “Hosannah! Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord!”⁴

⁴ “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the fulness of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (Luke 21:24). That surely implies that when “the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled,” Jerusalem will again have restored to her at least her former independence. Then with regard to Israel’s national conversion the Lord Jesus said, “I say unto you, Ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Matthew 23:39); and here again the time of Israel’s blindness—when they cannot see Him—is limited by a “till,” after which Jesus declares that they shall see Him and cry, “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.” Now in the Psalm to which Jesus refers (Psalms 118:26.) it is after their national restoration, and after “all the nations that will compass Jerusalem about” (Psalms 118:10) are “destroyed” (see also Zechariah 14:1 &c.), that the Messiah, “the stone which the builders once refused,” when thus manifesting Himself as Israel’s Deliverer in their time of greatest need, is represented as being greeted with the acclamations, “Hosannah! Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord!” Israel’s national restoration and glory is also implied in the answer the Lord Jesus gave to the apostles in the first chapter of Acts to the question, “Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” That the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem (Micah 4:8) is taken for granted, by Christ; and that it is only a matter of time as to when it will take place there can be no doubt after a careful study of that passage. And these prophecies, too, will be as literally fulfilled as were those predicting their scattering and desolation. Already a ray of light is visible on the horizon, which may be the precursor of the light of Jehovah which is to arise and once more shine on Israel in all its glory. Oh! that the Lord’s remembrancers would keep no silence and give God no rest until He once more establish and make Jerusalem a praise in the earth!

Then, lastly, Christ is like unto Moses in that He too is a Judge: “For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son.” This feature of our Lord’s character will doubtless assume greater prominence at His second coming, when He will occupy the judgment seat on several most solemn occasions (1 Corinthians 3:11; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Matthew 25:1 &c.; Daniel 12:1 &c.; Revelation 22:15). But even now Christ is Judge in a sense; for just as the head is judge and arbitrator in everything concerning the body, so Christ, being in the same relationship to the Church, also exercises the same functions to her. Would that Christians realised more the fact, that He Who is always with them as their Saviour and Guide is He “Whose eyes are as a flame of fire,” too pure and holy to behold iniquity, except to condemn it, as it would doubtless exercise a wholesome influence in heightening their moral tone!

But, secondly, the prophet Moses was commissioned by God to be Israel’s

REDEEMER.

God, in His infinite wisdom, permitted the children of Israel to be enslaved by Pharaoh and the Egyptians, who “made them to serve with rigour, and made their lives bitter with hard bondage in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field.” Hard was their bondage, and grinding the oppression of Egypt; but the living and compassionate God, Whose ears are open to the sighs of the downtrodden and oppressed, heard their groanings, and remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and sent them, according to His promise (Genesis 15:13, Genesis 15:16), a deliverer.

He called Moses, saying, “Come now, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt” (Exodus 3:10). “And this same Moses did God send to be ruler and deliverer unto the children of Israel. . . . And he brought them out, after he had showed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness” (Acts 7:20-39). This achievement stands out most prominently in the life of Moses, and has immortalised him for ever as the Divinely appointed emancipator of Israel from Egyptian slavery. But there is another bondage and another redemption, of which Egypt and the redemption accomplished by Moses are but imperfect types. Man, at the fall, sold himself as captive to Satan, and has been a slave to sin ever since (Romans 6:16); and the tyranny of the devil over those who willingly sell themselves to him is infinitely more dreadful and crushing than even Pharaoh’s tyranny over Israel; and the state of servitude of those whom he holds “bound as captives” (2 Timothy 2:26) is even far more appalling and degrading than that in which the Jews were in Egypt. But the same God Who promised redemption to the family of Abraham (Genesis 15:13-14) also promised redemption to the family of man (Genesis 3:15). And just as Israel’s redemption from Egypt was accomplished by one “from the midst of them,” who was in all things like themselves, except that he was not like them in a state of servitude, so He that should be the Redeemer of mankind was to be the “Seed of the woman” (Genesis 3:15), “like unto Moses” (Deuteronomy 18:18), real man, “in all things made like unto His brethren” (Hebrews 2:17), except that He was to be free from servitude to Satan, or, in other words, “without sin;” for He could not, if He were Himself a slave to sin, ransom others from the power of it. And, since the redemption He was to accomplish was to be effected, as we shall see farther on, by “giving His own life a ransom for many,” He could only do so on the supposition that His life was not already forfeited through sin; for the decree of the Eternal is, “The soul that sinneth it shall die;” so that, supposing the Messiah were even more righteous than Abraham, Moses, or any of the prophets, and only committed one single sin in His life, His life would have been lost for that sin (Ezekiel 18:24), so that He could not even be His own Redeemer, and how much less the Redeemer of the world! This is no more than saying that the “Seed of the woman,” Who was to come as the Emancipator of the whole human race from the power of sin and the devil, must be Divine, as well as human. As mere man He could not be exempt from sin, “for there is no man that sinneth not” and “there is not a righteous man upon the earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not” (Ecclesiastes 7:20, Heb.). How then could He be the Redeemer of the world? Oh! ye who tell us that Jesus is the Redeemer of mankind in the sense merely that He taught us by His example how to live perfectly in this world, do ye not blow to the winds even the one grain of truth contained in your assertion if you reject His Divinity? If He were mere man, He would Himself be imperfect, and how could the imperfect be the type of perfection? And, if ye answer me, that Jesus was perfect though mere man, I challenge you to produce me one other instance in the whole history of the human race as an example. Until you do so, I shall not believe in the possibility of it; and will ever, as long as God gives me grace and strength, lift up my voice like a trumpet, and proclaim aloud your inconsistency in that you hold up Jesus as a type of perfection, and yet put Him down as mere man. No, it was “His own Son, made of a woman and under the law, Whom God sent forth, when the fulness of time was come, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Galatians 4:4-5). Here then is one other point of analogy between Moses and Jesus. Moses was Israel’s redeemer, and so the Messiah was to be, according to the Old Testament Scriptures (Isaiah 59:20), a Redeemer; but in none of the other prophets is this characteristic found. This fact is in itself a sufficient argument against the idea still largely prevalent among the Jews that the Messiah’s mission on earth was merely to effect the national restoration of Israel to the land of their fathers; for the redemption Messiah was to accomplish was to benefit all nations alike, as is clear from many passages in the Old Testament Scriptures, and especially from Isaiah 49:6, where God Himself is represented speaking to the Messiah thus, “It is a light thing that Thou shouldst be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give Thee for a Light to the Gentiles, that Thou mayest be My salvation to the ends of the earth.”

If the salvation, or deliverance, ascribed as the Messiah’s mission to the world, was in its nature merely national restoration, that would not affect the Gentiles, for many of them do not need such a salvation at all. The deliverance associated with Messiah’s advent must be such as will alike meet the need of both Jew and Gentile, of man universally. It must therefore be spiritual in its character—a revelation of life and immortality through the knowledge of God. All men are not nationally dispersed and in bondage as the Jews have been, and in a sense still are, but all men are the servants of sin and Satan, and to redeem men from this state Messiah was to appear. The Son of man on His first advent came not to set up an earthly kingdom and to he ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many. And that this, namely, giving His life a ransom, was to be the means by which the Messiah was to effect the redemption of the world, was first typified for long ages by the Divinely appointed system of sacrifices. Look at yonder poor innocent lamb led along by the Jew to the altar, there to propitiate by its blood for the sin he had committed, and by its death to restore to him the life he had forfeited. Does it not graphically picture to you Him Who was to “be led as a lamb to the slaughter,” “the Lamb of God Which taketh away the sin of the world”? Then, secondly, the same truth was clearly proclaimed by the prophets. Thus Daniel (Daniel 9:26) says, “The Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself,” and Isaiah in his fifty-third chapter⁵ says, “He was wounded for our transgression, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement with a view to our peace was laid on Him; and with His stripes we are healed. . . . Jehovah made the iniquity of us all to meet on Him. . . . It pleased Jehovah to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief, when He was made a trespass offering” (אָשָׁם֙) . . . “He hath poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”

⁵ See chapter on Isaiah 53:1-12.

According to this prophecy (Isaiah 53:1 &c.; see also Psalms 22:1 &c.), the Messiah, Who is perfectly innocent (Isaiah 53:9) in Himself, suffers for the guilty; the perfectly righteous is represented as having all our sins laid upon Him, and, as a natural consequence, the wrath of God, that should fall upon us, falls upon Him, and Divine justice demands the penalty of the law, which is death, at His hands; and so, for us, He is cut off from the land of the living. Thus, “we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace.” And this redemption is not for the body merely, from a state of bondage or captivity, but eternal (Hebrews 9:12), for body and soul, from Satan, sin, and death (Hebrews 2:14-15; Titus 2:14); and it is not for one nation only, for listen to the chorus of those who from “among men” (Revelation 14:4) have been brought, by the grace of God, to partake of the benefits of Christ’s finished work. “Thou art worthy,” they cry, “to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation!”

But, thirdly, Moses was the

MEDIATOR between Israel and God. We cannot, and dare not, approach God as we are in ourselves; for God is holy, and we are sinful: God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all, but we are altogether darkness (Romans 1:21; Ephesians 4:17-18; Acts 26:17-18); and just as darkness shrinks from light, so naturally do those shrink from God who do not recognise the existence of the One Mediator, of Whom Moses was a type. As an evidence of the necessity of a mediator between God and man, I might point to the universal consciousness of mankind as betrayed in the different religious systems; for there has never been a form of religion known even among the savages and heathen nations, without the idea of mediation forming a part of that religion. The sense of God’s incomparable holiness and supremacy, and the consciousness of both his own unworthiness and of having offended the Most High, has always prevailed with man (Joshua 24:19; Amos 3:3), which has made him long for a daysman (Job 9:33) who should be the medium of reconciliation between God and him, or for “a man who should make up the hedge and stand in the gap” (Ezekiel 22:30) between the ineffable and holy Jehovah and finite, sinful man. Behold yon solemn assembly round Mount Sinai. The people, after careful preparation and cleansing, seek to draw nigh to their God. Here they are, “brought forth by Moses out of the camp to meet with God,” and here, at the nether part of the mount, they await with fear and trembling an interview with the God Who had brought them out, by His almighty power, from the bondage of Egypt. God descended, but lo! it was in fire, and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, . . . and there were thunders and lightnings, and the noise of a tempest, and the mountain smoking, and when the people saw it they removed and stood afar off. And they said to Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear, but let not God speak with us, lest we die. Now, therefore, why should we die? for this great fire will consume us. . . . Go thou near and hear all that the Lord our God shall say, and speak thou unto us all that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee, and we will hear and do (Exodus 19:16; Exodus 19:18; Exodus 20:16-20; Deuteronomy 5:25, Deuteronomy 5:27). Here is an emphatic testimony proclaimed aloud by a whole nation, and endorsed by God Himself (Deuteronomy 5:28), that there is a necessity for a mediator between God and man. Who is there who, in the light of this truth, will dare take it upon himself to approach God by himself? I tell him that the flames of the Almighty will devour him, “for our God is a consuming fire.” In this respect, too, Jesus is the Prophet like unto Moses, inasmuch as He is the Mediator of the new and better covenant—the Only One Mediator between God and man (Hebrews 8:6; Hebrews 9:15; Hebrews 12:24; 1 Timothy 2:5). And just as all the knowledge the children of Israel had of God came to them through Moses, so those now only know God and His will concerning them to whom the Man Christ Jesus reveals Him. “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life,” He says of Himself: “no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6). “No one knoweth the Father, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him” (Luke 10:22). But let me next remind you that Moses was Israel’s

INTERCESSOR. In this connection please read Exodus 32:7-14; Exodus 32:32-33; Numbers 14:11-20. On the occasions mentioned in those passages, you will find, that God was specially displeased with Israel on account of their sins and the hardness of their hearts, and threatened to utterly destroy them; and, if not for the intercession of Moses, this might actually have taken place; but Moses laid hold on God’s promises, and pleaded on their behalf: “Remember,” he prayed, “Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Thy servants, to whom thou swarest by Thine own self.” “And now, I beseech Thee, let the power of the Lord be great, according as Thou hast spoken, saying, The Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, though by no means clearing the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. Pardon, I beseech Thee, the iniquity of this people, according unto the greatness of Thy mercy, and as Thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt until now.” And what was the result? “And the Lord repented of the evil which He thought to do unto His people.” And the Lord said, “I have pardoned according to thy word, but as truly as I live all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah.” Now the Messiah, too, was to be an Intercessor, Who was “to make intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12); and of our blessed Lord it is written, “Wherefore He is able to save them to the uttermost” (εἰς τὸ παντελὲς) “that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25). Again, Paul says, “Who is he that shall condemn? Shall Jesus Christ, that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead, Who is at the right hand of God, Who also makest intercession for us?” (Romans 8:34, R.V. marginal reading). And Jesus Himself, before His ascension, left us as a legacy the comforting assurance, that He is praying for us (John 17:9; John 17:20; Luke 22:31-32, etc.). Oh Christian! rejoice in this assurance, for what more can you wish than to have such an Advocate with the Father? And remember with gratitude, since God always heard the prayer of Moses, who was a servant in His household, how much more will He hear the prayer of Christ, Who is His only-begotten and well-beloved Son! And besides, through Christ, those who are united to Him by faith stand in a much nearer relationship to God than that in which Israel, for whom Moses was making intercession, ever stood. Then in confidence commit thyself and thy cause into the hand of thy loving and exalted Lord. If thy brother, thine own conscience, or God’s broken law condemn thee, with a broken and penitent heart and contrite spirit confess thy sin, and thy righteous Advocate will plead for thee by pointing to the precious blood He shed for thee and the perfect obedience He rendered to God’s holy law, and God, for Christ’s sake, will forgive thee, and once more thou wilt be able to sing, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that shall condemn?” How full of consolation to the Christian, as well as to the sinner, is that invitation in Isaiah 55:7, where it says, “And let him return to Jehovah, for He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” The word יַרְבֶּ֥ה translated “abundantly,” literally means “multiply,” and if read in the light of Matthew 18:21-22, is, very precious. In this passage in Matthew, we are told that Peter came to Jesus, asking, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin, and I forgive him? until seven times?” But the Lord gave Peter a lesson in multiplication, and told him to multiply the seven by seventy: “I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” But think you, Christian, that He Who teaches thee to multiply pardon to thy brother if he offend thee does not Himself know how to multiply much more abundantly pardon, peace, and joy to those whom He has redeemed by His own precious blood, and whom He loved when they were yet in their sin? Yea, He will multiply pardon by an infinitely higher figure than the seven of our finite calculations, and all this God will do because our glorious Christ “ever liveth to make intercession for us.” Return to Him, then, if you have wandered from Him in heart or deed, and be assured that He will receive you graciously, and love you freely, and will say unto you, “Go in peace, and sin no more.” “Seeing, then, we have such an High-priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an High-priest Which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” But what the children of Israel next wanted after their redemption from Egypt was a

LEADER, for before they could enter Canaan and take possession of their promised land, they had “a great and terrible wilderness” to traverse, and many foes to encounter; and, moreover, the way was altogether strange to them, neither had they the necessaries to sustain life during their wanderings; what would they have done without the leadership of Moses? But God anticipated even this need, and made him who redeemed them to be also their leader, for though it was “His own glorious arm” that led them, it was none the less “by the right hand of Moses” (Isaiah 63:12); thus again and again we hear God’s command to Moses, “Go, lead this people” (Exodus 32:34); and he himself, in one of his touching parting addresses to the children of Israel in the plains of Moab, reminded them that he “led them forty years in the wilderness.”

Now the Messiah, too, was to be the Leader of His people, for God said of Him, “Behold, I have given Him for a Witness to the people, a Leader and Commander to the people” (Isaiah 55:4); and in John 10:1-42 our blessed Lord Jesus represents Himself not only as the Good Shepherd who layeth down His life for the sheep (our Redeemer), but also as the Leader of the sheep. Thus He says, “He calleth His own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him: for they know His voice” (John 10:3-4). Moses is represented as carrying the children of Israel in his bosom as “a nursing father beareth the sucking child” (Numbers 11:12), but oh! what is even this tenderness to the tenderness of Him of Whom it is written, “He shall gather His flock like a shepherd: He shall gather the lambs with His arms, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those that are with young”? (Isaiah 40:11). And does the Church of Christ need a guide and leader less than Israel? Verily, no! She, too, is, like Israel of old, a wanderer on her way to the land which God has promised her, for “this is not her resting place” (Hebrews 4:1; Hebrews 4:6; Hebrews 4:9); and the way to that “city which hath foundation,” which she is seeking, is also through a wilderness, which, though moral in its nature, is perhaps as great and terrible as that through which Israel passed. She, too, has many dangers and deadly foes to encounter, and is utterly ignorant of the way; how then could she have made the progress she has and come off victorious from the many battlefields where she has had to contend, not only against the people, kings, and rulers of the earth, “who were united against God and His Messiah,” but also with the “principalities and powers of darkness” and all the forces of the prince of darkness himself, without the leadership of the Captain of her salvation, Who all the time has guided her with His eye (Psalms 32:8) and led her by His own hand? But what Christ is to His Church as a whole He is also to every one of its members individually. “Lo, I am with you alway,” has been a blessed realisation in the experience of each one true Christian, who has only sought His presence and looked up to Him for direction. “With you alway.” Oh! glorious all-sufficient promise! “With you” when you pass through the waters of affliction, just as Moses was with Israel when they passed through the Red Sea; “with you” when you walk through the fires of persecution, just as He was with Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah in the burning fiery furnace (Daniel 3:25); and still “with you” even when the road through which you pass is “utterly dark,” without even the faint light of human counsel or sympathy to guide your trembling footsteps (Isaiah 50:10); yes, “with you alway, even unto the end.” We sometimes are apt to think that those forty years which Moses spent in tending the flocks of his father-in-law in the wilderness of Horeb, and in the solitude of Midian, were lost time, but no: the eternal and wise God had a purpose in it, which, beside the opportunities it afforded him of communing with God and his own heart (an indispensable preparation for the undertaking of such a stupendous task as lay before him), was to acquaint him with the district through which he was to lead Israel in their future wanderings.⁶ He was acquainted with the coasts of the Red Sea long before Israel had to cross it, and with the wilderness of Sinai ere yet Israel experienced its dreariness and desolation, so that, in every way, he was the most reliable and qualified leader Israel could have had.

⁶ “ ‘Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian.’ The subsequent incidents of this narrative show clearly the region then inhabited by Jethro, and called ‘the land of Midian.’ It was the peninsula of Sinai.

“In this sanctuary of the hills, awaiting the time when the advancing purposes of God had ripened Israel for the great movement of its deliverance, and meanwhile unconsciously preparing for the mighty task before him, Moses spent, as St. Stephen informs us, no fewer than forty years. His wanderings would make him acquainted with every valley, plain, gorge, hill, and mountain of the whole region; with its population, whether native or that of the Egyptian mines; with every spring and well, and with all the resources of every kind offered by any spot: an education of supreme importance towards fitting him to guide his race, when rescued from Egypt, to the safe shelter and holy sanctuaries of this predestined scene of their long encampment. Still more, in those calm years, every problem to be solved in the organisation of a people would rise successively in his mind and find its solution; and above all, his own soul must have been disciplined and purified by isolation from the world and closer and more continual communion with God.”—GEIKIE, “Hours with the Bible,” vol. 2. p. 114.

Berthean (“Geschichte,” p. 242) thinks that Moses in Midian would come in contact with a form of faith of Abraham, preserved in Jethro’s tribe, purer than survived among the Jews in Egypt.

Even so Jesus, in order that He may be the more fitted to be the Leader of His followers in this world, was sent down to this earth by the Father in order that He might first Himself learn the way by which He was to bring many sons into glory (Hebrews 2:10); and so perfectly has He learnt it that there is not one single step throughout the pilgrimage of our lives which He is not acquainted with, and knows the dangers, difficulties, and trials, by which it is beset. Has He not Himself had to pass through the sea of troubles, so that He had to cry, “All Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over Me” (Psalms 42:7), experienced what it is to be without a home, hungry, thirsty, and weary? (Matthew 4:2; John 4:6; Matthew 8:20). Does He not know what it is to endure reproach, to be forsaken and despised of men, and to be “tempted as we are”? Yea, has He not Himself endured dreadful agonies and pains, and “tasted death,” and even experienced the most awful and dense darkness, occasioned by the withdrawal of God’s presence, when standing as our Substitute to answer to the call of Divine justice? Oh! then, what more reliable or more sympathising Leader can you have, Christian? And remember that He has trodden the rough and thorny path in order that He may now be able to lead you to your promised land by a more pleasant one. He does not necessarily lead those who follow Him now through the path of poverty, suffering, and pain, which He had to tread, except it be to teach them some specially precious lessons of His tender care and love; nor is it possible that those whom He leads can ever walk in the dense darkness occasioned by the hiding of God’s face from them; for He Himself has said, “I am the Light of the world; he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” Rather the experience of those to whom He stands in the relationship of a Shepherd or Leader⁷ has generally been that they have everything that can conduce to their comfort, and that goodness and mercy follow them all their days, for “He maketh them to lie down in pastures of tender grass, and leads them by the waters of quietness. He restoreth their souls: He leadeth them in the paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake!” And when they have to walk through trouble or the “valley of the shadow of death, He is still with them, and with His rod and His staff He comforts them.” Yes, this is what our blessed Saviour is to us; He leads us all through life; He leads us through, or “carries us over”⁸ death, and even in heaven He still retains the character of Leader; for we read that there “the redeemed follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.” “For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of water: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (Revelation 7:17).

⁷ In the Hebrew רֹעֶ֖ה means both Shepherd and Leader; in fact, the two terms become almost synonymous if we bear in mind that in the East the shepherd does not, as in Western lands, drive the sheep before, but “he leadeth them out, and goeth before them, and the sheep do follow him.”

⁸ This is a justifiable rendering of עַל־מֽוּת יְנַהֲגֵ֣נוּ ה֖וּא in Psalms 48:14. As a last point of analogy between Moses and Christ, I point to the fact that Moses was a

KING, as it is written, “He was king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered together” (Deuteronomy 33:5); and our Lord Jesus is King too.

He was born King (Matthew 2:2), and “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews,” was inscribed on the cross on which He poured out His soul unto death, and now in heaven “He is exalted a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance unto Israel and the forgiveness of sins;” and when He returns it will be as King, to sit on the throne of His father David and “reign in Mount Zion and before His ancients gloriously.” It is true that, like Moses, He is as yet an uncrowned King, but soon He will return in power and glory; and then “on His head there shall be many crowns” (Revelation 19:12); and perhaps the one that will sparkle most gloriously on that head that was once in derision crowned with a crown of thorns will be that which will be put on it by repentant Israel—the crown of David, which is peculiarly His by right as the Son of David. It was not always that Moses was thus recognised as Israel’s king. There was a time when on manifesting himself to Israel, and “supposing that they would have understood that he was their deliverer” (Acts 7:25), they rejected him, saying, “Who made thee a prince and a judge over us?” (Exodus 2:14), so that he had to flee and for forty years abide with Gentiles, out of whom also he took a bride for himself. Even so Christ, on His first advent, when He came to His own, “they that were His own received Him not.” They rejected Him, “and sent a message after Him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us” (Luke 19:14). And this has been the occasion of opening the door of grace to the Gentiles, out of whom are now gathered the majority of those who constitute the Church, which is the bride of Christ (Revelation 21:2, Revelation 21:9). But just as Moses, after his union with his Gentile wife, returned to his brethren according to the flesh when they were in their greatest distress, although they once rejected him, and delivered them, so Christ, after the election of that number which are to be brought into union with Him as His bride is complete, will once more return to Israel and deliver them from their national and spiritual bondage (Acts 15:14-18; Romans 11:25-26; Zechariah 12:10; Zechariah 14:1 &c.). Then shall be fulfilled the words of Jeremiah, “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In His days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely, and this is His name whereby He shall be called, Jehovah our Righteousness.” And just as Moses combined in his own person both the dignity of priest and king (Psalms 99:6; Deuteronomy 33:5), so of the Messiah too we read, that “He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon His throne; and He shall be a Priest upon His throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both” (Zechariah 6:13).

These are the most prominent points of analogy between Moses and Christ⁹; there are many more parallels which we might draw from minute details, but only those given are, I think, of sufficient general interest and striking enough to be noticed in a chapter of this kind. I rather hasten to the conclusion now by briefly referring to a few points of

CONTRAST which will demonstrate the pre-eminence of our Redeemer, Leader, Prophet, Priest, and King, over him who stood in all these different relationships to Israel.

⁹ H. L. Hastings, editor of the American Christian, in an excellent pamphlet on “The Mistakes of Moses,” which is a reply to the infidel attacks against the Pentateuch and the inspiration of Moses, gives no fewer than twenty-four points of analogy between Moses and Christ. For the sake of those interested, I produce them here in an abridged form.

1. Moses was born of poor parents, under the reign of Pharaoh, who was an oppressive tyrant; Christ was born in poverty, and under the reign of the cruel Herod.

2. Moses was persecuted and doomed to death in infancy; so Christ.

3. Moses was wonderfully preserved in his infancy in Egypt, while other infants were destroyed. And so it was with Jesus.

4. Moses spent forty years of his life in humble circumstances; Christ up to His manhood toiled as a Carpenter in Nazareth.

5. Moses was revealed to Israel by mighty signs and wonders; in like manner Christ, by His miracles, demonstrated His Divine authority.

6. Moses fasted forty days in the wilderness of Sinai; Christ fasted forty days in the wilderness of Judea.

7. Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Christ spurned the offer of the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, and chose rather for His people to become a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

8. Moses was faithful as a servant; Christ’s meat and drink was to do His Father’s will.

9. Moses delivered Israel from the bondage of Egypt; Christ delivered man from the bondage of sin and corruption.

10. The sea obeyed Moses, and divided at his command; Christ rebuked the winds and waves, saying, “Peace, be still! and there was a great calm.”

11. Moses was the founder of a state, the first republic the world ever knew; Christ was the Founder of a vast community of equal brethren, which has since spread into all parts of the world.

12. Moses was permitted to talk with God face to face Christ also had direct and personal communion with the Father as no prophet has ever had.

13. Moses’ face shone with glory as the result of communion with God; Christ was transfigured in the presence of His disciples also while praying on a mountain.

14. Moses predicted future events which have been fulfilled, and are being fulfilled; so Christ.

15. Those whom Moses led were fed miraculously in the wilderness; Christ fed thousands miraculously in the wilderness, and now He Himself is the “Bread of heaven.”

16. Moses gave Israel water out of a rock; Christ is the Rock of ages, and He gives the “living waters” to those who are thirsty.

17. Moses was mediator of a covenant; Christ is the Mediator of the new covenant.

18. Moses was “very meek;” Christ was meek and lowly of heart.

19. Israel rebelled against Moses; Christ also they received not.

20. Moses died on account of Israel’s sin. (On this point I beg to differ. Moses died entirely on account of and for his own sin. But I do not question that) Christ died as an atonement for our sin.

21. Moses seems to have been raised up from death by Michael the archangel, since he appeared on the mount of transfiguration; Christ died and was buried, but He rose from the grave and entered into glory, and now sitteth at the right hand of God.

22. Moses’ greatest works were accomplished after his death, his law leaving its impress on the world for more than thirty centuries, and marking him as the most influential man that ever lived on the globe; Christ’s real work also only commenced when His earthly career was finished, and in its ever-widening influence through eighteen centuries, shows Him to be the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, the mightiest Being Who ever wore the human form.

23. Of Moses it is said, “There arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, in all the signs and the wonders, which the Lord sent him to do” (Deuteronomy 34:10-12); of Christ it is written that He did “the works which none other man did” (John 15:24; Luke 24:10).

24. Moses was the first and only man whom the Lord ever authorised to give laws to Israel; in like manner Christ is the last and only Person Whom God has authorised to give laws for the government of mankind. And although the revelations and laws of both have been corrupted and perverted by the traditions of man, yet they both still stand forth in unapproached and unapproachable excellence, as revealers of the Divine will to the sons of men.

1. The first and greatest point of the superiority of Christ to Moses consists in this, that while Moses was mere man and the servant of God, Christ is Divine and the Son of God. “For He,” says Paul, “hath been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by so much as he that built the house hath more honour than the house. For every house is builded by someone; but He that built all things is God. And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were afterwards to be spoken; but Christ as a Son over His house; Whose house are we, if we hold fast our boldness and the glorying of our hope firm unto the end” (Hebrews 3:3-6, R.V.).

2. Then if we contrast the redemption accomplished by Moses with that which was accomplished by Christ, we must also assign the superiority to Christ. The redemption which Moses accomplished was temporal in its character, and that only for one nation, while the redemption accomplished by Christ is, as I have already shown, spiritual and eternal in its character, and for the whole world. Oh! that I could bring this truth home to the heart and conscience of every member of the Church of Christ! Jesus Christ is the propitiation not for our sins only, but for the sin of the whole world, both Jew and Gentile (1 John 2:2). And it is the duty of those who know it to proclaim this blessed fact to those who are still in ignorance of it. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

3. Moses was, as I have shown, a priest, but, like his brother Aaron, with whom he is classed (Psalms 99:6), and all the Aaronic family, his ministry was imperfect, both in itself and in its efficacy, and changeable, “serving unto the example and shadow of heavenly things,” but Christ, “because He continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood,” and His priesthood is also perfect and perfecting, because He Himself is perfect. “For such an High-priest became us, holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; Who needeth not daily, like those high-priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins, and then for the sins of the people: for this He did once for all, when He offered up Himself. For the law appointed men high-priests having infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was after the law, appointed a Son, perfected for evermore” (Hebrews 7:26-28, R.V.).

4. By Moses was given the law, “which made nothing perfect” (Hebrews 7:19), for the object of it is only to show up man’s imperfection, by showing him what he ought to be and is not (Romans 7:1 &c.); but by Jesus Christ came grace and truth (John 1:17), and a revelation of what God is to us, and His righteousness, which finds us just where the law of Moses has left us—in a state of imperfection—and makes us “complete in Him” (Colossians 2:10). This really is the principal point of difference between the old covenant which God made through Moses and the new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34) which He made through Christ. The first was conditioned on the righteousness of man; the second is conditioned only on the righteousness of God. The first, instead of making man perfect, required him to be perfect before he could enjoy the privileges attached to it; and, as man could not fulfil this condition, the covenant was “broken” (Jeremiah 31:32); but in the second man is recognised as a sinner, who still is not disqualified from sharing in its blessings on account of his sin, for along with it comes the blessed promise, “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:34); and being conditioned on the righteousness of God, it can never be broken, for “His righteousness endureth for ever” (Psalms 111:3).

5. Moses was Israel’s leader; and “he led them forty years in the wilderness,” but he never led them across the Jordan, nor brought them into their promised land; but Jesus, our Leader, leads His followers right to glory, for, as I have already shown, He not only leads us all through life, but He also leads us through the “valley of the shadow of death,” and even in heaven He still retains the character of Leader, for there He leads His own “unto the living fountains of water” (Revelation 7:17).

6. Moses gave Israel twice water out of a smitten rock, which typified Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4), but the water he gave them did not even satisfy their physical thirst, for, throughout their wanderings, their most frequent cause of complaint was that they were thirsty; but Christ says, “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting life” (John 4:14).

7. “Moses was very meek” (Numbers 12:3), and in this respect a type of Him Who was “meek and lowly” (Matthew 11:29), but when severely tried, his meekness and patience gave way, for “when they provoked his spirit he spake unadvisedly with his lips” (Psalms 106:33); but Christ endured the “contradiction of sinners,” and “when He was reviled, reviled not again, and when He suffered He threatened not” (1 Peter 2:23), but always, even under the greatest provocations, manifested a more than human spirit of long-suffering and forgiveness; thus on the very cross He could pray to His Father to forgive His enemies (Luke 23:34).

8. The real glory of the ministry of Moses, that is, its typical reference to the Messiah and His mission, was hidden, as was typified by his putting on the veil to hide the shining of his countenance, which signified that the “children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end” (i.e., “Christ, the end of the law”) “of that which was abolished” (2 Corinthians 3:12-18); but now “God, Who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined into our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” And this glory is not hidden, for “we all, with unveiled face reflecting as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18, 2 Corinthians 4:6, R.V.).

9. Then there is also a glorious contrast between the miracles of Moses and the miracles of Christ. The miracles of Moses were all destructive in their character, while those of Christ were healing. The first miracle of Moses was turning water into blood, but the first miracle of Christ was turning water into wine.

And, lastly, Moses was “king in Jeshurun;” but Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16), and when He returns, “He shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. . . . The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before Him; all nations shall serve Him” (Psalms 72:1-11).

“And I saw as it were a glassy sea mingled with fire: and them that come victorious from the beast, and from his image, and from the number of his name, standing by the glassy sea, having harps of gold. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are Thy works, O Lord God the Almighty; righteous and true are Thy ways, Thou King of the ages. Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? for Thou only art holy: for all the nations shall come and worship before Thee; for Thy righteous acts have been made manifest” (Revelation 15:2-4, R.V.).