The life of Moses
could be divided into three distinct
segments of 40 years each: The first
segment began with his birth and
ended with him murdering an Egyptian
taskmaster. The next segment began
when Moses escaped from Egypt and
ended when he returned to Egypt. The
final segment of his life began with
the Exodus and ended when he died.
Except for his
miraculous escape from death shortly
after he was born, the Bible gives
minimal information about Moses’
first 40 years. (See Exodus 1 and 2.)
The Bible does not reveal how
Pharaoh’s daughter adopted Moses
or provide additional insight about
his time in Pharaoh’s house. We
do know, however, that when Moses
grew to be a man, he refused to be
called the son of Pharaoh’s
daughter. (Hebrews 11:24) The reason
Moses murdered the Egyptian
taskmaster remains a mystery to me.
Did Moses kill the Egyptian out of a
sense of injustice or was Moses
simply looking for respect from his
Hebrew brothers? The circumstances
surrounding the murder happened this
way: One day Moses left the comforts
of Pharaoh’s palace to see for
himself how his Hebrew brothers were
fairing under the agony of slavery.
He came upon a Egyptian who was
beating a Hebrew slave and believing
that no one was watching (Exodus
2:12), Moses killed the Egyptian and
quickly buried the corpse in the
sand. However, another Hebrew
witnessed the event and the word of
the murder spread like a wildfire
through the Hebrew camp. Moses feared
for his life and fled to the desert
to escape Pharaoh’s wrath.
For the next segment
of 40 years, Moses lived in the
desert as a fugitive. While working
for minimum wages (tending sheep) in
the hostile environment of the
desert, Moses discovered two
essential elements of life. A patient
faith in God and contentment. The
stark surroundings of the desert with
its unforgiving lessons of survival
taught Moses about depending on the
Lord than he could ever learned while
living in Pharaoh’s palace.
Moses discovered the power and joy of
love when he cared for the sheep.
Ultimately, the first 80 years of
life prepared Moses for the finest
and final segment of his life. His
Education in Pharaoh’s schools
and his education in the desert
combined in a unique way to make him
one of the world’s finest
servant leaders.
The Servant Leader
Being a servant leader
is quite difficult because the
attitudes of a servant and the
attitudes of a leader are constantly
at war against each other for
mastery. The “leader” uses
the authority and control to meet
objectives, but the
“servant” uses love to get
the job done. The servant leader
exalts the welfare and development of
his or her subjects equal to that of
the objectives. In other words, the
servant aspect of leadership is
willing to miss objectives (or
profits) to improve and develop the
members of the group, whereas the
leader aspect of leadership is
willing to sacrifice members of the
group to meet objectives! In
practice, this balance is very hard
to manage and Moses often failed in
his attempt to be a servant leader.
Remember the time he impatiently
struck the rock to obtain water when
God had commanded him to speak to it?
(Numbers 20:8-12) That impatient act
prevented Moses from entering the
Promised Land. I find it ironic that
Moses had to flee from Pharaoh’s
palace because of an impulsive act
and he also failed to enter the
Promised Land due to his impulsive
nature.
After Moses was gone
for 40 years, God forced him to
return to Egypt. The Lord’s
anger burned against Moses because he
resisted God’s command at the
burning bush to return to Egypt!
(Exodus 4:14) Shortly after the
burning bush episode, Moses made the
Lord so angry the Lord was prepared
to kill Moses. In that case, Moses
wife, Zipporah, saved him from
God’s wrath! (Exodus 4:24) When
Moses arrived in Egypt, he was a much
different man than when he left.
Moses had left Egypt with an attitude
of a leader, but returned 40 years
later with an attitude of a servant.
A tremendous difference lies between
egocentric attitude of the young
Moses and the theo-centric attitude
of Moses at age 80. It took 40 years
of tending sheep to transform Moses
into a meek man. When Moses finally
learned how to follow the Good
Shepherd, God promoted Moses to be a
shepherd of God’s people.
A Man without a
Country
When Moses arrived
back in Egypt after his 40-year
wilderness sojourn, he did not have
the respect of the Hebrew elders. No
doubt, some of the elders remembered
that Moses was a fugitive from
justice. This made it necessary for
God to use a miraculous signs through
Moses in the presence of the elders.
Otherwise, the elders would have
rejected Moses and the message he
presented. (Exodus 4:30,31) From our
vantage point today, it is
interesting that even after directing
a miraculous exodus from Egypt using
great displays of God’s power,
his people still did not respect
Moses. There is a simple reason for
this: The carnal mind does not
understand the spiritual mind. God
used 40 years in the wilderness to
transform Moses into a spiritual man.
In the carnal world, leaders
(politicians must maneuver so a
majority of important people
constantly admire them or they will
be out of a job. When Moses returned
to Egypt, he did not promote himself
to be the savior of the Hebrews, not
did he seek followers or popularity.
He did not arrive with an entourage
of servants nor did he command a
mighty army prepared to defeat
Pharaoh. Moses arrived in Egypt as a
servant of God. Moses explained to
the elders that the God of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob had sent him back to
Egypt to lead Israel out of Egyptian
slavery. To verify Moses’ claim,
God worked several miracles through
him. (Exodus 4:29-31) After seeing
the miracles, the elders believed.
Background
The story of Moses
offers several end time parallels
that are important to consider.
Interestingly, the parallels found in
the lives of Moses, Pilate, Saul,
Easter, Gideon, Daniel and others
were recorded in the Bible for our
benefit! (1 Corinthians 10:11)
For a point of
reference, our background study on
Moses should begin with Jacob –
the great-great grandfather of Moses.
Jacob had twelve sons and his
favorite was Rachel’s first son,
Joseph. (Remember, Jacob worked
fourteen years to acquire Rachel from
Laban. See Genesis 29.) When Joseph
was seventeen, his envious brothers
sold him to Midianite merchants for
20 pieces of silver. These merchants
took Joseph to Egypt and sold him
they’re as a slave. (Genesis
37:28) In spite of this great
injustice, Joseph remained faithful
to God, and God wonderfully blessed
Joseph through some very tough
experiences.
About 23 years after
his brothers sold Joseph as a slave,
the king of Egypt released him from
prison and promoted him to the
position of Prime Minister of Egypt.
This sudden promotion occurred
because God enabled Joseph to
interpret a dream that God
specifically gave to Pharaoh.
Pharaoh’s dream predicted seven
years of plenty and seven years of
famine. God warned Pharaoh of an
approaching famine through Joseph,
and Pharaoh was so pleased to know
the meaning of his dream that he
elevated Joseph to his new position.
After seven years of bountiful
harvests, the sun began to scorch the
Earth and the famine was severe and
widespread. The famine also reached
Canaan and about two years later,
Jacob and his eleven sons ran out of
food. In desperation, Jacob sent ten
of his sons to Egypt. Through a
series of events, Jacob’s sons
discovered their little brother,
Joseph, was the Prime Minister of
Egypt. Imagine their great fear and
panic! In one of the greatest acts of
compassion ever recorded, Joseph
forgave his brothers and insisted
that his father and all of his
brothers move to Egypt. Knowing the
famine would last five more years,
Joseph moved his father and the
brothers to the region of Goshen and
the children and grandchildren of
Jacob (Israel) flourished in Egypt.
One of Jacob’s
twelve sons, Levi, had a son named
Kohath. Now follow the genealogy
– Kohath had a son named Amram,
and Amram was the father of Aaron and
Moses. This Levi-Kohath-Amram-Moses
genealogy is important to this story
because Moses knew as a youngster
that his generation –
the fourth generation – was
the generation scheduled to be freed
from Egyptian slavery! Review the
promise that God gave to Abraham many
years earlier: “Then the Lord
said to him, ‘Know for certain
that your descendants will be
strangers in a country not
their own, and they will be enslaved
and mistreated four hundred years.
But I will punish the nation they
serve as slaves, and afterward they
will come out with great possessions.
You, however, will go to your fathers
in peace and be buried at a good old
age. In the fourth
generation your
descendants will come back here, for
the sin of the Amorites has not yet
reached its full measure.’”
(Genesis 15: 13-16, italics mine)
The Fourth Generation
I hope you have read
the bible account describing how God
miraculously used Pharaoh’s
daughter to rescue baby Moses from
the river and adopt him. (Exodus 2)
Growing up in the palace of Pharaoh
and learning about his miraculous
rescue at birth could put all kinds
of ideas in a young man’s mind.
I am sure that as Moses grew into
manhood, he probably concluded that he
was a man of destiny. Moses could
easily have concluded that god had
chosen him to deliver Israel
from Pharaoh’s control and lead
His people into Canaan to inherit the
land God promised Abraham. I believe
these ideas were probable because at
that time, Moses was the only Hebrew
in the world who was not a slave.
Moses also was aware that he belonged
to the fourth generation and knew God
promised Abraham that the fourth
generation in Egypt would return to
Canaan and inherit the land!
Evidently these thoughts led Moses to
conclude that he was the one
who would set his people free.
However, one pivotal problem with
Moses’ conclusion was that the
slaves had no respect for Moses. They
lived in the ghetto of Goshen and
every day they endured terrible
suffering as slaves. Conversely,
Moses had lived in Pharaoh’s
palace and enjoyed the best things
that money could buy. No matter what
Moses thought and though Moses
refused to be called a son of
Pharaoh’s daughter (Hebrews
11:24,25), the other Hebrews did not
regard Moses as one of them!
Moses probably knew about this
alienation and set out to prove to
his kinsman that he really identified
with them and their suffering. Part
of Moses’ motivation for killing
the Egyptian may have been the
strained relationship between Moses
and his identification with his
people. However, the murder was a
rash decision and it did not enamor
Moses to his people. In reality, his
action ultimately proved to everyone
that he was not very smart. The very
next day, when Moses realized that
(a) his own people had no interest in
mounting an insurrection against
Pharaoh by following his example, and
(b) Pharaoh would probably sentence
him to death for unlawfully killing
an Egyptian, Moses decided it was the
best interest to disappear from
Egypt. His grand illusion of
delivering the Hebrews from slavery
simply evaporated as he fled into the
isolation of the desert to save
himself from certain death.
End Time Parallel
With God, timing is
everything. God did not need Moses to
deliver His people from
slavery. God could have exercised any
one of thousands of options to
deliver His people. This brings up an
interesting point about faith. I
believe Moses was like Abraham. Moses
wanted to deliver his people
from slavery, but God’s larger
plans for the Exodus included several
object lessons between Himself and
Pharaoh. Of course, Moses did not
know about God’s larger picture
and Moses’ finite view of
God’s plans led to his failure.
This is always the human problem.
Remember the case of adultery between
Abraham and Hagar? Abraham and Sarah
schemed to fulfill God’s plan by
violating their marriage covenant.
Moses attempted to fulfill God’s
magnificent plans by killing an
Egyptian. Like Abraham, Moses
sincerely believed in God, but both
men failed because they would not
wait for God to resolve the
situation! Moses violated
God’s law by killing the
Egyptian and consequently, he had 40
years of solitary isolation! As a
fugitive in the harsh setting of a
desert prison, Moses learned
submission and total dependence on
God. Moses discovered the practical
meaning of faith and learned how
to wait so that God could fulfill His
higher purposes for Moses. (Waiting
for God is one of the most difficult
lessons to learn. James 1:4) When God
concluded that Moses’ spiritual
life had reached a satisfactory level
of maturity, He called Moses to do a
special work for Him and Moses
submitted to God’s plan.
There is a profound
end time parallel here. During the
Great tribulation, each person will
face a question of survival. As the
issue of survival becomes all
consuming, the human solution
will stand opposing the divine
solution. (Our ways are often
contrary to God’s ways, because
God’s ways are not like our
ways.) For example, the Bible
makes it clear that a severe famine
will occur during the Great
Tribulation and food supplies will be
scarce. So, in the face of death,
does hunger justify stealing? The
juxtaposition between starvation and
stealing forces each of us to take a
tough look at the principles we
honestly maintain. If we answer,
“yes” to the question that
hunger justifies stealing, then our
principles are no different from the
principles of thugs who currently
roam and loot the world. They steal
because they do not have what they
what and do not trust God to provide
for their needs. So not stop there
– take the question one step
further. Does hunger justify killing?
If we answer “yes”, then we
are no different from Moses whose
impulsive act killed the Egyptian.
The point is that submission to God
means submission to God’s
control of the situation – and
in some cases this means submission
to the point of death. (Remember the
three Hebrews in the fiery furnace?)
Here is a truth to consider: Calvary
proves that Jesus would not
participate in wrong doing
(unrighteousness) to sustain His own
life (and neither should those who
honor Him)! (See Matthew 4)
The Great Tribulation
is just before us, so carefully
consider these words from Revelation
13:10: “If anyone is to go
into captivity, into captivity he
will go. If anyone is to be killed
with the sword, with the sword he
will be killed. This calls for
patient endurance and faithfulness on
the part of the saints.”
Reread that last sentence. This text
is directed at god’s people
during the Great Tribulation and it
indicates that many of God’s
people will be imprisoned without justification.
Also, many of God’s people will
be killed without justification.
So, get ready children of God. This
world is full of injustice and it
will be directed our way soon!
God’s Word has declared the
course of coming events so that our
faith in God might remain steady.
God’s people need patient
endurance and faithfulness! God
knows the future and He already knows
the outcome for each of us.
Obviously, we do not know how our
particular future will unfold, but
that is not our concern. Our concern
is to remain faith-full to God and
the principles of His kingdom today
– even to the point of death.
Moses before Pharaoh
The first time Moses
and Aaron approached Pharaoh, they
presented a small demand.
Notice that god did not demand
something from Pharaoh that would
destroy his nation’s economy.
God merely demanded a three-day leave
of absence, which is all. “…Moses
and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said,
‘This is what the Lord, the God
of Israel says: “Let my
people go, so that they may hold a
festival to me in the
desert.’” Pharaoh said,
‘Who is the Lord, that I should
obey him and let Israel go? I do not
know the Lord and I will not let
Israel go.’”
(Exodus 5:1,2)
Pharaoh’s
response immediately revealed his
heart! Although Pharaoh has been dead
for a long time, his words and
attitude live on. The carnal
response of the human heart when
brought face to face with the
sovereign will of God remains
unchanged: “Who is the Lord
that I should obey Him?” God
did not offer to negotiate with
Pharaoh. Instead, God confronted
Pharaoh with a direct order, “Let
my people go….” During
the Great tribulation, God will
confront the people of Earth with a
direct order, “…Fear God
and give him glory, because the hour
of his judgment has come. Worship
him who made the heavens,
the earth, the sea and the springs of
water.” (Revelation 14:7,
italics mine) Moses and Aaron were to
Pharaoh what the 144,000 will be to
the world during the Great
Tribulation. God will empower and
send His servants throughout the
world to proclaim the everlasting
gospel. The gospel of Christ commands
everyone to worship the Creator. This
means we should structure our lives
to incorporate the Ten Commandments,
which include His seventh day
Sabbath. God’s point-blank
declaration will produce a similar
response to that of Pharaoh in many
people. They will say, “Who
is the Lord, that I should obey
him….”
Remember that it took
ten plagues to ravage Egypt before
Pharaoh’s rebellion temporarily
softened. Pharaoh’s behavior
should hold special meaning for the
students of Bible prophecy,
especially for individuals who want
to understand the use of “Sodom
and Egypt” in Revelation 11:8.
Notice the text: “Their
bodies [the two witnesses] will lie
in the street of the great city,
which is figuratively called Sodom
and Egypt, where also their Lord was
crucified.” Consider why the
Bible refers to Sodom and Egypt in
Revelation 11. These two entities,
Sodom and Egypt, describe the mindset
of the wicked at the time of the
seventh trumpet. The seventh trumpet
(Revelation 11:15-19) marks the close
of the offer of salvation. When the
seventh trumpet sounds in Heaven, God
will have separated the people of
Earth into two groups (sheep and
goats). God will seal one group with
His seal and the other group will
have received the mark of the beast.
The group that receives the mark of
the beast will have the same defects
in their character as the ancient
inhabitants of Sodom and Egypt. Sodom
represents a class of people who
cannot discern right from wrong. The
Sodomites were inebriated with
sexual immorality and they
vigorously promoted their degenerate
ways. The consciences of the
Sodomites and the inhabitants who
lived in the cities around Sodom were
cauterized as with a hot iron. As a
result, God’s patient
forbearance with them ended and He
burned Sodom, Gomorrah and several
ancient cities to the ground with a
meteorite shower of burning hail and
sulphur. (Genesis 13:13; 19:24-29)
Egypt, on the other
hand, represents a class of people
who defiantly refuse to submit to
God’s authority. Like Pharaoh,
Egypt represents a group of people
who will refuse to render obedience
to Almighty God, even after they have
heard God’s demands! The terms,
Sodom and Egypt, represent a point in
time when divine forbearance with the
wicked has no redeeming effect. When
God’s subjects have reached that
point, God can do no more to save
them. Therefore, God will destroy the
wicked, just as He did in
Pharaoh’s day. Think about this:
A Sovereign is not sovereign as long
as rebellion exists! This is why God
will ultimately destroy sin itself!
(1 Corinthians 15:24-28)
