This is that Moses – Acts 7:37

I gave serious thought to developing this scripture into a Sunday morning message.

I think that someone with a little more skill than I could make it into a power evangelical sermon.

The problem is that there is just so much contained in this theme that we’d have to by-pass a whole bunch of really wonderful material in order to effectively convey the gospel message.

(One of the rules of evangelism is to stay on the subject;

After proving the sinfulness of the sinner, don’t stray too far from the death, burial and resurrection of the Christ).

But in comparing Moses and the Lord Jesus we do go far beyond the gospel.

And I am sure that even tonight we are only touching the hem of the garment.

So tonight’s message, while still being important and Biblical, will not be quite as serious as it might have been.

Thus far Stephen has primarily focused on Abraham and Joseph, but now he comes to Moses.

Oh, how the people to whom he was preaching loved their perception of Moses.

But what this old Baptist deacon was going to do was prove that they really didn’t KNOW Moses.

They said that they loved Moses’ law, but they didn’t keep it.

And they said that loved Moses himself, but they didn’t listen to him.

“The Moses whom you claim, spoke of a coming Prophet Who would be like himself, but much greater.

Behold a greater than Solomon is here, and a greater than Moses has come.

And His name is Jesus of Nazareth.”

First, let’s take a look at the context of Stephen’s quotation by turning to Deuteronomy 18.

The chapter begins with Moses telling the priests and Levites that THE LORD is their inheritance.

In verse 9 he reminds them that when then enter the Promised Land, they will be confronted with idolatry,

But it will be imperative that they resist the temptation to join the heathen in their false worship.

“When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.”

Notice verse 13: “Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God.

For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners:

But as for thee, the LORD thy God hath not suffered thee so to do.”

It’s at that point Moses prophesies the coming of the prophet like unto himself.

Verse 15: “The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;

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 any more, 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.”

So remember that relationship – on the heals of warnings about idolatry, the promise of the Christ is given.

And what was Israel’s relationship to idolatry in the first century A.D.?

Although Stephen doesn’t mention the name “Jesus,” his audience must have known of Whom he was speaking.

Because Peter already preached this theme in Acts 3:

“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;

And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:

For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.

And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.

Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.”

I think that there is no doubt that Stephen was thinking of the Lord Jesus when he referred to the prophet like unto Moses.

And I believe that Peter made that declaration in no uncertain terms.

It was one of the doctrines of the church.

And the point of both men was that in rejecting Christ Jesus, these people were also rejecting Moses.

There are ten thousand ways in which Moses FAILS to properly illustrate the Lord Jesus.

But in what ways was our Lord LIKE unto Moses?

In what ways was Moses a TYPE of Christ?

Think of their BIRTHS.

First, it was said that Moses’ successor would be raised up from out of his brethren.

Moses was an Israelite of the tribe of Levi,

But notice that he said, “God will raise up a prophet like me from among YOUR brethren.”

It was almost as though Moses was saying that he would not be from among MY brethren the Levites.

And the Lord Jesus, of course, was of the tribe of Judah, an actual descendent of King David.

Both Moses and Christ Jesus, were born at a time when their people were living under bondage.

Israel was in Egypt living and slaves.

And as Galatians 4:4-5 says, “When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son,

Made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law,

That we might receive the adoption of sons.

Because, as the preceding verse says,“we were in bondage under the elements of the world.”

Notice that verse 20 says, “In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair.”

Moses’ parents risked their lives to protect their son, because they KNEW what he would become.

This was not that Moses was a beautiful baby, but they knew that he was precious in the sight of the Lord.

And of course, Mary and Joseph also had been told, and knew Who their Son was.

Also, Moses was born in a period of time when the rest of the children of the nation were being murdered.

As for Jesus, after his birth Herod came sweeping into Bethlehem, killing all of the babies two-years-old and under.

But Mary and Joseph, warned by God, had escaped with their little one, and into what land did they flee?

“Out of Egypt have I called my son” – Hosea 11:1 and Matthew 2:15.

Now think about the BEGINNING of their MINISTRIES.

Moses thought to himself, I have been chosen of God to be my country’s deliverer.

So “he came unto his own, but his own received him not,”

They said “who made thee a ruler and a judge over us.”

Had the Lord chosen Moses to be a ruler and judge? Absolutely.

But “he was despised and rejected” by at least some of the people of his nation.

Of course, the phrases that I just used to describe Moses, were actually purloined from references to Christ.

But Moses fled into Midian in a kind of self-inflicted exile.

Are we stretching the analogy too far to point to Jesus’ ascension into glory for 2,000 years prior to His return to fully and finally deliver His people?

Then after forty years in the wilderness and obscurity, the Lord called Moses into His service.

Despite Moses’ royal upbringing, as the son of the king, he was called to service out of OBSCURITY.

And despite the fact that the Lord Jesus is the eternal Son of God, the King of kings and the Lord or lords,

He was raised up out of a manger, out of obscurity, out of back-water Galilee & likely out of poverty.

But the background and history of a man don’t necessarily keep him from being a servant of God.

The only thing which can keep him from service is sin.

Moses, although a sinner, hadn’t committed those sins which destroy a man’s service or credibility.

And of course the Lord Jesus did no sin.

Now let’s note some thing about their ACTUAL MINISTRIES.

Can I make a case that Aaron and John the Baptist are comparable?

Moses was given his brother Aaron to be his mouth-piece, because he said that he lacked confidence and the ability to speak in public.

John the Baptist was in a similar way, the forerunner of the Lord Jesus, preparing the way for the Lord.

In looking at the history of the Exodus, Moses soon outran Aaron, and after a few days he didn’t need his brother to speak on his behalf.

Both Moses and Christ highlighted their ministries with many “wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea and in the wilderness.”

I find it illogical that Israel should have turned back to Egypt so quickly after seeing the hand of God.

How could they ignore the plagues in Egypt?

Some of those plagues plagued them as well as the heathen.

And then the Lord put up a hedge around them, and protected them from some of the worst things.

How could they ignore the Red Sea and think about building boats to re-cross the water to the west?

And how could they deny the Lord’s miraculous provisions for them in the wilderness?

Well, the insanity of sin can make men do a lot of inexplicable stuff.

And then there were the even more spectacular miracles of Christ.

How could these Jews deny the works of the Lord Jesus?

By calling them the “miracles of Beelzebub.”

As I was meditating on this comparison, it occurred to me that initially all of Moses’ miracles were negative.

The ten plagues were not pleasant.

But all of the Lord Jesus’ miracles, except for the withering of the fig tree, were positive miracles.

And then there is the redemption itself.

How much time should I spend on this aspect of the comparison?

Suffice it to say at this point that Moses delivered his people and Christ Jesus delivered His.

Both men were, of course, channels of God’s revelation.

Through Moses God gave to Israel His law.

Jesus, even more clearly and spectacularly, is the revelation of God.

He that hath seen Him hath seen the Father.

One way in which Jesus is the Word, is in His revelation of God

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”

“This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A PROPHET shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.”

I wonder if there is extra-special significance in Moses’ use of the word “prophet”?

Moses was a prophet, but not in the same way that most people think of Isaiah or Jeremiah.

He was prophet in that he spoke for God, and he foretold the future in some limited ways.

The Lord Jesus was a prophet in that He spoke for the Father, and He described the future as well.

And of course, in both cases their revelations were rejected by Israel.

And that is in spite of the fact that in both cases, “never man spake like this man.”

Again, I have to ask if I’m not stretching things a bit too far in this:

Moses became Israel’s lawgiver AFTER he became their deliverer.

They were lead out of Egypt before they made camp before Mount Sinai.

In our case, the Lord has graciously used His law to convince us of our sin and need of a Redeemer,

But then, after our salvation and union with Christ, does this mean that we have become lawless?

Isn’t there a significant kind of law brought to us SINCE our redemption?

Isn’t there more reason – and more ability – to serve and obey the Lord, now that we are children of God and indwelt by the Holy Spirit?

Remember that even before the codification of the law, there was still a law of sin and death.

Before Mount Sinai, men were dying, because they were sinners, and when they stopped to think about it they knew it.

When the law was given it wasn’t the creation of something new, but just a clearer revelation of what had been around since the days of Noah and even Adam.

So you and I have been saved from sin

That salvation perhaps puts us into a new relationship to the law

And even gives us new ways to obey and serve the Lord.

And do you remember that when Mount Sinai started rolling and shaking with quakes, lightning and thunder, the people implored Moses to stand between themselves and the Lord?

“Let us not hear again the voice of the LORD our God, neither let us see this great fire, that we die not.”

Both Moses and God agreed with the arrangement, and Moses became the mediator between the nation and the omnipotent and holy God.

And of course, today “there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”

Moses was a little mediator and Christ is our Great Mediator.

Now, I know that some of you may cringe that this next thought, but it is scriptural:

Both Jesus and Moses formed their own churches.

Verse 38: Moses, “this is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us.”

Of course, by “church” I am referring to the simple assembly.

Now to those people who like to equate the church of the Old Testament with the church of the New,

I wish that I could point out that each had their own separate founder,

And therefore they could not be the same thing.

And if I might also stretch the parallel a little more,

Just as the Lord Jesus started HIS church during His earthly ministry,

Moses organized HIS church – he didn’t leave that work to Joshua, his successor.

Of course, there are a thousand areas of Moses’ life which cannot be compared to the Lord Jesus.

It’s not that he was greater than his Lord, but just the opposite.

Christ could not be brought low enough to be compared to all that we find in Moses.

For example, there was Moses’ sin in striking the rock to bring water to the nation, when God told him to speak to the rock.

Moses was angry with Israel for their rebellion and murmuring, so he lost control of himself.

He didn’t listen to the Lord, and he didn’t precisely obey the Lord.

And of course the Son was always in 100% agreement with, and obedience to, the Father.

But when the Lord told Moses that he was displeased with him, Moses repeated that to Israel.

Twice he told them, “Furthermore the LORD was angry with me FOR YOUR SAKES, and sware that I should not go over Jordan, and that I should not go in unto that good land, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.”

I acknowledge that the situation was very, very different, but there is a sense in which the Father punished His Son on behalf of another group of people: His elect children.

The father was angry with the Son for our sakes, as He bore our sins in His own body on the tree.

I wonder how many other parallels we might find between Moses the type and Christ the antitype.

“As Moses lifted up the serpent the wilderness so must the son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth on himshould not perish, but have everlasting life.”

How about that day when Moses was used to deliver Israel from their enemies because he had his arms outstretched.

Remember that while Aaron and Hur held up his arms Joshua and the army were victorious,

But prior to their help as Moses’ began to tire and his arms dropped, the army began to loose.

With his arms outstretched these redeemers successfully delivered their people.

And then there was the DEATH of Moses.

Moses’ death didn’t provide anything special.

There was no redemption in his blood, and no life contained in his resurrection.

But his burial was very unusual.

Deuteronomy 34:5: “So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD.

And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor:

But no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.

There is some debate today about the burial place of Christ Jesus, but there was no debate among the disciples.

But where is the body of Moses?

Deuteronomy 34 suggests that it was laid in an unmarked grave in the land of Moab.

But later John and Peter saw Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration.

Is his body now in glory?

I can’t tell you for sure, but I know where the Lord Jesus is.

There is no doubt but that Moses and Christ bear some remarkable likeness.

“This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.”