A Sketch of the History and Character of Moses

A SKETCH OF THE HISTORY AND CHARACTER

OF MOSES

HAVING said so much concerning the Pentateuch, there remains little room to say much concerning Moses himself, as his character is so much involved in that of his work. The genuine history of Moses is written by himself, and that is found succinctly detailed in the book of Exodus; Josephus, the rabbins, and the oriental historians, have written lives of this great man which are perfect romances; for by attempting to embellish, they have turned the whole history into ridicule. Trogus Pompeius has copied some of them, unless we allow that his abridger, Justin, is the author of the ill-told falsity which is found in his work. But with these relations we have no concern; and from the account written by himself, collated with the speech of St. Stephen, Acts 7., we learn the following facts:—

MOSES, the son of Amram and Jochebed, both of the tribe of Levi, was born A. M. 2433, B. C. 1571, while the Israelites were in a state of bondage in Egypt, and at that time under the most distressful persecution, the king of Egypt having issued an edict to destroy all the male children of the Hebrews. Added to their parental affection, his personal beauty, (Acts 7:20,) seems to have induced the parents to hazard every thing to preserve their child’s life; they therefore hid him for three months; but finding from circumstances that they could keep him secret no longer, they were determined to abandon him wholly to the care of providence. Having provided a little vessel of bulrushes, or flags pitched, and thus rendered impervious to the water, they set him afloat on the river Nile, and sent his sister Miriam to watch the event. The daughter of Pharaoh coming to that part of the river, either to make her ablutions or to wash her clothes, seeing the vessel afloat, commanded it to be brought to her; and being struck with the helpless state and beauty of the child, judging that it belonged to one of the Hebrews, determined to preserve its life, and adopt it for her own. Miriam, his sister, who immediately appeared, but was unknown to the princess, offered her services to procure a nurse for the child from among the Hebrew women; she was accordingly employed, and Jochebed, the mother, was soon brought to the spot, and the child was immediately committed to her care, the princess being entirely ignorant of the relation that subsisted between the child and its nurse. At a proper age he was taken to the Egyptian court, and educated there as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, and was brought up in all the learning and wisdom of the Egyptians, and became very eminent both in words and deeds; Acts 7:22. Here he appears to have stayed nearly forty years. Afterwards, in consequence of having killed one of the oppressors of his Hebrew brethren, he was obliged to take refuge in Midian, where, entering into the service of Jethro, a priest or prince of that country, he married his daughter Zipporah, by whom he had two sons, Eleazar and Gershom, and continued as the guardian of the flocks of his father-in-law for forty years. At the conclusion of this time God manifested himself to him while tending the flocks of his father-in-law at Mount Horeb, and gave him a commission to bring Israel out of Egypt. He went on the Divine errand, became associated with his elder brother, Aaron, opened his commission to the Egyptian king, and wrought several striking miracles to prove the truth of his Divine mission. The king refusing to let the people go, God afflicted him and the land with ten grievous plagues; after which the people were led out, and by a most stupendous miracle passed through the divided waters of the Red Sea, which Pharaoh and his army essaying to do, were drowned. Having led the Israelites into the deserts of Arabia, commonly called wilderness, God gave them the most signal manifestations of his power and goodness in a series of successive miracles, and delivered to Moses their leader that information and those laws which are contained in the Pentateuch. Having governed the people forty years in the desert, and brought them to the very verge of the promised land, he was not permitted to pass over Jordan with them, but died in the plains of Moab, while in familiar converse with his God, in the 120th year of his age. Care, labour, and years, had made no inroads upon his constitution, for it is particularly marked that his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated, Deuteronomy 34:7; that he preserved all the vivacity of youth and the vigour of manhood to a period in which, even at that time, old age made its greatest depredations upon those who had no other support than what the common course of nature afforded.

After this hasty sketch of so eventful a life as that of Moses, it may be necessary to enter more particularly into an examination of his character and conduct. This is a difficult task; but, in MAGNIS voluisse sat est. The eulogium or character given of him by the Spirit of God, though very concise, is yet full and satisfactory: And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom Jehovah knew face to face; in all the signs and the wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land; and in all that mighty hand (all-conquering power and influence) and in all the great terror which Moses showed in the sight of all Israel. Moses is called the servant of God; and he has farther this high character, that as a servant he was faithful to God in all his house, Hebrews 3:5. He faithfully discharged the trust reposed in him; and totally forgetting himself and his own secular interest, with that also of his family, he laboured incessantly to promote God’s honour and the people’s welfare, which on many occasions he showed were dearer to him than his own life. Moses was in every respect a great man; for every virtue that constitutes genuine nobility was concentred in his mind, and fully displayed in his conduct. He ever conducted himself as a man conscious of his own integrity, and of the guidance and protection of God, under whose orders he constantly acted. He therefore betrays no confusion in his views, nor indecision in his measures; he was ever without anxiety, because he was conscious of the rectitude of his motives, and that the cause which he espoused was the cause of God, and that his power and faithfulness were pledged for his support. His courage and fortitude were unshaken and unconquerable, because his reliance was unremittingly fixed on the unchangeableness of JEHOVAH. He left Egypt having an eye to the recompense of reward in another world, and never lost sight of this grand object; he was therefore neither discouraged by difficulties, nor elated by prosperity. He who in Egypt refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, thereby renouncing the claim he might have had on the Egyptian throne, was never likely to be influenced by secular views in the government of the miserable multitudes which he led out of that country. His renunciation of the court of Pharaoh and its advantages was the amplest proof that he neither sought nor expected honour or emolument in the wilderness, among a people who had scarcely any thing but what they received by immediate miracle from the hand of God.

I have more than once had occasion to note the disinterestedness of Moses in reference to his family, as well as to himself. This is a singular case; his own tribe, that of Levi, he left without any earthly possession: and though to minister to God was the most honourable employment, yet the Levites could never arise to any political consequence in Israel. Even his own sons became blended in the common mass of the Levites, and possessed no kind of distinction among their brethren. Though his confidence in God was ever unshaken, yet he had a life of toll and perpetual distress, occasioned by the ignorance, obstinacy, and baseness, of the people over whom he presided; and he died in their service, leaving no other property but his tent behind him. Of the spoils taken in war we never read of the portion of Moses. He had none; he wanted none; his treasure was in heaven, and where his treasure was, there also was his heart. By this disinterestedness of Moses two points are fully proved: 1. That he was satisfied, fully so, that his mission was Divine, and that in it he served the living God; and 2. That he believed in the immortality of the soul, and the doctrine of future rewards and punishments, and therefore he laboured so to pass through things temporal, that he might not lose the things that are eternal. It is strange that the faith of Moses in these points should be questioned by any who had ever seriously read the Pentateuch.

The manner in which he bore the sentence of his exclusion from the promised inheritance, is an additional proof of his persuasion of the reality of the invisible world. No testiness, no murmuring, no expatiating on former services; no passionate entreaties to have the sentence reversed, appear in the spirit or conduct of this truly great man. He bowed to the decision of that justice which he knew could not act wrong; and having buried the world, as to himself, he had no earthly attachments; he was obeying the will of God in leading the people, and therefore, when his Master chose to dismiss him from this service, he was content; and saw, without regret or envy, another appointed to his office.

The moral character of Moses is almost immaculate. That he offended Jehovah at the waters of Meribah there can be no doubt; but in what the offence consisted, commentators and critics are greatly at a loss to ascertain. See the note on “Numbers 20:12”; I have said all that I believe should be said upon the point; and after all, conjecture is obliged to come in, to supply the place of substantial evidence; and the fault is so slight, humanly speaking, as even to glide away from the eye of conjecture itself. Had the offence, whatever it was, been committed by any ordinary person, it would probably have passed between God and the conscience without any public reprehension. But Moses was great, and supereminently favoured; and a fault in him derived much of its moral delinquency from these very circumstances. He did not sanctify the Lord in the sight of the people-he did not fully show that God himself was the sole worker; he appeared by his conduct to exhibit himself as an agent indispensably necessary in the promised miraculous supply; and this might have had the most dangerous consequences on the minds of this gross people, had not God thus marked it with his displeasure. This awful lesson to the legislator taught the people that their help came from GOD, and not from man; and that consequently they must repose their confidence in HIM alone. But this subject deserves to be more distinctly considered, as in the account given of his death this offence is again brought forth to view. God himself thus details the circumstances: “Get thee up into this mountain, and behold the land of Canaan-and die in the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people as Aaron thy brother, because ye trespassed against me AMONG THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL; because ye sanctified me not in the midst of the children of Israel:” Deuteronomy 32:49-51. “And Moses went up unto the mountain of Nebo, and the Lord showed him all the land; and the Lord said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither: so Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there, according to the word of the Lord; and he buried him;” Deuteronomy 34:1-6. In the above extracts, all the circumstances relative to this event are brought into one point of view; and we see plainly the stress that is laid on the offence against God. YE TRESPASSED AGAINST ME AMONG THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL-YE SANCTIFIED ME NOT IN THE MIDST OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. These words may be understood thus: The people of themselves were too much prone to take off their eye from GOD, consult their senses, and depend upon man; and the manner in which Moses and Aaron performed the miracle which God commanded them to do in his name, was such as to confirm them in the carnality of their views, and cause them to depend on an arm of flesh. Ye therefore shall not go into the promised land, said the Lord: and the death of them both was the fullest proof to this people that it was not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts, that their enemies were expelled, and that themselves were introduced and established in the promised inheritance. This seems to be the spirit of the whole business: and as Moses had no other end in view but the glory of God, it must have been a supreme satisfaction to his pious soul, that this end was so effectually promoted, though even at the expense of his life.

1. At a distant view there appears to be very little observable in the death of Moses; but on a nearer approach we shall find it to have been the most honourable, I might add the most glorious, with which any human being was ever favoured. As to his death itself, it is simply said, He died in the land of Moab—according to the word of the Lord. He was, as has already been observed, in familiar conversation with his Maker; and while in the act of viewing the land, and receiving the last information relative to it, the ancient covenant with the patriarchs, and the performance of the covenant in putting their posterity into possession of this goodly inheritance, he yielded up the ghost, and suddenly passed from the verge of the earthly into the heavenly Canaan. Thus, without the labour and the delay of passing through the type, he entered at once into the possession of the antitype; having simply lost the honour of leading the people a little farther, whom, with so much care and solicitude, he had brought thus far.

2. There is another circumstance in his death which requires particular notice. It is said,

He died-according to the word of the Lord: the original words hwhy yp l[ al pi Yehovah, signify literally at (or upon) the mouth of Jehovah; which Jonathan ben Uzziel interprets thus: yyd armym tqyvn l[ al neshikath meymera dayeya, “by a kiss of the WORD of Jehovah;” and this has given rise to an ancient tradition among the Jews, “that God embraced Moses, and drew his soul out of his body by a kiss.” The Targumist adds, that this was “on the seventh day of the month Adar, the same,, day of the same month on which he was born.

3. The last circumstance worthy of note is, that God buried him, which is an honour no human being ever received besides himself. From the tradition referred to by Saint Jude, Jude 1:9, it appears that Michael, the archangel, was employed on this occasion; that Satan disputed the matter with him, probably wishing the burial-place of Moses to be known, that it might become an excitement to superstition and idolatry; but being rebuked by the Lord, he was obliged to give over the contention; and though the place of burial was probably the valley of the mountain on which Moses had been conversing with God, and where he died, yet Satan himself could not ascertain the spot, and no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.

4. It may be asked how Moses, who was bred up at an idolatrous court, which he did not quit till the fortieth year of his age, got that acquaintance with the true God which the apostle states him to have had; and that faith by which he realized spiritual and invisible things, and through which he despised all worldly grandeur and secular emolument. “By faith,” says the apostle, “Moses, when he was come to years, 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; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward,” Hebrews 11:24, &c. This certainly implies a degree of religious knowledge, associated with an experimental acquaintance with Divine things, which we can scarcely ever suppose to have been at all the result of an Egyptian education. But we shall cease to be pressed with any difficulty here, when we consider the circumstance of his being providentially nursed by his own mother, under the authority and direction of the Egyptian princess. This gave him the privilege of frequent intercourse with his parents, and others of the Hebrews, who worshipped the true God; and from them he undoubtedly learned all the great truths of that religion which were taught and practised among the patriarchs. The circumstance of his Hebrew origin, his exposure on the Nile, his being found and adopted by the daughter of Pharaoh, were facts which could not be concealed, and must have been notorious at the Egyptian court; and when these points are considered, we need not be surprised that he never could be so identified among the Egyptians as that his Hebrew extraction should be forgotten.

That the person whom God designed to be the deliverer of his people should have been a Hebrew by birth, and have retained all his natural attachment to his own people, and yet have been brought up by Pharaoh’s daughter, and had all the advantages of a highly-finished education, which the circumstances of his own family could not have afforded, is all a master-piece of wisdom in the designs of the Divine providence. Besides, Moses by this education must have been well known, and even popular among the Egyptians; and therefore the subsequent public part he took in behalf of the Hebrews must have excited the greater attention and procured him the greater respect both among the Egyptians and his own people. All these circumstances taken together show the manifold wisdom and gracious providence of God.

5. Thus end the life and the work of the writer of the Pentateuch, who, by the treasures of wisdom and knowledge which he has amassed in those five books, has enriched the whole civilized earth, and indeed greatly promoted that very civilization. His works, we may justly say, have been a kind of text-book to almost every writer on geology, geography, chronology, astronomy, natural history, ethics, jurisprudence, political economy, theology, poetry, and criticism, from his time to the present day. Books, to which the choicest writers and philosophers in pagan antiquity have been deeply indebted, and which were the text-books to all the prophets; books from which the flimsy writers against Divine Revelation have derived their natural religion, and all their moral excellence; books written in all the energy and purity of the incomparable language in which they are composed; and finally, books which, for importance of matter, variety of information, dignity of sentiment, accuracy of facts, impartiality, simplicity, and sublimity of narration, tending to improve and ennoble the intellect, and meliorate the physical and moral condition of man, have never been equalled, and can only be paralleled by the GOSPEL of the Son of God! Fountain of endless mercy, justice, truth, and beneficence! how much are thy gifts and bounties neglected by those who do not read this law; and by those who, having read it, are not morally improved by it, and made wise unto salvation!

On the whole we may remark, that when God calls any person to an extraordinary work, he so orders it, in the course of his providence, that he shall have every qualification necessary for that work. This was the case with Moses: his Hebrew extraction, the comeliness of his person, his Egyptian education, his natural firmness and constancy of character, all concurred with the influences of the Divine Spirit, to make him in every respect such a person, one among millions, who was every way qualified for the great work which God had given him to do; and who performed it according to the mind of his Maker. SERVANT OF GOD, WELL DONE!