Moses

Also known as: Moses the servant of God · Family: Israelite · Role: prophet · First appears: Matthew 8

In Matthew 8, Jesus referred to the gift Moses had commanded, and in Matthew 17 Moses appeared with Elias and spoke with Jesus; the same appearance is recorded in Mark 9. Mark 7 also presents Moses’s command to honor parents, which Jesus defended against traditions that nullified it. At Acts 6, false witnesses accused Stephen of speaking against Moses and God.

In Acts 7, Moses fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian and became a stranger in Madian. After forty years, God sent him back to Egypt as ruler and deliverer, declaring, “I will send thee into Egypt.” Moses trembled before God at the bush, and was later described as faithful in God’s house and as a servant. The fathers were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; God also admonished him to build the tabernacle according to the pattern shown on the mount.

Moses’s teaching was associated with the righteousness of the law, and Paul said that he and the prophets spoke of what was to come; in Rome, Paul taught about Jesus from the law of Moses and the prophets. Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, serving as an example of resistance to truth. Hebrews says Jesus was counted worthy of greater glory than Moses, while Romans records God telling Moses that mercy and compassion would be given according to God’s will. Moses forsook Egypt rather than fear the king’s wrath, and in Revelation the victorious sing “the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb.”