This is Part 2 (of many parts) in which we look at how Moses pictures Jesus and vice versa. I’ve embarked upon this quest, and I’m taking you with me, because I read this verse: And the LORD said unto me (Moses), They have well spoken that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee (Moses), and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. (Deut. 18:17) God makes it super plain here for even those who aren’t keen on “types” that Moses is a type of Jesus. It’s that capital “P” Prophet that made me want to read through Exodus with the lens of “How does Moses picture Jesus?”
Right from the beginning of Moses’s life, God starts His “typing” process. In Exodus 2, we read of the birth of Moses during a time when all the baby boys were killed. You remember how his mother placed him in a basket in the Nile river rather than have him killed. Passing by, Pharaoh’s daughter heard him crying and rescued him. After Moses was weened by Moses’s natural mother, Pharaoh’s daughter got him back and named him Moses. That name might appear happenstance, but not so if he was going to picture the Prophet. And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water. (Ex. 2:10) That there tells you what his name means: drawn out of the water. I suppose from Moses’s standpoint, we could say that he was saved from sure death by being drawn up out of the water.
Now let’s compare scripture with scripture. Was Jesus drawn out of the water? In His death and resurrection, you could say so. Look at this Messianic Psalm: He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me. (Ps. 18:16-17) God drew Jesus up out of death-- “out of many waters.”
Can you picture this? I’ll help you. Consider baptism. You’ve probably never looked at it this way, but meditate on this with me. Jesus aimed to keep this picture alive by including it in the Great Commission: Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost… (Matt 28:19) What is baptism? It’s a picture of our identity with Christ. We go down in the water to picture His death and burial. We come back up out of the water to picture being raised in newness of life. Like Christ was raised out of the water of death, we are raised out of the water to picture newness of life. Now with all that in mind, let’s go back to the verse I started with: And the LORD said unto me (Moses), They have well spoken that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee (Moses)…(Deut. 18:17a)
I didn’t find any of this in a commentary. I haven’t even read a commentary on Moses or Exodus. I got here simply with curiosity and my Bible. If you’d like to keep going with me on this, decide to be curious with me, and in order to compare verses, get a Bible app with the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK) on it, like the Blue Letter Bible phone app or any number of computer apps. The TSK, in book form, is a massive book of cross references that go way beyond what you’ll find in the center margin of your Bible.
And I’ll close with this thought I meditated on. Moses was unique in that He represented the Hebrews/Jews—the chosen people of God. After all, he was born in the priestly tribe of Levi. But Moses also uniquely represented the world. He was raised/adopted by the daughter of Pharaoh, the Monarch of ancient Egypt. Egypt is a type of the world. Jesus, you know, was the Son of God/High Priest, but He grew up in the world as the Son of Man. He was fully both, and Moses uniquely pictures that.
Oh, and one more closing meditation. Isn’t it unique that when Moses was born, all the baby boys were being killed (Ex. 1:16)? And when Jesus was born, he was sought out to be killed (per Matt. 2:13).
And because Herold sought to kill baby Jesus, guess where God had Joseph and Mary hide: When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt: And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son. (Matt 2:14-15) Hmm. Moses was called out of Egypt too.
Well, if you followed all that, yay! Stay with me and let’s see more in Exodus of how Moses pictures Christ and vice versa.
Tell me what you think!
Jody