Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

The first thing that I would say in response to this question is that the Bible does not present Moses as a perfect man. As the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter, he had killed a man (although he had been acting on behalf of an Israelite who was being beaten by an Egyptian) before God first appeared to him (Exodus 2:11-15). And, even as God's appointed leader of Israel, he was prevented from entering Canaan as a judgment from God for his presumptuous failure to give God the credit for miraculously giving water to the Israelites in response to their need (Numbers 20:1-13).

Nevertheless, God was also aware of the tremendous burden that He had placed on Moses in calling him to lead Israel (numbering millions of people) not just out of Egypt, but then through an additional forty years of wandering in the Sinai desert. As Exodus 33:11 and Deuteronomy 34:10 indicate, He spoke to Moses face-to-face, as one does with a friend (and as God Himself pointed out to Aaron and Miriam (Moses' own brother and sister) when they pridefully challenged Moses' authority in the episode in Numbers 12 alluded to by the question).

And, although Moses died and was buried by God Himself (Deuteronomy 33:6), he was subsequently resurrected at God's direction (as no one other than Jesus has been) and taken to heaven (Jude 1:9), later appearing along with Elijah (whom God had taken to heaven without dying (2 Kings 2:11)) at the Transfiguration of Jesus (Matthew 17:1-15).

Nevertheless, despite these honors, Moses did not seek to use the favor in which he was viewed by God as a means of exerting personal control over the Israelites, or creating any type of a "cult of personality", as he could have done, and as a prouder man might have tried to do. (In knowledge of his own weaknesses, He had initially even tried to persuade God not to appoint him (Exodus 3:11-4:17), to the point where God finally became exasperated with him.) Nor did he rebel against God when God made Israel wander forty years in the wilderness (through no fault of his own)(Numbers 13-14), or told Moses that he would not enter the Promised Land. He kept his position as God's servant consistently in focus.

October 06 2016 • 3 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report