THE LIVES OF THE PATRIARCHS #19 | THE LIFE OF MOSES #1

Pastor Christopher Choo

Lesson 3700

THE LIVES OF THE PATRIARCHS #19

THE LIFE OF MOSES #1

The Birth of Moses

Moses is one of the most prominent figures in the Old Testament. 

While Abraham is called the “Father of the Faithful” and the recipient of God’s unconditional covenant of grace to His people, Moses was the man chosen to bring redemption to His people. 

1. God specifically chose Moses to lead the Israelites from captivity in Egypt to salvation in the Promised Land. 

2. Moses is also recognized as the mediator of the Old Covenant and is commonly referred to as the giver of the Law. 

3. Finally, Moses is the principal author of the Pentateuch, the foundational 5 books of the entire Bible. 

4. Moses’ role in the Old Testament is a type and shadow of the role Jesus plays in the New Testament. 

As such, his life is definitely worth examining.

In the chapter of Exodus, we learn that after the patriarch Joseph rescued his family from the great famine and situated them in the land of Goshen (in Egypt), the descendants of Abraham lived in peace for several generations until there rose to power in Egypt a Pharaoh who “did not know Joseph” (Exodus 1:8). 

This pharaoh subjugated the Hebrew people and used them as slaves for his massive building projects. 

Because God blessed the Hebrew people with rapid numeric growth, the Egyptians began to fear the increasing number of Jews living in their land. 

So, Pharaoh ordered the death of all male children born to Hebrew women (Exodus 1:22).

In Exodus 2, we see Moses’ mother attempting to save her child by placing him in a basket and putting it into the Nile. The basket was eventually found by Pharaoh’s daughter, and she adopted him as her own and raised him in the palace of the pharaoh himself.

What is the takeaway lesson today?

The account of the birth of Moses in the Book of Exodus is extremely brief.

In the space of the first three short verses in Chapter 2, we read that a man of the house of Levi takes a daughter of Levi, who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son. 

The boy is hidden for three months and is then sent down the river where he is found by an Egyptian princess who took pity on him and raised him in the courts of Egypt.

Moses' birth foreshadowed the birth of Jesus.

Similarities between the birth of Moses and Jesus are remarkable. 

1. Both were miraculously rescued from death as infants and grew to become saviors of their people. 

The son of Amram and Jochebed (Exodus 6:3), Moses was destined to lead the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt and direct them to the Promised Land.

The birth of Moses would mark the beginning of God's plan to free his people from 400 years of Egyptian slavery.

Pharaoh's daughter named the child Moses, which in Hebrew means "drawn out of the water" and in Egyptian was close to the word for "son."

2. God's presence as Savior was evident in Moses' early life.

Moses' parents saved him from death by hiding him in a basket on the Nile.

The basket is symbolic of the ark, which carried Noah and his family to safety when God destroyed wickedness from the face of the earth. 

The ark of Noah and the basket of Moses point to the salvation of Jesus Christ. 

Noah and Moses were made secure in the ark, just as we are made safe through Jesus Christ, who went down into death for our salvation.