God’s Call to Moses

KEY VERSE: “Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.” —Exodus 3:10

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Exodus 3:17; 3:10-14

WHEN MOSES WAS called by God to deliver Israel from their oppression in Egypt, he was completing the second forty-year phase of his life. After a miraculous deliverance from death as an infant, he was brought up in the courts of Pharaoh, educated as a member of Egyptian royalty. When he was grown, he saw the oppression of his people, Israel, and while defending one of them, he slew an Egyptian. The matter became known and Moses fled Egypt to escape death. Thus, the first forty-year phase of his life came to an end, and for the next forty years he worked as a shepherd in Midian for his father-in-law, Jethro.

Paul wrote that “by faith Moses when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.”—Heb. 11:24-27, New International Version

All these experiences were preparatory for the tasks still ahead. God made himself known to Moses, calling to him from a miraculous burning bush. God identified himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Moses’ forefathers. He explained his plan to release Israel from slavery, telling Moses that he had been chosen to be the deliverer of his people.

Moses demurred at first. (Exod. 3:11) But God assured him, “Certainly I will be with thee,” and he revealed his name as, “I AM THAT I AM.” These words signify the name, Jehovah, who has always existed, from everlasting to everlasting, the all-powerful One.

So Moses performed God’s bidding successfully through Jehovah’s mighty power. “By faith he [Moses] kept the Passover … so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel. By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were all drowned.”—Heb. 11:27-29, NIV

Moses led Israel through the wilderness towards the Promised Land. The Law Covenant was made with Israel, and Moses was the Mediator. And yet Moses spoke, and God confirmed, that there would be a greater prophet than Moses: “I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.”—Deut. 18:15,18,19

Many events in Moses’ life were fore gleams of the glorious kingdom of God soon to come. The deliverance from Egypt showed mankind’s deliverance from their oppression under Satan, sin, and death. The Law Covenant pictured the New Covenant, Moses foreshadowing Christ, the Mediator. “He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.”—Acts 3:20-27

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