Moses — Bible Dictionary — True Gospel Canada

Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897)

Drawn (or Egypt. mesu, “son;” hence Rameses, royal son). On the invitation of Pharaoh (Gen. 45:17-25), Jacob and his sons went down into Egypt. This immigration took place probably about 350 years before the birth of Moses. Some centuries before Joseph, Egypt had been conquered by a pastoral Semitic race from Asia, the Hyksos, who brought into cruel subjection the native Egyptians, who were an African race.

Jacob and his retinue were accustomed to a shepherd’s life, and on their arrival in Egypt were received with favour by the king, who assigned them the “best of the land”, the land of Goshen, to dwell in. The Hyksos or “shepherd” king who thus showed favour to Joseph and his family was in all probability the Pharaoh Apopi (or Apopis). Thus favoured, the Israelites began to “multiply exceedingly” (Gen. 47:27), and extended to the west and south. At length the supremacy of the Hyksos came to an end.

The descendants of Jacob were allowed to retain their possession of Goshen undisturbed, but after the death of Joseph their position was not so favourable. The Egyptians began to despise them, and the period of their “affliction” (Gen. 15:13) commenced. They were sorely oppressed. They continued, however, to increase in numbers, and “the land was filled with them” (Ex. 1:7). The native Egyptians regarded them with suspicion, so that they felt all the hardship of a struggle for existence. ] arose who knew not Joseph” (Ex. 1:8).

) The circumstances of the country were such that this king thought it necessary to weaken his Israelite subjects by oppressing them, and by degrees reducing their number. They were accordingly made public slaves, and were employed in connection with his numerous buildings, especially in the erection of store-cities, temples, and palaces. The children of Israel were made to serve with rigour. Their lives were made bitter with hard bondage, and “all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour” (Ex. 1:13, 14).

But this cruel oppression had not the result expected of reducing their number. On the contrary, “the more the Egyptians afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew” (Ex. 1:12). The king next tried, through a compact secretly made with the guild of midwives, to bring about the destruction of all the Hebrew male children that might be born. But the king’s wish was not rigorously enforced; the male children were spared by the midwives, so that “the people multiplied” more than ever.

Thus baffled, the king issued a public proclamation calling on the people to put to death all the Hebrew male children by casting them into the river (Ex. 1:22). But neither by this edict was the king’s purpose effected. One of the Hebrew households into which this cruel edict of the king brought great alarm was that of Amram, of the family of the Kohathites (Ex. 6:16-20), who with his wife Jochebed and two children, Miriam, a girl of perhaps fifteen years of age, and Aaron, a boy of three years, resided in or near Memphis, the capital city of that time. C. 1571).

His mother concealed him in the house for three months from the knowledge of the civic authorities. But when the task of concealment became difficult, Jochebed contrived to bring her child under the notice of the daughter of the king by constructing for him an ark of bulrushes, which she laid among the flags which grew on the edge of the river at the spot where the princess was wont to come down and bathe. Her plan was successful. ” The princess (see PHARAOH’S DAUGHTER [1]) sent Miriam, who was standing by, to fetch a nurse.

, “Saved from the water” (Ex. 2:10), was ultimately restored to her. As soon as the natural time for weaning the child had come, he was transferred from the humble abode of his father to the royal palace, where he was brought up as the adopted son of the princess, his mother probably accompanying him and caring still for him. ” His education would doubtless be carefully attended to, and he would enjoy all the advantages of training both as to his body and his mind. He at length became “learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians” (Acts 7:22).

Egypt had then two chief seats of learning, or universities, at one of which, probably that of Heliopolis, his education was completed. Moses, being now about twenty years of age, spent over twenty more before he came into prominence in Bible history.

Smith's Bible Dictionary (1863)

e. from the water; in the Coptic it means “saved from the water”), the legislator of the Jewish people, and in a certain sense the founder of the Jewish religion.

The immediate pedigree of Moses is as follows: Levi was the father of: Gershon— Kohath— Merari Kohath was the father of: Amram = Jochebed Amram = Jochebed was the father of: Hur = Miriam— Aaron = Elisheba— Moses = Zipporah Aaron = Elisheba was the father of: Nadab— Abihu— Eleazar— Ithamar Eleazar was the father of: Phineas Moses = Zipporah was the father of: Gershom— Eliezer Gershom was the father of: Jonathan The history of Moses naturally divides itself into three periods of 40 years each. C. 1571. The story of his birth is thoroughly Egyptian in its scene.

His mother made extraordinary efforts for his preservation from the general destruction of the male children of Israel. For three months the child was concealed in the house. Then his mother placed him in a small boat or basket of papyrus, closed against the water by bitumen. This was placed among the aquatic vegetation by the side of one of the canals of the Nile. The sister lingered to watch her brother’s fate. The Egyptian princess, who, tradition says, was a childless wife, came down to bathe in the sacred river. Her attendant slaves followed her.

She saw the basket in the flags, and despatched divers, who brought it. It was opened, and the cry of the child moved the princess to compassion. She determined to rear it as her own. The sister was at hand to recommend a Hebrew nurse, the child’s own mother. here was the first part of Moses’ training,—a training at home in the true religion, in faith in God, in the promises to his nation, in the life of a saint,—a training which he never forgot, even amid the splendors and gilded sin of Pharaoh’s court. The child was adopted by the princess.

From this time for many years Moses must be considered as an Egyptian. ” (Acts 7:22) this was the second part of Moses’ training. The second period of Moses’ life began when he was forty years old. ” (Hebrews 11:25,26) Seeing an Israelite suffering the bastinado from an Egyptian, and thinking that they were alone, he slew the Egyptian, and buried the corpse in the sand. But the people soon showed themselves unfitted as yet to obtain their freedom, nor was Moses yet fitted to be their leader.

He was compelled to leave Egypt when the slaying of the Egyptian became known, and he fled to the land of Midian, in the southern and southeastern part of the Sinai peninsula. There was a famous well (“the well,”) (Exodus 2:15) surrounded by tanks for the watering of the flocks of the Bedouin herdsmen. By this well the fugitive seated himself and watched the gathering of the sheep. There were the Arabian shepherds, and there were also seven maidens, whom the shepherds rudely drove away from the water.

The chivalrous spirit which had already broken forth in behalf of his oppressed countrymen broke forth again in behalf of the distressed maidens. They returned unusually soon to their father, Jethro, and told him of their adventure. Moses, who up to this time had been “an Egyptian,” (Exodus 2:19) now became for a time an Arabian. He married Zipporah, daughter of his host, to whom he also became the slave and shepherd.

(Exodus 2:21; 3:1) Here for forty years Moses communed with God and with nature, escaping from the false ideas taught him in Egypt, and sifting out the truths that were there. This was the third process of his training for his work; and from this training he learned infinitely more than from Egypt. Stanely well says, after enumerating what the Israelites derived from Egypt, that the contrast was always greater than the likeness.

This process was completed when God met him on Horeb, appearing in a burning bush, and, communicating with him, appointed him to be the leader and deliverer of his people. Now begins the third period of forty years in Moses’ life. He meets Aaron, his next younger brother, whom God permitted to be the spokesman, and together they return to Goshen in Egypt. From this time the history of Moses is the history of Israel for the next forty years. Aaron spoke and acted for Moses, and was the permanent inheritor of the sacred staff of power. But Moses was the inspiring soul behind.

he is incontestably the chief personage of the history, in a sense in which no one else is described before or since.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898)

e. of the water; Coptic Mo-use, watersaved), the leader and creator of the Jewish nation. This table shows the pedigree of Moses: His life falls naturally into three divisions, of forty years each, according to the account preserved in Stephen's speech. Acts 7:23, 1 Kgs 20:30, Eze 23:36. Moses was born in the dark hour of Hebrew story when a son was an object of the murderous search of the Egyptian spies. His father was Amram, his mother Jochebed, his tribe was Levi, and this fact may have determined the choice of Levi for the priesthood.

Moses was the youngest child of the family; Miriam was the oldest, and Aaron came between. For three months his parents hid the babe, but at last it was no longer possible, and Jochebed, with a trembling heart, but it may be with a dim consciousness that God had great things in store for him, laid him in the little basket of papyrus she had deftly woven, pitched with bitumen within and without, and, carrying it down to the brink of one of the canals of the Nile, she hid it among the flags.

The child was tenderly watched "afar off" by Miriam, who, less open to suspicion than the mother would be, stood to see what would be done to him. The daughter of the Pharaoh, the oppressor, came to the sacred river to bathe, attended by her maidens, who, surprised to find the basket, which had providentially floated down to the princess' bathing-place - or had Jochebed purposely put it there? - call the attention of their mistress to the discovery.

The basket is fetched by one of them, and when opened a little babe, evidently one of the Hebrews' children, but exceedingly fair, is revealed to view. The woman-heart of the princess, who was a childless wife according to tradition, yearned over the little one. Her yearning was of God. Then Miriam drew near, gathered from the conversation that the child's life was to be spared, proposed to get a nurse for him among the Hebrew women, and thus it came to pass that Jochebed again had her child at her breast, but this time as his hired nurse.

The biblical history of this period closes with the child Moses in the palace under tutors and governors, and increasing in wisdom and in stature, and in the favor of God and of man. There is a break in this history, as in that of the greater than Moses, between the infancy and the manhood. The second division of Moses' life was totally different in its character from the first. Moses, at the age of forty, is learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.

The adopted grandson of the Pharaoh, initiated in the secrets of the priests, to whose order he belonged, he had a brilliant and useful worldly career before him. Had he remained in his advantageous surroundings, he would have been one of the great Egyptian sages - probably the greatest of them all. But God intended him to occupy a much more exalted position. There was needed by him a period of meditation. He must be cut off from books, and by direct contact with Nature in all her moods learn what books cannot give.

The providential occasion of this violent change was Moses' slaying of an Egyptian taskmaster who had ill-treated a Hebrew. This was no secret, as he hoped it would be. The news, indeed, had been carried to Pharaoh, and so Moses was compelled to flee.

It is probable that the murder was intended to impress upon the Hebrews his desire to help them - that he, the king's son, would be their deliverer; for it seems impossible to resist the conclusion that the pious teachings of his mother had not been forgotten, and that many prayers had been put up by him as he determined to be his brethren's saviour. But we see now that it was no wonder that this attempt at an insurrection proved abortive, and likewise that Moses had much to learn before he could properly lead the great Exodus.

Moses fled from the prominence, the refinement, and the luxury of the court to the obscurity, the roughness, and the poverty of the wilderness. He became the shepherd of Jethro and the husband of his daughter Zipporah. Ex 2. This second period lasted forty years, and again a wondrous transformation took place. The transition was made at Horeb when one day he saw a "bush" - probably an acacia tree - which was said to be on fire and yet was unconsumed. He drew near to examine the wondrous sight, and the Angel of the Lord appeared to him and gave him his prophetic call.

But now the would-be leader of forty years agone was full of excuses, deprecated his abilities, and disparaged his appearance. Accordingly, God appointed Aaron as his spokesman and brought about their meeting. Ex 3-4. Thus informed of the divine name, Ex 3:14, promised divine aid, and strengthened by miracles, Ex 4:1-7, Moses, at the age of eighty, now both a scholar and a practical man of affairs, starts out upon the deliverance of his people. On his way to Egypt his son Gershom was smitten by a mysterious illness, Zipporah thought because circumcision had not been performed.

Accordingly, although loath to do it, she herself circumcised Gershom. Ex 4:24-26. The child recovered. Arrived at Goshen, Moses and Aaron at once began the discharge of their commission. But their primary efforts only increased the subject people's burdens, and the two brothers were well nigh in despair. Then began the series of miraculous visitations recounted in Ex 7-12. The last of the plagues so stunned the Egyptians that they precipitately drove the Israelites out. See Plagues, Exodus.

The Israelites were prepared and went ready for the journey, which, instead of being one of three days into the desert, Ex 5:3, was one of forty years. Through all this time the Israelites were miraculously protected, fed, and led. Moses went in and out before them to the divine satisfaction, although his conduct by no means pleased every one. Nor had Moses always the proper control over himself. He flung down the God-engraven tables of the Law, enraged at the idolatry of the frivolous people while he was for forty days in the Mount with God. Ex 32:19.

But the most damaging act of this nature was at Kadesh-meribah. The people murmured for water. Moses was commanded to speak to the rock; instead, he struck the rock twice with his rod. It was because on this occasion God was not honored that Moses and Aaron were forbidden to enter the Promised Land. Num 20:11-12. But to counterbalance this evil trait there were many good ones. He makes mention of one of these - viz., his meekness. Num 12:3. Besides, he was characterized by disinterestedness, impartiality, faithfulness, and courage.

When he had risen superior to the fears which daunted him when he received the divine call, he was unwavering. The people might murmur or break out into rebellion, he was ready to plead with God for them; yea, when they had so grievously sinned that God declared he would destroy them, Moses asked that his name might be blotted out of the book of God rather than behold their destruction. Ex 32:32. In addition must be mentioned his eminent services as lawgiver.

" We are safe in saying that the Law, as we have it recorded in the Scriptures, was divinely inspired, and that Moses made the record as directed of the Lord. The Decalogue is a moral miracle in ancient legislation, and retains its power to this day in all Christian lands. See Law. As an historian Moses also is to be honored. The five books commonly called the Pentateuch, which he wrote, contain the only reliable history of the creation of man and the beginning of the human as well as of the Jewish race. See Pentateuch.

But there are also other compositions attributed to him - namely, Ps 90 and the book of Job. In regard to these there is no certainty, but the ninetieth Psalm seems to fit in well with the circumstances of the Wandering, and the book of Job is perhaps his in its first draft; the Talmud makes him the author, and several commentators have adopted this view. See Job. We know Moses to have had the poetic gift, for in the Pentateuch there are several exhibitions of it: "The song which Moses and the children of Israel sung" (after the passage of the Red Sea, Ex 15:1-19).

A fragment of a war-song against Amalek, Ex 17:16: A fragment of a lyrical burst of indignation, Ex 32:18: The song of Moses, composed on the east side of Jordan. Deut 32:1-43. The prophetic blessing of Moses upon the tribes. Deut 33:1-29. As a leader and as a prophet Moses comes before us. As the former "his life," says Dean Stanley in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, "divides itself into the three epochs of the march to Sinai, the march from Sinai to Kadesh, and the conquest of the Transjordanic kingdoms. Of his natural gifts in this capacity we have but few means of judging.

The two main difficulties which he encountered were the reluctance of the people to submit to his guidance and the impracticable nature of the country which they had to traverse. The incidents with which his name was specially connected, both in the sacred narrative and in the Jewish, Arabian, and heathen traditions, were those of supplying water when most wanted. In the Pentateuch these supplies of water take place at Marah, at Horeb, at Kadesh, and in the land of Moab.

Of the first three of these incidents, traditional sites bearing his name are shown in the desert at the present day, though most of them are rejected by modern travellers. The route through the wilderness is described as having been made under his guidance. The particular spot of the encampment is fixed by the cloudy pillar. But the direction of the people, first to the Red Sea and then to Mount Sinai, is communicated through Moses or given by him. On approaching Palestine the office of the leader becomes blended with that of the general or the conqueror.

By Moses the spies were sent to explore the country. Against his advice took place the first disastrous battle at Hormah. To his guidance is ascribed the circuitous route by which the nation approached Palestine from the east, and to his generalship the two successful campaigns in which Sihon and Og were defeated. " Num 12:8.

He saw the flame in the bush; for two periods of forty days each he was in the thick darkness with God, Ex 24:18; Ex 34:28; and above all was he favored with the vision of the trailing garments of the Almighty, and he heard a voice which "proclaimed the two immutable attributes of God, justice and love," in words which became part of the religious creed of Israel and of the world. Ex 34:6-7. But perhaps the most remarkable fact is yet to be mentioned. Ex 33:9.

No wonder that the subject of so many and so familiar interviews with God should be regarded with peculiar veneration by the Hebrews, the Mohammedans, and the Christians. When Moses was one hundred and twenty years old his eye was not dim nor his natural force abated. Deut 34:7. He was able, on the day of his death, to stand on Nebo, a height of the Pisgah range, and thence look across the Jordan and up and down the Promised Land. Bitter was his disappointment at not being allowed to enter, but meekly he submitted to the will of God.

He had been so much with God that to die was simply to be always with Him whose voice he had heard and whose glory he had seen. But since his death would make a great change to his people, he prepared the way for it. He addressed the people and warned them against apostasy. He then gave a public charge to Joshua, his successor. He then uttered the song, Deut 32, and blessed the people. Deut 33. Quietly, it would appear, unattended, perhaps secretly, the aged yet strong man climbed the Pisgah range, stood on the height of Nebo, and viewed the extensive prospect. " - Rev. W. M. , 1879, p. 439.

" Deut 34:6. In the words of the Rabbins, "Jehovah kissed him to death" (or rather into life eternal). His remains were removed from all reach of idolatry - the sin of sins, forbidden in the first commandment. " Vainly have men sought to find it. The familiar lines of Mrs. C. F. Alexander's ode, "The Death of Moses," may be appropriately quoted here: Centuries passed on. The land had witnessed many changes; the promised One stood upon the Promised Land when once more Moses is seen by mortal sight.

Upon the slopes of Hermon he appeared in company with Elijah to talk with Jesus of the decease Jesus should accomplish at Jerusalem. Luke 9:31. Thus was the type brought face to face with the Pattern. And this resurrection leads to the conclusion which some hold - that Moses, like Christ, was raised from the dead after a brief sleep in the grave. Moses was of God's special preparation, the resultant of many forces. Wrought upon by inspiration, he was able to be legislator, statesman, leader, poet, saint, because he was so variedly trained.

An exceptional man in original gifts, he was equally exceptional in his opportunities. To be of Hebrew extraction, and therefore by descent to share in the glorious hopes of his race, was to have a grand start Godward. To be the adopted child of Pharaoh's daughter, to breathe "the atmosphere of courts," to be acquainted as an equal with the nobility of the land, was to gain an intimate knowledge of statecraft from the best exponents of it.

To be trained for the priesthood, initiated into the holy mysteries, learned in all the learning of the Egyptians, was to be thoroughly furnished unto religious service. To be exiled and compelled through many years to eat "the bread of carefulness," to be a keeper of sheep and a dweller in tents amid the sublimity of Sinaitic scenery, was to have time for reflection and for communion with God. Thus, when at eighty he returned to Egypt, he was able to debate with scholars and to sympathize with slaves. He towered above all his brethren. He was alone in the loneliness of genius.

He was accessible in his feeling for the oppressed. But Moses was unique in other ways. He alone has held friendly converse with Jehovah. What though he was slow of speech? He was lofty of thought. What though he was timid? He had the promise of divine strength. And the good qualities he showed during the Wandering are such as come from fellowship with the Highest, while his bad qualities - his occasional infirmity of temper, for example - are mere spots upon the sun or temporary obscurations of the light, the times he forgot God.

But when he fell all observed it, just as all notice the fallen monarch of the forest; when he stood firm few marked it, as few remark the upright tree. The above article is a mere sketch. To write fully the life of Moses would be to write the history of Israel during the Exodus. The reader will refer to the separate articles incidentally mentioned. M. Taylor in his book above quoted. Three qualities give him immortal interest and prominence. 1st. Faith. " Heb 11:26. "Never more alluring prospects opened up before any man than those which the world held out to him.

The throne of the greatest monarchy of his age was within his reach. All that wealth could procure, or pleasure bestow, or the greatest earthly power command, was easily at his call. But the glory of these things paled in his view before the more excellent character of those invisible honors which God set before him. This faith sustained him in the solitudes of Midian and animated him amidst all the conflicts attendant on the Exodus and all the difficulties that confronted him in the wilderness. " (pp. ) 2d. Prayerfnlness. "In every time of emergency his immediate resort was to Jehovah. " (p.

) His was the prayer of faith. 3d. Humility. "He coveted no distinction and sought no prominence; his greatness came to him, he did not go after it. And his humility was allied with or flowed naturally out into two other qualities, disinterestedness and meekness. ) He gave up his own ease and comfort to secure the emancipation of his people; and while laboring night and day for them, he had no thought whatever of his own interests. " In this he was like Nehemiah. He was free from all charge of nepotism. His meekness was shown in silently listening to complaints against himself.

He appealed unto God. (pp. ) The only blot upon this beautiful character is a lack of patience or self-control, but this was more evident in the earlier portion of his life, nor was it prominent enough to belie his eulogy. Moses was a type of Christ. The parallel is readily traced.

"As Moses, in the early part of his career, refused the Egyptian monarchy because it could be gained to him only by disloyalty to, God, so Jesus turned away from the kingdoms of the world because they were offered on condition that he would worship Satan; as Moses became the emancipator of his people, so was Jesus; as Moses, penetrating to the soul of the symbolism of idolatry, introduced a new dispensation wherein symbolism was allied to spirituality of worship, so Jesus, seizing the spirituality of the Mosaic system, freed it from its national restrictions, and ushered in the day when the true worshipper would worship the Father anywhere; as Moses was pre-eminently a lawgiver, so Jesus, in his Sermon on the Mount, laid down a code which not only expounds but fulfils the Decalogue; as Moses was a prophet, so Jesus is the great Prophet of his Church; as Moses was a mediator, so Jesus is the Mediator of the new covenant, standing between God and man, and bridging, by his atonement and intercession, the gulf between the two.

We cannot wonder, therefore, that in the vision of the Apocalypse they who have gotten the victory over the beast and his image are represented as singing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb. " (p. ) God buried Moses. It was fitting, therefore, that he too should write his epitaph. " Deut 34:10-12. (p. ) Moses, Song of. This wonderful ode celebrates more fitly the miraculous deliverance of the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage. It is the national anthem, the Te Deum of the Hebrews.

It sounds through the psalms of Israel, through the thanksgiving hymns of the Christian Church, through the touching songs of liberated slaves, and it will swell the harmony of the saints in heaven. Allusion to it is made in Rev 15:2-3; "They stand on the sea of glass mingled with fire . . .

Hitchcock's Bible Names (1869)

taken out; drawn forth

Schaff's Bible Dictionary

Accordingly, although loath to do it, she herself circumcised Gershom. Ex 4:24-26. The child recovered. But to counterbalance this evil trait there were many good ones. He makes mention of one of these - viz., his meekness. Num 12:3. Besides, he was characterized by disinterestedness, impartiality, faithfulness, and courage. When he had risen superior to the fears which daunted him when he received the divine call, he was unwavering.

The people might murmur or break out into rebellion, he was ready to plead with God for them; yea, when they had so grievously sinned that God declared he would destroy them, Moses asked that his name might be blotted out of the book of God rather than behold their destruction. Ex 32:32. In addition must be mentioned his eminent services as lawgiver. " We are safe in saying that the Law, as we have it recorded in the Scriptures, was divinely inspired, and that Moses made the record as directed of the Lord.

The Decalogue is a moral miracle in ancient legislation, and retains its power to this day in all Christian lands. See Law. As an historian Moses also is to be honored. The five books commonly called the Pentateuch, which he wrote, contain the only reliable history of the creation of man and the beginning of the human as well as of the Jewish race. See Pentateuch. But there are also other compositions attributed to him - namely, Ps 90 and the book of Job.

In regard to these there is no certainty, but the ninetieth Psalm seems to fit in well with the circumstances of the Wandering, and the book of Job is perhaps his in its first draft; the Talmud makes him the author, and several commentators have adopted this view. See Job. We know Moses to have had the poetic gift, for in the Pentateuch there are several exhibitions of it: "The song which Moses and the children of Israel sung" (after the passage of the Red Sea, Ex 15:1-19). A fragment of a war-song against Amalek, Ex 17:16: The song of Moses, composed on the east side of Jordan. Deut 32:1-43.

The prophetic blessing of Moses upon the tribes. Deut 33:1-29. As a leader and as a prophet Moses comes before us. As the former "his life," says Dean Stanley in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, "divides itself into the three epochs of the march to Sinai, the march from Sinai to Kadesh, and the conquest of the Transjordanic kingdoms. Of his natural gifts in this capacity we have but few means of judging. The two main difficulties which he encountered were the reluctance of the people to submit to his guidance and the impracticable nature of the country which they had to traverse.

The incidents with which his name was specially connected, both in the sacred narrative and in the Jewish, Arabian, and heathen traditions, were those of supplying water when most wanted. In the Pentateuch these supplies of water take place at Marah, at Horeb, at Kadesh, and in the land of Moab. Of the first three of these incidents, traditional sites bearing his name are shown in the desert at the present day, though most of them are rejected by modern travellers. The route through the wilderness is described as having been made under his guidance.

The particular spot of the encampment is fixed by the cloudy pillar. But the direction of the people, first to the Red Sea and then to Mount Sinai, is communicated through Moses or given by him. On approaching Palestine the office of the leader becomes blended with that of the general or the conqueror. By Moses the spies were sent to explore the country. Against his advice took place the first disastrous battle at Hormah.

To his guidance is ascribed the circuitous route by which the nation approached Palestine from the east, and to his generalship the two successful campaigns in which Sihon and Og were defeated. " Num 12:8. He saw the flame in the bush; for two periods of forty days each he was in the thick darkness with God, Ex 24:18; Ex 34:28; and above all was he favored with the vision of the trailing garments of the Almighty, and he heard a voice which "proclaimed the two immutable attributes of God, justice and love," in words which became part of the religious creed of Israel and of the world. Ex 34:6-7.

But perhaps the most remarkable fact is yet to be mentioned. Ex 33:9. No wonder that the subject of so many and so familiar interviews with God should be regarded with peculiar veneration by the Hebrews, the Mohammedans, and the Christians. When Moses was one hundred and twenty years old his eye was not dim nor his natural force abated. Deut 34:7. He was able, on the day of his death, to stand on Nebo, a height of the Pisgah range, and thence look across the Jordan and up and down the Promised Land.

Bitter was his disappointment at not being allowed to enter, but meekly he submitted to the will of God. He had been so much with God that to die was simply to be always with Him whose voice he had heard and whose glory he had seen. But since his death would make a great change to his people, he prepared the way for it. He addressed the people and warned them against apostasy. He then gave a public charge to Joshua, his successor. He then uttered the song, Deut 32, and blessed the people. Deut 33.

Quietly, it would appear, unattended, perhaps secretly, the aged yet strong man climbed the Pisgah range, stood on the height of Nebo, and viewed the extensive prospect. " - Rev. W. M. , 1879, p. 439. " Deut 34:6. In the words of the Rabbins, "Jehovah kissed him to death" (or rather into life eternal). His remains were removed from all reach of idolatry - the sin of sins, forbidden in the first commandment. " Vainly have men sought to find it. The familiar lines of Mrs. C. F. Alexander's ode, "The Death of Moses," may be appropriately quoted here: Centuries passed on.

The land had witnessed many changes; the promised One stood upon the Promised Land when once more Moses is seen by mortal sight. Upon the slopes of Hermon he appeared in company with Elijah to talk with Jesus of the decease Jesus should accomplish at Jerusalem. Luke 9:31. Thus was the type brought face to face with the Pattern. And this resurrection leads to the conclusion which some hold - that Moses, like Christ, was raised from the dead after a brief sleep in the grave. Moses was of God's special preparation, the resultant of many forces.

Wrought upon by inspiration, he was able to be legislator, statesman, leader, poet, saint, because he was so variedly trained. An exceptional man in original gifts, he was equally exceptional in his opportunities. To be of Hebrew extraction, and therefore by descent to share in the glorious hopes of his race, was to have a grand start Godward. To be the adopted child of Pharaoh's daughter, to breathe "the atmosphere of courts," to be acquainted as an equal with the nobility of the land, was to gain an intimate knowledge of statecraft from the best exponents of it.

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