The Faithfulness Of Moses

by T.W. Fullerton | Category: General | Jul 1980

"Moses My servant is dead" (Josh. 1:2).

Many are the tributes, either true or false, written in obituary notices of those who have passed into eternity. But this tribute stands alone. There were those who in his lifetime envied Moses; there were those who hated him; and without doubt there were also those who loved him. But here is the commendation of Jehovah, inscribed upon the pages of the living word of God. No testimony from the lips of men can compare with this, "Moses My servant is dead". Many tributes were paid to Moses by the eternal Son in the days of His flesh. In Hebrews 3:5 we read: "Moses indeed was faithful in all His (God's) house as a servant" and in Hebrews 11:24-29 is recorded the testimony of the same inspired writer to his faithfulness.

The first five books of the Holy Scriptures are, we believe, rightly attributed to Moses, Four of them contain his history, a life devoted to the service of Jehovah, His dwelling-place and His people. Before Amram and Jocebed became husband and wife, God had that life in view. By an act of faith Moses was hidden three months by his parents. By an act of faith he was placed in an ark of bulrushes. He was a child of faith.

It has been said of him. "Moses spent forty years learning to be a somebody, forty years learning to be a nobody and forty years learning that God was everything". He led the people of Israel through the Sinaitic desert, having received the pattern of God's dwelling-place and built it in their midst. The language of the heart of Moses was akin to that of David who, at a later date said, "One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life", and the Lord granted him his request. How different would it have been if he had become a Pharaoh, and heir to the riches of Egypt! Then all we would know of him now would be whatever historians and archaeologists could tell us. But he counted the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. It had been revealed to him that he would have a great successor, "A prophet shall the Lord raise up" to be a leader of Israel, and because of what had been revealed to him concerning the Anointed One or Christ, he chose rather to suffer affliction and the privations of desert life with a despised people rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season in the court of Pharaoh.

Those who, like Moses, have found a place in the house of God have a divine inheritance not recognized by men of this world, nevertheless a place of priceless privilege and of God's choice. There has always been a price to pay for God's things and there has been a continual price to pay in the holding of them. The Lord of life and glory who, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, planned to bring out of the world that wondrous thing "The Church which is His Body" had a price to pay for it. "He laid aside His glory". He became "of no reputation" to redeem it. In the sight of the world we are nothing, but in the sight of God we are part of" a pearl of great price", and when we find a place in the house of God where we can serve Him according to His revealed will, we can offer "spiritual sacrifices". Our place in the Body of Christ we can never sell or forfeit, but our place in the house of God we can sell for a trifle, as did Esau his birthright, it may be for the pleasures of sin, or a little popularity, or a place among men of this world. Satan knows what to offer. If we sell, the loss will be eternal and we shall experience the sorrow resulting there from in this life. Demas, a fellow worker with Paul, loved this present world" and forsook the work of the Lord. We find many similar examples in both Old and New Testaments. In the book of Ruth we read of a famine in the land and because of it Elimelech leaving and taking with him wife and two sons into the land of godless Moab. Years later his widow, through the mercy of God, returned to Bethlehem-judah, but with this confession, "I went out full, and the Lo~ hath brought me home again empty". Sometimes there has been a famine in God's land, for one reason or another, but the word of the Lord has always been, "Dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed" (Psa. 37:3 AV).

"Moses My servant is dead". God's tribute to His servant is an eternal one. What will he have to say about us when the record of our lives is unveiled?

T.W. Fullerton | Jul 1980
General