Who was Moses?

Bible People & HistoryIn theological review

The short answer

Moses was the Hebrew prophet who led Israel out of slavery in Egypt, received the Law of God at Mount Sinai, and led the people through forty years in the wilderness to the edge of the promised land. The Bible's verdict on him is unmatched for an Old Testament figure: no prophet has arisen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face.

The fuller answer

He appears first as a baby hidden from a murderous king in Egypt, and last at the top of a mountain within sight of a land he would not enter. Between those two points stands the whole middle of the Old Testament: the burning bush, the plagues, the Exodus, the Passover, forty years of manna and grumbling, the giving of the Law at Sinai, and the slow education of a slave people into a nation.

Scripture's own verdict on him is unusually warm. Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face. He is the Bible's model of intercession, repeatedly standing between God's wrath and the people's sin, and the model of a leader whose authority came from obedience rather than appetite. His one great recorded failure, striking the rock in anger, cost him the entry into Canaan, which is its own sermon about God's holiness.

Since that time, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face

Deuteronomy 34:10 (BSB)

Christians read Moses as more than a hero of the old story. He is the prophet of the Law, the mediator of the first covenant, and the pattern the New Testament sets beside Jesus: a greater Moses, who leads a greater exodus, out of a deeper slavery. His full profile, with every fact tied to its verses, is in Bible Characters on this site.

Sources

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)

Review status: in-theological-review. Every Contend page passes a human theological review against the Statement of Faith before it is published as approved teaching. This section is in that queue.

Dig deeper

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Who was Paul?Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles: a Pharisee who persecuted the church, met the risen Jesus on the Damascus road, and spent the rest of his life planting churches around the Roman world and writing the letters that fill much of the New Testament. No other figure explains how a crucified Jewish Messiah came to be worshipped from Jerusalem to Rome within one generation.Why does the Bible have 66 books?Because those are the books the people of God recognised as carrying his authority: the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms that Jesus himself named, and the writings of his apostles. Thirty nine books of the Old Testament and twenty seven of the New. The number was never a target. It is simply the shape of what was received.Who wrote the Bible?People did, and God did, and the Bible insists on both. On the human side it has many authors across many centuries, from Moses to John. On the divine side, Peter says men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit, and Paul calls all Scripture God-breathed. Real writers, real styles, one intention behind them.Bible Character: MosesThe prophet who led Israel out of slavery in Egypt, received the Law on Mount Sinai, and brought the people to the edge of Canaan.On the map: EgyptEgypt is the land along the lower Nile where Jacob's family settled and where their descendants later lived as slaves under Pharaoh. The Exodus begins here, and Jesus is taken here as a child.On the map: SinaiSinai is the wilderness and mountain region south of Canaan where Israel camped after leaving Egypt. God gives the law here and Moses numbers the people here.Lesson: The big story of the BibleThe Bible is one story, not sixty-six separate ones. Walk the whole arc once, from creation to new creation, and every book you open will have a place to sit.