Moshe foreshadows Mashiakh the Deliverer (Exodus 1:1–6:1)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:35:18 — 28.0MB)

Subscribe: RSS

We have a rough idea of when the Exodus happened based on Solomon’s words when he dedicated the temple, roughly 1500 B.C. I suspect the pharaoh who helped raise Moses was Tut-Moses I and that his daughter named Moses after her father. He was not a member of the Egyptian royal family. He took the throne by force.

This time period is not too far in the future from the generation who entered Egypt. All 12 patriarchs of Israel were dead and gone by the time of Moses. The first generation is gone but the second generation are still alive.

The children of Israel were not in Israel for 430 years. That is poor mathematics. The count of the 430 years starts at the time God gave the vision to Abraham telling him that his descendants would sojourn in Egypt.

The children of Israel were actually in Egypt for 210 years and were living as slaves for at most about 116 years or so. Some of Jacob’s grandchildren, who entered Egypt and knew Joseph, also lived to leave in the Exodus.

Moses’ mother was Levi’s daughter, not grand-daughter or great-granddaughter.

The new Pharaoh who did not know Joseph, was a new dynasty who did not care about Joseph’s achievements on behalf of the previous regime.

New pharaoh not like the old pharaoh

“Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. He said to his people, ‘Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are more and mightier than we. Come, let us deal wisely with them, or else they will multiply and in the event of war, they will also join themselves to those who hate us, and fight against us and depart from the land.’” (Exodus 1:8–10 NASB)

This Pharaoh is the first anti-Semite. The Israelis were too dangerous to keep but to too valuable to let go, too. The solution has been to destroy or enslave. This is the foundation of all anti-Semitism, including the Nazis, the Russian Tsars, etc.

Pharaoh ended up causing the very revolt he was trying to prevent. People don’t flee a land when they are comfortable and treated well.

The Israelite slavery in Egypt started as a labor tax, basically a tax by labor. This was incremental, not spontaneous.

“Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other was named Puah; and he said, “When you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth and see them upon the birthstool, if it is a son, then you shall put him to death; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but let the boys live.” (Exodus 1:15–17 NASB)

Then when the Israelis continued to grow, Pharaoh tried to subversively reduce their population by conscripting midwives to kill the Israelite boys.

God blessed the midwives in two ways.

Work. They were given more work to do, delivering more babies.
Households. They were given their own families and their families were blessed with health.

When Pharaoh’s subtle genocide plan didn’t work, he overtly commanded the death of the Israeli boys.

‘In the fourth generation they will return’

Moses’ parents were Amram, son of Kohath, son of Levi, and Jochebed, daughter of Levi and Kotath’s sister. Jochebed was Amram’s aunt before she was his wife.

Moses and Aaron are the fourth generation from Abraham. All of Israel knew that the fourth generation was unique (Genesis 15:13–16).

Jochebed’s and Miriam’s quick-thinking saves Moses’ life, and Jochebed was paid by Pharaoh’s household to feed her own child. Moses grew up knowing that the people of Israel were enslaved and he had the idea that he needed to save his people.

The Egyptians did not eat with Hebrews, so Moses would have always known that he was not Egyptian. He would have been separated from the other members of Pharaoh’s family, no matter how Hollywood tells the story.

When Moses saw the Egyptians beating up the Israelis and killed the Egyptian, he thought he was saving them from their slavery. But the Israelis didn’t keep the incident secret, and Pharaoh found out. Moses had to flee.

From murder to Midian and The Mountain

When Moses flees, he flees to Midian, as far from Egypt as possible, and now he is outside of Egypt’s influence.

“Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. The angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed.” (Exodus 3:1–2 NASB)

Why did God use such a spectacular event to speak to Moses? God approached most prophets in their sleep in visions or dreams. God wanted Moses and us to remember this particular event and never forget. Here’s the reason:

“And He said, ‘Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain.’”(Exodus 3:12 NASB)

God wanted Moses to remember that not only is God sending him off from Horeb but he wants Moses to return to Horeb with all of Israel with him.

The bush was not consumed and later when Moses goes up to Horeb to meet with God many years later. He goes into the fire and is not consumed. As a matter of fact, Moses goes in unscathed and returns to the people with glow of God’s presence upon him.

“Then Moses said to God, ‘Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I Am Who I Am”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I Am has sent me to you.’”” (Exodus 3:13–14 NASB)

The pronunciation of God’s name is not as important as what God does. Names are associated with an action.

God of the living

“But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the burning bush, where he calls the Lord The God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now He is not the God of the dead but of the living; for all live to Him.” (Luke 20:37–38 NASB)

Yeshua used the story of the burning bush to teach about the resurrection. One way to look at it is that we are told that no one can look at God and live, yet Moses was able to look at God and he lived.

Why did Abraham, Isaac and Jacob obey God? God gave the three of them promises of land, prosperity, and future generations as well as kings and queens. All three of them died without fully seeing those promises come to pass.

God has to resurrect them to give them their promises. If there is no resurrection, God then lied to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God is not a liar, so there is a resurrection. These men will see these promises fulfilled because God is not a liar and He always keeps His promises.

Circumcision and ‘bridgroom of blood’

“Now it came about at the lodging place on the way that the LORD met him and sought to put him to death. Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and threw it at Moses’ feet, and she said, “You are indeed a bridegroom of blood to me.” So He let him alone. At that time she said, “You are a bridegroom of blood” — because of the circumcision.” (Exodus 4:24–26 NASB)

I want to compare the circumcision of Moses’ first son and Yeshua’s baptism. They are tied together, by John the Baptist himself.

God is about to kill Moses and Zipporah had to circumcise her son, cutting off a piece of her son’s flesh to save him.

There is a requirement for anyone who God calls as a leader is that they have to obey God’s instruction.

“Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized by him. But John tried to prevent Him, saying, ‘I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?’ But Jesus answering said to him, ‘Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he permitted Him. After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.’” (Matthew 3:13–17 NASB)

‘Rolling back the reproach’

“Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet when he said, ‘THE VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS, MAKE READY THE WAY OF THE LORD, MAKE HIS PATHS STRAIGHT!’” (Matthew 3:1–3 NASB)

Circumcision is rolling away God’s reproach. You remove something that is not good. To repent, you are going reverse your path and go in God’s path. You go where God wants to you go.

Baby pictures of Messiah

We heard the story of Moses in the basket in the Nile is a repeated meme.

Moshe	Yeshua
A powerful king is scared that an upstart boy will take the throne and kill him.	A powerful king is scared that an upstart boy will take the throne and kill him.
Egypt oppressed the Israelis.	Judea was oppressed by Rome.
Hide Moshe to save him from the first pharaoh, who was killing boys to control the growth of the Israelis.	Flee to Mitzraim to save Yeshua from Herod I (the Great), who was killing all boys up to age 2 to get the Messiah.
First pharaoh dies after giving the edict to kill the Israeli boys.	Herod I dies shortly after trying to kill Yeshua.
Second pharaoh tries to kill Moshe for killing the Mitzraimi who was beating the Israeli. Moshe flees to Midian.	Yeshua’s family took him to Mitzraim to avoid persecution as a toddler.
Third pharaoh feared public opinion and his ego more than than he feared the LORD. He allowed the LORD to harden his heart.	Herod II feared public opinion more than killing a prophet of the LORD, so he had Yokhanan the mikvatist beheaded.
The first-born of pharaoh must die to finally free Yisra’el.	Yeshua the first-born of Heaven gives up His life to free Yisra’el and all who the LORD “grafts” into it.