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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadGreater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 197. My Servant Moses
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XIV
My Servant Moses
Literature
Danks, W., The Church on the Moor (1890), 86.
Driver, S. R., The Book of Exodus (Cambridge Bible) (1911), xlix., lxix.
Foakes-Jackson, F. J., The Biblical History of the Hebrews (1903), 70.
Harper, A., The Book of Deuteronomy (Expositor's Bible) (1895), 474.
Harrison, W., Clovelly Sermons (1898), 49.
Jacob, L., in Jewish Addresses (1904), 203.
Kittel, R., The Scientific Study of the Old Testament (1910), 221.
McCurdy, J. F., History, Prophecy, and the Monuments, ii. (1896) 94.
Maurice, F. D., The Patriarchs and Lawgivers of the Old Testament (1892), 274.
Montefiore, C. G., The Bible for Home Reading, i. (1896) 134.
Mozley, J. B., Sermons Parochial and Occasional (1879), 182.
Orelli, C. von, The Old Testament Prophecy (1885), 125.
Ottley, R. L., Aspects of the Old Testament (1897), 446.
Ottley, R. L., The Religion of Israel (1905), 33.
Rendall, G. H., Charterhouse Sermons (1911), 24.
Vaughan, D. J., The Present Trial of Faith (1878), 209.
Whyte, A., Bible Characters: Adam to Achan (1896), 228.
Dictionary of the Bible, v. (1904) 584 (C. H. W. Johns).
Expositor, 3rd Ser., v. (1887) 38 (A. B. Davidson).
Expository Times, xix. (1908) 252 (W. J. Moulton).
Journal of Biblical Literature, xx. (1901) 101 (J. P. Peters).
1. The general impression left on our minds by the life and character of Moses, regarded as a whole, is unquestionably one of extraordinary, almost solitary, grandeur, dignity and elevation. Wordsworth's line describes it best:-
Thy soul was like a star, and dwelt apart.
There is not a single character in the Old Testament that will bear comparison with it-for purity, for elevation, for power, for pathos. There is only one character in the whole range of history that overtops it; and that is more than human-the character of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The character of Moses is sketched, particularly in the earlier narratives of J and E, with peculiar vividness and force. He is represented not only as a man of deeply religious spirit, but also as endowed, in a pre-eminent degree, with singleness of aim, with nobility of mind, with dignity of demeanour, with unwearied and self-sacrificing devotion for the welfare of his people, and with that modesty of both word and demeanour which is observable in all the best characters of Old Testament history, and which was no doubt impressed upon them by the mellowing influences of the religion of Yahweh.1 [Note: S. R. Driver, The Book of Exodus, lxix.]
Moses is incontestably the chief personage of the whole history of the Exodus. In the narrative, the phrase is constantly recurring: “The Lord spake unto Moses,” “Moses spake unto the children of Israel.” In the traditions of the desert, whether late or early, his name predominates over that of every one else: “The Wells of Moses” (Ayûn Mûsa) on the shores of the Red Sea, “The Mountain of Moses” (Jebel Mûsa) near the convent of St. Catherine, “The Ravine of Moses” (Skuk Mûsa) at Mount St. Catherine, “The Valley of Moses” (Wady Mûsa) at Petra. “The Books of Moses” are so called (as afterwards the Books of Samuel), in all probability from its being the chief subject of them. The very word “Mosaic” has been in later times applied, in a sense not used of any other saint of the Old Testament, to the whole religion of which he was the expounder.1 [Note: A. P. Stanley, History of the Jewish Church, i. 119.]
The debt owed to Moses by his fellow-countrymen can hardly be over-estimated. Lawgiver and judge, physician and priest, their leader in war and peace, where has there ever been the monarch who could compare with this marvellously gifted individual, founder of a religion, of a code, of a nation that has victoriously withstood all perils, and outlived the mighty empires by which it was overthrown and oppressed? Caesar, Charlemagne, and Haroun-al-Rashid, wise and powerful as they may have been, must each yield the palm to Moses, for their work has left no trace, the ideals to which they devoted their lives are but an empty name, whilst the Hebrew, born in servitude, has left his mark on the thought, the action, and the religion of the whole Gentile world, and made of the wretched tribes, whom he led forth out of bondage, a nation increasing daily in number and in strength, wealthy beyond all others, and rapidly spreading over the face of the earth.2 [Note: From Memory's Shrine: Reminiscences of Carmen Sylva, 70.]
2. An epithet is applied to Moses in the Bible hardly consistent with the view that he was a great leader of men. He is called “very meek” (Num_12:3), the word used being generally applied in the Psalms to the poor and afflicted ones of the nation. Yet this characteristic seems to have been one of the secrets of his success. Moses was able to endure the difficulties of his position in silence, and the unreasonable and childish conduct of the people never provoked him to abandon his task. He went on steadily day by day attending to their interests, hearing their disputes, doing justice between man and man, waiting patiently for signs of improvement which seldom, if ever, manifested themselves. Educated amid all the splendours of an Egyptian palace, he devoted his life to the government of a half-civilized and undisciplined horde, bearing with waywardness, folly, and ingratitude with unshaken constancy, and by his sublime endurance winning from posterity the fame of having been the “most enduring of men.”
By all accounts Moses did not begin by being a meek man. The truth is, no truly meek man ever does so begin. It is not true meekness if it is found in any man at the beginning of his life. It may be sloth, it may be softness, it may be easiness, it may be indifference, it may be policy and calculation, it may be insensibility of heart, it may be sluggishness of blood, but true meekness it is not. True meekness it is not till it has been planted and watered and pruned and purified and beaten upon by every wind of God, and cut to pieces by every knife of God, and all the time engrafted and seated deep in the meekness and in the gentleness and in the humility of the Spirit of God and the Son of God. It would be far nearer the truth to say that Moses, to begin with, was the hastiest and the hottest and the least meek and the least longsuffering of men. It was but a word and a blow with young Moses. Thus it was that he had to pay with forty years' banishment for his sudden spring upon that Egyptian taskmaster, and for the life-long thanks of that delivered slave.
Every one will admit that the record of the life of Moses manifests a patience, meekness, and constancy, which is perhaps the most wonderful ever displayed by a man. We are told, indeed, of occasional outbursts of wrath that bore down all meekness; and men have pointed to them as proofs that Moses was not so wonderfully patient; but those very outbursts of anger seem to be the strongest proofs of his patience. For there is a kind of gentleness which belongs to men whose feelings are too placid to be stirred by injustice, and who maintain a mild calmness even in the presence of flagrant wrong,-that gentleness was not his, who, in his youth, fired at the sight of the oppression of his people, struck down the oppressor at the peril of his own life. There is an amiability of character which springs from the absence of powerful feelings, and which is seldom disturbed-that was not characteristic of him who, roused into fury at the people's murmurings, smote the rock in disobedience to his Lord. The nobler meekness is that which comes forth victorious from the struggle with strong emotion, and wins a glory from the passion it has subdued. And thus, that very indication of an impetuous, fiery nature in Moses only reveals the beauty of the meek patience which marked his life. If you can conceive a man who had hoped for forty years for the deliverance of his people, discovering that they had been careless, faithless, and sensual, and yet silently bearing their reproaches-a man with a passionate, impetuous spirit, enduring their daily murmurings, and after giving way to anger, praying for their success, till, worn with emotion, his strength gave way-a man enduring constant, ignorant, perverse unthankfulness, in the hope of leading the people into their own land, and then calmly surrendering that hope, and dying with it unfulfilled, you can form some idea of the sublime meekness that characterized the leadership of Moses.1 [Note: E. L. Hull, Sermons, iii. 107.]
In seeking to estimate the character of Moses as the historical narratives have made him live before us, we may consider him as (1) Leader, (2) Lawgiver, and (3) Prophet.