In Hebrews 11:26, Moses “regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as far more valuable than all the wealth of Egypt.” Likewise Paul, who wrote in Philippians 3:7-8, “whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I (too) have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ.”
So here’s Moses on exactly the same wavelength as Paul, in that losing everything for the sake of Christ and knowing Christ had far greater value than the best this world had to offer – and worth the worst the world had to offer too. But for Moses to come to that understanding it would mean that he knew Christ too – but is that possible?
Well, yes, according to Christ himself, who said in John 5:46, “Moses wrote about me,” and twice in Luke 24 Jesus referred to Moses as source material “concerning himself” (27), including his suffering, death and resurrection (44-46). And when Jesus was transfigured, and his face shone like the sun in Matthew 17:3, Moses appeared “talking with Jesus” – which suggests he’d talked with Jesus before.
As in Exodus 3, for instance, when God spoke to Moses (4-12), which couldn’t have been God the Father speaking, because no one has heard his voice (John 5:37), so who else but Jesus could be God speaking? In which case, Moses got to know him very quickly in Exodus 3 as the God who deeply cared about human suffering (7), whose mission it was to rescue those victimized by evil and bring them into a better world (8).
So when “the Lord then said to Moses” in Exodus 7:1, that “I have made you like God to Pharaoh,” it meant that all Moses’ words and actions from that point on would match the motive and mission of the Lord he’d come to know. What Moses said and did, therefore, was totally for the sake of Christ, and representing him as best possible, no matter the suffering.
Not an easy job for Moses, though, because the Lord was also going to “harden Pharaoh’s heart so he won’t listen to you” (3). But Moses was now ready to take whatever disgrace and suffering came his way – not only to represent the Christ he knew, but going back to Hebrews 11:26, it was also “because he was looking ahead to his reward.” So on that point – “What was Moses’ reward?”….(next blog)
