Servant Of God: Moses And His Accomplishments

After Joseph died the new Egyptian pharaoh began to realize that the Israelite population was on the rise and oppressed them by making them slaves. As a result of being slaves and beginning to populate Egypt the Egyptians decided to kill all the firstborn Israelite male babies. The only one to escape this massacre was Moses who’s mother put him in a basket and put him in the water. He was then found by Pharaoh’s daughter and she saved him and treated him as if he was her own son. As a result of the event of having been enslaved and having their male children killed the Israelites cried out to God and he heard them.

(Ben-Yehuda) Around 1307-c. the Israelites where enslaved again under the Ramses Pharaoh. Once again Jews longed for freedom to escape the antisemitism. Moses was born close to 1392 BCE and lived 120 years according to the Torah. He leads the Jewish people out of Egypt land to escape slavery. Based off the information from the Exodus book in the Old Testament there where around 6,000 men and with women and children close to 2 million people fleeting Egypt. It also says that soon into the Israelites escape the Pharaoh changed his mind on letting them leave and sent his army after them. (Moses Web) “The Israelites achieved a great victory at the Red Sea, which is said to have miraculously parted, allowing them to walk across safely and then swamping the pursuing Egyptian army.” (Moses Web) The Jews were free again from persecution. Moses became in-charge of the laws and this is where the Ten Commandments came from. By 1897 the Jewish people had created a movement called Zionism. Zionism is the belief that the Jewish people will one day have their own land called Israel. Theodor Herzl started this movement for the Jews to have a home where they were free form

God narrative flow hears the Israelites moaning and groaning, so He emergence Moses an Egyptian to be the leader of faith in Egypt. God narrative plan continues perfectly for Him that His promise for every generation is fulfilled in the earth and among covenant with Abraham, Jacobs, and Isaac families. Fretheim study highlights the main events of God structure plan for Israelites journey through Exodus concerning Moses as their leader. God engage His divine plan for the covenant law, “the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai” (106). Exodus flows with several phenomena events taken place “the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread, the Red Sea crossing, and giving of the law at Mt. Sinai” for the people of Israel to recognized God constitutive foundation establishment for ongoing communities of faith (101-102). God capture Moses attend through a burning bush. Moses, Moses, God calls take off your sandals you are standing Holy ground and Moses reluctantly said this is I God informs Moses to go and demand Pharaoh to let the Israelites go free. Fretheim reflects that “God actions are because of Pharaoh disobedience to the will of His creation of a

Moses helped lead the Israelite out of Egypt from slavery. He divided the waters so they can

Moses was a leader of the Hebrews and probably the most important figure in Judaism. He led the Hebrew people out of Egypt and into the Promise Land. His story is told in the book of Exodus, and begins when he was first born during the time that the pharaoh of Egypt declared that all male Hebrew babies were to be drowned at birth. Moses’ mother Yocheved, hid Moses and placed him in a basket in the reeds of the Nile River, where he was then found by the pharaoh’s daughter, who kept Moses and raised him as her own. In the story of Moses, he grows up and stumbles upon an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave. Out of anger Moses murders the Egyptian, and flees to Midian to escape his crime (Hays, 2000). In Midian, Moses rests besides a well,

Exodus 7- 14 begins with Yahweh’s people under the authority of Pharaoh and Pharaoh won’t let them go. Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Moses’ brother, Aaron, and told them to tell Pharaoh to let His people go. Throughout the chapters, Yahweh will strengthen Pharaohs heart letting His signs and wonders multiply throughout Egypt. The land of Egypt will experience many acts of judgements resulting in death and in the freedom of Yahweh’s people.

The Jewish Bible consists of 24 books of the Tanakh. In rabbinic, “Torah” literally means “teaching” or “instructions”. The first five books, which consist of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, make up the Torah. The Torah is based on God’s teaching through his prophet Adam, Abraham, and Moses. The Torah can be looked as laws or guidelines to offer one a way to live. “Thus there could be the tradition of an oral Torah, actually the product of generations of interpretation through a long succession of rabbis, yet equally ascribed to Moses together with the ultimate closed written Torah” (Coward 6). The Mosaic Law contains a series of codes on social, ethical, and religious topics, such as the Covenant Code (shown in

During this time, a new King came to power and the Israelites were forced into slavery and harsh labor. The new Pharaoh also demanded that baby boys were to be thrown in the Nile and baby girls can live. However, a levite woman went against this rule and placed her precious baby in a basket and let him float down the river until the Pharaoh's daughter found him, named him Moses, and took the baby home. As Moses grew up he noticed the unfair treatment of the Israelites and fled the area. Years later, Moses was called by God through a burning bush; the Lord told Moses to help his people escape Egypt and slavery. Moses obeyed the Lord and went to the Pharaoh demanding him to stop the cruel treatment at once and to listen to how God feels. Moses is the, “leader of the Israelites In their exodus from Egypt and the mediator in their covenant with Yahweh” (go.galegroup.com). The Pharaoh disagreed and continued to disrespect God’s people, angering the Lord into cursing all of Egypt. The ten plagues of Egypt were a punishment to the Pharaoh from God and until the Israelites were set free, the Plagues would continue. After the death of the firstborn plague, the Pharaoh gave permission to Moses to take his people and serve the Lord as he said. The Israelites finally departed Egypt and set out for Rameses- ready to follow the word of their Lord. The journey to the promised land was

“According to P, Moses divided the sea by the rod and Israel walked through on dry land, the waters being a wall to their right and left. When Israel got to the other side, Moses raised his hand and the walls of water crashed in on the Egyptian army, wiping them out. According to J, Yahweh the storm-god drove back the sea long enough for Israel to cross in the night and then the sea returned to its wonted flow in the morning.”

Israel along with his wives, sons, daughters-in-law, grandchildren and servants, a total of 70 people now known as the “Israelites,” move to and establish themselves in Egypt, in 1875BC. At first, they were welcomed in Egypt and the population of the “Israelites” continue to grow, but later when a new Pharaoh begins his reign of Egypt they become subjected to many years of hardships and enslavement.

Moses grew up in royalty, but was disliked by the Pharaoh, the egyptians, and even his own people. While he tried to be nice, his people were bitter and had once even said “‘Who made you a price and a judge over us?’”(110) His people may have hated him, but they had no idea his intentions. So the hatred from the Israelites pushed him to leave Egypt and meet God.

The life of Moses is highly instructive from many standpoints. We have been thinking together about various aspects of the life of Moses, and we have seen that even his birth and his early years were years of great value, not only from the standpoint of what God was going to do with his life, but from the standpoint of instruction for us.

The new pharaoh of Egypt grew wary of the ever growing number of Israelites. In order to stop any possible uprising, the pharaoh enslaved the Israelites, forcing them into “hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick” (Exodus 1:14). After enslaving the Israelites, the pharaoh decreed that all male children born to Israeli women were to be killed. Moses, a prince of Egypt and secretly an Israeli by birth, attempted to free the Israelites by talking to the pharaoh. After all attempts at negotiation fail, Moses leads the Israelites on a mass exodus from Egypt. Upon reaching the Red Sea, “Moses stretched out his hands over the sea… and the waters were divided” (Exodus 14:21) allowing the Israelites passage through the sea. The Egyptians pursue, and “the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea” (Exodus 14:27). Thus the Israelites escape bondage and destroy the superior Egyptian army. The Israelites move from being a weak nation, in servitude to the powerful Egyptians, to one that, with the help of God, evades and destroys the Egyptian army. God’s chosen people grow in strength and move towards occupying their own

Throughout the journey of Moses, God always led him down the path God had planned for him and his people. Unlike some of the people in the stories of Exodus and Deuteronomy who did not listen to God, Moses listened and allowed God to mold him into the leader of the Hebrew people. Moses should not be recalled as a leader of the Hebrew people because he was a teachable student of God, he listened to both God and the Israelites, and he ensured God’s people were obedient to God.

He had been their spiritual leader, mediating their relationship with their God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses had been the servant of the Lord, faithful in his obedience to God and to the people. But Moses died- it is noted that the Hebrew people mourned and grieved for thirty days (Deuteronomy 34). The loss of their leader affected them greatly because Moses had been a prophet unlike any other. He had performed miraculous signs and wonders, and had met the Lord face to face. For the first time in forty years, the Hebrew people are without a leader. But the Lord once again provided for them and names Joshua as Moses successor and as the leader of the people. Joshua is well known to the Hebrew people for he had been an army commander leading the people into battle and defeating the Amalekites (Exodus 17:8-13). Joshua also has served for many years as Moses assistant (Exodus 33:11, 24:13), and when Moses sent twelve spies to scout out the land of Canaan, he included Joshua who, along with Caleb, gave a positive report and urged Moses to take possession of the land (Numbers 13). Joshua had experience along with his relationship with Moses, he was destined to succeed the great leader, and the Lord makes it clear that Joshua is indeed to be the next leader (Deuteronomy 31:14-15, 23).