Getting Job-ed
“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen…” Deuteronomy 18:15 ESV
Moses is an Old Testament heavy-weight contender. Jesus comes on to the scene and says that Moses and the Prophets wrote about Him (Luke 24:44) and in the opening verse we read that there would be a prophet to come that is like Moses. The opening verse I feel, in its context, is dually talking about Jesus and the prophets that were to come to Israel (Deuteronomy 18:15-22). It is no doubt that the Passover Lamb in Exodus 12 is foreshadowing the coming atoning sacrifice for the whole world (we will release an article with this parallelism in the future). However, for this advent study, let’s look at another way Jesus is the Prophet that has come that is like Moses.
Advocate
In Exodus 32, Moses was up on the mountain meeting with God, receiving instruction from Him. Apparently, he was taking too long and the Israelites were becoming impatient. So what did they do? They built a golden calf to worship. God just rescued them from Egypt, the most powerful nation in the world, took them through the Red Sea, destroyed their enemies, and then the first chance they get they build idols to worship?! That’s insane, but to be honest we’re not far off either. Nonetheless, God tells Moses he’s going to wipe them out and make a nation through Moses but Moses does something extraordinary: he intercedes with God on behalf of the Israelites (Exodus 32:11-14). God would have been perfectly justified in doing so, yet God gives mercy to an undeserving people.
People tend to get bent out of shape with this section because the phrase “the LORD relented…” appears. We studied how there are different wills of God (Sovereign, Moral, etc.). God can want something to occur yet not have something occur due to the overall Sovereign Will (see the article link above). But that’s not the point of the passage. The point is that God should have wiped them out but did not. Why? Because Moses stepped up to intercede. Did this thwart God’s Sovereign Will? Absolutely not, this event was meant to take place and was purposefully written by the author for us.
We Need an Advocate
Romans 8:34 ESV states, “Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” Hebrews 7:25 says something similar. Jesus intercedes, on our behalf, to God who should justly wipe us out due to our rebellion against Him. We need this intercession to God on our behalf.
Moses was Pointing Forward
Moses was not the Messiah to come who is referenced all through the Old Testament. However, this narrative is strategically placed in Exodus. This passage shows our constant rebellion, even when God’s mercy and grace are so apparent. We hate God at our core, yet we have an Advocate, One that is interceding for us on our behalf. Moses was pointing forward to Advent: there is Someone coming that will intercede indefinitely until we are with Him in the New World.
-Austin
