[Text: Numbers 12 and Deut. 18] “A Faithful Servant But Still Not The Son”

Who was Moses? As we get ready to explore the book of Hebrews, this is a really important question. The writer to the Hebrews assumes we know the answer because we know the Story of Exodus (and Genesis and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy). So, to help us listen well to Hebrews, let’s get to know Moses; to understand his place in the Story so that we can better worship and listen to Jesus who is, as Hebrews says, “worthy of more glory than Moses.”

[Pray]

Who was Moses? I guess your answer might depend on the stories you remember about him. If you remember him only at Mount Sinai, Moses may be to you a man as unyielding as the stone tablets containing God’s Law. If you remember him only from Charlton Heston’s The Ten Commandments, then you’ll remember him as an overly dramatic leader who was really good at making pithy statements like, “Blood makes poor mortar.”

But to really know who Moses was in this Story of Redemption, we need to know who he was to the God of the covenant. To Yahweh, Moses was a faithful servant in His house. And as a servant, God gave Moses a special job. God appointed him to be the mediator of the covenant, which is a fancy way of saying that Moses was the go-between for Yahweh and His people. God would speak to them through Moses and Moses would speak on their behalf to God.

And that’s what the people of God really needed. You see, in this Exodus from Egypt, God was rescuing His people in order to be with His people. It was a restoration of what humanity lost in the Fall in Eden – an intimate relationship with their Creator. But the problem was (and still is) that sinners can’t endure the presence of a Holy God. Even though they’d been rescued from Egypt, the people of Israel still had hearts prone to run away from God and, therefore, they couldn’t even endure the voice of God, let alone the presence of such holiness! So, they needed someone to stand between them and Yahweh. We see that in Exodus 20:18-19.

Yahweh had just come down to Sinai in thunder and smoke. The people stood at the foot of the mountain to meet Yahweh for the first time and the whole place trembled. Yahweh reminded the people of the rescue he’d just accomplished and then gave them His good and perfect and beautiful law – the way life works best. This was the peoples’ response:

“Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, ‘You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.’”

Israel needed someone to stand between them and the Holy, Holy, Holy God. And Yahweh had graciously given them Moses.

Today we’re going to look at some passages in the Old Testament illustrating Moses’ significance in the Story of Redemption as a faithful servant in the house of God. He was called to serve God and faithfully stand between the people and Yahweh. And he did. But we’ll also hear God himself pointing us toward one who would not only be a faithful servant in the house, but a faithful Son who would be over the household of God. He would be the mediator of a better covenant to give us what we really need – someone to speak the blessing of God to us while standing as our perfect representative before Yahweh.

Turn with me a few books past Genesis to Numbers 12. Just before chapter 12, Moses humbly responded to a report of someone else speaking the word of God to the people by saying, “Would that all Yahweh’s people were prophets, that Yahweh would put his Spirit on them!” Shortly after that, chapter 12 opens…

[Read Numbers 12]

Up to this point in the Story, Moses has clearly been the leader Yahweh appointed for Israel. To Moses came the call at the burning bush; Moses was given the signs to perform before Pharaoh; Moses spoke to the people at the Red Sea, urging them to wait on God’s deliverance in the face of death. It was Moses alone who ascended the thundering mountain of God to receive the Law and Moses alone saw the form of Yahweh. Although there were other leaders and prophets in Israel, none of them were appointed by Yahweh as mediator of the covenant except for Moses.

In this dramatic passage we hear how the mediator of the covenant faced opposition (although this wasn’t the first time). But Yahweh supported His servant and, in the process, confirmed Moses’ special place in the house of God.

It starts off with Miriam and Aaron (both leaders in Israel and Moses’ own family members) finding fault with Moses for taking a wife from the land of Cush (probably Ethiopia). Now, what Moses did wasn’t actually wrong. It seems as though his first wife had passed away and he remarried a woman from outside of Israel. Now, the people of Israel were told by God not to intermarry with the people of Canaan (that is, those descending from Canaan, the son of Ham, the son of Noah). But that’s not what Moses was doing! He was marrying a daughter of Ham, yes, but not through Canaan. He was marrying a woman descending from Ham’s other son, Cush. Okay, so, she was not an Israelite. But rather than rejoicing that someone from the nations would want to be joined to the people of God, Miriam and Aaron speak out against Moses.

But it seems that Moses’ new wife was really just a pretext, an excuse for Miriam and Aaron to let out something that was deep in their hearts. What was really beneath their allegation of moral failure was something much more common: jealousy (especially in Miriam, who would bear the punishment as an example). They wanted to be honored by God and men, so they boasted in something that should have deeply humbled them both - that they, too, were used by Yahweh to speak to His people. They, too, were prophets and leaders in Israel. And Yahweh heard their proud words.

That theme of Yahweh hearing a complaint against Moses and then doing something about it has already come up twice before in the book of Numbers. This time, however, Yahweh doesn’t just act from a distance to vindicate Moses. This time, Yahweh himself comes down to defend the one He himself had appointed to this work.

First, in vv. 4-9, Yahweh says that while there are, indeed, other prophets in Israel, there is one major distinction between them and Moses. Yahweh calls “(his) servant Moses…faithful in all (his) house” and then goes on to talk about the unique way he communicates with Moses; no riddles, no dreams, just intimate, clear conversation. Above any other prophet, Yahweh here honors Moses in his role as mediator of the covenant with an emphasis on his role as a prophet speaking the word of God. As prophet and mediator of the covenant of grace the people should both listen to him and embrace his role. They needed him to do it and, according to Yahweh, Moses was doing it faithfully.

Second, after Yahweh leaves and Miriam is found to be leprous, Moses continues his work as a mediator between God and men, acting on behalf of the very person who had just tried to displace him. In v. 13 Moses prays earnestly for Miriam. And Yahweh hears his prayer. Considering what every sin deserves – death – Miriam is shown a tremendous amount of grace because Moses was faithful to his role in the covenant. He recognized that one of his people had sinned (which is what Aaron confesses in v. 11) and then he prays for mercy for the sinner. And although Miriam will have to endure the shame of leprosy for seven days (living outside the camp as an example of what it means to reject the covenant mediator and trying to take that place for oneself) at the end of those seven days she is brought back into the camp and can take her place among the covenant people. By the grace of God working through Moses, the covenant mediator, Miriam is saved.

In this passage, and many others like it, Moses is presented as faithful in God’s eyes. He was the meekest man on earth; he had the authority to call for God to act and yet he did not presume to use that power for himself. And Moses was humble; he did not raise his voice in defense, but entrusted himself to the God who’d appointed him to this work.

Now, that’s not to say that Moses was perfect. Before he was called he murdered an Egyptian. When he was called he was hesitant – actually that’s too weak a word – Moses was unwilling to go to Egypt like Yahweh said. And even after he was called by Yahweh as mediator of the covenant, he failed to treat Yahweh as the Holy, Holy, Holy God by going against His word, striking the rock to give Israel water when he was only supposed to speak to it (Numbers 20). The fact remained that even Moses needed a mediator, one who could stand between him and Yahweh and pray for him and get grace for him. So, Israel couldn’t look to Moses as everything they needed. Although he was truly faithful in all God’s house (and enough for them at that time in the Story), they needed someone else. They (and we) needed a perfect mediator between God and men.

And Yahweh knew what His people needed. So he made promises to them about one who was coming. This one would stand between God and His people in perfect faithfulness, not only speaking the Word of God to them, but pleading their case before Yahweh, obtaining mercy and grace for sinners. He would be a prophet like Moses who would also be God’s son.

One promise is heard in Deuteronomy as Moses, who was about to die, delivered the Law of God to the second generation of the Exodus who were about to enter the Promised Land. In chapter 18, he speaks to them of the coming prophet who would speak the true word of Yahweh to His people.

[Read Deuteronomy 18:15-19]

Moses completes his role in the Story with the promise of Yahweh that one like Moses would come from among them. He would stand between sinners and the Holy God and he would speak the word of Yahweh to them. And they needed to listen to him. They couldn’t be like Miriam who rejected her mediator. They couldn’t even be like Moses who failed to listen about that rock. They needed to embrace this one who was a prophet and more than a prophet.

So, the people looked and the people waited for this prophet to come. Other prophets came and worked and died, but still they waited for the prophet who would be perfectly faithful mediator they needed.

Another promise came in the days of Samuel. In 1 Samuel 2:35, Yahweh said, “…I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. And I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed forever.” Yahweh said one was coming who would stand as a priest between God and His people – a mediator – and his faithfulness would be so complete that he would only fulfill what was in the heart and mind of God himself. And so he would not only be a faithful servant in the house like Moses, but God would build him a house and he would live in it forever.

And still another promise came in the days of King David. In 1 Chronicles 17:11-14, Yahweh promised David,

“When your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you, but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.’”

With these promises we hear the hope and need of humans being met by a faithful God. Three times, God says, “I will raise up” and three times He promises that the perfect mediator would come. He would give them not just a servant in the house, but perfect prophet, a faithful priest, a royal son who would reign over the house. He would be the perfect mediator of the covenant – fully faithful, fully powerful to act on behalf of his people.

It was this promised mediator that the apostles recognized when Jesus came. And when Jesus came, the people of God began to recognize the superiority of Jesus over Moses. Moses had been faithful in the house of God as a servant but Jesus “as the Son…was appointed to [reign] over God’s household.”[1]

It was Jesus who was perfectly meek in his temptation in the wilderness. He had the authority to transform stone into bread and yet he did not presume to use that power for himself. He listened when God spoke and always did what his Father said, even in Gethsemane when “listening to God” meant he would die. When accused and attacked by an illegal court on the night of his betrayal, he didn’t defend himself, but went like a sheep to the slaughter entrusting himself to Yahweh who always vindicates His servants! Jesus came as the new Moses, the greater Moses, the perfect mediator of the covenant of grace.

In the Scripture reading earlier (Acts 3:11-26) we heard how Peter spoke of Jesus as the prophet like Moses who was to come – the one to whom the people needed to listen. Peter says Jesus was the servant (also translatable as “child”) of God, and then puts his audience in the same position as Miriam when he says, “…you delivered [the servant of God] over and denied [him] in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him…you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you….” But like Miriam long ago, these people could be saved because of the mediator. As they repented of their sin (like Aaron had done) and embraced the covenant mediator, Jesus, by faith then forgiveness and healing and refreshing would come from the Lord.

Believers, do you understand? Jesus is the prophet, the living Word spoken to you and all he has done is to live out in his death and life the very heart and mind of God. And his faithfulness in life and death and new life is your salvation. And just as God promised to build His faithful mediator a house to live in forever, God has kept His promise. He is building you, Christians, into the very house of God, living stones gathered together to form the temple of the living God. And God himself will live in you and with you forever.

I hope you hear the deep encouragement and sober warning that this truth communicates. The warning is that because Jesus has become the perfect Mediator between God and men, to reject Jesus as our mediator is to reject what we need the most. That means living life on our own terms, loving human approval more than Gods, following our own hearts and feelings and ways of thinking and living in those ways as if we’ve done nothing wrong is the essence of unrepentance. To live in unrepentance is to trample upon our Mediator and his blood poured out for sinners.

In this is also a warning for the religious. Through what is our access to God? Is it our devotional life; our theological understanding; our memorization of Scripture; our work within the church; our mercy toward others; our ability to teach? These things are good, of course, but they can never grant us access to God. Remember Miriam’s sin. She boasted and relied on her work in the church as a leader and prophetess, but unless the LORD had shown her mercy for Moses’ sake, Miriam would have found herself forever outside the community of the believers – she would have died a leper. But she was shown grace and brought back into the house of God. No one of us can approach the Holy God on our own, but we can approach him in confidence with full assurance of grace in Christ. That is the encouragement here!

For the one who has faith, who continues repenting and believing this Gospel and looking in faith to our faithful mediator, there is confidence to be had and assurance that God hears Jesus’ prayers for you and He responds by saying, “Yes, Jesus, for you I will save them.” Your part is only to continue listening to Jesus and embracing him by faith; rest in the hope that he has purchased for you with his blood. Jesus has become both the sacrifice for you sin and your perfect mediator who prays for you. And can his prayers as the Son over God’s house be less effectual than the prayers of Moses, a servant in the house?

[1] William L. Lane, Hebrews: A Call to Commitment, Regent College Publishing, 2004, 61.