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Moses
and the Mark of the Beast
Lesson 50
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The life of Moses could
be divided into three distinct segments of 40
years each: The first segment began with his
birth and ended with him murdering an Egyptian
taskmaster. The next segment began when Moses
escaped from Egypt and ended when he returned to
Egypt. The final segment of his life began with
the Exodus and ended when he died.
Except for his miraculous
escape from death shortly after he was born, the
Bible gives minimal information about Moses
first 40 years. (See Exodus 1 and 2.) The Bible
does not reveal how Pharaohs daughter
adopted Moses or provide additional insight about
his time in Pharaohs house. We do know,
however, that when Moses grew to be a man, he
refused to be called the son of Pharaohs
daughter. (Hebrews 11:24) The reason Moses
murdered the Egyptian taskmaster remains a
mystery to me. Did Moses kill the Egyptian out of
a sense of injustice or was Moses simply looking
for respect from his Hebrew brothers? The
circumstances surrounding the murder happened
this way: One day Moses left the comforts of
Pharaohs palace to see for himself how his
Hebrew brothers were fairing under the agony of
slavery. He came upon a Egyptian who was beating
a Hebrew slave and believing that no one was
watching (Exodus 2:12), Moses killed the Egyptian
and quickly buried the corpse in the sand.
However, another Hebrew witnessed the event and
the word of the murder spread like a wildfire
through the Hebrew camp. Moses feared for his
life and fled to the desert to escape
Pharaohs wrath.
For the next segment of
40 years, Moses lived in the desert as a
fugitive. While working for minimum wages
(tending sheep) in the hostile environment of the
desert, Moses discovered two essential elements
of life. A patient faith in God and
contentment. The stark surroundings of the desert
with its unforgiving lessons of survival taught
Moses about depending on the Lord than he could
ever learned while living in Pharaohs
palace. Moses discovered the power and joy of
love when he cared for the sheep. Ultimately, the
first 80 years of life prepared Moses for the
finest and final segment of his life. His
Education in Pharaohs schools and his
education in the desert combined in a unique way
to make him one of the worlds finest
servant leaders.
The
Servant Leader
Being a servant leader is
quite difficult because the attitudes of a
servant and the attitudes of a leader are
constantly at war against each other for mastery.
The leader uses the authority and
control to meet objectives, but the
servant uses love to get the job
done. The servant leader exalts the welfare and
development of his or her subjects equal to that
of the objectives. In other words, the servant
aspect of leadership is willing to miss
objectives (or profits) to improve and develop
the members of the group, whereas the leader
aspect of leadership is willing to sacrifice
members of the group to meet objectives! In
practice, this balance is very hard to manage and
Moses often failed in his attempt to be a servant
leader. Remember the time he impatiently struck
the rock to obtain water when God had commanded
him to speak to it? (Numbers 20:8-12) That
impatient act prevented Moses from entering the
Promised Land. I find it ironic that Moses had to
flee from Pharaohs palace because of an
impulsive act and he also failed to enter the
Promised Land due to his impulsive nature.
After Moses was gone for
40 years, God forced him to return to Egypt. The
Lords anger burned against Moses because he
resisted Gods command at the burning bush
to return to Egypt! (Exodus 4:14) Shortly after
the burning bush episode, Moses made the Lord so
angry the Lord was prepared to kill Moses. In
that case, Moses wife, Zipporah, saved him from
Gods wrath! (Exodus 4:24) When Moses
arrived in Egypt, he was a much different man
than when he left. Moses had left Egypt with an
attitude of a leader, but returned 40 years later
with an attitude of a servant. A tremendous
difference lies between egocentric attitude of
the young Moses and the theo-centric attitude of
Moses at age 80. It took 40 years of tending
sheep to transform Moses into a meek man. When
Moses finally learned how to follow the Good
Shepherd, God promoted Moses to be a shepherd of
Gods people.
A
Man without a Country
When Moses arrived back
in Egypt after his 40-year wilderness sojourn, he
did not have the respect of the Hebrew elders. No
doubt, some of the elders remembered that Moses
was a fugitive from justice. This made it
necessary for God to use a miraculous signs
through Moses in the presence of the elders.
Otherwise, the elders would have rejected Moses
and the message he presented. (Exodus 4:30,31)
From our vantage point today, it is interesting
that even after directing a miraculous exodus
from Egypt using great displays of Gods
power, his people still did not respect Moses.
There is a simple reason for this: The carnal
mind does not understand the spiritual mind. God
used 40 years in the wilderness to transform
Moses into a spiritual man. In the carnal world,
leaders (politicians must maneuver so a majority
of important people constantly admire them or
they will be out of a job. When Moses returned to
Egypt, he did not promote himself to be the
savior of the Hebrews, not did he seek followers
or popularity. He did not arrive with an
entourage of servants nor did he command a mighty
army prepared to defeat Pharaoh. Moses arrived in
Egypt as a servant of God. Moses explained to the
elders that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
had sent him back to Egypt to lead Israel out of
Egyptian slavery. To verify Moses claim,
God worked several miracles through him. (Exodus
4:29-31) After seeing the miracles, the elders
believed.
Background
The story of Moses offers
several end time parallels that are important to
consider. Interestingly, the parallels found in
the lives of Moses, Pilate, Saul, Easter, Gideon,
Daniel and others were recorded in the Bible for our
benefit! (1 Corinthians 10:11)
For a point of reference,
our background study on Moses should begin with
Jacob the great-great grandfather of
Moses. Jacob had twelve sons and his favorite was
Rachels first son, Joseph. (Remember, Jacob
worked fourteen years to acquire Rachel from
Laban. See Genesis 29.) When Joseph was
seventeen, his envious brothers sold him to
Midianite merchants for 20 pieces of silver.
These merchants took Joseph to Egypt and sold him
theyre as a slave. (Genesis 37:28) In spite
of this great injustice, Joseph remained faithful
to God, and God wonderfully blessed Joseph
through some very tough experiences.
About 23 years after his
brothers sold Joseph as a slave, the king of
Egypt released him from prison and promoted him
to the position of Prime Minister of Egypt. This
sudden promotion occurred because God enabled
Joseph to interpret a dream that God specifically
gave to Pharaoh. Pharaohs dream predicted
seven years of plenty and seven years of famine.
God warned Pharaoh of an approaching famine
through Joseph, and Pharaoh was so pleased to
know the meaning of his dream that he elevated
Joseph to his new position. After seven years of
bountiful harvests, the sun began to scorch the
Earth and the famine was severe and widespread.
The famine also reached Canaan and about two
years later, Jacob and his eleven sons ran out of
food. In desperation, Jacob sent ten of his sons
to Egypt. Through a series of events,
Jacobs sons discovered their little
brother, Joseph, was the Prime Minister of Egypt.
Imagine their great fear and panic! In one of the
greatest acts of compassion ever recorded, Joseph
forgave his brothers and insisted that his father
and all of his brothers move to Egypt. Knowing
the famine would last five more years, Joseph
moved his father and the brothers to the region
of Goshen and the children and grandchildren of
Jacob (Israel) flourished in Egypt.
One of Jacobs
twelve sons, Levi, had a son named Kohath. Now
follow the genealogy Kohath had a son
named Amram, and Amram was the father of Aaron
and Moses. This Levi-Kohath-Amram-Moses genealogy
is important to this story because Moses knew as
a youngster that his generation
the fourth generation was the
generation scheduled to be freed from Egyptian
slavery! Review the promise that God gave to
Abraham many years earlier: Then the
Lord said to him, Know for certain that
your descendants will be strangers in a
country not their own, and they will be enslaved
and mistreated four hundred years. But I will
punish the nation they serve as slaves, and
afterward they will come out with great
possessions. You, however, will go to your
fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age.
In the fourth generation
your descendants will come back here, for the sin
of the Amorites has not yet reached its full
measure. (Genesis 15: 13-16,
italics mine)
The
Fourth Generation
I hope you have read the
bible account describing how God miraculously
used Pharaohs daughter to rescue baby Moses
from the river and adopt him. (Exodus 2) Growing
up in the palace of Pharaoh and learning about
his miraculous rescue at birth could put all
kinds of ideas in a young mans mind. I am
sure that as Moses grew into manhood, he probably
concluded that he was a man of destiny.
Moses could easily have concluded that god had
chosen him to deliver Israel from
Pharaohs control and lead His people into
Canaan to inherit the land God promised Abraham.
I believe these ideas were probable because at
that time, Moses was the only Hebrew in the world
who was not a slave. Moses also was aware that he
belonged to the fourth generation and knew God
promised Abraham that the fourth generation in
Egypt would return to Canaan and inherit the
land! Evidently these thoughts led Moses to
conclude that he was the one who would set
his people free. However, one pivotal problem
with Moses conclusion was that the slaves
had no respect for Moses. They lived in the
ghetto of Goshen and every day they endured
terrible suffering as slaves. Conversely, Moses
had lived in Pharaohs palace and enjoyed
the best things that money could buy. No matter
what Moses thought and though Moses refused to be
called a son of Pharaohs daughter (Hebrews
11:24,25), the other Hebrews did not regard Moses
as one of them! Moses probably knew about
this alienation and set out to prove to his
kinsman that he really identified with them and
their suffering. Part of Moses motivation
for killing the Egyptian may have been the
strained relationship between Moses and his
identification with his people. However, the
murder was a rash decision and it did not enamor
Moses to his people. In reality, his action
ultimately proved to everyone that he was not
very smart. The very next day, when Moses
realized that (a) his own people had no interest
in mounting an insurrection against Pharaoh by
following his example, and (b) Pharaoh would
probably sentence him to death for unlawfully
killing an Egyptian, Moses decided it was the
best interest to disappear from Egypt. His grand
illusion of delivering the Hebrews from slavery
simply evaporated as he fled into the isolation
of the desert to save himself from certain death.
End
Time Parallel
With God, timing is
everything. God did not need Moses to deliver His
people from slavery. God could have exercised any
one of thousands of options to deliver His
people. This brings up an interesting point about
faith. I believe Moses was like Abraham. Moses
wanted to deliver his people from slavery,
but Gods larger plans for the Exodus
included several object lessons between Himself
and Pharaoh. Of course, Moses did not know about
Gods larger picture and Moses finite
view of Gods plans led to his failure.
This is always the human problem. Remember
the case of adultery between Abraham and Hagar?
Abraham and Sarah schemed to fulfill Gods
plan by violating their marriage covenant. Moses
attempted to fulfill Gods magnificent plans
by killing an Egyptian. Like Abraham, Moses
sincerely believed in God, but both men failed
because they would not wait for God to resolve
the situation! Moses violated Gods law
by killing the Egyptian and consequently, he had
40 years of solitary isolation! As a fugitive in
the harsh setting of a desert prison, Moses
learned submission and total dependence on God.
Moses discovered the practical meaning of faith
and learned how to wait so that God could
fulfill His higher purposes for Moses. (Waiting
for God is one of the most difficult lessons to
learn. James 1:4) When God concluded that
Moses spiritual life had reached a
satisfactory level of maturity, He called Moses
to do a special work for Him and Moses submitted
to Gods plan.
There is a profound end
time parallel here. During the Great tribulation,
each person will face a question of survival. As
the issue of survival becomes all consuming, the
human solution will stand opposing the
divine solution. (Our ways are often contrary
to Gods ways, because Gods ways are
not like our ways.) For example, the Bible
makes it clear that a severe famine will occur
during the Great Tribulation and food supplies
will be scarce. So, in the face of death, does
hunger justify stealing? The juxtaposition
between starvation and stealing forces each of us
to take a tough look at the principles we
honestly maintain. If we answer, yes
to the question that hunger justifies stealing,
then our principles are no different from the
principles of thugs who currently roam and loot
the world. They steal because they do not have
what they what and do not trust God to provide
for their needs. So not stop there take
the question one step further. Does hunger
justify killing? If we answer yes,
then we are no different from Moses whose
impulsive act killed the Egyptian. The point is
that submission to God means submission to Gods
control of the situation and in some
cases this means submission to the point of
death. (Remember the three Hebrews in the fiery
furnace?) Here is a truth to consider: Calvary
proves that Jesus would not participate in wrong
doing (unrighteousness) to sustain His own life
(and neither should those who honor Him)!
(See Matthew 4)
The Great Tribulation is
just before us, so carefully consider these words
from Revelation 13:10: If anyone is to
go into captivity, into captivity he will go. If
anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the
sword he will be killed. This calls for patient
endurance and faithfulness on the part of the
saints. Reread that last sentence. This
text is directed at gods people during the
Great Tribulation and it indicates that many of
Gods people will be imprisoned without justification.
Also, many of Gods people will be killed
without justification. So, get ready children
of God. This world is full of injustice and it
will be directed our way soon! Gods Word
has declared the course of coming events so that
our faith in God might remain steady. Gods
people need patient endurance and
faithfulness! God knows the future and He
already knows the outcome for each of us.
Obviously, we do not know how our particular
future will unfold, but that is not our concern.
Our concern is to remain faith-full to God and
the principles of His kingdom today even
to the point of death.
Moses
before Pharaoh
The first time Moses and
Aaron approached Pharaoh, they presented a small demand.
Notice that god did not demand something from
Pharaoh that would destroy his nations
economy. God merely demanded a three-day leave of
absence, which is all.
Moses
and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, This is
what the Lord, the God of Israel says:
Let my people go, so that they may hold a
festival to me in the desert. Pharaoh
said, Who is the Lord, that I should obey
him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and
I will not let Israel go.
(Exodus 5:1,2)
Pharaohs response
immediately revealed his heart! Although Pharaoh
has been dead for a long time, his words and
attitude live on. The carnal response of
the human heart when brought face to face with
the sovereign will of God remains unchanged: Who
is the Lord that I should obey Him? God
did not offer to negotiate with Pharaoh. Instead,
God confronted Pharaoh with a direct order, Let
my people go
. During the Great
tribulation, God will confront the people of
Earth with a direct order,
Fear
God and give him glory, because the hour of his
judgment has come. Worship him
who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the
springs of water. (Revelation 14:7,
italics mine) Moses and Aaron were to Pharaoh
what the 144,000 will be to the world during the
Great Tribulation. God will empower and send His
servants throughout the world to proclaim the
everlasting gospel. The gospel of Christ commands
everyone to worship the Creator. This means we
should structure our lives to incorporate the Ten
Commandments, which include His seventh day
Sabbath. Gods point-blank declaration will
produce a similar response to that of Pharaoh in
many people. They will say, Who is the
Lord, that I should obey him
.
Remember that it took ten
plagues to ravage Egypt before Pharaohs
rebellion temporarily softened. Pharaohs
behavior should hold special meaning for the
students of Bible prophecy, especially for
individuals who want to understand the use of
Sodom and Egypt in Revelation 11:8.
Notice the text: Their bodies [the two
witnesses] will lie in the street of the great
city, which is figuratively called Sodom and
Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.
Consider why the Bible refers to Sodom and Egypt
in Revelation 11. These two entities, Sodom and
Egypt, describe the mindset of the wicked at the
time of the seventh trumpet. The seventh trumpet
(Revelation 11:15-19) marks the close of the
offer of salvation. When the seventh trumpet
sounds in Heaven, God will have separated the
people of Earth into two groups (sheep and
goats). God will seal one group with His seal and
the other group will have received the mark of
the beast. The group that receives the mark of
the beast will have the same defects in their
character as the ancient inhabitants of Sodom and
Egypt. Sodom represents a class of people who
cannot discern right from wrong. The Sodomites
were inebriated with sexual immorality and
they vigorously promoted their degenerate ways.
The consciences of the Sodomites and the
inhabitants who lived in the cities around Sodom
were cauterized as with a hot iron. As a result,
Gods patient forbearance with them ended
and He burned Sodom, Gomorrah and several ancient
cities to the ground with a meteorite shower of
burning hail and sulphur. (Genesis 13:13;
19:24-29)
Egypt, on the other hand,
represents a class of people who defiantly refuse
to submit to Gods authority. Like Pharaoh,
Egypt represents a group of people who will
refuse to render obedience to Almighty God, even
after they have heard Gods demands! The
terms, Sodom and Egypt, represent a point in time
when divine forbearance with the wicked has no
redeeming effect. When Gods subjects have
reached that point, God can do no more to save
them. Therefore, God will destroy the wicked,
just as He did in Pharaohs day. Think about
this: A Sovereign is not sovereign as long as
rebellion exists! This is why God will ultimately
destroy sin itself! (1 Corinthians 15:24-28)
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