Article: Moses – A man hidden in God | Benjamin T Mathai, India
No man in human history, except the Son of God, could be considered greater than Moses. His towering personality in the molding of the religion, law and culture of a nation, his impressions on the life of a people, his faith in the true and living God, all these make him unique. He provided a code of divine sanctions, covering the entire scope of human conduct under the hard conditions of life as strangers and pilgrims in the desert. This made the priestly community of Hebrews that he built, unique in the annals of history. The system to which he gave birth laid the foundations of a later society in the West in which the individual came to be of supreme importance in the fulfilment of man’s destiny.
The princely training of Moses in the most civilized and powerful country of his time helped him to have a clear vision of the forces of the history of that period. God’s revelations concerning His people, which Moses received directly from Jehovah, made the later nations all over the world, model their systems after the system which Moses built. God Himself gave to man, through Moses, a theocracy to follow and develop. The essential truth of Mosaic Law, and its eternal spirit of humanity, divine order, consideration for young and old, weak and strong, slave and enemy remain valid for all times. Its ecological concepts, health regulations, and other principles under the ruler-ship of the unchangeable God prove how this outstanding man led his people through the most adverse of circumstances to the Promised Land, at a time when these concepts were alien. The Holy Spirit recorded: “Since then no prophet has arisen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face” (Deut 34:10).
The secret of his glory was conveyed to us by the Holy Spirit in simple words saying: “Moses the man of God” (Deut 33:1). Yet this rare leader-statesman who could perform miracle after miracle in the redemption of his people, is described touchingly as “very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth” (Num 12:3). What a glorious testimony for a man who was the rarest of all army generals, people builders, and prophets. Moses laid the foundation of human existence, or society, which has stood the test of time and change for the last 3500 years. Moses became a singular symbol of law while grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17). God gave him an exalted position by saying “Remember the law of Moses, my servant” (Mal 4:4). The Old Testament closes with that reminder to God’s people.
Even from his infancy he was hidden; no one celebrated his birth, and no one was there to see his death and burial. This founder of the nation of Israel was a type of Christ. “When he was born, he was hidden for three months by his parents because they saw he was a beautiful child” (Heb 11:23). When his mother could not conceal him for long, she hid him in a basket of reeds and left him on the river bed (Exod 2:3,4). God gave him protection for His glorious purpose. The great revelation and assurance of his high calling also came at a time when he was hiding from imperial Egypt. In that hidden stage of his life when no significance could be attributed to him, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire. It was there his new life as God’s anointed leader began with commission, covenant, and the promise of the Lord. Even after that, he became the confirmed leader of his people, leading them with signs and wonders, he was a man hidden in the desert. The world could not see him.
His life in the wilderness where there was no water, was completely hidden. Even at that glorious moment of receiving God’s law for His people on Mount Sinai, he was totally hidden in the glory of God on the mount. When God was revealing His glory, the Lord God told him: “I will put thee in the cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand” (Exod 33:22). The greatest man in the Old Testament was a man hidden by God all his life, and he disappeared in the same manner, hidden completely in God.
Let us look at him as a man completely lost in God and hiding in God, as Paul the apostle said: “No more I but Christ liveth in me”. Such a man of destiny left this world completely hidden in God, without seeking to perpetuate his name, but leaving everything to God and Him alone, who is the true judge of all men. Let us live and die hidden in God. Only then can we say along with Paul the apostle: “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21).
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