Who was Moses ?

Summoned by God, Moses ascended the mountain and received the tablets of stone while the children of Israel heard the thundering forth of the Ten Commandments. Inspired, the people agreed to the conditions of the Covenant (agreement made between people and God).

After killing an Egyptian slavemaster, because the slavemaster was smiting a Hebrew, Moses fled across the Red Sea to Midian, where he encountered The Angel of the Lord, speaking to him from within a burning bush on Mount Horeb, which he regarded as the Mountain of God.

God sent Moses back to Egypt to demand the release of the Israelites from slavery. Moses said that he couldn’t speak eloquently, so God allowed Aaron, his brother, to become his spokesperson.

Through forty years in the wilderness of Sinai, overcoming many obstacles, Moses led the horde of former slaves, shaping them into a nation. Many miracles happened along the way.

After the Ten Plagues, Moses led the Exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt and across the Red Sea, after which they based themselves at Mount Sinai, where Moses received the Ten Commandments.

When the Israelites stopped in front of the Red Sea with the Egyptian soldiers at their heels, it was Moses' raised staff that parted the Red Sea so that they could cross.

After 40 years of wandering in the desert, Moses died within sight of the Promised Land on Mount Nebo.

Once they had safely crossed, the sea crashed down, drowning many of their pursuers. When food supplies ran out, God sent down what was called "manna" (spiritual food) everyday for the nourishment of the Israelites.

Scholarly consensus sees Moses as a legendary figure and not a historical person.

Moses had to hear the Israelites complain about the food, the climate, and the slowness of their progress.

Rabbinic Judaism calculated a lifespan of Moses corresponding to 1391 to 1271 BCE; Jerome gives 1592 BCE, and James Ussher 1571 BCE as his birth year.

Moses even had to hear the Israelites claim that Egypt had been better than this wilderness trip.

Moses was the first abandoned child mentioned in the Bible. Moses’ parents hid him for three months to protect him from the Egyptian edict that said all male Hebrew babies must be killed.

The Pharaoh’s daughter paid Moses’ mother to nurse him after she rescued him from the Nile River.

When the people were in need of water, God told Moses to speak to a rock and water would spring from it.

Moses was the baby of the family. He had an older sister named Miriam and an older brother named Aaron.

Moses worked as a shepherd while “on the lam.” When Moses ran from the murder charge, he fled to the desert of Midian where he met Zipporah, the daughter of a shepherd, and began working with her father, Jethro.

Moses was famous long before Charlton Heston raised his profile in the 1956 Cecile B. DeMille movie, The Ten Commandments. Universally recognized as the deliverer of his people, the Israelites, from slavery in Egypt, biblical and human history also credit him with establishing Israel’s judicial and religious systems.

Moses' character was apparently worn down because, instead of following directions, he struck the rock with his staff. That was to have lasting impact on Moses's final days.

Moses was 80 years old when he led the children of Israel out of Egypt. His first 40 years in Pharaoh’s court had prepared him to lead, and his second 40 years had given him the knowledge of the desert through which he and the Israelites would travel.

Moses’ godly parents hid him for three months to protect him from the Egyptian edict that said all male Hebrew babies must be killed. When they could no longer hide him, they set him afloat in a basket on the Nile River

With the help of his brother Aaron, Moses was able to hold together his ragtag band of exslaves for forty years. Only a man with tremendous will, patience, compassion, humility, and great faith could have forged the bickering and scheming groups who constantly challenged his wisdom and authority into a nation. Throughout the forty years Moses was in constant communication with his Lord, the God of Israel.

He was the original snake handler. Three times during his tenure as leader, he used snakes to demonstrate God’s power. The fist time God turned Moses’ rod into a snake, it scared him so much that he ran away.

Moses’ name, according to the website, Behind the Name, “comes from the Hebrew name מֹשֶׁה (Mosheh)
and is most likely derived from the Egyptian name Mes meaning ‘son,’ but could also possibly mean ‘deliver’ in Hebrew.”

He had leprosy. After demonstrating his power by turning Moses’ rod into a snake, God told Moses to place his hand in his cloak. When he withdrew it, his hand was covered in leprosy.