Timeline: Moses the Lawgiver

Genesis 15:13-16
13 Then God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your seed will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.
14 “But I will also judge the nation to whom they are enslaved, and afterward they will come out with many possessions.
15 “As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age.
16 “Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”

At the time of Abraham, God revealed to him a prophesy of what will happen to his descendants. God was showing love and patience with all His children while also setting the stage for an event that would become known around the world: God’s powerful hand in saving Israel from Egypt.

The seed of Abraham grew from Issac to Jacob to his 12 children. Jacob was given the name Israel and his family became the Israelites. From which his second youngest, Joseph, would be betrayed by his brothers and sold as a slave to Egypt. God’s hand was with Joseph and raised him to second in command over Egypt. It was through this act that God later saved all of Israel from a sever famine by bringing all of them into Egypt to live (Genesis 37-50). It was this account that brought them to the “land that is not theirs” where they would be “enslaved and mistreated.”

Exodus 1:8-14
8 And a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.
9 And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are more and mightier than we.
10 “Come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply and it be in the event of war, that they also join themselves to those who hate us and fight against us and go up from the land.”
11 So they appointed taskmasters over them to afflict them with hard labors. And they built for Pharaoh storage cities, Pithom and Raamses.
12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out, so that they were in dread of the sons of Israel.
13 So the Egyptians brutally compelled the sons of Israel to slave labor;
14 and they made their lives bitter with hard slave labor in mortar and bricks and in all kinds of slave labor in the field, all their slave labor which they brutally compelled them to do.

With the enslavement and persecutions increasing, Pharaoh decreed the death of all the male babies born. Echoing back to the saving grace of the ark at the flood, baby Moses is placed in an ark by his mother and put in the Nile river, hopeful that he’d be saved from death. Later being found by the daughter of Pharaoh in the Nile, baby Moses is then raised in Pharaoh’s house. Yet as his forefathers before him, Moses chose God and to be with his people.

Hebrews 11:24-26
24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,
25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin,
26 regarding the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward.

It was this Moses zealous for God, killed an Egyptian for beating an Israelite and then had to flee Egypt for 40 years. God calling Moses back as the deliverer for Israel through the burning bush, sending him to bring Israel out of Egypt.

Exodus 3:7-10
7 And Yahweh said, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sufferings.
8 “So I have come down to deliver them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.
9 “So now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me; and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them.
10 “So now, come and I will send you to Pharaoh, and so you shall bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.”

It was through Gods miraculous power that He led Moses to Pharaoh who continued to deny Moses request to go out and worship God. Pharaohs denial of God led to 10 plagues that showed God’s power and eventually led Pharaoh to let Israel leave Egypt. Yet his heart changed and sent his army to gather Israel back. This is when we see one of God’s greatest miracles: the splitting of the Red Sea. God brings Israel to safety through splitting the waters of the sea allowing safe passage across. While allowing the waters to fall back and destroy Egypts army when they went to cross. God surely did bring judgement on the nation that enslaved Abraham’s descendants.

Now freshly freed from slavery, God used Moses to lead and communicate Gods will to Israel. Soon Israel makes it to the Mountain of Sinai, where God Himself descends from heaven to speak to Israel directly.

Exodus 19:10-11
10 Yahweh also said to Moses, “Go to the people and set them apart as holy today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments;
11 and let them be ready for the third day, for on the third day Yahweh will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

It is on this third day that God comes down on the mountain with a scene of great awe and power. With thunder, lightening, fire and a great cloud to cover Him, God then spoke directly to all of Israel. This is when we get the beginning of the Law of God for Israel. The Ten Commandments are then spoken for all to hear. Israel shrinks back in fear of death from the great power of God.

Exodus 20:19-21
19 Then they said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself, and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, lest we die.”
20 And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may be with you, so that you may not sin.”
21 So the people stood at a distance, but Moses came near the dense gloom where God was.

God spoke directly to Israel to show His great power that He alone is the one true and living God. Israel’s fear was the desired effect from God. Moses bravery to enter the cloud to speak with God, begins the mediator relationship with God and Israel. From here on God does not speak directly with Israel but through His chosen prophets and anointed ones.

It is here on Mount Sinai that Moses receives the law from God. A law that was to govern Israel as a holy nation with God as their king. This law beautifully written, guided Israel on their morality with each other and their serves to God. Even with its beauty, there was a fatal flaw that we have seen before: humanity and their lusts.

Romans 7:7-12
7 What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! Rather, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law. For I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “YOU SHALL NOT COVET.”
8 But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, worked out in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the Law sin is dead.
9 Now I was once alive apart from the Law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died;
10 and this commandment, which was to lead to life, was found to lead to death for me.
11 For sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
12 So, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

The law God gave to Moses was good and holy, it was the weakness of humanity that would bring about a change later. God not unaware of what would happen, spoke in the law He gave to Moses about a change that would come; a built in sunset clause to the law.

Deuteronomy 18:15-19
15 “Yahweh your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers; you shall listen to him.
16 “This is according to all that you asked of Yahweh your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of Yahweh my God; let me not see this great fire anymore, or I will die.’
17 “And Yahweh said to me, ‘They have spoken well.
18 ‘I will raise up a prophet from among their brothers like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
19 ‘And it will be that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him.

Israel requested God to talk with them through Moses, rather than directly, on Mount Sinai (or Horeb). God was pleased with this and Moses was brave to be that mediator between God and Israel. Moses speaks of a future mediator that would be like him, one from amongst Israel like he was, who would speak all of what God tells him, not from himself.

Equipped with the future telling of one to come along with the law now imparted to them, Israel set off from Mount Sinai to the promised land. They were to be represent God to the nations and show all who God was. Allowing those who loved God to join, while enacting God’s judgment to those who rejected Him. Sadly Israel didn’t live up to their mission. Through lack of faith and trust in God to bring them into the promised land, Israel was cursed to wonder the desert for 40 years. Yet even in their rejection of God, He still loved and took care of them. Not even letting their sandals wear out during those 40 years.

Deuteronomy 29:5
5 “And I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandal has not worn out on your foot.

Then came the day when God, through Joshua, led Israel into the promised land to possess it and dwell safely if they trust and obey God. Now that Israel has a governing law, land to live in, and God who is there interacting with them, we continue on to our next forefather of faith who, like Abraham, receives a covenant from God due to his faith and trust in Him: David the King.