1. Character study of Moses, part2
Prepared by Ed van Ouwerkerk

2. Begin Moses in the wilderness story for children

26. End Moses in the wilderness story for children

27. Moses’ life 40-year period Theme Scripture 1 The prince from the river
Exodus 2 2
The prince becomes a shepherd
Exodus 2-15
Goodbye Pharaoh 3
Forty years in the wilderness
Exodus 15-34

28. Moses’ character built by God over time (Exodus 2-14)
negative
Positive
Sneaky
Feel for injustice
Violent
Socially sensitive
Uncontrolled
Responsive to help the weak
Afraid for hidden sin revealed
Readiness to adapt in foreign culture
Cowardly
Curious after the supernatural
Doubtful about God’s mission
Responsive to God
Doubtful about his God-given authority
Obedient to God
Fearing/respecting God
Trustworthy for God
Communicative
Ready to be used by God’s power
Beginning leader
Beginning prophet
God follower, leader and team-worker
Obedient to God’s miracles
Spiritual leader
Trustworthy servant
Moses’ character built by God over time
(Exodus 2-14)

29. After the Lord saved the Hebrew people through the Red Sea, Moses praises the Lord
with a song (Exodus 15):
1 “I will sing to the LORD, for he is highly exalted” 6 “Your right hand, O LORD, was majestic in power”
13 “In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling” 18 “The LORD will reign for ever and ever.”
Moses’ character
Lord worshipper by praises, thanksgiving,
and prophesy
positive

30. Moses and the free people were in the desert, but what was he going to do with them?
Water They would have to have water. If they only had enough to drink and wash a few dishes, it would take 11,000,000 gallons each day and a freight train with tank cars, 1800 miles long, just to bring water!
Food They had to be fed, and feeding 2 or 3 million people requires a lot of food. According to military specialists, it is reported that Moses would have to have had 1500 tons of food each day. Do you know that to bring that much food each day, two freight trains, each at least a mile long, would be required?
Infrastructure They had to get across the Red Sea at night. Now, if they went on a narrow path, double file, the line would be 800 miles long and would require 35 days and nights to get through. So there had to be a space in the Red Sea, 3 miles wide so that they could walk to get over in one night.
Campground Each time they camped at the end of the day, a campground equal to the size of the state of Rhode Island was required.
Firewood Besides you must remember, they were out in the desert, so they would have to have firewood to use in cooking the food. This would take tons of wood and a few more freight trains, each a mile long, just for one day. And just think, they were forty years in transit.
Do you think Moses figured all this out before he left Egypt? I think not! You see, Moses believed in God. God took care of these things for him.

31. Exodus Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. 23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. 24 So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?” 25 Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.
Moses’ character
(although his people grumbled) he cried out to God and did what God instructed
positive
There the LORD made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them. 26 He said, “If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you.”
27 Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.
God encourages Moses by providing plenty of drinking water!

32. Moses’ character positive negative positive
Exodus 16 occurred 6 weeks after the people left Egypt. Read Exodus 16.
5 “On the sixth day they are to prepare what they
bring in, and that is to be twice as much as
they gather on the other days.” Why twice as much manna on the 6th day?
Verse 23 gives the answer.
Moses’ character
obedient, faithful, and instructive (vss. 6-8)
positive
angry (vs. 20)
negative
patient and faithful leader for 40 years (vs )
positive

33. Water from the rock: two instances
Moses’ character
The Lord said to Moses in Exodus 17: 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.
obedient servant
positive
Consequences for Moses 12 But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in
me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will
not bring this community into the land I give them.” (Numbers 20:12)
At the end of the 40 years in the wilderness, when Moses finally, at the
age of 120, approached the promised land:
4 Then the LORD said to him, “This is the land I promised on oath to
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants.
’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.”
5 And Moses the servant of the LORD died there in Moab, as the LORD
had said. (Deuteronomy 34:4-5)
Numbers 20:7-11 reports: 7 The LORD said to Moses, 8 “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.”
9 So Moses took the staff from the LORD’s presence, just as he commanded him. 10 He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” 11 Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.
disgraceful to his people and disobedient to God (struck instead of spoke)
negative

34. spiritual team-work warrior positive
Moses, God’s warrior
Later we see a similar obedient act of Moses, when the people grew impatient and complained to Moses about the taste of the provided food. God sent snakes and many Israelites died.
The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.
8 The LORD said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived. (Numbers 21:7-9).
In Exodus 17:8-16 we read about the first battle against the Amalekites in the wilderness.
8 The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. 9 Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.” 10 So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. 11 As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. 12 When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. 13 So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.
Moses’ character
spiritual team-work warrior
positive

35. Why did it take 40 years to enter the Promised Land?
God had promised the Israelites that they would be able to conquer the land with its current Canaanite peoples. Moses instructed twelve spies to report back on the agriculture and lay of the land. During their tour, however, the spies saw fortified cities and resident giants, which frightened them and led them to believe that the Israelites would not be able to conquer the land as God had promised. Ten of the spies decided to bring back a false report, emphasizing the difficulty of the task before them. (Numbers 13:27-28)
Two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, did not go along with the majority and tried to convince the Israelites that they could conquer the land. However, the Israelites believed the majority's conclusions. All of the spies except Joshua and Caleb were struck down with a plague and died. (Numbers 14:16)
God decreed that the Israelites would wander in the wilderness for 40 years as a result of their unwillingness to take the land: “30 Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. 31 As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected. 32 But you—your bodies will fall in this desert. 33 Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the desert. “ (Numbers 14:30-33)
Moses’ character
Why didn’t Moses see the fear in the ten spies’ report?
also afraid
negative

36. The following chapters in Exodus report all that
happened on Mount Sinai (chapter 19): the Ten
Commandments given to Moses by God (chapter 20),
the detailed main laws given to Moses by God
(chapters 21 – 23), and instructions on the Tabernacle service (chapters 25-31).
The last verse of chapter 31 says: 18 “When the LORD finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the Testimony, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God. “

37. When Moses went up onto Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments, he left the Israelites for forty days and forty nights.
Exodus 32 says: “1 When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.” 2 Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.”
3 So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf…6 So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings (to the calf)….”.

38. Exodus 32 continues: ”15 Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back. 16 The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.”
19 When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. 20 And he took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.
Moses’ character
uncontrolled anger
negative
27 Then he (Moses) said to them (the Levites), “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’” 28 The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died.
command mass murder
negative

39. Exodus 33
7 Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the “tent of meeting.” Anyone inquiring of the LORD would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp. 8 And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. 9 As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the LORD spoke with Moses. 10 Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to his tent. 11 The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend….
Moses’ character
worship leader, always close to God as a friend
positive

40. worshipping, thanksgiving and
Exodus 34
1 The LORD said to Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke….
4 So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the LORD had commanded him; and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands.…
8 Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped. 9 “O Lord, if I have found favor in your eyes,” he said, “then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance.”
Moses’ character
worshipping, thanksgiving and
pleading for mercy for him and his people
positive
The Lord makes a covenant with Moses and gives him new instructions (vss ).
27 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” 28 Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.
humbly fasting,
and taking responsibility
positive

41. Moses grew as a leader, during his long life. He became a lover of God,
leading many people to an obedient life.
A recurring character problem ‘anger’ was a thorn in Moses’ flesh. It leaded to disasters an many cases. God, however, used Moses and his repentant heart. Moses accepted that his sins caused him not to be allowed to enter the Promised Land.
Moses, author of the five Old Testament law books,
wrote everything down, including his own shortcomings.

42. Moses Jesus An evil king/Pharaoh tried to kill baby Moses: Ex. 1:22
King Herod tried to kill baby Jesus: Matt 2:16
Moses was hidden from the evil king/Pharaoh: Ex. 2:2
An angel said to hide from the evil King Herod: Matt. 2:13
Moses was sent into Egypt to preserve his life: Ex. 2:3-4
Jesus was taken into Egypt to preserve His life: Matt. 2:13-15
Moses was saved by women: mother Ex. 2:3; sister Ex. 2:4; Pharaoh's daughter Ex. 2:5-10
Jesus was saved and helped by His mother: Matt. 2:14
Moses was adopted by Pharaoh's daughter : Ex. 2:10
Jesus was adopted by Joseph: Matt. 1:25
Moses became a prince of Egypt: Ex. 2:10
Jesus is the Prince of Peace: Isaiah 9:5; Matt. 28:18; Luke 2:14
Long period of silence from childhood to adulthood
Moses tried to save a Hebrew kinsman: Ex. 2:11-12
Jesus came to save His Hebrew kinsman first: Mark 7:26-28
Went from being a prince to a pauper: Ex. 2:15-19
Went from being God to being man: John 1:1-3; Mark 6:3
Moses saved women at a well: Ex. 2:15-19
Jesus saved a woman at a well: John 4
Moses became a shepherd: Ex. 3:1
Jesus is the Good Shepherd: John 10:11
Moses was to redeem Israel from slavery
Jesus' mission is to redeem mankind from slavery to sin
Moses was often rejected by his own people
Jesus was often rejected by His own people
Moses gives God's law on Mount Sinai: Ex ; 34
Jesus gives the new law from the Mt. of Beatitudes: Matt. 5
Moses spent 40 days fasting in the desert: Ex. 24;34
Jesus spent 40 days fasting in the desert: Matt. 4:2
Moses performs signs/ miracles
Jesus performs signs/miracles
Moses offered his life for salvation of his people: Ex. 32
Jesus offered His life for the salvation of the world; John 3:16
Moses is the prophet of the Old Covenant
Jesus is prophet, priest, and king of a New and everlasting Covenant