Bedside Watchman Moses and Christ

Last Updated on : October 11, 2014

The Bedside Watchman

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June 2nd -- Hebrews 8

Moses and Christ

IT must also be borne in mind that Jesus does not present his death as an isolated act; it was the fulfilment of his life. He came to serve, and service was consummated in the death of the cross. His atoning work did not begin with Gethsemane or Golgotha, but with his baptism, and it was the completed life of obedience which was offered to the Father. Moses, whom the Jews called "the first redeemer," as Messiah would be "the last," had been willing to offer his life for the people: "Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin --; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written." It is a Jewish scholar who compares this with Jesus, and applies to Moses' offer the terms kopher, lutron (Dr. David Daube, The N.T. and Rabbinic Judaism). But Moses, forbidden at last to enter Canaan, could not offer the perfect life; he was a great servant of the Lord and of Israel, "faithful in all God's house," but he could only provide "a testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken" (Heb. 8:5, R.V.). He could only bear witness as a type to the greater Redeemer, whose whole life was an offering which his death perfected.

L.G. Sargent, The Gospel of the Son of God, page 148