Moses led an adventurous life, from the comforts of the palace to the hardships of exile in Midian, from the heady days when he led the Israelites in their exodus from Egypt to his painful struggle to keep them united during their long years of wandering in the wilderness.
Yet two constants guided Moses every step of the way: his zealous love for his people and his firm faith in the transcendent God who is mighty to save. The Bible says that Moses alone knew God “face to face.”
Father Moon focuses on this aspect of Moses’ inner life, explaining that Moses was keenly aware of God’s anguished heart over the plight of His people and knew God’s burning desire to free them and establish them as a nation in Canaan.
Hence, he was willing to sacrifice everything to relieve God’s anguish and establish the Israelites in a way that would be acceptable to God.
Moses’ Zeal to Liberate His People
One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens; and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together; and he said to the man that did the wrong, “Why do you strike your fellow?” He answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh, and stayed in the land of Midian. Exodus 2.11-15
Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and lo, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, “I will turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.” When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here am I.” Then he said, “Do not come near; put off your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. Then the Lord said, “I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters; I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring forth my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” He said, “But I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought forth the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God upon this mountain.” Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name,’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I Am Who I Am.” He said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I Am has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’: this is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt; and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt.” ’ ” Exodus 3.1-17
And the Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt; for all the men who were seeking your life are dead.” So Moses took his wife and his sons and set them on an ass, and went back to the land of Egypt; and in his hand Moses took the rod of God. And the Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles which I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go. And you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, “Let my son go that he may serve me”; if you refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay your firstborn son.’”
At a lodging place on the way the Lord met him and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin, and touched Moses’ feet with it, and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!” So he let him alone. Then it was that she said, “You are a bridegroom of blood,” because of the circumcision… Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered all the elders of the people of Israel. And Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had spoken to Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped. Exodus 4.19-31
We sent forth Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh and his council with Our signs, but they waxed proud, and were a sinful people. So when the truth came to them from Us, they said, “Surely this is a manifest sorcery.”… None believed in Moses, save a seed of people, for fear of Pharaoh and their council, that they would persecute them, and Pharaoh was high in the land, and he was one of the prodigals. Moses said, “O my people, if you believe in God, in Him put your trust, if you have surrendered.” They said, “In God we have put our trust. Our Lord, make us not a temptation to the people of the evildoers, and deliver us by Thy mercy from the people of the unbelievers.”… Moses said, “Our Lord, You have given to Pharaoh and his council adornment and possessions in this present life. Our Lord, let them go astray from Thy way; our Lord, obliterate their possessions, and harden their hearts so that they do not believe, till they see the painful chastisement.” He said, “Your prayer is answered; so go you straight, and follow not the way of those that know not.” And We brought the children of Israel over the sea; and Pharaoh and his hosts followed them insolently and impetuously till, when the drowning overtook them, he said, “I believe that there is no god but He in whom the children of Israel believe; I am of those that surrender.” “Now? And before you were a rebel, one of those who did corruption. So today We shall deliver you with your body, that you might be a sign to those after you. Surely many men are heedless of Our signs.” Qur’an 10.75-92
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
When Moses lived in the palace amidst opulence and splendor, he did not live a carefree life. He did not enjoy eating sumptuous meals or wearing luxurious clothes. Whether eating, dressing or sleeping, he was always thinking about the Israelites.
Among all the Israelites, only Moses maintained an unchanging heart of loyalty toward God, even though his people did not recognize it. You might think that Moses is a person with a bad temper, but the fury that Moses felt when he saw the Egyptian beating the Israelite was not some impulse of the moment.
When he saw that sight, his inner heart of sorrow with which he had appealed to Heaven on behalf of the people for forty years finally exploded. In other words, when he saw that injustice being done to the chosen people, he felt irrepressible indignation and beat the Egyptian to death.
His love toward the Israelites and his righteous indignation toward the Egyptian motivated him to action. Hence the deed contained the providential Will of God.
Moreover, in killing the Egyptian, Moses was taking responsibility for the Israelites and their destiny.
Compared to the Egyptians’ sin of oppressing the Israelites, Moses’ action was minuscule. Moses was more concerned about his people than anyone else. Hence God chose him to lead them.
However, the Israelites misunderstood Moses and divulged the fact that he had killed the Egyptian. As a result, knowing that his act would be exposed, Moses had no choice but to escape to the wilderness of Midian. (1:141-42, July 1, 1956)
Once he settled in the wilderness of Midian, Moses felt ashamed of the luxurious life he had led in the palace. He forgot those glorious days when his life was full of leisure and Pharaoh’s daughter gave him whatever he wanted. He had become a nameless shepherd who wore clothes made from lamb’s wool and drove flocks of sheep from one place to another.
Yet, as he was watching the flock, he longed for the land of Canaan that had been promised to his distant ancestor, Abraham. Moses appealed to Heaven with a penetrating heart. He prayed that although he was doing no more than driving sheep, one day he was going to guide his people, like a flock of sheep, into the land of Canaan.
Abraham had prayed for the people in Sodom and Gomorrah without them being aware of it. In the same way, Moses prayed day and night, in times of feast or famine, giving every ounce of sincerity for the sake of the Israelites.
Seeing the Israelites suffering under the oppression and cruelty of the Egyptians, Moses felt such great anguish as if his bones were melting. He appealed to Heaven, “Jehovah! Please, on my behalf, have mercy on these people.”
Because Moses had such a heart, God chose him as the leader, to lead the multitude out of Egypt. To this seemingly insignificant shepherd in the wilderness of Midian, God bequeathed the hidden root that came down from the ancestors and made him the representative of the people. (1:142-43, July 1, 1956)
Because Moses endured a hard life in Midian while keeping unshakable resolution to do God’s Will, it was possible for the Israelites, who themselves were suffering in difficult circumstances, to unite with him. Hence, God could conduct His providence with Moses as their leader. (4:39, February 23, 1958)
All the footsteps Moses took were adventurous. Because he kept the transcendent center of God’s providence close to his heart, his whole life transcended reality. All that he saw, and all the battles he fought, transcended reality.
As Moses was journeying to Pharaoh’s palace at God’s command, one would think that God would have blessed and protected him. Instead, He blocked Moses’ path and tried to kill him. Why did God try to impede and kill Moses, who was, after all, carrying out His orders?
This is something incomprehensible. According to common sense, if God blocks your way, there should be no way to pass. However, Moses was determined; his heart yearned to fulfill God’s will even risking his life.
Therefore, he overcame this test, one that had been set up by God and Satan.
Moses, who believed firmly in the transcendent God, was an adventurous revolutionary on the universal scale, unprecedented in history.
With the same conviction, Moses, went on to perform more than ten miracles in Pharaoh’s palace. With his transcendent faith, Moses did not succumb to anyone’s opposition.
That is why he could lead the six hundred thousand Israelites out of Egypt. Looking at it, the whole of Moses’ life was a path of transcendent adventure. (1:267, December 2, 1956)
The Difficulties Moses Faced in Giving the Law and Guiding the Hebrews through the Wilderness
The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there, and I will give you the tables of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” So Moses rose with his servant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God… Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. And Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights. Exodus 14.12-18
Moses said to Israel, “Know you not with what travail I gained the Torah! What toil, what labor, I endured for its sake. Forty days and forty nights I was with God. I entered among the angels, the Living Creatures, the Seraphim, of whom anyone could blast the whole universe in flame. My soul, my blood, I gave for the Torah. As I learnt it in travail, so do you learn it in travail, and as you learn it in travail, so do you teach it in travail.” Sifre Deuteronomy (Judaism)
The whole congregation of the people of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” Exodus 16.2-3
At the end of forty days and forty nights the Lord gave me [Moses] the two tables of stone, the tables of the covenant. Then the Lord said to me, “Arise, go down quickly from here; for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly; they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them; they have made themselves a molten image… Let me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.”
So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire; and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands. And I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God; you had made yourselves a molten calf; you had turned aside quickly from the way which the Lord had commanded you. So I took hold of the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and broke them before your eyes. Then I lay prostrate before the Lord as before, forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin which you have committed… because the Lord had said that he would destroy you. And I prayed to the Lord, “O Lord God, destroy not your people and your heritage, whom you have redeemed through your greatness, whom you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not regard the stubbornness of this people, or their wickedness, or their sin, lest the land from which you brought us say, ‘Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to slay them in the wilderness.’ For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.” Deuteronomy 9.11-29
Moses said, “I am a hundred and twenty years old this day; I am no longer able to go out and come in. The Lord has said to me, ‘You shall not go over this Jordan.’ The Lord your God himself will go over before you; he will destroy these nations before you, so that you shall dispossess them; and Joshua will go over at your head, as the Lord has spoken. And the Lord will do to them as he did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when he destroyed them. And the Lord will give them over to you, and you shall do to them according to all the commandment which I have commanded you. Be strong and of good courage, do not fear or be in dread of them: for it is the Lord your God who goes with you; he will not fail you or forsake you.” Then Moses summoned Joshua, and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and of good courage; for you shall go with this people into the land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them; and you shall put them in possession of it. It is the Lord who goes before you; he will be with you, he will not fail you or forsake you; do not fear or be dismayed.” Deuteronomy 31.2-8
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
In the conduct of his life, Moses made himself a living sacrifice to save the lives of the whole people, but his people did not know it. Only God understood. God was his only friend, and his Father.
Moses knew God and related to Him as his Father. Therefore, Moses felt a sense of responsibility to erase the sorrows and sadness in the Father’s heart. For that reason, he was willing even to fast for forty days.
For forty days, Moses appealed with all of his heart; consequently he could receive the word of God that could resurrect the Israelites. The giving of the Ten Commandments was a happy event.
However, the Israelites did not know that someone had suffered and sacrificed in the background for the sake of introducing this joy. Had they known, the 600,000 Israelites might have not fallen in the wilderness?
If they had only imitated the faith of Moses, to uphold the Ten Commandments and become sacrifices for the sake of alleviating the sorrowful heart of God, then in the months that followed they would not have fallen in the wilderness. (3:287, January 19, 1958)
When Moses gave the law to the Israelites, he introduced the God of authority, power and judgment instead of the God of love. The reason he did so was to protect and raise them with the law as Heaven’s people. It was to lead them to the land of Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey, and thereby accomplish God’s Will of restoration. (35:260, October 25, 1970)
Moses did not act centering on himself. From important strategic decisions to trivial details, he did nothing without seeking God’s direction first. In this way, Moses could enter the palace of the Pharaoh, perform miracles and bring on ten plagues, and lead the Israelites out of Egypt and into the wilderness. In that danger-filled wilderness, the Israelites should have united with Moses.
The wilderness and its privations should not have deterred them. They should have been of one accord with Moses, who had freed them from slavery and was leading them to the land of Canaan.
There should have been no disputing with him. Nevertheless, they did not unite with Moses, but deviated from God’s path and perished. Why did the Israelites perish in the wilderness?
They did not know Moses’ hidden devotion, who as their leader continually appealed to God on their behalf. What is more, they did not recognize the hardships and ordeals Moses suffered on their behalf, from the day he rescued them from Egypt through the years of shepherding them through the wilderness.
Consequently, they felt estranged from Moses, and eventually, they perished in the wilderness… Whenever he faced the Israelites mistrust and lack of faith in him, Moses first repented in front of God for his own lack of ability.
For example, [after the Israelites fell to worshiping the golden calf,] Moses again went up to Mount Sinai and offered a forty-day fast and prayer. He cried out, “Father, why is these people not able to enter the land that Thou hast promised, even when it lays before their eyes? Who does the blame fall upon? The responsibility lies with me.
I could not fulfill my responsibility to lead them well. Therefore, please accept me as the sacrifice and keep the people from going down the path to destruction.”
If the Israelites had known that Moses was fasting with such an anguished heart, not for his own sake but for theirs, they would not have made the golden calf and worshipped it. (1:143-144, July 1, 1956)
When they were in the wilderness, they had no way to survive unless they followed Moses. But once they reached the Jordan River, Moses told them to cross ahead of him. It was beautiful to see them excitedly crossing the river and dashing into Canaan.
However, Moses remained behind. Did Moses complain, “How could you do this to me, crossing the river and leaving me behind!”? No, Moses only felt, “It is alright for me to die here. You, my children, should go and occupy the land with God’s blessing forevermore.”
He lifted his hands and prayed, “God, look at these Israelites, more courageous than I. Please protect them and give them a hopeful future!”
God was astonished to hear Moses’ prayer and exclaimed, “Moses, you are a great leader. Please take a rest now. I will see that your prayer is fulfilled.” What a wonderful death Moses had! (189:249-50, April 9, 1989)