Levite living at the time of Egypt and Wilderness

Moses

Exodus 2:1–10; 7:7; Deuteronomy 34:7; Acts 7:23, 30

Israel’s great leader and lawgiver. Born to Amram and Jochebed of the tribe of Levi during Pharaoh’s order to kill the Hebrew baby boys, he was hidden three months, then set in a papyrus basket in the reeds, found by Pharaoh’s daughter, and raised in the palace. She named him Moses, “Because I drew him out of the water” (Exodus 2:1–10). At 40, after killing an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew, he fled to Midian, where he married Zipporah and for another forty years kept the flocks of her father Jethro (Exodus 2:11–22; Acts 7:23–30).

At the burning bush, God called him to bring Israel out of Egypt and told him his name, “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:1–15). He and Aaron faced Pharaoh at 80 and 83 (Exodus 7:7), ten plagues followed, and Israel left Egypt after the Passover and crossed the Red Sea (Exodus 7–14). At Mount Sinai he received the law and the plans for the tabernacle (Exodus 19–31), and when the people made a golden calf, he interceded for them (Exodus 32). “Yahweh spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend” (Exodus 33:11), and “the man Moses was very humble, more than all the men who were on the surface of the earth” (Numbers 12:3).

He led Israel through forty years in the wilderness, but for his disobedience at Meribah he was not allowed to enter the land (Numbers 20:7–12). He died on Mount Nebo in Moab at 120: “His eye was not dim, nor his strength gone.” No one knows where he was buried, and “there has not arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom Yahweh knew face to face” (Deuteronomy 34:1–10). The New Testament says the law came through Moses and grace and truth through Jesus Christ (John 1:17), and he appeared with Elijah beside Jesus at the transfiguration (Matthew 17:3).

His life falls into three 40-year parts: Pharaoh's court, shepherding in Midian, and leading Israel from Egypt to the edge of Canaan (Acts 7:23, 30, 36). He died on Mount Nebo at 120.

Family

Father

Amram

Mother

Jochebed

Wife

Zipporah

Children

Gershom, Eliezer

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