Sometimes small details in Scripture point us to vast vistas of God’s work. One such place is in Exodus 2. In verse 1, the writer notes that Moses comes from the priestly tribe, the Levites. Moses was born a priest. As the story unfolds, he continues serving as priest – repeatedly interceding on behalf of the people in their sin.
We keep reading our Bibles, and Moses, through his brother Aaron, also serves as prophet, speaking the words of God to Pharoah, and to God’s people.
The Exodus continues, and we see that Moses serves as king, the foil to Pharaoh. In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul puts it this way: “. . . [O]ur fathers . . . were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea . . .” (v. 1-2) Before Israel had a king, Moses served that function, leading God’s people to the Promised Land.
Moses serves as priest, prophet and king, for God, for God’s people and God’s purposes.
As the Bible unfolds, the Exodus narrative becomes a sort of template, a picture in advance, of what God intends to do among all the nations – to deliver His people from the domain of darkness and secure for them everlasting joy by transferring them to His domain of light (see Col. 1:13). God does this by sending His Son to deliver. God does not first call us; He comes to us. He sends His Priest, Prophet and King.
Jesus would serve in each of these roles perfectly. He is our priest, praying for us, and then going to the cross for us, willfully becoming the sacrifice for the forgiveness of all our sins. And he today continues to intercede for us before the Father. (Did you know that? That Jesus is interceding for Christians, with nail-pierced hands, before the Father, right this moment?)
And Jesus is God’s prophet, speaking the words of life. He IS the Word of God, the fulfillment of all the prophets. See the first few sentences of Hebrews – the sense there is that God previously spoke in “prophet-language”, but now He speaks in “Son-language”. Jesus himself is the Word of God.
And Jesus is our King, Lord over all, who is leading us to the Promised Land, to the wedding supper of the Lamb, to heaven and earth as one, to an unbreakable one-flesh union with Christ, filled with eternal bliss.
We see a picture of all this in advance, in Moses. Jesus “fulfills” Moses, in that Moses pointed to Jesus. And behind all this is an all-wise, saving God, the real Hero of the story.
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If you would like to follow the M’Cheyne Bible reading plan, you find out more about it here, or by contacting Pastor Jed at jed@gracechurcheg.org.
