Moses was a prefigured icon of Christ.

He himself said that a prophet like him would come after him,

and Jesus told His disciples that Moses had spoken of Him.

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Both were born unto danger, fleeing to Egypt to escape death.

Moses led the people from the bondage of Egypt

by God’s power and staff.

He led them through the waters, their enemies crushed behind.

We now pass into Christ’s death through baptism—and out the other side.

As Christ passed through those waters, He was driven into the wilderness to fast and fight for forty days. The Israelites wrestled forty years, and Moses fasted forty days on Mount Sinai.

Moses’ face was caused to shine because he saw the Lord on the mountain.

Jesus face was revealed to shine because he shone as Lord on the mountain.

Moses led the people where they were fed with the bread of heaven.

Jesus fed the people and proclaimed Himself as the bread of heaven.

Moses wrongly struck the rock so that water poured out for the people.

Christ himself was the rock, and pierced on the cross,

blood and water poured from his side.

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Moses is a shadow of Christ.

God reveals in him an ancient pattern of the path to the promised land.

A flight from Egypt, a passing through waters,

a communion, a sacrifice,

An imperfect pattern,

Tinted in the red wrath of man,

But yet a golden figure, one man to go before

One man to raise the God-blessed staff and strike death’s fallow shore

——

“For the law was given by Moses,

but grace and truth through

Jesus Christ.”