Find the Gospel in the Story
In Luke 24, Jesus taught his disciples that every story in the Bible points directly to him! He explained that we simply need to look for the gospel pattern of "suffering followed by glory." That is, we need to look for something that points to his suffering on the cross, followed by something that points to the glory of his resurrection! Use the gospel chart below to help you find "the story within the story!"
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The Suffering & Glory of Moses |
The Suffering & Glory of Jesus |
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1. The Children of Israel were in bondage and persecuted by pharaoh of Egypt. God gave Moses to be the deliverer of Israel, but he was condemned to death in the Nile as an infant by the king of Egypt (Exod 1:22). |
1. The Children of Israel were in subjection to Rome and Herod the king. God sent Jesus to be the Deliverer, but he was condemned to death as an infant by King Herod (Matt 2:16). |
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2. Moses’ mother prepared an ark of bulrushes and placed her son in the ark and placed him in the Nile hoping to save her infant son (Exod 2:2-3). |
2. The Lord revealed to Joseph that he should arise and flee to Egypt to save their infant son (Matt 2:13). |
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3. The Lord intervened, and the king’s daughter discovered the ark and had compassion on Moses. She adopted him to be her son, and he escaped death (Exod 2:10). |
3. Jesus grew and in his maturity was again condemned to death. But God raised him up, and he escaped death as the Son of God (Acts 2:23-24). |
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4. In one day Moses was raised up from condemnation to be the son of pharaoh’s daughter (Exod 2:10, Heb 11:24). |
4. Jesus was raised up from death and ascended to heaven to be called the Son of God (Mark 14:62, Acts 7:56). |
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5. In his maturity Moses would deliver God’s people through the Red Sea. As a result of this deliverance, the nations around Canaan would hear about the salvation of God toward his people (Exod 15:14-16). |
5. After Jesus had saved his people, the word of God’s salvation went out to all the nations. But the good news of the gospel invited all nations to share in the salvation of the Lord toward his people (Matt 28:19-20). |
Gospel Study Notes
Connection #1
Moses’ trajectory of deliverance is the same as Joseph’s and remarkably demonstrates the sovereign hand of God’s providence. Like Joseph, who was taken from the dungeon and in one day raised to be second to the throne of Egypt, in one day Moses was taken from condemnation to death and raised to the royal house as the son of pharaoh’s daughter. In all of this, Moses, like Joseph, describes the trajectory of Christ, who was raised from the grave and exalted to the right hand of the heavenly throne.
Connection #2-3
Moses’ deliverance as an infant from the death decree of pharaoh anticipates Jesus’ deliverance as an infant from the death decree of King Herod. In his maturity, Moses will lead the people through the sea. The crossing of the Red Sea represented a type of baptism (1 Cor 10:2). Baptism, in the New Testament, represented identification with the death of Jesus (Mark 10:35-38). James and John asked to be on the Savior’s right and left hands when he entered his glory. Jesus said that the suffering of the cross would come first. But the trajectory from death to enthronement is the movement of the gospel. Gospel power is evident in Moses’ deliverance from death as an infant as well as in his great combat with the draconic pharaoh. Likewise, Jesus too is delivered from death as an infant. But that deliverance anticipates the greater deliverance from death that is his victory over death followed by his heavenly enthronement.
Connection #4
The gospel preview in the history of Moses, condemned infant delivered and adopted as the royal son, anticipates the span of the gospel power that delivered Jesus from a criminal’s death on the cross yet recognized in him the Son of God, as confessed by the centurion (Mark 15:39).
Connection #5
The deliverance of Israel and Moses at the Sea served an evangelical purpose. Some of the nations who heard what God had done for his people against pharaoh and the Egyptians responded in fear. But some, like Rahab of Jericho, heard and responded in faith (Josh 2:8-11). Likewise, the saving acts of God through Jesus will be preached throughout the world. Many will hear and find salvation.
Gospel Takeaways
- God consistently sends a deliverer when the hour is most desperate. The decree of pharaoh to destroy the male seed of Israel brought about the cry of the people. God heard and Moses was born, appointing the people’s deliverance when Moses grew to maturity in eighty years. We respond to suffering with the desire for immediate deliverance. Yet God sets a time according to his purposes. He begins the deliverance of Israel with the birth of Moses. In the fullness of time, God certainly keeps his promises to deliver his people. But he requires patience and faith of his people until his time is fulfilled. But he is with us. His salvation is already underway. But it is often unseen except by faith alone.
- God’s consistent dealings with us show his faithfulness to his promises. Our peril always sets his salvation in motion. But we must live by faith until what is unseen becomes sight.
Exodus 2:1–10 (Listen)
The Birth of Moses
2:1 Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. 2 The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. 3 When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes1 and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. 4 And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. 5 Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. 6 When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” 7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” 8 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. 9 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”2
(ESV)
