Memorial Moment: Moses Mouth to Mouth

2 Timothy 3

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.

You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra - which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

(ESV)

Moses Mouth to Mouth

Boniface of Mainz, Missionary to the Germans

5 June 2013

A book is only as good as its author. A poor author writes a poor book. A great author writes a great book. When God chose the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles to write down His Word, He almost always chose people whom the world would consider unworthy of the task; people who could hardly be depended upon to write a decent grocery list, let alone a sacred text demanding our assent. Yet, the very people who had no chance of producing such a text did in fact do so. They were farmers and fishermen. Moses and Isaiah, with their royal connections, were exceptions to the rule. Their exalted upbringings and the advantages gave them earthly advantages that were not shared by their prophetic and apostolic colleagues. Yet neither Isaiah nor Moses stood upon their exalted status; instead counting everything a loss for the sake of knowing the Messiah (Jn 8:56) and sharing His salvation to God's people. How did it happen that these men of God offered this text to the church and the world?

These men were not the primary authors of the texts collected between the covers of the Bible. God our Father was. This is why we are compelled to accept the word of Moses, and not because of his interesting background and royal upbringing. The Lord used him as a faithful mouthpiece delivering the truth of the creation story of the six days. This fundamental text confronts us with many challenges. These days there is a cottage industry in criticizing its content from a "scientific" point of view. If the text were the work of a mere man, even an accomplished man, it would be subject to every possible objection, scientific or otherwise. But the text does not purport to be a mere human record on the creation of the world, but God's own testimony about the six days delivered to Moses.

Basil the Great of Caesarea, one of the Cappadocian fathers (d. 379 A.D.), delivered a series of Lenten lectures on the creation story called the Hexaemeron, literally, "the six days" around 370 A.D. In those lectures it is evident that Basil believed that these words were none other than God's words, delivered by the Holy Spirit to Moses our father. Basil, a cultured and educated man, was not easily convinced about the veracity of this account, and yet was fully convinced of the divine authorship of it. Basil was not unaware that among the people of his day there was a belief that the world came into existence by a spontaneous event, that is, without the agency of God or gods. This is not unlike the views of philosophical materialists of our own day. The Preacher is right that there is nothing new under the sun (Eccl 1:9). Basil thought this word of God demanded our acceptance just because it was God's Word, no matter how eminent Moses might have been. Like the rest of the Old Testament, the account of the six days was written for our salvation by the man who spoke with the Lord mouth to mouth and then wrote those interviews down for us. This is great authorship.

Basil the Great

"It is right that anyone beginning to narrate the formation of the world should begin with the good order which reigns in visible things. I am about to pass on the creation of heaven and earth, which was not spontaneous, as some have fantasized, but drew its origin from God. What ear is worthy to hear such an account? How earnestly the soul should prepare itself to receive such high lessons! How pure it should be from carnal affections, how unclouded by worldly concerns, how active and ardent in its studies, how eager to find in its surroundings an idea of God which would be worthy of Him!

"But before weighing the justice of these remarks, before examining all the sense contained in these few words (Gn 1), let us see who addresses them to us. Because, if the weakness of our intelligence does not allow us to penetrate the depth of the writer's thoughts, yet we shall be spontaneously drawn to give faith to his words by the force of his authority. This is the Moses who has composed this history. This is the Moses, who, when still at the breast, is described as beautiful (Acts 7:20). This is the Moses, whom the daughter of Pharaoh adopted, received from her a royal education, and who had for his teachers the wise men of Egypt. This is the Moses, who disdained the pomp of royalty and, to share the humble condition of his compatriots, preferred to be persecuted with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting delights of sin. This is the Moses, who received from nature such a love of justice that, even before the leadership of the people of God was committed to him, and was impelled, by a natural horror of evil, to pursue malefactors even to the point of punishing them by death (Ex 2:10-12). This is the Moses, who, banished by those whose benefactor he had been, hastened to escape from the tumults of Egypt and took refuge in Ethiopia (Ex 2:13-15), living there far from former pursuits, and passing forty years in the contemplation of nature. This is the Moses, finally, who, at the age of eighty, saw God, as far as it is possible for man to see Him; or rather as it had not previously been granted to man to see Him, according to the testimony of God Himself, 'If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the LORD' (Num 12:6-8). It is this man, whom God judged worthy to behold Him, face to face, like the angels, who imparts to us what he learned from God. Let us listen then to these words of truth written without the help of the 'plausible words of wisdom' (1Co 2:4), but by the speaking of the Spirit; words destined to produce not the praise of those who hear them, but the salvation of those who are instructed by them."

Basil of Caesarea, Lectures on the Hexaemeron

1.1-2

Prayer

Lord God, You chose great and small alike to proclaim Your Word. Grant that we might hear what they wrote, not as the Word of mere men, but as it is in truth the Word of God. Send Your Spirit to us that we might hear this Word of God for our salvation; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

For Clarissa Voss, who is recovering from a broken arm, that the Lord Jesus Christ would grant her healing

For Jackie Raeburn, who has lung cancer, that she would be brought through surgery and recover fully

For Dick Anderson, that he would be granted strength and healing

Art: Dürer, Albrecht The Adoration of the Trinity (1515)