Moses

Moses was a great leader of the Israelites. The Torah tells how Moses led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and gave them God's laws and teachings to live by.

The Exodus from Egypt By the time of Moses, in the 1300s B.C.E., a large group of Abraham's descendants were living in Egypt. There, the Torah says, the Israelites "increased in number and became very powerful." Fearful of their growing strength, the pharaoh forced them into slavery. According to the Torah, God told Moses, "I will send you to the pharaoh, and you shall free my people."

Moses went before the pharaoh, the Torah continues, and told him to let the Israelites go free. When the pharaoh refused, God punished Egypt with ten terrible plagues. Finally, the pharaoh gave in. Moses began to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

According to the Torah, the pharaoh soon changed his mind. The Egyptian army chased after the Israelites and nearly caught up with them at the edge of the Sea of Reeds. But Moses raised his staff (walking stick), says the Torah, and the waters of the sea parted.The Israelites crossed safely to the other side. When the Egyptians tried to follow, the waters flooded over the army, drowning the soldiers. The Israelites escaped.

The Torah calls the flight from Egypt to freedom the Exodus, which means "departure."The Exodus became a central event in the history of the Jewish people.This map shows Moses' possible route in the Exodus from Egypt. Find where the Torah says he received the Ten Commandments.

The Ten Commandments As it is told in the Torah, after the Israelites left Egypt, they traveled through a wilderness for 40 years. During this time, God gave Moses the laws and teachings that became the foundation of Judaism. Some of these laws are called the Ten Commandments.

The Torah says that Moses received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, the "Mountain of God." Alone, Moses had gone up the mountain to pray. He returned carrying two tablets of stone. Engraved on the tablets were the Ten Commandments.

Some of the commandments listed the Israelites' duties to God. For example, one commandment was, "You shall have no other gods besides me." This commandment reminded the Israelites of their promise to worship only one God. Another commandment told the Israelites to set aside one day a week, the Sabbath, for rest and worship.

Other commandments laid down basic moral teachings (ideas about the right way to live). For example, one said, "You shall honor your father and mother." Other commandments forbade stealing, lying, and murdering.

The Ten Commandments stated some of Judaism's basic teachings. The Torah says that by obeying God's commandments, the Jewish people would fulfill their part of the covenant with him. Their responsibility was to make God's moral teachings known to the world. In turn, God would protect them.

Moses made several key contributions to the development of Judaism. First, he led the Exodus out of Egypt. Jews have celebrated this event ever since to remember the journey from slavery to freedom and as proof that God watched over them. Second, Moses gave Judaism some of its most fundamental laws and teachings, which Jews and Christians call the Ten Commandments. Third, Moses forged the Israelites into a united Jewish people devoted to a single God.

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The answer that you may be looking for is "the Torah," but that is the legacy of God (Exodus 24:12), not just Moses. Moses wrote the Torah (Deuteronomy 31:24), but it was dictated to him by God.

Rather, the chief legacy of Moses himself is: his vast humility (Numbers ch.12), his unsurpassed dedication in leadership (Exodus ch.32) as well as obedience to God, and his deep love for his people. We think of him as a strict, uncompromising leader, but his love for the people was even greater.

Another answer:

Moses gave the world "THE TRUTH OF GOD'S WORD, FINALLY WRITTEN DOWN"... because there was no compilation of God's Word before Moses. Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms, according to Christ, is God's witness, warningand testimony to the end time generations of man, regarding His Good News of man's pending Salvation... and the restoration of God's Government in the world:

"...I told you that EVERYTHING WRITTEN ABOUT ME by Moses and the Prophets and in the Psalms MUST ALL COME TRUE." (Luke 24:44 NLT New Living Translation)

Moses was with the assembly of God people in the wilderness. HE WAS THE MEDIATOR BETWEEN THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL AND THE ANGEL who gave him Life-Giving Words on Mount Sinai to PASS ON TO US." (Acts 7:38 NLT)

The WORLD, however, remains ignorant... unaware... of Moses' legacy to it, to his "words passed on to us." Indeed, very little of the world, population-wise, reads his writings. And, Truth be known, few people who do read it are able to grasp its legacy. For the present time, it's only those with Faith who can SEE CHRIST in Moses', the Prophets' and the Psalms' writings, who can bear witness to its legacy.

"...'If they won't listen to Moses and the Prophets, they won't listen even if someone [like Jesus Christ] rises from the dead.'" (Luke 16:31 NLT)

The WORLD won't truly appreciate the legacy of Moses' writings... until God opens them up in the Judgment and judges the works of all mankind against the "measuring stick" of Moses' legacy:

"...And the books [of the Bible] were opened... And the dead were Judged accorcing to the things written in the books, according to what they had done." (Rev.20:12 NLT)

The WORLD has to wait for Judgment Day to really appreciate Moses' legacy to it.

Answers from site contributors:

• Moses was born in 1593 B.C.E.
• Actually Moses was born in 1393 B.C.E
• Just before the Exodus at the time of the start of the plagues Moses was 80:- Exo 7:7 And Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron was eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh. The Exodus was dated by Bishop Ussher as 1446 BC, which would make it 1566 BC when Moses was born.
• According to Jewish tradition, Moses was born in 1392 BCE.

the red Sea named because it is surrounded by red mountains

Another problem is that the respected Israeli archaeologist, Israel Finkelstein, says that over 90 per cent of scholars believe there never was an Exodus from Egypt as described in the Bible. Without an Exodus, we may have to accept that the Red Sea was never really parted like this. The best explanation is to say that the parting of the Red Sea is a matter of faith and therefore outside the realm of science or history.

Moses is considered the greatest of leaders in Jewish history. Various traditions hold that he also either wrote the Torah or received it from God at Mt. Sinai.

Answer:

Moses was born 245 years after the death of Abraham. Pharaoh had decreed that Israelite boys be killed (Exodus ch.1), but the daughter of Pharaoh took pity on the infant Moses (Exodus ch.2) and raised him as her own son. He was forced to flee after killing a cruel Egyptian taskmaster, and went to Midian, where he wedded the daughter of Jethro. He eventually achieved the highest level of prophecy (Deuteronomy ch.34) and was called upon by God (Exodus ch.3).

The importance of Moses cannot be overstated. He brought the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery (Exodus ch.12). He received the Torah from God (Exodus 24:12) and later recorded it in writing (Deuteronomy 31:24). He went up on Mount Sinai for 40 days and nights (Deuteronomy ch.9-10) and brought down the Two Stone Tablets with the Ten Commandments (Exodus 31:18). He brought the Israelites into the covenant with God (Exodus ch.19 and ch.24), and he oversaw the building of the Tabernacle (Exodus ch.35-40). He was the humblest of men and the greatest of prophets (Numbers ch.12).

No. In Judaism, there is no one single most important person. Judaism has had many thousands (if not millions) of Rabbis, sages, kings, leaders, prophets, and teachers.

The 10 commandments are nothing to do with skin colour, they are a set of rules given by God for all people of all time.

We are one race, the human race, all given the gift of life from God. Colour is dependent upon the amounts of melanin in our skin.

Acts 17:26 God has "made of one blood all nations of men".

The Bible distinguishes people by tribal or national groupings not by skin colour or physical appearance.

There is only one skin colour, melanin, found in cells in our skin.

Go to the book of Revelation ch. 5:9 which reads in part (I have put it in simple english) ...."Jesus is worthy to take a scroll and break open the seals on it, because He was slain at the cross and has saved us by His blood OUT OF EVERY TRIBE AND LANGUAGE AND PEOPLE AND NATION ...."

which means all true believers, NOT white , or black, or brown, or any colour groups but believers, from all nations, from all tribal groups, etc., etc. who have been saved and are standing around the throne room of heaven.

The 10 commandments are rules for living and if everyone followed these rules, then the world would be spared so much unnecessary suffering and biased thinking.

God told Moses to take a rod, the one with which he struck the river and go and strike the rock and water will come out of it and the people will drink. So Moses (Exodus 17:7) went and struck the rock as he was told and water flowed from it.

Later, in Numbers 20:8-11, God told Moses to now go and "Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water." But Moses, who was still angry with the people, struck the rock, thus disobeying the word of the Lord. Water flowed from the rock, but because of His disobedience, Moses was not permitted to enter into the land of Canaan (the promised land).

Answer:

Another instance was when Moses forgot that his brother's being a mourner prevented him from eating the sacrifice (Leviticus ch.9-10).

It should be pointed out that the claim to infallibility is a sure sign of forgery. We actually take pride in the fact that the Torah isn't like that: it unflinchingly publicizes the mistakes of its protagonists, since it wasn't a human invention.