The life story of Moses. Miraculous baby rescue. misfortunes sent to the Egyptians

Moses is the greatest Old Testament prophet, the founder of Judaism, who brought the Jews out of Egypt, where they were in slavery, took the Ten Commandments from God on Mount Sinai and united the Israelite tribes into a single people.

In Christianity, Moses is considered one of the most important types of Christ: how through Moses he was revealed to the world Old Testament, so through Christ - the New Testament.

The name "Moses" (in Hebrew - Moshé), presumably of Egyptian origin, means "child." According to other indications - "taken out or rescued from the water" (by this name he was named by the Egyptian princess, who found him on the banks of the river).

Four books of the Pentateuch (Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy), which make up the epic of the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt, are dedicated to his life and work.

The birth of Moses

According to the biblical account, Moses was born in Egypt to a Jewish family during the time when the Jews were enslaved by the Egyptians, around 1570 BC (according to other estimates, around 1250 BC). Moses' Parents Belonged to the Tribe of Levi 1 (Ex. 2: 1 ). His older sister was Miriam, and his older brother was Aaron.(the first of the Jewish high priests, the founder of the priestly caste).

1 Levi - the third son of Jacob (Israel) from his wife Leah ( Genesis 29:34 ). The descendants of the tribe of Levíi are the Levites, who were charged with the duties of the ministry. Since of all the tribes of Israel, the Levites were the only tribe without land, they were dependent on their brethren.

As you know, the Israelites moved to Egypt during the life of Jacob-Israel himself. 2 (XVII century BC), fleeing hunger. They lived in the eastern Egyptian region of Goshen, bordering the Sinai Peninsula and irrigated by a tributary of the Nile River. Here they had extensive pastures for their herds and could freely roam the country.

2 Jacob,orJacob (Israel) - the third of the biblical patriarchs, the youngest of the twin sons of patriarch Isaac and Rebekah. From his sons came 12 tribes of the people of Israel. In rabbinic literature, Jacob is seen as a symbol of the Jewish people.

Over time, the Israelites multiplied more and more, and the more they multiplied, the more hostile the Egyptians were towards them. In the end, there were so many Jews that it began to instill fear in the new Pharaoh. He told his people: “The tribe of Israel is multiplying and can become stronger than us. If we have a war with another state, the Israelis can unite with our enemies. " So that the Israelite tribe did not grow stronger, it was decided to turn it into slavery. The pharaohs and their officials began to oppress the Israelites as aliens, and then began to treat them as a conquered tribe, as masters with slaves. The Egyptians began to force the Israelites to do the most difficult work for the benefit of the state: they were forced to dig the ground, build cities, palaces and monuments for the kings, prepare clay and bricks for these buildings. Special guards were appointed to strictly monitor the execution of all these forced labor.

But no matter how oppressed the Israelites, they still continued to multiply. Then Pharaoh gave the order that all the newborn Israeli boys should be drowned in the river, and only girls should be kept alive. This order was carried out with merciless severity. The Israeli people were threatened with total annihilation.

In this time of trouble, a son was born to Amram and Jochebed, from the tribe of Levi. He was so beautiful that light emanated from him. The father of the holy prophet Amram had an apparition that spoke of the great mission of this baby and of God's favor to him. Moses' mother Jochebed managed to hide the baby in her home for three months. However, no longer able to hide it, she left the baby in a tarred basket of reeds in the thickets on the banks of the Nile.

Moses, lowered by his mother on the waters of the Nile. A.V. Tyranov. 1839-42

At this time, Pharaoh's daughter went to the river to bathe, accompanied by her maids. Seeing a basket in the reeds, she ordered to open it. There was a tiny boy in the basket crying. Pharaoh's daughter said, "This must be one of the Jewish children." She took pity on crying baby and on the advice of the sister of Moses Miriam, who had been observing what was happening from a distance, who came up to her, agreed to call the Israelite nurse. Miriam brought her mother Jochebed. Thus, Moses was given to his mother, who nurtured him. When the boy grew up, he was brought to the daughter of Pharaoh, and she raised him as her son ( Ex.2: 10 ). Pharaoh's daughter gave him the name Moses, which means "taken out of the water."

Finding Moses. F. Goodall, 1862

There are suggestions that this good princess was Hatshepsut, the daughter of Totmes I, later the famous and only female pharaoh in the history of Egypt.

Childhood and youth of Moses. Escape to the desert.

Moses spent the first 40 years of his life in Egypt, raised in a palace as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Here he received an excellent education and was initiated “into all the Egyptian wisdom,” that is, into all the secrets of the religious and political outlook of Egypt. Tradition tells that he served as the commander of the Egyptian army and helped the pharaoh to defeat the Ethiopians who attacked him.

Although Moses grew up freely, he still never forgot his Jewish roots. One day he wanted to see how his fellow tribesmen lived. Seeing an Egyptian overseer beating one of the Israelite slaves, Moses stood up for the defenseless and, in a fit of rage, accidentally killed the overseer. Pharaoh found out about this and wanted to punish Moses. The only way to escape was escape. And Moses fled from Egypt to the Sinai Desert, which is near the Red Sea, between Egypt and Canaan. He settled in the land of Midiam (Ex. 2:15), located on the Sinai Peninsula, with the priest Jethro (another name is Raguel), where he became a shepherd. Moses soon married Jethro's daughter, Zipporah, and became a member of this peaceful shepherd's family. So another 40 years passed.

Calling Moses

One day Moses was tending the flock and went far into the wilderness. He approached Mount Horeb (Sinai), and here a wonderful vision appeared to him. He saw a thick bush of thorns that was engulfed in a bright flame and burned, but still did not burn.

The thorn bush or the "Burning Bush" is a prototype of God-manhood and the Mother of God and symbolizes the contact of God with a created being

God said he chose Moses to save the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt. Moses had to go to Pharaoh and demand that he let the Jews go. As a sign that the time has come for a new, more complete Revelation, He announces His Name to Moses: "I am who I am"(Ex. 3:14) . He sends Moses to demand on behalf of the God of Israel to release the people from the "house of slavery." But Moses realizes his weakness: he is not ready for a heroic deed, is deprived of the gift of speech, he is sure that neither Pharaoh nor the people will believe him. Only after persistently repeating the call and signs does he agree. God said that Moses in Egypt has a brother, Aaron, who, if necessary, will speak in his place, and God himself will teach both of them what to do. To convince unbelievers, God gives Moses the ability to perform miracles. Immediately, by His order, Moses threw his rod (shepherd's stick) to the ground - and suddenly this rod turned into a snake. Moses caught the snake by the tail - and again there was a stick in his hand. Another miracle: when Moses put his hand in his bosom and took it out, it turned white with leprosy like snow, when he put his hand in his bosom again and took it out - she became healthy. “If they don’t believe this miracle,- said the Lord, - then take water from the river and pour it on dry land, and the water will turn into blood on dry land. "

Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh

Obeying God, Moses set out on the road. On the way, he met his brother Aaron, whom God ordered to go out into the wilderness to meet Moses, and together they came to Egypt. Moses was already 80 years old, no one remembered him. The daughter of the former Pharaoh, the adoptive mother of Moses, also died long ago.

Moses and Aaron first came to the people of Israel. Aaron told his fellow tribesmen that God would lead the Jews out of slavery and give them a country flowing with milk and honey. However, they did not immediately believe him. They were afraid of Pharaoh's revenge, they were afraid of the way through the waterless desert. Moses performed several miracles, and the people of Israel believed in him and that the hour of liberation from slavery had come. Nevertheless, a murmur against the prophet, which began even before the exodus, then flared up repeatedly. Like Adam, who was free to submit to the higher Will or reject it, the newly created people of God experienced temptations and falls.

After that, Moses and Aaron appeared to Pharaoh and announced to him the will of the God of Israel, so that he would send the Jews into the wilderness to serve this God: "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Send My people away, so that they may celebrate Me a feast in the wilderness." But Pharaoh answered angrily: “Who is the Lord for me to listen to? I do not know the Lord and I will not let the Israelites go "(Ex 5: 1-2)

Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh

Then Moses announced to Pharaoh that if he did not let the Israelites go, then God would send various "executions" (misfortunes, calamities) to Egypt. The king did not obey - and the threats of the messenger of God came true.

Ten Plagues and the Establishment of the Easter Feast

Pharaoh's refusal to obey God's command entails 10 "executions of the Egyptians" , a series of terrible natural disasters:

However, the executions only further exasperate the Pharaoh.

Then the angry Moses came to Pharaoh for the last time and warned: “Thus says the Lord: at midnight I will pass through the middle of Egypt. And every firstborn in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh ... to the firstborn of the slave girl ... and all the firstborn of cattle. " This was the last and most fierce 10th execution (Ex. 11: 1-10 - Ex. 12: 1-36).

Then Moses warned the Jews to slaughter a one-year-old lamb in every family and anoint the doorposts and the crossbar of the door with its blood: by this blood God will distinguish the dwellings of the Jews and will not touch them. The lamb was to be baked over a fire and eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Jews must be ready to set off immediately.

Egypt suffered a terrible calamity during the night. “And Pharaoh got up by night, he and all his servants, and all Egypt; and there was a great cry in the land of Egypt; for there was no home where there was no dead man. "

The shaken Pharaoh immediately summoned Moses and Aaron to him and ordered them, together with all their people, to go into the wilderness and perform divine services so that God would take pity on the Egyptians.

Since then, the Jews every year on the 14th day of the month of Nisan (the day falling on the full moon of the vernal equinox) perform Easter holiday ... The word “passover” means “to pass by,” because the Angel who defeated the firstborn passed by the Jewish houses.

From now on, Easter will mark the liberation of the People of God and their unity in the sacred meal - the prototype of the Eucharistic meal.

Exodus. Crossing the Red Sea.

That same night, all the Israelites left Egypt for good. The Bible indicates the number of those who left "600 thousand Jews" (not counting women, children and livestock). The Jews did not leave with empty handed: Before fleeing, Moses told them to ask their Egyptian neighbors for gold and silver things, as well as rich clothes. They also took with them the mummy of Joseph, which Moses was looking for for three days, while his fellow tribesmen collected property from the Egyptians. God himself led them, being in a pillar of cloud during the day, and in a pillar of fire at night, so that the fugitives walked day and night until they came to the seashore.

Meanwhile, Pharaoh realized that the Jews had deceived him, and rushed after them in pursuit. Six hundred war chariots and select Egyptian cavalry quickly overtook the fugitives. There seemed to be no escape. Jews - men, women, children, old people - crowded on the seashore, preparing for their inevitable death. Only Moses was calm. At the command of God, he stretched out his hand to the sea, struck the water with his rod, and the sea parted, freeing the way. The Israelites walked along the seabed, and the waters of the sea stood like a wall to their right and left.

Seeing this, the Egyptians chased the Jews along the bottom of the sea. Pharaoh's chariots were already in the middle of the sea, when the bottom suddenly became so viscous that they could hardly move. Meanwhile, the Israelis made their way to the opposite bank. The Egyptian soldiers realized that things were bad, and decided to turn back, but it was too late: Moses again stretched out his hand to the sea, and it closed over the army of Pharaoh ...

The crossing over the Red (now Red) Sea, accomplished in the face of imminent mortal danger, becomes the culmination of a saving miracle. The waters alienated the saved from the "house of slavery." Therefore, the transition became a prototype of the sacrament of baptism. The new passage through the water is also the path to freedom, but to freedom in Christ. On the seashore, Moses and all the people, including his sister Miriam, solemnly sang a song of thanksgiving to God. “I sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted; he threw his horse and rider into the sea ... " This solemn song of the Israelites to the Lord is the basis of the first of the nine sacred songs that make up the canon of songs sung daily by the Orthodox Church at divine services.

According to biblical tradition, the Israelites lived in Egypt for 430 years. And the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt took place, according to the calculations of Egyptologists, around 1250 BC. However, according to the traditional point of view, the Exodus took place in the 15th century. BC e., 480 years (~ 5 centuries) before the start of the construction of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem (1 Kings 6: 1). There are a significant number of alternative theories of the chronology of the Exodus, in varying degrees of agreement with both religious and modern archaeological point of view.

Miracles of Moses

Exodus of Jews from Egypt

The road to the Promised Land ran through the harsh and vast Arabian desert. At first they walked for 3 days in the desert of Sur and did not find water except bitter (Marah) (Ex. 15: 22–26), but God delighted this water, commanding Moses to throw a piece of some special tree into the water.

Soon, reaching the Sin Desert, the people began to grumble with hunger, remembering Egypt, when they "sat by the cauldrons of meat and ate their bread!" And God heard them and sent them from heaven manna from heaven (Ex. 16).

One morning, when they woke up, they saw that the whole desert was covered with something white, like frost. They began to examine: white bloom turned out to be small grains, like hail or grass seeds. In response to the surprised exclamations, Moses said: "This is the bread that the Lord gave you to eat." Adults and children rushed to rake the manna and bake the bread. Since then, every morning for 40 years they have found manna from heaven and fed on it.

Manna from heaven

The collection of manna took place in the morning, since by noon it melted under the rays of the sun. "Manna was like a coriander seed, a kind like bdellium."(Num 11: 7). According to Talmudic literature, eating manna, young men felt the taste of bread, old people - the taste of honey, children - the taste of butter.

In Rephidim, Moses, at the command of God, drew water from the rock of Mount Horeb, striking it with his rod.

Moses opens a spring in the rock

Here the Jews were attacked wild tribe Amalekites, but were defeated during the prayer of Moses, who during the battle prayed on the mountain, raising his hands to God ( Ex. 17).

Sinai Testament and 10 Commandments

In the 3rd month after leaving Egypt, the Israelites approached Mount Sinai and camped against the mountain. First, Moses ascended the mountain, and God warned him that he would appear before the people on the third day.

And then the day came. The apparition on Sinai was accompanied by terrible phenomena: cloud, smoke, lightning, thunder, flame, earthquake, trumpet. This fellowship lasted 40 days, and God gave Moses two tablets - stone tables on which the Law was written.

1. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; may you have no other gods before me.

2. Do not make yourself an idol and no image of what is in the sky above, and what is on the earth below, and what is in the water below the earth; do not worship them or serve them, for I am the Lord your God. God is a jealous person, punishing children for the guilt of fathers up to the third and fourth generation, who hate me, and showing mercy up to a thousand generations to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

3. Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave without punishment the one who utters His name in vain.

4. Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy; work six days and do (in them) all your deeds, and the seventh day is Saturday to the Lord your God: do not do any deed on that day, neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your servant, nor your maidservant, nor (will yours, nor your donkey, nor any) your cattle, nor the stranger that is in your gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and sanctified it.

5. Honor your father and your mother, (so that you feel good and) that your days may be prolonged on the land that the Lord your God gives you.

6. Don't kill.

7. Don't commit adultery.

8. Don't steal.

9. Do not bear false testimony against your neighbor.

10. Do not covet your neighbor's house; do not covet your neighbor's wife, (nor his field), nor his servant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, (nor any of his livestock) anything that is with your neighbor.

The law that was given to ancient Israel by God had several purposes. First, he asserted public order and justice. Secondly, he singled out the Jewish people as a special religious community professing monotheism. Thirdly, he had to make an internal change in a person, morally improve a person, bring a person closer to God through instilling in a person love for God. Finally, the law of the Old Testament prepared mankind to accept the Christian faith in the future.

The Decalogue (ten commandments) formed the basis of the moral code of all cultural humanity.

In addition to the ten commandments, God dictated laws to Moses, which spoke about how the people of Israel should live. So the Sons of Israel became a people - Jews .

The wrath of Moses. The establishment of the tabernacle of the covenant.

Moses climbed Mount Sinai twice, staying there for 40 days. During his first absence, the people sinned terribly. The wait seemed to them too long and they demanded from Aaron to make them a god who brought them out of Egypt. Frightened by their wildness, he gathered gold earrings and made a golden calf, before which the Jews began to serve and have fun.

Coming down from the mountain, Moses broke the Tablets in anger and destroyed the calf.

Moses Breaks the Tablets of the Law

Moses severely punished the people for apostasy, killing about 3 thousand people, but asked God not to punish them. God had mercy and showed him His glory, showing him a cleft in which he could see God from behind, because it is impossible for a man to see His faces.

After that, again for 40 days, he returned to the mountain and prayed to God for the forgiveness of the people. Here, on the mountain, he received instructions about the construction of the Tabernacle, the laws of worship and the establishment of the priesthood. It is believed that the book of Exodus lists the commandments on the first broken tablets, and in Deuteronomy - what was inscribed the second time. From there he returned with the shining light of God's face and was forced to hide his face under a veil so that the people would not go blind.

Six months later, the Tabernacle was built and consecrated - a large, richly decorated tent. Inside the tabernacle stood the Ark of the Covenant - a wooden chest covered with gold with the images of cherubim at the top. In the ark lay the tablets of the covenant brought by Moses, a golden stamn with manna, and a flourishing rod of Aaron.

Tabernacle

To prevent disputes about who should have the right of the priesthood, God commanded to take a rod from each of the twelve leaders of the tribes of Israel and put it in the tabernacle, promising that the rod would blossom with the one chosen by Him. The next day, Moses found that Aaronic's rod had given flowers and brought almonds. Then Moses placed the rod of Aaron before the ark of the covenant for preservation, as a testimony to future generations of the Divine election to the priesthood of Aaron and his descendants.

Moses' brother, Aaron, was ordained high priests, and other members of the tribe of Levi were ordained priests and "Levites" (in our opinion, deacons). From this time on, the Jews began to perform regular services and animal sacrifices.

End of wandering. Death of Moses.

For another 40 years Moses led his people to the promised land - Canaan. At the end of the wandering, the people again began to feel faint-hearted and grumble. As punishment, God sent poisonous snakes, and when they repented, commanded Moses to erect a brass image of a serpent on a pole, so that everyone who looked at him with faith would remain unharmed. A serpent ascended in the wilderness, as St. Gregory of Nyssa, - there is a sign of the sacrament of the cross.

The brazen serpent. Painting by F.A. Bruni

Despite great difficulties, the prophet Moses remained a faithful servant of the Lord God until the end of his life. He led, taught and instructed his people. He arranged their future, but did not enter the Promised Land for the lack of faith shown by him and his brother Aaron at the waters of Meribah in Kadesh. Moses struck the rock twice with his rod, and water flowed from the stone, although once was enough - and God, in anger, announced that neither he nor his brother Aaron would enter the Promised Land.

By nature, Moses was impatient and prone to anger, but through divine education he became so humble that he became "the meekest of all people on earth." In all his deeds and thoughts, he was guided by faith in the Most High. In a sense, the fate of Moses is similar to the fate of the Old Testament itself, which, through the desert of paganism, brought the people of Israel to the New Testament and stood at its doorstep. Moses died at the end of forty years of wandering on the top of Mount Nebo, from which he could see the promised land - Palestine from afar. God told him: "This is the land about which I swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob ... I gave you to see it with your eyes, but you will not enter it."

He was 120 years old, but neither his eyesight was dulled, nor his strength was exhausted. He spent 40 years in the palace of the Egyptian pharaoh, another 40 - with flocks of sheep in the land of Midian, and the last 40 - in a wandering at the head of the Israeli people in the Sinai desert. The Israelites honored the death of Moses with 30 days of mourning. His grave was hidden by God so that the Israelite people, who were inclined towards paganism at that time, would not make a cult out of it.

After Moses, the Jewish people, spiritually renewed in the wilderness, were led by his disciple Joshua who brought the Jews to the Promised Land. For forty years of wandering, not a single person survived who left Egypt with Moses, and who doubted God and worshiped the golden calf at Horeb. Thus, a truly new people was created, living according to the law, given by God in Sinai.

Moses was also the first inspired writer. According to legend, he is the author of the books of the Bible - the Pentateuch as part of the Old Testament. Psalm 89 "The Prayer of Moses, the Man of God" is also attributed to Moses.

Svetlana Finogenova

God sends us all to each other!
And, thank God, - God has many of us ...
Boris Pasternak

Old world

The Old Testament story, in addition to a literal reading, also presupposes a special understanding and interpretation, for it is literally filled with symbols, types and predictions.

When Moses was born, the Israelites lived in Egypt - they moved there during the life of Jacob-Israel himself, fleeing hunger.

Nevertheless, the Israelites remained foreigners among the Egyptians. And after some time, after the change of the dynasty of the pharaohs, the local rulers began to suspect in the presence of the Israelis on the territory of the country a latent danger. Moreover, the Israeli people have grown not only quantitatively, but also their specific gravity in the life of Egypt was constantly increasing. And then the moment came when the fears and fears of the Egyptians in relation to the aliens grew into actions corresponding to this understanding.

Pharaohs began to oppress the Israeli people, condemning them to hard labor in quarries, on the construction of pyramids and cities. One of the Egyptian rulers issued a cruel decree: to kill all male babies born in Jewish families in order to exterminate the tribe of Abraham.

This entire created world belongs to God. But after the Fall, man began to live with his mind, his feelings, increasingly moving away from God, replacing Him with various idols. But God chooses one of all the peoples of the earth to show by his example how the relationship between God and man is developing. After all, it was the Israelites who had to keep their faith in one God and prepare themselves and the world for the coming of the Savior.

Rescued from the water

Once in a Jewish family of descendants of Levi (one of Joseph's brothers) a boy was born, and his mother long time hid it, fearing that the baby would be killed. But when it was no longer possible to hide it further, she weaved a basket of reeds, tarred it, put her baby there, and threw the basket through the waters of the Nile.

Not far from that place, Pharaoh's daughter was bathing. Seeing the basket, she ordered to fish it out of the water and, opening it, found a baby in it. Pharaoh's daughter took this baby to her and began to raise him, giving him the name Moses, which means "Taken out of the water" (Ex. 2:10).

People often ask: why does God allow so much evil in this world? Theologians usually answer: He respects human freedom too much not to allow man to do evil. Could He make Jewish babies unsinkable? I could. But then Pharaoh would have ordered them to be executed in a different way ... No, God acts more subtly and better: he can even turn evil into good. If Moses had not set out on his voyage, he would have remained an unknown slave. But he grew up at court, acquired skills and knowledge that will be useful to him later, when he frees and leads his people, having freed many thousands of unborn babies from slavery.

Moses was brought up at the court of the pharaoh as an Egyptian aristocrat, but his own mother fed him with milk, who was invited to the house of the pharaoh's daughter as a wet nurse, for Moses' sister, seeing that the Egyptian princess pulled him out of the water in a basket, offered the princess services to take care of the child his mother.

Moses grew up in the house of Pharaoh, but he knew that he belonged to the Israelite people. Once, when he was already an adult and strong, an event occurred that had very significant consequences.

Seeing how the overseer beat one of his fellow tribesmen, Moses stood up for the defenseless and, as a result, killed the Egyptian. And thus he placed himself outside society and outside the law. The only way to escape was escape. And Moses leaves Egypt. He settles in the Sinai desert, and there, on Mount Horeb, he meets God.

Voice from the Thorn Bush

God said he chose Moses to save the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt. Moses had to go to Pharaoh and demand that he let the Jews go. From the burning and unburned bush, the burning bush, Moses receives the command to return to Egypt and bring the people of Israel out of captivity. Hearing this, Moses asked: “Now I will come to the children of Israel and say to them:“ The God of your fathers sent me to you ”And they will say to me:“ What is His name? What can I tell them? "

And, then, for the first time, God revealed his name, saying that his name was Yahweh ("I am", "He who is"). God also said that in order to convince unbelievers, He gives Moses the ability to perform miracles. Immediately, by His order, Moses threw his rod (shepherd's stick) to the ground - and suddenly this rod turned into a snake. Moses caught the snake by the tail - and again there was a stick in his hand.

Moses returns to Egypt and appears before Pharaoh, asking him to let the people go. But Pharaoh does not agree, for he does not want to lose his many slaves. And then God brings executions to Egypt. The country then plunges into darkness solar eclipse, then it is struck by a terrible epidemic, then it becomes the prey of insects, which in the Bible are called "flies" (Ex. 8:21)

But none of these tests could frighten Pharaoh.

And then God punishes Pharaoh and the Egyptians in a special way. He punishes every firstborn baby in Egyptian families. But so that the infants of Israel, who had to leave Egypt, would not perish, God commanded that in every Jewish family a lamb should be killed and the doorposts and crossbars of doors in houses should be marked with its blood.

The Bible tells how an angel of God, revenge, walked through the cities and towns of Egypt, bringing death to the firstborn in dwellings whose walls were not sprinkled with the blood of lambs. This Egyptian execution shocked Pharaoh so much that he dismissed the people of Israel.

This event began to be called the Hebrew word "Passover", which in translation means "passing", for the wrath of God bypassed the marked houses. Jewish Passover, or Passover, is the holiday of Israel's deliverance from Egyptian captivity.

God's Covenant with Moses

The historical experience of peoples has shown that one internal law is not enough to improve human morality.

And in Israel the voice of the inner law of man was drowned out by a cry human passions, therefore, the Lord corrects the people and adds an external law to the internal law, which we call positive, or frank.

At the foot of Sinai, Moses revealed to the people that God set Israel free and brought him out of the land of Egypt in order to enter into an eternal alliance, or Covenant, with him. However, this time the Covenant is not made with one person, or with a small group of believers, but with a whole nation.

"If you will obey My voice and keep My Covenant, you will be My inheritance from all nations, for the whole earth is Mine, and you will be with Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." (Ex. 19.5-6)

This is how the people of God are born.

From the seed of Abraham, the first shoots of the Old Testament Church emerge, which is the progenitor of the Universal Church. From now on, the history of religion will no longer be only a history of longing, longing, search, but it becomes the history of the Covenant, i.e. union between the Creator and man

God does not reveal what the calling of the people will be, through which, as He promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, all the peoples of the earth will be blessed, but requires faith, faithfulness and righteousness from the people.

The apparition on Sinai was accompanied by terrible phenomena: cloud, smoke, lightning, thunder, flame, earthquake, trumpet. This fellowship lasted forty days, and God gave Moses two tablets - stone tables on which the Law was written.

“And Moses said to the people: Do not be afraid; God (to you) has come to test you and so that his fear may be before your face, so that you do not sin. " (Ex. 19, 22)
“And God spoke (to Moses) all these words, saying:

1. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; may you have no other gods before me.
2. Do not make yourself an idol and no image of what is in the sky above, and what is on the earth below, and what is in the water below the earth; do not worship them or serve them, for I am the Lord your God. God is a jealous person, punishing children for the guilt of fathers up to the third and fourth generation, who hate me, and showing mercy up to a thousand generations to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
3. Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave without punishment the one who utters His name in vain.
4. Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy; work six days and do (in them) all your deeds, and the seventh day is Saturday to the Lord your God: do not do any deed on that day, neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your servant, nor your maidservant, nor (will yours, nor your donkey, nor any) your cattle, nor the stranger that is in your gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and sanctified it.
5. Honor your father and your mother, (so that you feel good and) that your days may be prolonged on the land that the Lord your God gives you.
6. Dont kill.
7. Do not commit adultery.
8. Don't steal.
9. Do not bear false testimony against your neighbor.
10. Do not covet your neighbor's house; do not covet your neighbor's wife (neither his field) nor his servant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, (nor any of his livestock) anything that is with your neighbor. " (Ex. 20, 1-17).

The law that was given to ancient Israel by God had several purposes. At first, he asserted public order and justice. Secondly, he singled out the Jewish people as a special religious community professing monotheism. Thirdly, he had to make an internal change in a person, morally improve a person, bring a person closer to God through instilling in a person love for God. Finally, the law of the Old Testament prepared mankind to accept the Christian faith in the future.

The fate of Moses

Despite the great difficulties of the prophet Moses, He remained a faithful servant of the Lord God (Yahweh) until the end of his life. He led, taught and instructed his people. He arranged their future, but did not enter the Promised Land. Aaron, the brother of the prophet Moses, also did not enter these lands, because of the sins he committed. By nature, Moses was impatient and prone to anger, but through divine education he became so humble that he became “the meekest of all people on earth” (Num. 12: 3).

In all his deeds and thoughts, he was guided by faith in the Most High. In a sense, the fate of Moses is similar to the fate of the Old Testament itself, which, through the desert of paganism, brought the people of Israel to the New Testament and stood at its doorstep. Moses died at the end of forty years of wandering on the summit of Mount Nebo, from which he could see the promised land, Palestine.

And the Lord said to him to Moses:

“This is the land about which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying: 'I will give it to your seed'; I let you see it with your eyes, but you will not enter it. " And there Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. " (Deut. 34: 1-5). The vision of 120-year-old Moses “was not dulled, and his strength was not depleted” (Deut. 34: 7). The body of Moses is forever hidden from people, “no one knows the place of his burial even to this day,” says the Holy Scriptures (Deut. 34: 6).

Alexander A. Sokolovsky

The Old Testament describes the lives and deeds of many righteous men and prophets. But one of them, n scarce the birth of Christ and who delivered the Jews from the Egyptian oppression, we honor them especially. It is about the God-seer Moses that the Scriptures say that there will be no other such prophet among the children of Israel.

Miraculous baby rescue

At the time when the future prophet was born, the Israelites were subordinate to the Egyptians. They had to do the most hard work under the constant supervision of the guards. Fearing that over time, the Jews, whose numbers have increased from year to year, may become a threat to the state, Pharaoh Ramses commanded so that all male babies born to Israelites should be killed by throwing them into the waters of the Nile.

At this difficult time, Moses was born. Barely born, he struck his mother Jochebed extraordinary beauty. Wanting to save her son, the woman hid him for 3 months at home. When it became impossible to hide the existence of the baby, Jochebed put him in a basket with a tarred bottom, took him to the Nile and left him there in the reeds. Moses' sister Miriam remained to watch what would happen to her brother next.

At this time I went down to the river Pharaoh's barren daughter... Guided by an unknown force, she chose for her bathing exactly the place where Moses lay, left by his mother. According to legend, such a bright light emanated from the basket with the baby that it was impossible not to notice it. And now the daughter of Pharaoh sees a child endowed with extraordinary beauty. Realizing that he was born an Israeli, the princess nevertheless decides to take the boy with her to the palace as an adopted son.

The quick-witted Miriam, who witnessed the miraculous salvation of her brother, invited the pharaoh's daughter to find a nurse for the child among Jewish women and proposed the candidacy of Jochebed. So the baby was returned to its own mother, with whom it was up to 2-3 years old.

At the court of the pharaoh

A few years later, Jochebed gave the grown-up child to the daughter of Pharaoh. The boy was not only handsome, physically strong, but also smart. Despite the origin, little Moses was accepted and loved by the pharaoh. While living in the palace, he received an excellent education. His only drawback was tongue-tiedness, acquired after one unusual incident.

According to biblical parable, Ramses and Moses, who at that time was still too young, sometimes spent time together. Once the pharaoh put the baby on his lap, and he, having played out, knocked off his headdress. The priests suspected this was an unkind sign. Wanting to test their fears, they brought two trays to the boy. On one of them lay diamonds, and on the other glowing sparkling coals. The logic of the priests was simple: the attention of an unreasonable baby was to be attracted by the flickering of coals. If the child reaches out to precious stones, then he is able to realize his own actions, and the pharaoh's headdress was deliberately knocked off.

Legend has it that the clever boy did first reach for the diamonds, but the angel took his hand away and directed it to the second tray. Grabbing the coal, the kid immediately put it in his mouth, burned himself and burst into tears. The priests' suspicions were dispelled. But the resulting trauma to the palate and tongue led to the fact that Moses could no longer pronounce the words clearly and distinctly.

The adopted son of the Pharaoh's daughter, of course, was not oppressed or forced to do hard work. But the future prophet was always worried about the fate of his people.

The murder of an Egyptian

As he grew older, Moses became aware of the plight of the Israelites. One day he saw the overseer beating a Jew severely. The Egyptian did not react to all the persuasions. And then Moses kills him, and the body is buried in the sand.

According to one of the versions, the conflict between the overseer and the slave arose because of the girl. The wife of a Jew liked the Egyptian very much. Having subjected a woman to violence, he, frightened by publicity, decided to get rid of her husband forever. It was at this moment that the future prophet found them. Since the act of the overseer was punishable by death, Moses did so. By this, he aroused the wrath of Pharaoh, who ordered to kill him.

There is another explanation for why Ramses suddenly took up arms against Moses. After all, the life of a simple overseer for the pharaoh did not mean anything compared to the life of the adopted son of a princess. In the Old Testament there is information that the murder of the Egyptian was committed in an unusual way. Moses killed the rapist, calling the name of the Lord... It was this spiritual power that Pharaoh was afraid of when he learned about what had happened.

There is a legend that the sword, carried over the head of Moses by the servant of the pharaoh, scattered into many pieces, and those present either deafened, or became blind, or lost their minds.

Realizing that he was in mortal danger, Moses flees from Egypt. By that time he was forty years old.

Shepherd and flock

The fugitive settles on the Mediam land. There he marries the daughter of a local priest, who will bear him 2 sons, and works as a shepherd for his father-in-law.

There are many symbolic events in the biography of the prophet Moses. A prime example is that he tending sheep in the desert for decades... In the Bible, the relationship between God and the humanity he created is often compared to the relationship between a shepherd and his flock. According to the holy fathers, this is how the Lord prepared Moses for the role of a spiritual leader who would lead the Israelites (God's flock) through the desert to the Promised Land.

This was how they lived for the next forty years. During this time, Pharaoh died, from whose wrath the prophet was hiding. Nothing has changed in the lives of the Israelites. They continued to suffer from oppression and exhaustion in hard work.

Fireproof thorn bush

One day when Moses was tending his flock oh at the foot of Mount Horeb, he heard a voice calling him. Looking around, he noticed a thorn bush that was blazing with a bright flame, but did not burn. Moses, realizing that the Lord had appeared to him, answered the call. God told the prophet that he wanted to save the Jews from grief and take them out of Egypt to the lands where honey and milk flow. Moses should have come to Pharaoh and asked him to let the Israelites go into the wilderness.

The astonished shepherd wondered how he, being tongue-tied, would be able to convince his fellow tribesmen to leave Egypt and follow him. To this the Lord replied that he would become the prophet Moses' helper brother aaron who will be his mouth. And to make it easier for the Jews to believe, God endowed a simple shepherd with the ability to create signs:

• thrown by Moses to the ground the rod turned into a snake;
• on the hand of the prophet, the visible symptoms of leprosy appeared and disappeared.

Having obeyed, Moses went to Egypt, where, together with Aaron, he conveyed the will of the Lord to the people of Israel and, having created signs, managed to convince him to go into the wilderness.

10 misfortunes sent to the Egyptians

Pharaoh refused to let the Israelites go. The signs performed by Moses did not convince the king of Egypt, since his priests performed similar miracles. And then the ancient prophet predicted a terrible punishment waiting for all Egyptians. It consisted of 10 punishments (or executions):

Before the tenth punishment, the Israelites were ordered to celebrate Passover (translated from Hebrew "Easter" means "pass by"). The lamb was to be slaughtered, cooked whole over the fire and eaten with unleavened bread. The blood of the lamb was to be smeared on the doors of their houses. Seeing this sign, the angel of death passed by without touching the children of the Jews. The firstborn of the Egyptians were all killed in one night. There was not a single family that was not affected by this misfortune.

A truly terrible picture appeared before the eyes of Pharaoh! Seeing the tears and hearing the cry of his people, he called Moses and Aaron to him and allowed them to lead the Israelites into the wilderness so that they pray to the Lord to stop sending misfortunes and troubles to the Egyptians.

On that terrible night, the prophet already eighty years old, together with the Jews, numbering about 600 thousand people, excluding women and children, left Egypt forever.

Moses and the Exodus from Egypt

According to the Bible, this great event happened in 1250 BC. NS... The Lord Himself, turning into a pillar of fire, showed the way for the Israelites. They walked for several days and nights until they came to the shore of the Red (Red) Sea.

In the meantime, Pharaoh realized that the Jews were not going to go back. The Egyptian cavalry sent in pursuit quickly overtook the fugitives. The Jews, crowding at the water's edge, prepared for imminent death. But then a miracle happened. Moses, hit in a rod on the sea, ordered the waters to move apart... And so it happened. The Jews crossed the seabed, and the waters closed over the Egyptians, sinking the army of the pharaoh.

The further path of the Israelites to the Promised Land ran through the Arabian desert. They had to endure many difficulties, more than once they showed cowardice and grumbled at Moses, accusing him of the hardships of their position. The prophet pacified the people every time, turning to God for help:

• when the Jews were exhausted from hunger, Moses offered up prayers to the Lord, after which God sent down manna from heaven for food;
• to help people suffering from thirst, the prophet drew water from Mount Horeb, hitting it with a staff.

Three months have passed. The Jews came to the foot of Mount Sinai, climbing which Moses received from God tablets containing brief laws or commandments, according to which every person was supposed to live.

All in all, the prophet led the Jews through the desert for forty years. But this path could not have been passed faster. And it's not a matter of distance. It is known that Moses could lead his people in a short way. But it took the Jews exactly four decades to learn to trust God, put your trust in him. It was necessary to overcome a large number of difficulties, so that every Israelite could realize at what price his freedom was paid.

Death of the prophet

Moses himself was not destined to get into the covenant lands. The Lord only showed him Palestine from Mount Nebo. The Godseer died at the age of 120... Completed the work of the prophet by bringing the Jews to the Promised Land, Joshua.

The tomb of Moses was hidden by God so that people inclined to paganism would not make a cult out of it. The place of his burial is not known to this day.

The legend of Moses is reflected in all world religions. In Islam, the prophet Musa is the interlocutor of Allah, to whom he sent down Taurat. In Judaism, Moshe is considered the "father" of all prophets, who received the Torah from God on Mount Sinai. In Christianity, Moses is revered as the greatest prophet through whom the Lord transmitted the Ten Commandments to humanity. Its importance is also evidenced by the fact that it was Moses, together with Elijah, who appeared to Jesus on Mount Tabor. There was no such prophet among the children of Israel anymore!

And others) - the leader and legislator of the Jewish people, the prophet and the first sacred writer of everyday life. He was born in Egypt in 1574 or 1576 BC and was the son of Amram and Jochebed. When Moses was born, his mother, Jochebed, for some time hid him from the general beating of Jewish male babies by order of Pharaoh; but when there was no longer an opportunity to hide it, she carried him out to the river and put him in a reed basket made of reeds and tarred with asphalt and tar near the bank of the Nile River, and Moses' sister watched in the distance what would happen to him. Pharaoh's daughter, c. Egyptian, went out to the river to wash and here she saw a basket, heard the crying of a child, took pity on him and decided to save his life. Thus, taken from the water, he, at the suggestion of Moses' sister, was given to the upbringing of his mother. When the baby grew up, the mother introduced him to the daughter of Pharaoh, and he was with her instead of a son, and being in the royal palace, he was taught all Egyptian wisdom (,). According to Flavius, he was even made commander of the Egyptian army against the Ethiopians, who invaded Egypt to Memphis, and successfully defeated them (Ancient book II, ch. 10). Despite, however, on his advantageous position with Pharaoh, Moses, according to the word of the Apostle, rather wanted to suffer with the people of God than to have temporary sinful pleasure and reproach of Christ he considered great wealth for himself than Egyptian treasures(). He was already 40 years old, and then one day it came to his heart to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel. Then he saw their hard work and how much the Jews suffered from the Egyptians. It happened once that he stood up for a Jew, who was beaten by an Egyptian and killed in the heat of battle, and, besides the offended Jew, there was no one else. The next day he saw two Jews quarreling among themselves and began to convince them, like brothers, to live in harmony. But the one who offended his neighbor pushed him away: who put you in charge and judge over us? he said. Would you like to kill me too, as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?(). Hearing this, Moses, fearing that word of this might reach Pharaoh, fled to the land of Midian. In the house of the priest Jethro of Midian, he married his daughter Zipporah and spent 40 years here. Grazing his father-in-law's flock, he went with the flock far into the wilderness and came to the Mount of God Horeb (). He saw an extraordinary phenomenon here, namely: the thorn bush is all in flames, burns and does not burn. Approaching the bush, he heard the voice of the Lord from the middle of the bush, commanding him to take off his shoes from his feet, since the place on which he stood is holy ground. Moses hastily removed his shoes and covered his face in fear. Then he was given the command of God to go to Pharaoh to free the Israelites. Fearing his unworthiness and presenting various difficulties, Moses several times renounced this great embassy, ​​but the Lord reassured him with His presence and His help, revealed His name to him: I am (Jehovah) and as evidence of his power he turned the rod that was in the hands of Moses into a serpent, and turned the serpent into a rod again; then Moses, at the command of God, put his hand in his bosom, and the hand turned white with leprosy like snow; on a new command, he again put his hand in his bosom, took it out, and she was healthy. The Lord pointed out his brother, Aaron, to help Moses. Then Moses unquestioningly obeyed the calling of the Lord. Together with his brother Aaron, he appeared before the face of Pharaoh, c. Egyptian, and on behalf of Jehovah they asked him to release the Jews from Egypt for three days to offer sacrifices in the wilderness. Pharaoh, as the Lord predicted to Moses, refused them this. Then the Lord struck the Egyptians with terrible executions, of which the last was the beating by an angel in one night of all the firstborn of the Egyptians. This terrible execution finally broke the stubbornness of the Pharaoh. He allowed the Jews to go out of Egypt into the desert for three days to pray and take their livestock, both flocks and herds. And the Egyptians urged the people to send them out of that land as soon as possible; for, they said, we will all die... The Jews, having celebrated Passover on the last night, at the command of God, left Egypt in the number of 600,000 men with all their belongings, and, despite all the haste, they did not forget to take with them the bones of Joseph and some other patriarchs, as bequeathed by Joseph. He himself showed them where to direct their way: He walked before them by day in a pillar of cloud, and by night in a pillar of fire, illuminating their way (Ex. XIII, 21, 22). Pharaoh and the Egyptians soon repented that they had released the Jews, and set out with an army to overtake them, and now they were approaching their camp at the Red Sea. Then the Lord commanded Moses to take his rod and divide the sea so that the children of Israel could pass through the sea on dry land. Moses acted in accordance with the command of God, and the sea was divided, and a dry bottom was opened. The children of Israel went on dry land in the middle of the sea, so that the waters were a wall to them on the right and left sides. The Egyptians followed them into the middle of the sea, but, disconcerted by God, ran back. Then Moses, after the Israelites had already reached the shore, again stretched out his hand to the sea, and the waters returned again to their place and covered Pharaoh with all the army and his chariots and horsemen; not one of them was left to speak in Egypt about this terrible death. On the seashore, Moses and all the people solemnly sang a song of thanksgiving to God: I sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted, He has cast horse and rider into the sea, and Miriam and all the women, striking the tympans, sang: Sing to the Lord, for He is exalted high (). Moses led the Jews to the Promised Land of the Arabian Desert. For three days they walked in the desert of Sur and did not find water, except for the bitter one (Marah). He delighted this water, commanding Moses to put in it the tree He had indicated. In the desert of Sin, due to the popular murmur of the lack of food and the demand for meat by them, God sent them many quails and from this time and for all the next forty years daily sent them manna from heaven. In Rephidim, due to the lack of water and the murmur of the people, Moses, at the command of God, drew water from the rock of Mount Horeb, striking it with his rod. Here the Amalekites made an attack on the Jews, but were defeated at the prayer of Moses, who throughout the battle prayed on the mountain, raising his hands to God (). In the third month after the exodus from Egypt, the Jews finally came to the foot of Mount Sinai and camped against the mountain. On the third day, at the command of God, the people were set up by Moses near the mountain, at some distance from it, with a strict prohibition not to approach it closer to a known line. On the morning of the third day, there were thunderclaps, lightning began to flash, a strong trumpet sound was heard, Mount Sinai was all smoking, because the Lord descended on it in fire and the smoke rose from it like smoke from a furnace. This is how the presence of God at Sinai was marked. And at that time the Lord spoke out the ten commandments of the Law of God in the ears of all the people. Then Moses ascended the mountain, accepted laws from the Lord regarding church and civil improvement, and when he descended from the mountain, he told all this to the people and wrote everything in a book. Then, after sprinkling the blood of the people and reading the Book of the Covenant, Moses again at the command of God went up the mountain, and spent there forty days and forty nights, and received detailed instructions from God about the construction of the Tabernacle and the altar and about everything related to the divine service, in conclusion two stone tablets with the ten commandments inscribed on them (). Upon his return from the mountain, Moses saw that the people, left to themselves, had fallen into the terrible crime of idolatry before the golden calf worshiped in Egypt. In the heat of indignation, he threw the tablets from his hands and broke them, and burned the golden calf in the fire and scattered the ashes over the water he gave to drink. In addition, at the command of Moses, three thousand men, the chief perpetrators of the crime, fell by the sword of the sons of Levi that day. After this, Moses hurried up the mountain again to beg the Lord to forgive the people for their iniquity and again stayed there forty days and forty nights, did not eat bread or drink water, and the Lord bowed down to mercy. Excited by this mercy, Moses had the audacity to ask God in the highest way to show him His glory. And once again he was ordered to climb the mountain with the tablets prepared, and he again spent 40 days there in fasting. At that time the Lord descended in a cloud and passed before him in His glory. Moses fell to the ground in awe. The reflection of the glory of God was reflected on his face, and when he came down from the mountain, the people could not look at him; why he wore a veil on his face, which he took off when he appeared before the Lord. Six months after this, the Tabernacle was built and consecrated with all its accessories with sacred oil. Aaron and his sons were appointed to serve in the Tabernacle, and soon the entire tribe of Levi was separated to help them (,). Finally, on the twentieth day of the second month of the second year, a cloud rose from the Tabernacle, and the Jews set out on a further journey, staying at Mount Sinai for about a year (). Their further wandering was accompanied by numerous temptations, murmurs, cowardice and the death of the people, but at the same time it represented an uninterrupted series of miracles and mercy of the Lord to His chosen people. So, for example, in the Paran desert, the people grumbled about the lack of meat and fish: now our soul is languishing; nothing, only manna in our eyes they said with reproach to Moses. As a punishment for this, part of the camp was destroyed by fire sent from God. But this did little to enlighten the dissatisfied. Soon they began to neglect manna and demanded meat food for themselves. Then the Lord raised up a strong wind, which brought quails from the sea in enormous numbers. The people eagerly rushed to collect quails, collected them day and night and ate until they were full. But this whim and satiety were the cause of the death of many of them, and the place where many people perished from a terrible plague was called the coffins of lust, or whim. In the next camp, Moses experienced trouble from his own relatives, Aaron and Miriami, but exalted him as his faithful servant in all His House (). Continuing further on their way, the Jews approached the Promised Land and could soon have taken possession of it, if it had not been prevented by their unbelief and cowardice. In the desert of Paran, in Kadesh, there was the most outrageous murmur, when from 12 spies sent to inspect the Promised Land, the Jews heard about the great power, the great growth of the inhabitants of that land and its fortified cities. With this indignation, they wanted to stone even Moses himself and Aaron with two of the spies and choose a new leader for their return to Egypt. Then the Lord condemned them for this 40-year wandering, so that all of them over 20 years had to die in the wilderness, except for Joshua and Caleb (). This was followed by a new indignation of Korah, Dathan and Abiron against Moses and Aaron himself, punished by the Lord with terrible executions, and the priesthood was again established for the house of Aaron (). The Jews wandered in the desert for more than thirty years, and almost all those who left Egypt died. With the onset of the fortieth year after leaving Egypt, they appear in Kadesh, in the desert of Sin on the border of the land of Edom. Here, due to the lack of water, the people again grumbled against Moses and Aaron, who turned with prayer to the Lord. The Lord heeded the prayer and ordered Moses and Aaron to gather the community and, with a rod in their hands, command the rock to give water. Moses struck the rock with the rod twice, and a lot of water flowed out. But since in this case Moses, as if not trusting one of his words, struck with a rod and acted contrary to the will of God, for this he and Aaron were condemned to die outside the Promised Land (). In the further journey, Aaron died near Mount Hor, having previously passed on the high priesthood to his son, Eleazar (). At the end of the wandering, the people again began to become faint-hearted and grumble. As a punishment for this, God sent poisonous snakes against him and, when they repented, commanded Moses to erect a brazen serpent on a tree to heal them (,). Approaching the limits of the Amorites, the Jews struck Sigon, c. Ammoreian, and Oga, c. Bashan, and having occupied their lands, they set their camp against Jericho. For adultery with the daughters of Moab and idolatry, in which the Jews were involved by the Moabites and the Midianites, 24,000 of them died, while others were hanged at the command of God. Finally, since Moses himself, like Aaron, was not worthy to enter the Promised Land, he asked the Lord to show him a worthy successor, which is why a successor was indicated to him in the person of Joshua, on whom he laid hands before Eleazar the priest and before the whole community your (). Thus, Moses gave him his title before all Israel, made an order for the possession and division of the Promised Land, repeated to the people what God had given in different times laws, inspiring to keep them sacred and touchingly reminding them of the many different benefits of God during their forty-year wandering. He wrote all his admonitions, the repeated law and his final orders in a book and gave it to the priests for keeping at the Ark of the Covenant, making it a duty to read it to the people every seventh year on the Feast of Tabernacles. For the last time, being called before the Tabernacle, together with his successor, he received a revelation from God about the future ingratitude of the people and conveyed this to him in an accusatory and edifying song. Finally, summoned to Mount Nebo to the summit of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho, having seen from afar the Promised Land shown to him by the Lord, he died on the mountain 120 years old. His body was buried in the valley near Veffegor, but no one knows the place of his burial even to this day, says the everyday writer (). The people honored his death with thirty days of mourning. St. Commemorates the Prophet and God-Seer Moses on the 4th day of September. In the book. Deuteronomy, after his death, in a prophetic spirit, is spoken of about him (maybe this is the word of the successor of Moses, Joshua): And Israel no longer had a prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face (). St. Isaiah says that the people of God, centuries later, in the days of their troubles, with reverence before God remembered the times of Moses, when the Lord saved Israel with his hand (Is. LXIII, 11-13). As a leader, lawgiver and prophet, Moses at all times lived in the memory of the people. His memory in the most recent times was always blessed, never dying among the people of Israel (Sir XLV, 1-6). In the New Testament, Moses, as the great lawgiver, and Elijah, as the representative of the prophets, are conversing in glory with the Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration (,). The great name of Moses cannot lose its importance both for all Christians and for the entire enlightened world: he lives among us in his sacred books, he was the first Divinely inspired writer.

Name: Moses

Activity: prophet, founder of Judaism, who brought Jews out of Egyptian slavery

Family status: was married

Moses: biography

The very existence of Moses is rather controversial. Long years historians and biblical scholars have debated on this topic. According to biblical scholars, Moses is the author of the "Pentateuch" - the first five books of the Hebrew and Christian Bible... And historians have found some contradictions in this.

Prophet Moses is one of the central figures in the Old Testament. He saved the Jews from the oppression of the Egyptian rulers. True, historians continue to insist on their own, because there is no evidence of these events. But the personality and life of Moses certainly deserve attention, since for Christians he is a type.

In Judaism

The future prophet was born in Egypt. Moses' parents belonged to the tribe of Levi. From time immemorial, the Levites had responsibilities as clergy, so they had no right to own their own lands.

Estimated period of life: XV-XIII centuries. BC NS. At that time, the Israeli people were resettled to Egyptian territory due to hunger. But the fact is that they were strangers to the Egyptians. And soon the pharaohs decided that the Jews could become dangerous for them, because they would side with the enemy if anyone decides to attack Egypt. The rulers began to oppress the Israelites, they literally made them slaves. Jews worked in quarries and built pyramids. And soon the pharaohs decided to kill all Jewish male babies in order to stop the growth of the Israeli population.

The mother of Moses Jochebed tried to hide her son for three months, and when she realized that she could no longer do this, she put the child in a papyrus basket and sent it down the Nile River. The basket with the baby was noticed by the daughter of Pharaoh, who was bathing nearby. She immediately realized that this was a Jewish child, but spared him.

Moses' sister Mariam was watching everything that happened. She told the girl that she knew a woman who could become a nurse for the boy. Thus, Moses was nursed by his own mother. Later, the daughter of Pharaoh adopted the child, and he began to live in the palace and received an education. But with his mother's milk, the boy absorbed the faith of his ancestors, and was never able to worship the Egyptian gods.

It was difficult for him to see and endure the cruelty to which his people were subjected. One day he witnessed a terrible beating of an Israeli. He simply could not pass by - he snatched the whip from the hands of the warden and beat him to death. And although the man believed that no one had seen what happened, soon the pharaoh ordered to find the son of his daughter and kill him. And Moses had to flee from Egypt.

Moses settled in the Sinai desert. He married the priest's daughter Sepphora and became a shepherd. Soon they had two sons - Gersam and Eliezer.

Every day a man was tending a flock of sheep, but one day he saw a thorn bush that burned with fire, but did not burn. Approaching the bush, Moses heard a voice calling him by name and told him to take off his shoes, as he was standing on holy ground. It was the voice of God. He said that Moses was destined to save the Jewish people from the oppression of the Egyptian rulers. He must go to Pharaoh and demand that the Jews be set free, and in order for the Israelites to believe him, God gave Moses the ability to perform miracles.

At that time, Egypt was ruled by another pharaoh, not the one from whom Moses fled. Moses was not so eloquent, so he went to the palace with his older brother Aaron, who became his voice. He asked the ruler to release the Jews to the Promised Lands. But Pharaoh not only did not agree, but also began to demand even more from the Israeli slaves. The Prophet did not accept his answer, he came to him with the same request more than once, but each time he was refused. And then God sent ten plagues, the so-called biblical plagues, to Egypt.

First, the waters of the Nile became blood. Only for the Jews was it clean and drinkable. The Egyptians could only drink the water they bought from the Israelites. But Pharaoh considered it witchcraft, and not God's punishment.

The second execution was the invasion of frogs. Amphibians were everywhere: on the streets, in houses, in beds, and in food. Pharaoh told Moses that he would believe that God had sent this trouble to Egypt if he made the frogs disappear. And he agreed to let the Jews go. But as soon as the toads were gone, he retracted his words.

And then the Lord sent midges against the Egyptians. Insects climbed into ears, eyes, nose and mouth. Then the sorcerers began to assure Pharaoh that this was a punishment from God. But he was adamant.

And then God brought down on them the fourth execution - dog flies. Most likely, gadflies were hiding under this name. They stung people and cattle, giving no rest.

Soon, the Egyptians' cattle began to die, while among the Jews nothing happened to the animals. Of course, Pharaoh had already understood that God was protecting the Israelites, but he again refused to give the people freedom.

And then the bodies of the Egyptians began to become covered with terrible ulcers and abscesses, their bodies itched and festered. The ruler was seriously frightened, but God did not want him to let the Jews go out of fear, so he sent down a hail of fire on Egypt.

The eighth punishment of the Lord was the invasion of locusts, they ate all the greens in their path, not a single blade of grass remained on the Egyptian land.

And soon a thick darkness fell over the country, not a single source of light scattered this darkness. Therefore, the Egyptians had to move by touch. But the darkness became denser every day, and it became more and more difficult to move until it became completely impossible. Pharaoh again called Moses to the palace, he promised to release his people, but only if the Jews left their livestock. The Prophet did not agree to this and promised that the tenth execution would be the most terrible.

All the firstborn in Egyptian families died in one night. To prevent punishment from overtaking the Israeli babies, God ordered that every Jewish family slaughtered a lamb and smeared the doorframes of houses with its blood. After such a terrible misfortune, Pharaoh released Moses and his people.

This event became known as the Hebrew word "Passover", which means "passing." After all, the wrath of God "went around" all the houses. The holiday of Passover, or Passover, is the day of the deliverance of the Israeli people from Egyptian captivity. The slaughtered lamb was to be baked and eaten by the Jews while standing with their families. It is believed that over time, this Easter was transformed into the one that people know now.

On the way from Egypt, another miracle happened - the waters of the Red Sea parted for the Jews. They walked along the bottom, and so they managed to cross to the other side. But Pharaoh did not expect that this path would be so easy for a Jew, so he set off in pursuit. He also followed the seabed. But as soon as the people of Moses were on the shore, the water closed again, burying both Pharaoh and his army in the depths.

After a three-month journey, people ended up at the foot of Mount Sinai. Moses climbed to its top to receive instructions from God. The dialogue with God lasted 40 days, and it was accompanied by terrible lightning, thunder and fire. God gave the prophet two stone tablets on which the main commandments were written.

At this time, the people sinned - they created the Golden Calf, which people began to worship. Going down and seeing this, Moses broke both the tablets and the Taurus. He immediately returned to the top and for 40 days atoned for the sins of the Jewish people.

The Ten Commandments have become God's law for people. Having accepted the commandments, the Jewish people promised to keep them, thus a sacred Covenant was concluded between God and the Jews, in which the Lord promised to be merciful to the Jews, and they, in turn, are obliged to live correctly.

In Christianity

The life story of the prophet Moses in all three religions coincides: a Jewish foundling, raised in the family of an Egyptian pharaoh, frees his people and receives ten commandments from God. True, in Judaism the name of Moses sounds differently - Moshe. Also, sometimes Jews call the prophet Moshe Rabeynu, which means “our teacher”.

In Christianity, the famous prophet is revered as one of the main types of Jesus Christ. By analogy with how in Judaism God gives people the Old Testament through Moses, so Christ brings to Earth New Testament.

Also an important episode in all branches of Christianity is the appearance of Moses together with the prophet Elijah before Jesus on Mount Tabor during the Transfiguration. A Orthodox Church included the icon of Moses in the official Russian iconostasis and appointed September 17 as the day of remembrance of the great prophet.

In islam

In Islam, the prophet also has a different name - Musa. It was a great prophet who spoke to Allah as with common man... And on Sinai, Allah sent down Musa Holy Bible–Taurat. In the Qur'an, the name of the prophet is mentioned more than once, his story is given as an example and edification.

The real facts

It is believed that Moses is the author of the "Pentateuch" - five volumes of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. For many years, up to the seventeenth century, no one dared to doubt this. But over time, historians found more and more inconsistencies in the presentation. For example, the last part describes the death of Moses, and this contradicts the fact that he wrote the books himself. There are also many repetitions in the books - the same events are interpreted in different ways. Historians believe that there were several authors of the Pentateuch, since in different parts there are different terminology.

Unfortunately, no physical evidence of the prophet's existence was found in Egypt. Neither in written sources nor in archaeological finds there was no mention of Moses.

For hundreds of years, his personality has overgrown with legends and myths, there are constant disputes around the life of Moses and the "Pentateuch", but so far not a single religion has abandoned the "Ten Commandments of God", which the prophet once presented to his people.

Death

For forty years Moses led the people through the wilderness, and his life ended at the threshold of the Promised Land. God commanded him to climb Mount Nebo. And from the top, Moses saw Palestine. He lay down to rest, but it was not a dream that came to him, but death.

The place of his burial was hidden by God so that the people would not start a pilgrimage to the tomb of the prophet. As a result, Moses died at the age of 120. For 40 years he lived in the palace of the Pharaoh, for another 40 years he lived in the desert and worked as a shepherd, and for the last 40 years he led the Israeli people out of Egypt.

Moses' brother Aaron did not reach Palestine either; he died at 123 due to a lack of faith in God. As a result, the follower of Moses, Joshua, brought the Jews to the promised land.

Memory

• 1482 - fresco "Testament and death of Moses", Luca Signorelli and Bartolomeo de la Gatta
• 1505 - Painting "The Test of Moses by Fire", Giorgione
• 1515 - Marble statue of Moses,
• 1610 - Paintings "Moses with the Commandments", Reni Guido
• 1614 - Painting "Moses in front of a flaming bush" by Domenico Fetti
• 1659 - Painting "Moses Breaking the Tablets of the Covenant"
• 1791 - Fountain in Bern "Moses"

• 1842 - Painting "Moses, lowered by his mother on the waters of the Nile", Alexey Tyranov
• 1862 - Painting "Finding Moses", Frederick Goodall
• 1863 - Painting "Moses exudes water from a rock"
• 1891 - Painting "Passage of Jews across the Red Sea",
• 1939 - The book "Moses and Monotheism",
• 1956 - Film "Ten Commandments", Cecile De Mille
• 1998 - Cartoon "Prince of Egypt", Brenda Chapman
• 2014 - Film "Exodus: Kings and Gods",