Herbert W Armstrong

   It seems that some continually complained about how he ran the work. And some have said that he took too much on himself, that he was egotistical, that he exalted himself, that he was inaccessible, that he was hard and he was harsh. And some even claimed that he set himself up like a prince over the people. Or others, you know, that he just lifted himself up as far as his position or office was. And I presume some also went a little bit further and said that he had developed his own empire.

   And some said that he didn't keep his word. There have also been written accusations about this leader of God's work that he had a bad temper. And at times he didn't have all of his family under control. Even his marital situation came under attack.

   Now, at first it would seem that this man, this leader in God's church, did most of the work all by himself, but as time went on, he finally initiated a pyramid type of organization in the work. It seemed like this leader was always coming out with some new understanding of God's will or some new doctrine not understood before. On one occasion, he made a major change, for example, in the doctrine of divorce and remarriage from what it previously had been. He also wrote several books on theological or spiritual subjects which were widely distributed.

   Conditions got so bad on at least one or two occasions that there was a major movement by other leaders in the work to get rid of him and his principal assistant. But this try failed, or I should say these tries failed. And some of his greatest achievements came after he was eighty years old. Probably some people even complained because he was a little unclear or would not state who his successor should be. And he didn't help them very much in such complaints because he wouldn't select a successor.

   And who is this man? Moses. Maybe some of you thought I was going to mention someone else.

   Now, I want to prove every single one of those points. Let's go back to the beginning here, where I said that there had been a leader in God's work. Well, I think Moses was in God's work, was he not? And I believe sincerely that he prompted a host of criticisms and comments, did he not? Or have you ever read the book of Exodus and Numbers and Leviticus and Deuteronomy? I won't go and prove every single one of these points. I assume that you've read the book, because some of the answers are so obvious.

   It seems that some continually complained about how he ran the work. And so you look in those particular books of the Bible and you see that the people murmured on this occasion and they murmured on that occasion and they murmured on another occasion. And I checked one concordance yesterday and the word "murmur" or "murmuring" or "murmured" and so forth was used at least twenty-one times back in those particular books, those four books.

   Now some said that he took too much on himself, and of course there are whole chapters on that subject. Let's turn to the book of Numbers, chapter sixteen, one of the prime examples of this. And several of the points that I mentioned come from this book, of course, and this chapter. Numbers sixteen. And in fact, later I'm going to refer possibly back to things in this chapter. Chapter sixteen, and starting at verse one (Numbers 16:1).

   "Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben took men." Now when you check here the relationship, you'll see that apparently Moses and Aaron were cousins of this man Korah. And so he was sort of in the family, you know, just being a cousin, and you know how familiarity sometimes breeds contempt.

   "And they rose up before Moses with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes." These were not, you see, rank and file members of the congregation, and that was the congregation in the wilderness according to the book of Acts. But here we're leaders now, you know, not, as I said, the rank and file. Not people who had not had experience or were not involved in the organization or the government of the people at that particular time, but two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown.

   "And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said unto them, 'You take too much upon you.'" And that's what I said here to start with in this particular section. Some have said he took too much on himself, and here's where I get that from. "Seeing all the congregation are holy." You see, "We're all holy, we're all together, and so we ought to vote, we ought to have committees to decide these things rather than you, Moses, deciding all of these things. Every one of them, and the Lord is among them, wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord?"

   So they're saying here, "You lifted yourself up, you put yourself in that position. God didn't do it." And yet if you read the rest of the book of Numbers and also in particular the book of Exodus, you'll see that God placed him in the position that he was in. I won't read all of the details in here because surely you have read them before several times.

   And a few verses here, Moses says in essence, "Why is it, you know, that you want to take somebody else's job? Here you are Levites and you're wanting now to have the priesthood," which in some sense, as you might say, was a higher calling. And they were apparently wanting to take over and to exalt themselves.

   And so Moses sent to some of these men to come up to see him, but they said in verse twelve, "We will not." Verse thirteen, continuing what they say: "Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of the land that flowed with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness, except thou make thyself altogether a prince over us?" Here is that place where I said, you know, that they, some said that he was sort of like a prince over them. "Moreover thou hast not brought us into a land that floweth with milk and honey, and given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Will you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come up."

   Now another thing that I mentioned was that they said he didn't keep his word. Well, here is that place, because they're in essence saying at this particular point, "You said you were going to take us into the promised land, into the land flowing with milk and honey and here we are out here in the desert in the wilderness and we don't have any of these things. Therefore, Moses, you're a liar."

   Verse fifteen: "And Moses was very wroth." Now, when he had, we'll have more to say about that a little bit later when we come to the next point after we finish this chapter, but here is one place where it says that Moses was very wroth or angry. And he said, "Respect not there their offering." He says this now to God. He said, "I have not taken one ass from them, neither have I hurt one of them," So Moses, saying, "Well, I haven't taken anything from those people, and here they are accusing me of all these terrible things."

   Sure you know what happened here over the next, the middle part of the chapter. That this man, Korah and those with him, were swallowed up by the ground and died and perished.

   Let's go on now to verse forty-one to see now the general attitude of the people even after this had happened. You'd think, "Oh, when they saw that they'd realize, oh well that's God's judgment. Those people were wrong and therefore we should worship God and respect Moses." Well tomorrow, "all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron saying, 'Ye have killed the people of the Lord.'" You know, "Moses, you opened up the earth and you threw all those people down in there and then you closed it up again."

   Well, on one occasion, and I don't know if we'll take time to read it, they were even taking up stones to stone Moses and Aaron. In verse forty-nine, we see now that fourteen thousand seven hundred people died of a plague that came from God as a result of this rebellion of these two hundred and fifty people and their leaders and also some of the other people that sort of gotten the same attitude and followed.

   So I think that it's very clear there from this that the comments that I made that he took too much on himself were taken right out of the scriptures. And that he supposedly exalted himself, which we saw, that he was inaccessible. And when you consider a congregation of two and a half or three million, however many there were, and that's as we'll see a little bit later, they had a sort of a pyramid type of organization or government, who was it that got to speak to Moses? I don't suppose very many did because Moses was only one man and he couldn't talk to very many people. And they thought he was hard and harsh. Why? Because he didn't do what they wanted sometimes.

   Now, let's go on and cover this subject next about the temper of Moses. I read to you Numbers sixteen, fifteen, but let's turn to another one or two. Exodus thirty-two is another example. Exodus thirty-two. And notice starting in verse nineteen (Exodus 32:19). This is the time now when Moses had been up on the mount for forty days and forty nights. And as he came down from the mount, he saw the dancing and so forth.

   Verse nineteen: "And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh or near unto the camp, that he saw the calf, this was a golden calf they had married and made rather, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount." Now was he ??" he was so angry, he took these very precious stones that God had cut out with his own hands and on which he had written the Ten Commandments and he threw them to the ground. That's how mad he was. That we would say mad or angry.

   Then let's notice chapter thirty-one of Numbers. Numbers thirty-one. And verse four. I'm sorry, that's not the right verse. I have to skip that one. I got the wrong text there. There are some others anyway, but at least those two I think should be sufficient to show you that Moses sometimes could get angry.

   Now I said that sometimes he didn't have his whole family under control. Let's notice the scriptures. There are a couple of scriptures that relate to this. First, Exodus, the fourth chapter. Exodus four and verse twenty-five . Now this is the occasion when Moses and his family were traveling from the Sinai Peninsula, from the mount of God, you know, back over to Egypt. Chapter four. In verse twenty-five. Maybe I should read verse twenty-four (Exodus 4:24-25).

   "And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah, that’s Moses wife now, took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, 'Surely a bloody husband art you to me.' So he let him go: then she said, 'A bloody husband you are, because of the circumcision.'"

   Now we don't have all the details here and I haven't time to read, for that matter, even all the details in this particular place, but what had happened is they were going along here, something happened that where God apparently was going to kill Moses or kill his son, whichever the case may be. Why? Because of apparently in this case rebellion or disobedience.

   Because God had commanded back even before this time to Abraham that all of the males of Israel were to be circumcised. Of course at that time there was no Israel but that came a little bit later. In other words, the descendants of Abraham were supposed to be circumcised, and Moses undoubtedly knew this. And he had not circumcised his children. Why didn't he circumcise his children, his two sons? Well, it would seem like because of his wife and his wife, for whatever reason thought maybe that was a pagan rite or it was horrible or it was this, that or the other things and she wasn't going to permit that in her family.

   So her two sons weren't circumcised and apparently Moses wasn't able to at that particular point to rule his house and his family. And so here the sons remained uncircumcised and so God now was going to take drastic action and Moses and Zipporah both knew why. And so finally Zipporah said, "Well, I'm going to go ahead and do this dirty wicked deed myself then," because she said, "You're a bloody husband to me to cause me to do such a thing as that."

   So I would think from that that it would indicate that Moses sometimes did not have his family under proper, what will I say, under proper control if that's the right word, maybe that's not quite the right word. But at this particular point, apparently, and of course the scripture doesn't tell us for sure, but apparently at this point the family problem became so great that Moses sent Zipporah back home.

   Now let's turn to chapter eighteen. And turn to verse two of chapter eighteen Exodus 18:2). I might say that in the meantime now, all of the succeeding chapters while Moses was down in Egypt, doing all the things that were done down there in the succeeding chapters, and the time also of the children of Israel coming out of the land of Egypt, going to the Red Sea and so forth, all during that time, nothing is mentioned of his wife Zipporah.

   Let's turn to verse two now, chapter eighteen. "Then Jethro, Moses' father in law, took Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her back." And it would seem like the time that he sent her back was the time that we just read about. That would be the logical time anyway that he would send her back because of this family problem that they had and he brought the sons and Gershom and Eliezer and so forth. And so it seemed from that that Moses didn't do an excellent or always do the right kind of a job as far as his family is concerned.

   I said next that even his marital situation came under attack. Let's turn to chapter twelve of Numbers for that. And you ought to know what I'm going to refer to here. Numbers chapter twelve (Numbers 12:1).

   And Miriam and Moses, excuse me. "And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian, or better translated or maybe more properly translated, the Cushite woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian or Cushite woman." Now we don't know exactly who this Cushite woman was. Some have said, "Well, this is talking about Zipporah." But she was not an Cushite woman, at least from the Bible basis, because she was a Midianite unless maybe she was living in Midian and had descended from Cush, I don't know, but at least it seemed like she was Midianite. And the Midianites descended from Abraham through Keturah and not through Cush, who was what the son of Ham, who was the son of, no the son of Cannan, I guess who was the son of Ham, who was the son of Noah.

   So we see in this particular place that even in the family, there was criticism about Moses and his marital situation. Now there are various possibilities here and I don't know if there's any value to speculate as to exactly what had happened. There is mention in history, possibly in the book of Josephus, about a marriage, maybe what we would call a political marriage. We don't know whether it was a real marriage of Moses, back before he ever went to the land of Midian. Possibly Zipporah was dead by this time and he was remarrying. We just don't know. We don't know what the situation was, but anyway, the brother and sister were dissatisfied and critical because of what Moses either had in the past done or had done in recent times.

   Well, what did God do about all of this? I'm sure you're familiar with what happened in the rest of this chapter. As a result of this, Miriam became a leper. And after seven days being sent out of the camp and the prayer of Moses, she finally was healed and restored back. So apparently God thought it was a very serious and a wrong charge that these people had made against Moses.

   Next, I said at first he seemed to do most of the work by himself, but in time he finally initiated a pyramid type of organization in the work. Let's turn to Exodus eighteen to see this. Exodus eighteen. We had already read a little bit in chapter eighteen about Jethro coming to Moses with the children of Israel. But let's turn now to let's see, about verse thirteen (Exodus 18:13).

   "And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to judge the people: and the people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening." There were two and a half million people. When you consider the kind of problems that people have, they must have had a huge line, you know, a lot worse than the Luby's cafeteria or Monun cafeteria, you know. So here was a huge line of people all wanting to talk to Moses and of course, wanting to explain their complaint or their problem in great detail. And that's a very tiring situation, not only for Moses, but I'm sure all those people that were standing in line and saying, "Well, why doesn't he hurry up? Why didn't he hurry up?" and so on and so forth.

   And Moses's father-in-law saw this and so he said, well this isn't good, so what you need to do is to have organization and we'll find that if we take the time, which we won't, but if we took time, uh, we'll find in other places that God was involved in this also that God apparently inspired Jethro to give this council to Moses and then Moses did uh go to God with it and then it was approved by God that this is the kind of organization that that they should have.

   And uh let's skip down a little bit further now after Moses had explained what he was doing to his father-in-law. In verse 17, Moses's father-in-law said unto him, the thing that you do is not good, trying to do this all by yourself. You will surely wear away both you and this people that is with you, for this thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to perform it yourself alone. And uh he said, now listen to me and what I'm going to tell you, he says that you need to uh uh Well, let's let's take it out verse 20 you shall teach them, that is, those that are going to assist you. Ordinances and laws and shall show them the way wherein they must walk and the work that they must do. Moreover, you shall provide out of all the people able men such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness, and these are certainly very stringent qualifications. And place such over them to be rulers of thousands, hundreds, 50s, and 10s. And if that is a pyramid type government, I don't know what the pyramid type government might be. So let them judge the people, and they will take care of the small matters and the big matters, of course, they will bring to you. And so Moses did this, verse 25, he chose able men out of all of Israel and made them rulers over thousands, hundreds, 50s, and 10s, and they judged the people at all seats at all times. The hard causes they brought in to Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves. So that's all we need to read at that particular point. So you see, you start out with he did most of the work by himself and in due time initiated a pyramid type of organization in the work.

   Now next. It seemed that this leader was always coming out with some new understanding of God's will. If you don't understand that, just read the 5 books, you know, I think you'll see that he's always coming out with something new, isn't he? You know that people didn't know about. Or some new doctrine not understood before. On one occasion, he made a major change in the doctrine of divorce and remarriage from what had previously had been. You thought I was talking about somebody else, didn't you? I want to show this in the scriptures, you know, not my word, but in the scriptures. And for this, let's turn to the New Testament. Matthew 19. Matthew 19. I have time to read this whole section, but it's on the subject of divorce and marriage and remarriage. Verse 7 and 8 tells the story (Matthew 19:7-8). They say unto him, and we're sort of breaking into the thought here. Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement and to put her away? So they're referring back to what Moses said back in Deuteronomy 24:1 and so forth, and also there's some other points that uh places that touch on the point, but I think that's mainly the place. And uh telling that under certain conditions they could divorce. And so they say, why did Moses do this? Now here's what Christ says. He said unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts suffered or permitted you to put away your wives under the circumstances that are mentioned back there, but from the beginning, it was not so. All right. Doesn't that say that what had been from the beginning that Moses changed in regard to divorce and remarriage, that's what it says to me anyway.

   Next, I said he wrote several books on theological or spiritual subjects which were widely distributed, you know, they're called Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Sometimes called the law, sometimes called the Pentateuch’s.

   Next, I said conditions got so bad on at least 1 or 2 occasions that there was a major movement by other leaders in the work to get rid of him and his principal assistant. Now I read to you a little bit from chapter 16 of Numbers where that took took place because you know there were 250 other leaders or princes in addition to Cora and Nathan and Byram and so on. And I also mention that this try failed.

   Now let's notice another one in chapter 14 of Numbers. Numbers 14. Number 14 on this particular occasion now, this was after the 12 spies had gone into the promised land and made their tour. They've come back and reported. And uh the tales from 10 of the spies was unfavorable. And only two of them were favorable, you know, the two from Joshua and Caleb and Joshua and Caleb said, you know, we can go in and take the land and it's a wonderful and beautiful land, and the other said, you know, that, that uh there are giants in the land and they have great walled cities and we'll never be able to take all those people. And so the people then decided they didn't want to go into the land of Palestine or the land of Canaan after all.

   Verse 1 of chapter 14 (Numbers 14:1), and all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried, and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured, here's one of those many places. Murmured against Moses and against Aaron, who was, I think you would say his chief assistant, would you not? And the whole congregation said unto them, would God that we had died in the land of Egypt or would God we have died in this wilderness. And wherefore has the Eternal brought us into this land to fall by the sword and our wives and our children should be a prey. Were it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another, let's make a captain. Let's select a new leader. Let's elect a president or let's elect an apostle, or let's elect a minister or whatever you might want to say and return back to Egypt.

   Well, this failed also as far as that's concerned. Listen to this one or two other things in verse 10, but all the congregation bad stoned them with stones and so I suppose some people were shouting stone them, stone them as far as uh Moses and Aaron were concerned. And then comes another point here that I'll bring out a little bit later, but the result of this was, of course, that God decreed that all of those people from 20 years old and under were going to die in the wilderness and that they were going to wander in the wilderness for 40 years and they'd already wandered about 2 of those years, so they had about 38 left. You'll see in verse 33 and verse 34, about 40 days, day for a year, and so forth and so on.

   Next, I said that some of his greatest achievements came after he was 80 years old. And of course he was when he was 80 years old and he went to Egypt. And uh then led the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

   Next, I said probably some people complained because it was unclear who his successor was to be. And he didn't help them much because he wouldn't select the successor. I'd like to turn to Numbers 27 in regard to this. About the leader in God's church. And some people murmur and complain and bellyache and criticize and so forth, doing exactly the same thing these carnal rebellious Israelites did. We have some of their descendants among us, you know. Numbers 27 verse 15. Some people think, oh, Mr. Armstrong should appoint a successor. Well, Mr. Armstrong says he can't appoint a successor. That's not his responsibility, that's not his job. God's the one that has to do that. Now, if that were necessary, God would do it at the proper time. Just as he did at the proper time back here. Number 27:15. And Moses of the Eternal saying at this time, you see. Uh, Moses was 120 years old, and he knew that he was going to die shortly, that he was not going to go into the promised land. And uh There's no successor. Then who's going to take his place? I suppose from the vantage point of the people at that time, there might have been a lot of prospects. Moses speaking of the Eternal saying, let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation. In other words, a man to succeed me. Which may go out before them and which may go in before them, and which may lead them out and which may bring them in, and the congregation of the Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd. And the eternal senator Moses, take you, Joshua. The son of a Nun.

   Now, who selected Joshua? Moses didn't. God did. Moses could not. Moses didn't appoint himself, nor could he appoint his successor, because this was God's work, this was God's doing, only God could do that. Now, God made known through Moses, but it wasn't the selection of Moses. Now maybe Moses, I presume Moses agreed wholeheartedly with God's choice, but God was the one that made the selection. Take you Joshua, the son of a Nun, the man in whom is the spirit and lay your hand upon him and set him before Eleazar the priest, before all the congregation and give him a charge in their sight. And you shall put some of your honor upon him and all the congregation of the children of Israel, uh, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may be obedient and so forth. And so then that's what Moses did.

   Now, we have seen some of the things that uh Moses was accused of, some of the things that Moses accomplished. But let's learn a little bit more now about this man, Moses. First, I want to point out some of the more human failings. Of this man Moses, some of them we have seen already. And some I'll refer back to again maybe. Some of them maybe you haven't thought of. I won't turn to this one, but you all know it. In Exodus 2 chapter verse 11 to 14 (Exodus 2:11-14), you'll see. That Moses committed murder. He was a murderer and then shortly thereafter he was a fugitive from justice for 40 years.

   Next, let's turn to the book of Numbers again. And uh Chapter 20. Now there are two places that this is referred to. And one of them in chapter 27, I think we were just in chapter 27 a moment ago, but let's go to chapter 20 of Numbers starting in verse 7. Numbers 20:7. And the Eternal spake and the Moses saying, well this is a time when they had come to Meribah and there was no water. Verse 2. And the eternal fake and the Moses, and I want you to watch now real carefully what God's instructions are. Take the rod. This is the, the rod now that uh Moses had when he was down there in, in Egypt uh when those great miracles were performed, at least I presume with the same rod. Take the rod. And gather you the assembly, or we might say the church because the word assembly or congregation or church are all synonyms. Gather you, the assembly together, you and your and Aaron, your brother. And speak you under the rock. Now, notice what it says, speak you unto the rock. Before their eyes, and it shall give forth its water. And you shall bring forth them water out of the rock. So you shall give the congregation and their beasts or their animals drink.

   And Moses took the rod from before the Eternal as he commanded him, and Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock and noticed what he did. He said, Unto them. Now what did God said? God said, you speak to the rock. Here now, you rebels, and I think by reading the whole story, they were rebels all right. God knew it and Moses knew it, that they were rebels, but he says here, now you rebels. It sounds to me like Moses now had had had the last straw, so to speak. He had come to I guess maybe his sticking point in regard to this rebellious, uh, stiff-hearted, uh. Uh, stiff-necked Israelites. Here now you rebels, must we, you know, Moses and Aaron, must we fetch you water out of this rock? Well now, how is he going to fetch water out of that rock by himself?

   And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock. Now the word of God say this smite the rock. God didn't. What did God say? He said, take the rod, gather you assembly together, you and Aaron, your brother and speak under the rock. He wasn't speaking to the rock, he was speaking to the people. God didn't tell him to hit the rock. But he hit it, how many times? Twice. He hit it once. Why did he do it twice? Well, he hit it once and nothing happened. I presume. And so he did it twice. And I imagine after his the first time and the water didn't come out, I imagine he just sank right down, you know, and all of a sudden he realized, ah oh, I've made a terrible blunder here. And the water came out abundantly. And the congregation drank and their beasts also.

   And the Eternal spake unto Moses and Aaron and says, because you believe me not. Now, why was it or how was it that Moses didn't believe God? You see, God says, do it this way and Moses did it a different way. Now you think, well, if God told me to do such and such, I'd do it. Is that what you've been? Well, you're reading the book and it says, do this, is that what you always do? Moses didn't do what God said. You want to throw stones? You live in a glass house, remember. Because you believe me not to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, he didn't say now rock. By God's command, bring forth water or whatever else you might say. He didn't do that. So that, you know, we read what he did. Therefore, shall, you shall not bring this congregation to the land which I have given them. And so forth.

   Now, we can read more of this story from God's point of view in the 27th chapter. Numbers 27:14. This was after Aaron, Aaron had died and Miriam had died. Now it's about time for Moses to die, and we had read uh a little later in this chapter about God's selection of Moses' successor. But here's what God now says, referring back to the event we just read about in chapter 20 for you. For you rebelled against my commandment. In the desert of Zin and the strife of the congregation to sanctify me at the water before their eyes, that is the water of Maraba and Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin. So God says now he rebelled against him. How do you rebel against God? You just don't do what he says. That's all. That's rebellion. And Moses rebelled on this particular occasion. Now, have you ever rebelled against God? God says do this or don't do that, and you've done otherwise. And they're every single one of us has. So Moses made his mistakes. You don't find very many. But that's a pretty big one that he just made there. It was so big that God says you're not going to go in the land of, of promise because of what you did there.

   Moses was just like you and me in another sense. Let's turn to Exodus, the 5th chapter. Exodus is the 5th chapter. You become discouraged sometimes. So did Mose. Exodus 5:22 and verse 23. On this particular occasion. Moses had gone down to the land of Egypt. And to talk to the people and they were all enthusiastic. Believing now that God was going to deliver them from bondage. And after a little while, instead of there being delivered, their tasks were increased. And they were beaten and they were ill-treated and given more work to do.

   Verse 20 (Exodus 5:20). And they met Moses and Aaron who stood in the way as they came forth from Pharaoh, and they said unto them, the Eternal look upon you and judge because you have made our savior to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh. This is the people now speaking to Moses and Aaron. And in the eyes of the servants to put a sword in their hand to slay us. Things were looking pretty grim then, you know, they were having their trials and their tests. About them and so they were saying, you know, Moses, instead of making things better, you've made things worse. Sometimes it may seem that way to us too, you know, we repent and are baptized. And maybe soon great difficulties and trials and tests come upon us and we'll think, oh, we were better off before.

   And Moses returned unto the eternal and said, Lord, wherefore have you so evil entreated this people? Why is it that you have sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, neither have you delivered your people at all. Now there are other intimations that uh he could become discouraged at times as well. But I think that it seemed, at least seem rather obvious to me that he was discouraged at this particular point because things were going the wrong way.

   He also had his moments of doubt. Let's turn to numbers. Numbers 11:21. On this particular occasion. God tells him that he is going to feed this people food. And not only just food, but meat. And after God had said this, let's pick up the story. In verse 21, and Moses said, The people among whom I am are 600,000 footmen. In other words, 600,000 men of war or war age, uh, in other words, those from 20 years old and up. And based on that, it's been estimated that there were 2 1/2 or 3 million people there or maybe more. And you have said I will give them flesh that they may eat in a whole month. Well, that just seemed impossible to Moses. Shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them to suffice them, or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them to suffice them?

   See, he just didn't see how it was possible. This wasn't humanly possible to feed all of those 3 million people meat, flesh for 30 days. And yet God brought it to to pass by the quails if you read about uh the following this. And uh when you see how many quails came and how much they gathered, it's just an incredible amount of quail that that came. So from this I think you can see that he had his moments of doubt and he just couldn't quite see how it was that God was going to do what God said he was going to do.

   In spite of some of these shortcomings that I have just referred to. I think it's very obvious that Moses was one of the greatest men who has ever walked the face of this earth. The Bible tells us in several places that he was a prophet. He is called the man of God. It is also called the law giver. He was also a worker of miracles with God's power, and you can read, for example, the plagues of Egypt, which I'm not taking time to read, but sure you all are familiar with.

   Now, let's notice some other things about this man Moses. Let's turn to the book of Exodus again, chapter 34. Exodus 34. And starting in verse 29. This is the occasion now when he spoke face to face with God. Chapter 34 verse 29 (Exodus 34:29-33). And it came to pass when Moses came down from the mount after he had been up there in the mount talking to God. With the two tables of testimony in Moses's hand when he came down from the mount that Moses wist not or did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. Why was it that this happened? Well, it's because he had been with God and talked to him face to face. We'll see more of the details of that a little very shortly. And the people are afraid to come close to him because of this, as you'll see in verse 30. And then in verse 33, we find that Moses put a veil over his face to uh hide this uh shining from his face so that the people then could talk with him.

   Now, go back to chapter 33. The previous chapter we'll see some of the details about this. Verse 11 (Exodus 33:11), and the Eternal spoke unto Moses face to face as a man speaks of his friend. Now usually when God has spoken to people down through the millennia, he is spoken by visions or by dreams or through his prophets. Of course, Moses was a prophet, but you don't very often find where God spoke face to face, especially in the manner that he did here with Moses. And he turned again into the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of none. A young man departed not out of the tabernacle, and Moses said to the Eternal. You say unto me, bring this people, and you have not let me know whom you will. Whom you will send with me. Well, let's skip on a little bit. He want not to be shown the way, so he might know what to do. And uh let's skip down. To verse 17 (Exodus 33:17), the Eternal said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that you have spoken, for you have found grace in my sight, and I know you by name.

   Now I've skipped over one little place here now where he asked that he could see God. Oh, it's just verse 18 (Exodus 33:18), and he said, I beseech you, show me your glory. In other words, I want to see you in your glory, in your glorified state, not just as another human being, but as you really are. And of course other scriptures tell us you can't look on God and live on his face. Obviously when you see this and other parts that mention that. And he said, I will make all my goodness. or my glory, my greatness passed before you. And I will proclaim the name of the Eternal before you and will be gracious to Him, to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on him, on whom rather I will show mercy. And he said, You cannot see my face, for there shall no man see me and live. And the Eternal said, behold, there is a place by me, and you shall stand upon a rock, and it shall come to pass while my glory passes by, and I will put you in a, in a cleft of the rock, or I guess we would call sort of a cleft. And I will cover you with my hand while I pass by, and I will take away my hand and you shall see my back or my back parts, but my face shall not be seen.

   And so that's what happened and as a result of that, we saw in the next chapter, chapter 34, how did his face shines. As a result of this exposure to God Himself.

   Now let's notice in the New Testament where this is referred to again. II Corinthians 3. II Corinthians 3:7. He talks here now about the administration of death or the administration we might say. Of death which Moses had, written and engraven in stones was glorious so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away and so on, so it is referring back again to that glory on Moses's face when his face shone when he came down from the mount. And then again in verse 13, and noted Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel should not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished and so on. Just a couple of references. To the fact that his face shone. Uh, brilliantly from being in God's very presence.

   Now you don't read that about anyone else in the whole Bible. And here is this man Moses that was actually able to look on God in his glory, not in his, in his face, but in his back. And that's the only account you'll find in the Bible of anyone doing that of God showing his glory to any one individual.

   Let's notice another thing that Moses did in the 9th chapter of Deuteronomy. This is mentioned in other places, but I have selected the place in Deuteronomy because the same chapter we find the two aspects of this. Deuteronomy 9:9, verse 9. He's talking about the time when he went up to receive the tables of the Covenant of the 10 Commandments. And uh in verse 9 says, when I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the Covenant with the Eternal maid with you, then I abode in the mount 40 days and 40 nights I neither did eat bread nor drink water. So he didn't eat bread nor drink water for 40 days or 40 nights. Then he came down, the people had turned to idolatry as we read at least briefly about earlier. And he became angry. He threw those tables on the ground and broke them. And uh very shortly, we don't know exactly how long but probably just a matter of a few days, maybe a week or so, he went back up on the mountain.

   Then in verse 18 (Deuteronomy 9:18), he tells a little bit about that, and I fell down before the Eternal as at the first. That is the time he had referred to in verse 9. 40 days and 40 nights. So now he is back there and he does this 40 days and 40 nights again. I did eat neither bread nor water because of all your sins and so forth and so on. So here is a man who fasted twice for 40 days and 40 nights. And some of us have trouble in fasting a few hours or a day or so.

   Another point, and I I read some things from this chapter before, but I want to go back now and, and read something I did not read in chapter 12 of Numbers. Numbers 12. This is the occasion now when Miriam and Moses, excuse me, Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Kushite woman that he had married. And verse 3, This is written in the scriptures. Now the man Moses was very meek. Now, do you think that Aaron and Miriam thought he was very meek? I doubt they did or they wouldn't have made this charge again against him. Do you think that uh Cora and Nathan and Byron and those 250 princes of the congregation, do you think they thought that Moses was meek? No, they thought he was exactly the opposite. It says above all the men which were upon the face of the earth, and I don't remember of another single person, in the Bible, with the exception of Christ, of course. Where the Bible speaks of them as being so meek. Here was a man that was possibly the most meek man except for Christ on who has lived and died on the face of the earth. And yet the people thought he was exactly the opposite, so many of them.

   Now, there's something else we might notice in Deuteronomy 34. In regard to, to this as well. Now, this doesn't necessarily speak about that aspect of his character, about his being meek, but we find now sort of a summary of Moses after his death. We'll start reading in verse 10. This is after he died now. Verse 10 (Deuteronomy 34:10), and there arose not a prophet since in Israel. Now he's called here a prophet and at the time of the editing or the final writing of the book of Deuteronomy. It says, you know, there's never been a prophet like him since in Israel, like in the Moses whom the Eternal new face to face. And all the signs and the wonders which the Eternals sent him to do in the land of Egypt. The Pharaoh. And to all his servants and to all his life and all that mighty hand and all that great terror which Moses showed in the sight, of all Israel. So here we find a little bit more about the character of this man Moses and what he did and how that, what happened to him and what he did was a rather singular experience that did not happen since. In his relationship with Almighty God.

   Well, let's notice a few scriptures even in the New Testamentment about this great man, Moses. First in the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews. And chapter 3. In this particular case, it's emphasizing, of course, Christ. And his role And his relationship to God's people. He's called in verse one, the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. Verse 2 (Hebrews 3:1-2, 5), who was faithful to him that appointed him, that is Christ was faithful to him that appointed him in this case, the Father appointed him. As also Moses was faithful in all his house. All right, so he shows that Christ was faithful just like Moses was faithful, comparing Christ to Moses. And uh uh if we had time, we would have gone back maybe and also read how that Moses prophesized of one who would follow that was going to be like him, you know, another prophet. Speaking of Christ. But here it says he was faithful in all his house, and yet we've seen some of the mistakes that Moses made. There weren't many, but there were some. And yet when it was all over and done, especially after Moses saw his error and repented, then it stated of him that he was faithful in all his house.

   Let's turn down now to, uh, well, let's see, to another chapter. It does mention this going another place here. Let me find where that is. Oh, in, in verse 5, that's what I wanted to come to. And Moses Verily was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after. This whole little section here now refers to Christ and also his comparison with Moses.

   Now, to chapter 11 of Hebrews, Hebrews 11. This is of course that very familiar faith chapter of the Bible. Hebrews 11 Let's read the little section here about Moses. And we'll start in verse 23 (Hebrews 11:23). Even though to start with it's not talk about him personally so much as it is his parents. By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hid 3 months of his parents because they saw he was a proper or a goodly child, and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. By faith, Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Now, we don't read too much about that. It may be sort of implied, but here it says now that he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and if he would have continued in Uh, being the son of Pharaoh's daughter, who knows, you know, maybe he would have been one of the Pharaohs.

   Choosing rather to suffer the affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Esteeming the reproach of Christ's greater riches and the treasures of Egypt, for he had respect in the recompense of the reward. By faith, he forsook Egypt. You know, it took an awful lot of faith for him to do the things that he did when he came out of the land of Egypt. He was treading, you might say, new territory. He was doing things that had never been done before, and some of those he mentions next, but let's continue on here, for he forsook Egypt, not preparing the wrath of the king, for he endured his seeing him who was invisible. Through faith, he kept the Passover. Now, there had never been a Passover before that time. That was the very first Passover. No one else had kept any Passover. And here now God says keep the Passover and so Moses did it and he explained, you see, to all the people as to how they were to do it, you know, some newfangled doctrine that Moses came up with here, some I suppose would say. He kept the Passover. That took a lot of faith, you know, doing something new that had never been done before. And the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the first born should touch them. By by faith, they passed through the Red Sea. And I presume that took quite a bit of faith too. If you saw a wall of water on your right hand and on your left as it says in the scriptures. I suppose that would have taken a lot of faith for him and also for the children of Israel. What the Egyptians are saying to do or trying to do or drown. By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down and that goes into another thing that goes beyond the time of Moses.

   Well, it took a lot of faith, you know, to lead all of those people out of the land of Egypt. It's just almost like, you know, there was some uh great spiritual leader that would rise up in the city of Houston and he would lead all of the people of Houston way out in the desert somewhere. That's about how many people were involved in this. That took a lot of, some people would say, guts, it took a lot of faith. It took a lot of trust in God to do that. But this man filled with God's spirit did just that.

   Now, let's go back to another aspect of Moses. And what happened to him and what he did. Numbers 14. Let let's turn to Exodus 32. They're both on the same subject. Exodus 32 And uh maybe we should get the context here. This is the time now when the golden calf has been made. Moses was still up on the mount. And God told him a little bit of what had happened. Do you notice that in verse 7 (Exodus 32:7-9). And 8. And uh verse 9 and the Eternal said to Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore, let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them, that I may consume them, and I will make of you a great nation. So God says here they've rebelled against me. They have not obeyed me, so I'm going to destroy the whole lot of them. And I'm going to make of you a great nation. Now here was Moses golden operative. So Moses would say, yes, God, go ahead and do that. And so now, you know, I'm going to be the father of the faithful. I'm going to be the one from whom all the promises are going to be fulfilled and so on and so forth.

   And Moses besought the Eternal of God and said, Lord, why does your wrath wax hot against your people which you have brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power with a mighty hand. And then he went on to say what would happen now if, if God did this and then the nation's roundabout would say well God couldn't do what he said he would do. And so God changed his mind. So actually this man Moses on this occasion changed God's mind. You can imagine that.

   Now, a similar experience in the 14th chapter of Numbers. Numbers 14:12. This is a later time when they decide we want to make us a captain and return to Egypt. Remember we saw that in verse 4. And now about verse 12. Well, let's pick it up in verse 11 (Numbers 14:11). That's the beginning of the paragraph. And the Eternal said in Moses, how long will this people provoke me? And how long will it be ere they believe me for all the signs which I have shown among them. I will smite them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a greater nation and mightier than they. Moses said unto the Eternal, then the Egyptians shall hear it, or you brought up this people in the light in your might from among them, and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land, for they have heard that you are, uh, you Eternal are among this people. That you Eternal are seen face to face and that your cloud stands over them and that you go before them by day, time in the pillar of the cloud and in the pillar of fire by night. Now if you shall kill all these people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of you will speak safe because the Eternal was not able to bring these people into the land which he swore unto them. Therefore, he has slain them in the wilderness. Now I beseech you, let your power of my Lord be great according as you have spoken, saying, the Eternal is long suffering and of great mercy forgiving iniquity and transgressions, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children of the 3rd and 4th generation. Pardon, I beseech you the iniquity of this people according to your greatness, of your mercy, and as you have forgiven this people from Egypt even until now. And the Eternal said, I have pardoned according to your word. Now on this particular occasion, he prayed for the children of Israel and God spared their lives. And did they appreciate it? They continued right on and they're murmuring and they're complaining, didn't say.

   All right, now I would like to turn over to uh one of the Psalms. The 90th Psalms. Surely you're familiar with this particular Psalms. A particular, particularly verse 10 (Psalms90:10). The days of our years are 30 years and 10. And so on, you've all heard that, I'm sure. Who wrote that? Who wrote this Psalms? Well, look at the beginning. Psalm 90, a prayer of Moses, the man of God. Maybe you hadn't thought of it, but here is a Psalm. That he wrote that is still preserved for us. And it might be that some of the succeeding Psalms were written by him too, but it doesn't say that they were. Some of them you know are Psalms of David, you'll find them, say, uh, starting in verse chapter 101, again, the Psalm of David, Psalm 103 is the Psalm of David. So at least we have that one Psalm. I'm familiar, at least part of it is familiar to everyone, even people who aren't familiar with the Bible, as far as that's concerned, they've heard certain things about Psalm 90, written by Moses.

   Let's read also, or notice also the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 15. You read about Moses just about from the beginning to the end of the Bible. Revelation 15:3. This is speaking now. Of the angels having the seven last plagues. And uh there is a Psalm now, verse 5, and they sing the Psalm of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, and it goes on and tells a little bit about that. So even in the book of Revelation, we read about some of the sayings of the writings of the Psalms of.

   And Matthew 17. Matthew 17. Several places and uh the Gospels, there are references to Moses and of course various quotes. The things that he wrote. Chapter 17 of Matthew. After 6 days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John as brother and brought them up into a high mountain in the park and was transfigured before them, then, and his face did shine as the sun and his raiment was white as the light. Now they were seeing him in his glory, but not directly like Moses had because this is in a vision. And behold there appeared unto them Moses, and Elias or Elijah, as uh we call him, the Elias is the uh Greek form of Elijah. And I'll just point out verse 9, which mentions that he says, tell the vision to no man, showing that this was a vision, but what was happening here was that these three men. James and Peter and John. In fulfillment of what had been written just in the previous chapter in the last couple of verses or so, particularly the last verse. That they were able to see Moses and Elijah and Christ in the kingdom of God. In other words, taken forward. More or less 2000 years to the establishment of God's kingdom on earth and there seeing Moses and Elijah and Christ. In glory, you might say, or in their glorified state. It's called the mount of transfiguration as a result of that, showing that Moses is going to be in God's kingdom. As though there were any question about it. I'm sure there was no question about it, but there we see that.

   Now, what is the lesson in all of this? I spent quite a bit of time now going over these various points. People have criticized and murmured against God's leaders. In just about every age. And I think that the account that we have just read is the most detailed. Of that kind of a problem. But if you read through that section of the Bible, Exodus and Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy are continually seeing. About people complaining about the leaders that God sent at that particular time. And no matter how great those men were, no matter how spiritual they were, no matter how close to God they were, no matter what their relationship was with God, the people still murmured about, about them.

   And here was a man, Moses, who talked face to face with God and accomplished all those great things and yet the people were unappreciative and they were complaining, sometimes very bitterly.

   Now today is no exception. These very same complaints are being made against God's leader in this age. Now God would have called somebody else instead of the one he did call, you can be sure that some of the people would complain just as bitterly against him as they have the one that God has chosen. Because no matter who God chooses, no matter what his personality or his character or what he looks like or what he does or doesn't do, people are going to bitterly accuse and complain.

   Now it isn't so bad when the world does and when they write terrible things about us, but when we find that some people in the church of God speak against God's leaders, then it's very sad, then it's very pathetic. People that have the Bible and can look in there and see warnings about the very same thing.

   Now when I was going through those first points as I read to them. You probably thought I was talking about Mr. Armstrong. In fact, I read those questions or those comments and, and so on to a minister this couple 3 days ago. I said, you know who I'm talking about? He said, yeah, Herbert W. Armstrong. Maybe I didn't fool any of you, but I fooled him. And I wasn't talking about our present leader, the one that God has sent in this age, I was talking about 1, 3500 years ago.

   With this in mind, I'd like to go to the Book of I Corinthians. I Corinthians Chapter 10. Well this is a very familiar scripture surely to all of us. And a warning for us about the very kind of thing I'm talking about. Now, it also warns about a few additional things, but it talks about the thing that we have been reading about. Moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant how that our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea and they were baptized in the sea and so forth. They ate the same spiritual meat and so forth. They that Christ was with them as we saw, verse 5 (I Corinthians 10:5-11), but with many of them, God was not well pleased. Or they were overthrown in the wilderness and we read a little bit about some of those things.

   Now these things were our examples to the intent we should not lust after the evil things as they also lusted. Now that is a different part of the story about their lust. And verse 7 tells us about their idolatry, which again is a different thing. Verse 8 tells us about their fornication, which is another matter. And verse 9, neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted and were destroyed as serpents. And verse 10, neither murmur you as some of them also murmur. And were destroyed of the destroyer.

   Now there is plain instruction in the New Testament that we should not do what some of us are doing. In complaining about the leadership in the Church of God. And disagreeing with the leadership in the Church of God, criticizing the leadership and saying all kinds of evil things and spreading all kinds of evil rumors. That may or may not be so, and usually they're not sold. Now verse 11, for all these things happened to them, for examples, or in samples or types, and they were written for our admonition, and some of us do not learn the lesson. They are written for our admonition. Upon whom the ends of the world are come, wherefore let him that thinks he stand, take heed lest he fall.

   That's quite a warning, a very solemn warning, I think, for every one of us. To be aware that we do not make the same mistake that those people did. And sadly, some in the Church of God have done that, have made that mistake and are no longer with us. And sadly, there are still some in the Church of God who are committing those very same things.

   The leadership in the Church of God does make mistakes or does make a mistake, and I grant you that they do on occasion, same as Moses did. Or they commit some sin, and I agree that they do not lead perfect lives always. I think they lead much better lives than we do, but I grant that they may have sin on occasion. Just as Moses did and just as you do and just as I do.

   God will take care of those things. We don't have to complain. We don't have to take matters into our own hands. We don't have to proliferate a lot of false or other rumors. Rather we need to hold up the hands of the leaders that God has sent just as they did Moses' hands on one occasion. I'm sure you remember that particular occasion where Aaron and Hur held up the hands of Moses.

   Brethren, let's hold up the hands of the leaders in God's church. Instead of making the terrible mistake that those cardinal Israelites did 3500 years ago.