Moses’ birthday and death day

By Barri Cae Seif

Thursday was Adar 7 according to the Jewish calendar. This date was Moses’ birth day and death day (Deut. 32:48-52, Tractate Megilah). As this year is a leap year, there are two Adar months, Adar I and Adar II. Moses was born by faith, hid by faith, lived by faith and died by faith. In honor of Moses, some facts follow of his birth day and death day.

Moses was born by faith. Pharaoh issued an edict that all Hebrew male babies were to be thrown in the Nile. God had a purpose for him even before he was born. He was a beautiful baby (Ex. 2:2). His parents Yocheved and Amran had to have had God’s word in order to have endured all that they did to protect him. Yet this was before God’s word was given. Both were righteous, they were Levites. There were only seven generations from Abraham to Moses – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Levi, Kohath, Amran and Moses.

His parents hid him for three months. Yet it came time to trust God and they designed a tayvah, the same word that is used to describe Noah’s ark. Both Noah’s ark (tayvah) and baby Moses’ ‘ark’ were covered in tar and pitch, which made it float on the water. Both of these arks were made to carry God’s righteous deliverers. Yocheved and Amran must have known the Pharaoh’s daughter’s Day-Timer very well. Yet it was an act of faith to let her son go, similar to Abraham’s almost-sacrifice of Isaac, and not unlike that of God giving His Son, Yeshua for us.

Yocheved let Moses go floating down the Nile river, and Miriam, Moses’ older sister watched all of this from the river bank. Yet in no time, Pharaoh’s daughter found him, she had compassion on him, and she had her maid take Moses to Yocheved, who was working in the palace as a nursemaid. God divinely ordered these events so that Moses’ mother, Yocheved, raised him and even got paid doing so.

Moses got ahead of himself somewhat.
Now it came about in those days, when Moses had grown up, that he went out to his brethren and looked on their hard labors; and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So he looked this way and that, and when he saw there was no one around, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. Ex. 2:11-12

He was forty years old at the time (Acts 7:23-24). Moses learned that he could not be self-sent. Self-efforts in bringing about his people’s deliverance was in vain. Although he had been called by God, there is a waiting time between the call and its actual manifestation.

God performed forty-two miracles through Moses. Some were the rod that turned into a serpent then back into the rod. Leprosy occurred and was then healed. The Nile River was turned into a river of blood. Plagues of frogs, dust to lice, flies, livestock plague, boils, hail, locusts, darkness and death of the first born. He led his people through the Red Sea (All Israel was saved and will be saved again – Romans). Water came from the rock, quail and manna divinely appeared for all the Children of Israel.

We all know Psalm 91 but Psalm 90 is known as Moses’ psalm. In the last verses, Moses encourages us to:

• Number our days (vs. 12)
• Return O LORD (vs. 13)
• Satisfy us early with Your mercy (vs. 14))
• May we rejoice (vs. 14))
• Make us glad at all times (vs. 14-15)
• Let Your work appear unto us (vs.16)
• Let Your beauty be upon us (vs. 17)
• Establish the work of our hands (vs. 17).

Moses was the only Old Testament prophet, priest AND king. He officiated as a prophet until Aaron and his sons were anointed for the position (Deut. 18:15-20). He was a priest (Lev. 9:23) and he was a king (Deut. 33:5). He was the meekest man on earth (Numbers 12:3).

Moses even prepared well for his death.

1. He prayed for a new leader – Num. 27:16-17
2. He ordained Joshua – Num. 27:18
3. He gave the final laws to Israel – Num. 28-30
4. He destroyed Midian, completing God’s orders to
   him – Num. 26:16-18
5. He settled some in the lands east of the Jordan – Numb. 32
6. He wrote a summary of his journeys – Num. 33
7. He made preparations for others to enter
   into the Promised land – Num. 33:51-34:29
8. He wrote Deuteronomy

Moses’ last words to the children of Israel

“There is none like the God of Jeshurun,
Who rides the heavens to your help,
And through the skies in His majesty.
The eternal God is a dwelling place,
And underneath are the everlasting arms;
And He drove out the enemy from before you,
And said, ‘Destroy!’
So Israel dwells in security,
The fountain of Jacob secluded,
In a land of grain and new wine;
His heavens also drop down dew.
Blessed are you, O Israel;
Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD,
Who is the shield of your help,
And the sword of your majesty!
So your enemies shall cringe before you,
And you shall tread upon their high places.”

Moses went to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, and there the LORD showed him all the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the LORD told him that He would give it to his descendants, but that he would not go over there. And there Moses died in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD.

And He buried him in the valley of the land of Moab. Deut. 34:6. To this day, no one knows where Moses was buried. God planned it like that. Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face.

The secret things belong to the LORD our God.
Deut 29:29