The Condescension of Moses and Christ

A while back I wrote about some of the ways that Christ and Moses were similar in an effort to show how Christ indeed was a fulfilment of the prophecy of Moses: “The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken” (Deuteronomy 18:15).  Today I realized that there is another similarity that I didn’t think of before which I believe is an important one.  Moses grew up in the court of Pharaoh essentially as royalty.  He surely had a life of luxury compared to the Israelites who were enslaved and laboring for the Egyptians.  Moses could have simply stayed in the court and had a life of ease, and yet he sacrificed it all in order to do the will of God and to save the Israelites.  He ended up suffering forty years in the wilderness, never to even enter the Promised Land that he sought.  Paul described the sacrifice of Moses this way: “By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt” (Hebrews 11:24-27).  Moses chose to sacrifice worldly position and ease in order to fulfill what became a very difficult mission. 

                In that same way, we know that Christ also sacrificed in a sense His position of prominence in the pre-mortal realm to come to earth.  He was perfect before coming to earth, the Firstborn of the Father, and yet He still decided to come to earth to “descend below all things” (D&C 88:6).  Christ chose to come to earth to do the will of His Father and to save all mankind.  Just as the Israelites would have all died in captivity had Moses not fulfilled His mission, so too would we without Christ have “become subject to that angel who fell from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil, to rise no more” (2 Nephi 9:8).  Without the condescension of the Savior we would be forever “under the bondage of sin,” and without the condescension of Moses from his earthly throne and possessions the children of Israelites would have remained in bondage to the Egyptians (D&C 84:49).   Moses and Christ both gave up their own comforts in order to suffer and serve, and in that way Christ indeed was “a Prophet… like unto [Moses].”  Their sacrifices help show us that the main purpose for our own lives is not to find ease and prosperity but to serve the children of men and to esteem the opportunity to do God’s will “greater riches than the treasures in Egypt.”