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.”
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