Moses was the man whom the Lord knew face to face. That’s just amazing, really. Think about the implications of that. Since the fall, since losing our home in the garden, we have lost that face to face relationship with our creator. But Moses, Moses knew God face to face.
He killed a man in anger. He tried to talk his way out of the responsibility. He forgot his place so completely at one point that he was denied access to the promised land. And yet he was still the man who knew God face to face.
This is so much more than being the man who was born at just the right time, who was willing, more or less, to do as he was told. He gave himself to the Lord’s commands. He faith is astounding. He had a relationship with God. He knew what it meant to have a relationship with God.
He stood before God in the honesty of his emotions. He complained to God. He stood before God’s wrath and answered it. There were conversations, give as well as take. He feared God, but he was confident in God’s love.
God’s timing and agency is complex. Did he choose that time because he knew who Moses would be? Did he influence when Moses would be born because he knew when he would be needed? How minutely and specifically is he involved in the combination of factors that make us who we are? I honestly don’t know, and it is one of the many mysteries I look forward to understanding.
What I do know is that regardless of how particularly we are designed, we are granted a free will, the right to choose, and Moses made his choices, over and over he made his choices, and those choices kept him in the presence of God. Those choices drew him close and kept him close. Those choices maintained a relationship with his Lord and creator.
Whatever story from his life dominates your perception of the man, whatever perspective or attitude or interpretation forms your opinion, this summary of his character is just as noteworthy as David being a man after God’s own heart. This summary is… I’m struggling to find the right with with the right connotation. It is remarkable. It is admirable. It is beautiful.