This weekly feature is dedicated to Adventists who are looking for biblical insights into the topics discussed in the Sabbath School lesson quarterly. We post articles which address each lesson as presented in the Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, including biblical commentary on them. We hope you find this material helpful and that you will come to know Jesus and His revelation of Himself in His word in profound biblical ways.
Lesson 13: “The Resurrection of Moses”
COLLEEN TINKER
Problems with this lesson:
- Jesus is NOT Michael the Archangel;
- Michael defers to the Lord to rebuke Satan; Jesus rebuked Satan directly on earth
- Jesus, not Moses, is the first fruits of those that sleep
- Adventism must have Moses resurrected in order to to maintain “soul sleep”
This last lesson of the quarter reveals Adventism’s disbelief in the words of Scripture and its heretical view of the nature of man. This entire defense of the mythical resurrection of Moses derives from Ellen White’s doctrine of demons that insists that Moses couldn’t have appeared at the Transfiguration unless he had been resurrected. Adventism’s belief that the dead do not exist would prohibit Moses from appearing prior to his resurrection, so Ellen White used the argument that Michael is Jesus, twisting Jude 9 to make it a resurrection passage instead of simply believing the words as written.
Start with Moses’ Sin
The lesson begins by referring to Moses’ death as described ion Deuteronomy 34. First, the author tells the traditional Ellen White-derived story of WHY Moses was not allowed to go into the Land of Promise. The real story is told in Numbers 20:1–13:
And the people of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh. And Miriam died there and was buried there.
Now there was no water for the congregation. And they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. And the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Would that we had perished when our brothers perished before the LORD! Why have you brought the assembly of the LORD into this wilderness, that we should die here, both we and our cattle? And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink.” Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces. And the glory of the LORD appeared to them, and the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.” And Moses took the staff from before the LORD, as he commanded him.
Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock. And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.” These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarreled with the LORD, and through them he showed himself holy.
Scripture doesn’t explain the details of how Moses and Aaron didn’t believe God or uphold Him as Holy, but the passage suggests that instead of speaking to the rock as God had commanded him, Moses’ anger overcame him, and he struck the rock twice, yelling at the people and (perhaps justifiably) calling the “rebels”. Then he personalized the nations’ disbelief in God as their refusal to honor him. He took “credit” for providing for them and, instead of submitting them and his own anger to the Lord, he became defensive and said of himself and his brother Aaron, “Shall we bring water for you out of this rock?”
He didn’t redirect the people’s complaint that he had brought them into the desert to die. Instead, he “owned” their complaint and told them off for expecting him to provide for them. Moses acted as if it were he who was responsible for Israel instead of simply trusting God with them and doing exactly what God said to do. In taking the responsibility for their water, in personalizing their complaint against him, he acted as the one responsible for the nation’s survival. He did not believe God’s words to him, and he did not uphold God in the sight of the nation, rebuking them for dishonoring their God.
God told Moses that because of his sin of not upholding God as God to the Israelites, he would not enter the Promised Land with them.
What Moses Saw
Before he died, however, Moses climbed Mt. Nebo, a peak in the hills of Moab on the east side of the Jordan River across from Jericho, and showed him the land He was delivering to Israel.
Ellen White (and the lesson) says that God gave Moses a vision of the entire land so he could see from the farthest northern end to the lowest southern end of the promised country. She even said he received a vision of the land as it would look when it was inhabited by the Israelites.
Scripture, however, does not say that Moses received a vision.
When Richard and I went to Israel in 2008, our tour took us to Mt. Nebo in Jordan, and we stood on the top of that mountain and looked toward Israel as Moses would have. Deuteronomy 34: 1–4 describes what Moses saw as he stood on Mt Nebo:
Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And the LORD showed him all the land, Gilead as far as Dan, all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the western sea, the Negeb, and the Plain, that is, the Valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar. And the LORD said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, ‘I will give it to your offspring.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.”
The entire land of Israel is visible from the top of Mt. Nebo! I will never forget the shock I felt, and the awe as I gazed at the land of Israel with my own eyes from the perspective of that peak in the hills of Moab. Just as Deuteronomy 34 says, we could see from the lush green of the northern part of the nation where the tribe of Dan settled as far west as the Mediterranean sea and south to the bottom of the Dead Sea. God LITERALLY showed Moses the land of Israel!
That moment on Mt. Nebo is seared into my memory. It was one more moment of dismantling an “Ellenism” that I hadn’t even realized was a held-over belief from the false prophet who had shaped my earliest understandings.
The “Michael” Argument
The lesson develops the confusing argument that Jude 9 refers to Jesus resurrecting Moses. First, let’s read Jude 9:
But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.”
The Adventist argument is based on Ellen White’s declaration that Michael the archangel is Jesus—that it is one of His names. This belief is held as well by Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the idea that the Archangel Michael is a spiritual protector is a common belief in new age spirituality. EGW’s declaration that Michael the Archangel is another name for Jesus is not a biblical idea at all, yet Adventists believe this pagan teaching.
Since Adventism further believes that people cease to exist when they die, they have to create a scenario by which Moses was resurrected in order for him to join Elijah (who was translated) on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus. Scripture, however, teaches that the dead do not cease to exist but are with the Lord and in His care, their spirits continuing after their bodies die.
Just looking at the words of Jude 9, however, we can determine that Jesus cannot be Michael. Jude clearly says that Michael “did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you.’”
Jesus absolutely DID rebuke the devil during His ministry on earth. First, He rebuked him during His wilderness temptation (Matthew 4 and Luke 4). Furthermore, He rebuked the demons in the possessed man in the region of the Gadarenes (Mt. 8:28–34). Even more, He disarmed and humiliated the devil on the cross by fulfilling the law and breaking its curse (Colossians 2:14–15). There is no greater rebuke of Satan anywhere!
Michael, however, dared not rebuke the devil but deferred to the Lord. The Adventist interpretation of this statement denies Jesus’ identity as Lord, and it makes Jesus less than God. In fact, it upholds EGWs pre-history scenario of Jesus being selected above Lucifer for exaltation to the position of God’s Son. The Adventist Jesus does not share substance with the Father, and he actually IS an exalted being who was less than God and more like an angel according to the pre-history narrative of EGW.
Yet Scripture identifies Jesus as the creator of ALL—and that include Lucifer. Michael the archangel is identified in Daniel 10 as one of the princes—the one who defended Daniel’s people, the Jews.
Firstfruits
One of the most clear arguments against Moses resurrection—one which unbelievably Adventism ignores—is what Paul tells us about Jesus being the first fruits of those who sleep.
The lesson ironically refers to 1 Corinthians 15:13–22 which builds the case for the resurrection in general, but it stops one verse before the passage that disproves their teaching that Moses was resurrected. Here is 1 Corinthians 15:20–24:
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.
Paul very clearly articulates that there is an ORDER to those who are raised, and Jesus is FIRST. No one who belongs to Christ will be resurrected before Him or before His coming. Moses absolutely was NOT resurrected prior to Jesus’ death!
Details about Moses
There’s one more thing that the biblical account tells us. Moses was the mediator of the Law, the old covenant which was filled with the shadows of Christ. Moses, who was God’s man, nevertheless did not honor God nor uphold Him to the nation. He broke the terms of the old covenant as the leader of the nation!
Moses, the mediator of the conditional, temporary covenant which carried the curse of death for sin, was not allowed into the Promised Land with his people. He received the curse of the covenant he delivered to the people. Joshua, whose name is the Hebrew name for Jesus, is the one who led the people into the Promised Land. When Jesus appeared, He fulfilled all the shadows of the Mosaic covenant and established the new covenant in His blood. Through Him all who believe enter the new covenant.
Symbolically Moses, the old covenant mediator, was not allowed into the Promised Land, but Jesus came and led His people in through His blood!
Also, it must not be missed that while God did not allow Moses to enter the land with the people of Israel, He did send Him into the land of Israel to talk with the Perfect Israel before His death. As Jesus was about to transition the nation from the Mosaic covenant to the new covenant, the mediator of the old covenant was sent into the land and was able to encourage the One he had prophesied would come, the One who was fulfilling everything Moses had mediated. Moses was allowed to witness the true fulfillment of God’s Lamb paying for human sin and opening the way to eternal life once for all to those who believe!
No, Moses was not resurrected. He did not precede our Savior in breaking the curse of death. Neither did Moses cease to exist when he died in Moab! He has existed with the Lord, and His appearance with Jesus and Elijah was truly him—a manifestation of his person prior to his receiving his glorified resurrection body.
Adventism has taught a false worldview based on a false definition of the nature of man. Further, Jesus’ resurrection is not primarily a promise that our bodies will rise; it is the source of our new life, our new birth into eternal life when we believe (Jn. 5:10).
Jesus came to die, and as we celebrate His birth this month, consider whether or not you have repented and trusted His finished work of death, burial, and resurrection for the payment of your sin and for the giving of eternal life. †
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