The Death of Moses
When the saga of Moses comes to an end with the prophet's death, the
narrative voice in Deuteronomy 34:9-11 states: "Since then no prophet has
risen in Israel like Moses whom the LORD knew face to face." Were the
prophets that came after Moses equal to his stature? In determining the
answer to this question, by researching this topic I will discuss and look
at the entirety of Moses' life as recorded in the Scripture. There are
certainly many unique aspects of Moses' life that were not duplicated
in the lives of any of the subsequent prophets.
For example, Moses was raised as an Egyptian prince. There is noting in the Bible to indicate that he knew of his Israelite heritage until
adulthood. True, his own mother was recruited by the Egyptian princess to
nurse him through infancy, but there is little to suggest that Moses
would have retained any memory or inclination of his heritage from this
period (Neufeld, 1993). Yet, despite his acculturation as an Egyptian, he
was able to not only accept, but rejoice in his relationship to the
Israelite slaves of Egypt. This is certainly a unique characteristic of
Moses' life that was not duplicated.
Furthermore, no other prophet, save Moses, had the experience of
meeting God "face to face" as Moses did on Mt. Sinai with the burning bush.
However, the Bible does clearly indicate that other prophets "spoke" to
God and received guidance in their own way. As this suggests, it is
also possible to argue that there were prophets after Moses equal to him
in their relationship to God. This stance is supported, somewhat, in the
biblical verses that d ...