I started reading through Deuteronomy in my Bible reading plan yesterday. I again saw this note in the picture above from a study Bible I read and made notes in early on in my Christian life. I'm so thankful that the truth of the cross in all of Scripture was being made clear to me, even way back then. Yes, like with Moses (and unlike Moses, since Jesus knew no sin), God was angry with Jesus on that cross for our sakes because our sins were imputed to Him (2 Cor. 5:21). Hallelujah! What a Savior! This truth is repeated three times in Deuteronomy:
1. Deut. 1:37: The LORD was also angry with me for your sakes, saying,"Even you shall not go in there"
Think of Jesus: the LORD was angry with Jesus on that cross for our sakes as He suffered outside the gate - Jesus too was not allowed "to go in there" so that we might "go in there" forever where there's fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore!
2. Deut. 3:26: But the LORD was angry with me on your account, and would not listen to me. So the LORD said to me: "Enough of that! Speak no more to Me of this matter."
Think of Jesus: the LORD was also angry with Jesus on that cross for our sakes, and would not listen to Him (in a sense) in Gethsemane when He prayed for another way or when He cried out: "My God! My God! Why have You forsaken Me?!"
3. Deut. 4:21: Furthermore the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I would not cross over the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.
Think of Jesus: the LORD was also angry with Jesus on that cross for our sakes, and shut His Son out from all good and poured out on Him: crushing, striking, the sword of His anger, the cup of His anger, cursing, smiting, forsakenness, not sparing any judgment, and death. So that now, we who trust in Jesus Christ by grace alone through faith alone shall never face any of that judgment!
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
A. W. Pink listed 75 ways that Moses is a type of Christ. This is #71:
71. His Death was for the benefit of God's people. It went ill with Moses for their sakes" (Ps. 106:32); "But the Lord was wroth [very angry] with me for your sakes" (Deut. 3:26). What marvelous foreshadowings of the Cross were these!
Amen!
Also noting how Moses is a type of Christ, Geerhardus Vos wrote about how Moses, like a mediator, was willing to bear the punishment of the guilty:
He may be fitly called the redeemer of the Old Testament. Nearly all the terms in use of the redemption of the New Testament can be traced back to his time. There was in his work such a close connection between revealing words and redeeming acts as can be parallelled only from the life of Christ. And the acts of Moses were to a high degree supernatural, miraculous acts. This typical relation of Moses to Christ can easily be traced in each of the three offices we are accustomed to distinguish in the soteric work of Christ . . . Moses intercedes for Israel after the commissioning of the sin of the golden calf, and that by offering his own person vicariously for bearing the punishment of the guilty [Ex. 32:30-33].
About Moses, Nick Batzig writes:
Moses was a type of Christ in that he was the typical Redeemer of the Old Covenant. He was the only other Mediator between God and His people in redemptive history; and though his mediation was also typical, He stood in the most unique position as the redeemer and lawgiver of the Covenant people. Jesus is THE Mediator between God and man–since He is both God and man. Just as Moses had a supernatural deliverance at his birth, so did Jesus. Just as Moses led Israel out of Egypt, into the wilderness, up on the mountain to give them the law, so Jesus went down into Egypt, up from Egypt, through the water, into the wilderness and up on the mountain to give God’s people the law. Jesus leads His people out of bondage to Satan, sin and death through His own “exodus” (Luke 9:31) in His death and resurrection.
Praise God that He sent us a Redeemer, Mediator, Law Giver, Law Keeper, Deliverer, Prophet, Priest, and King greater than Moses Who could actually bear the infinite anger of the LORD for our sakes, pay the penalty for all of our sins, rise up triumphantly from the dead, conquer sin, death, and hell, and ascend into heaven and sit at the right hand of God the Father almighty and save us from our sins!
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
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