The Orthodox Church commemorates Saint Moses the Prophet, “God’s Seer” and “God’s Word,” on the fourth of September. He is considered one of the great prophets of the Old Testament, and he was famous for declaring the provisions of the Sharia and the Ten Commandments that God revealed to him at Mount Sinai, where God revealed His glory and taught Moses all the transactions and acts of worship that the believing people must perform in order to obtain satisfaction from God. As for the primary mission that God entrusted to Moses, it was to lead the people in the desert for forty years after He brought them out of the land of slavery to the Promised Land, the land of freedom, Palestine.

We will not stop, here in this haste, at the details of the biography of Moses the Prophet, which is rich in events and miracles accompanied by the epic events prevalent in it. However, we will focus on the symbol that Moses represents and what he did during his life, especially in ancient patristic literature, where Moses was considered one of the symbols that refer to the Lord Jesus Christ. Like Moses, who liberated the people from the slavery of the tyrannical Pharaoh, the Lord Jesus liberated the world from sin and death. Just as Moses led the people in the wilderness to the Promised Land, so Christ leads us to the Promised Kingdom. Just as Moses taught the law, the Lord Jesus handed us the new law, that is, love that freely gives itself, and many other counterparts.

The biography of the Prophet Moses is not limited to its implications for the Lord Jesus. Rather, some fathers, led by Saint Gregory of Nyssa (who died in the year 493), found in it symbols that point to virtue and morals. Gregory wrote a book called “The Life of Moses, or Perfection in the Field of Virtue,” based on a monk’s request that our saint provide him with some guidance on the subject of “perfection in life.” Gregory was inspired by the life of Moses the Prophet and made it a role model for the pursuit of perfection, which is a constant pursuit and the seeker cannot afford to be complacent in any matter, even a simple one.

The book consists of two parts. In the first section, which serves as a necessary introduction to the second section, the author deals with a summary of the events that took place with Moses, relying on the narrative of the Books of Exodus and Numbers, adopting a literal interpretation of the facts, and then aims to extract moral meanings that benefit the believer and build him up. As for the second section, it contains the essence of the book, where the life of Moses becomes an image of advancement along the levels of perfection, and an example for the soul in its spiritual journey. The author relies on the symbolic interpretation of the Book of Exodus, as St. Paul the Apostle did in some of his letters, so the events that occurred with Moses become mere images of a historical reality, which is Christ himself.

From here, Gregory recalls what was mentioned in the New Testament regarding similar facts in the life of Moses and what happened with Jesus during his preaching. Thus, John the Evangelist likens the lifting of Christ to Moses lifting the bronze serpent in the wilderness (John 3:14 And Numbers 21: 4-9), and the manna descending from heaven in ancient times became in Jesus’ speech the bread of life (John 6: 49, and Exodus 16: 4), and also the Easter Lamb makes Jesus, who with his blood redeemed the world, the only Savior... and this is what we also find in the style of the Apostle Paul, who says in his first letter to the Corinthians when talking about the rock that the prophet Moses split, in order to quench the thirst of the people lost in the desert (Numbers 20:8): “All our fathers were under the clouds, all of them passed through the sea, and all of them were baptized in Moses.” In the clouds and in the sea... for they were drinking from a spiritual rock that followed them, and this rock was Christ... and these things happened so that we might have an example of them” (10: 1-6).

Then Saint Gregory reaches the goal for which he wrote the book, and he sees that virtue is a constant movement forward, and that perfection is permanent growth and continuous development. Moses embodies this idea in his life, which was a journey to the Promised Land. Thus, perfection is a constant movement towards the infinite God, a movement that “forgets what is behind it and reaches forward to what is before it” (Philippians 3:13). Gregory also goes on to say that perfection in life restores the soul to its true nature, that is, to its being created in the image of God. Therefore, one is supposed to clarify this image and return it to its splendor through continuous transformation to God. The image should resemble its owner, hence the necessity of constantly striving to gain perfection through transcending oneself, completely surrendering to God’s will, and abandoning all desires, in order to enter into complete communion with God.

Saint Gregory says in this context: “With regard to the subject of virtue, we learned from the Apostle Paul that there is only one limit to our perfection, which is to have no limit.” He considers that stopping striving is the beginning of regression. He says: “Just as the end of life is the beginning of death, so stopping striving in the path of virtue is the beginning of striving in the path of vice.” For Gregory, perfection in virtue cannot be limited, just as perfection cannot be confined within limits.

These are some of the meanings of the life of Moses, the great prophet about whom the Holy Bible said: “And Moses was a very forbearing man, more than all the people on the face of the earth” (Numbers 12:3). The fathers saw in his life’s biography what would benefit our building in Christ, whom Moses longed to see, so he saw him on the Mount of Transfiguration and was happy. May we rejoice like Moses in seeing the Lord in his eternal glory.

Troparia in the second tune
We celebrate the remembrance of your Prophet Moses, and through him we pray to you, O Lord, to save our souls.