The Gift of Prophecy (The Role of Ellen White in God’s Remnant Church)

The prophet of prophets

Moses was the first member of the nation of Israel who was called a prophet. Born to Hebrew parents who lived as slaves in Egypt, he was adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter and educated in all the wisdom of Egypt. His training included the religious and legal traditions of the ancient Near East, as well as government service in the greatest empire the world had seen up to that time. GP 23.2

Moses believed himself to be the one to deliver his people from the yoke of slavery, but he failed in his attempt to rescue his people in his own power and had to flee to Midian (see Exodus 2:15). While living in Midian and taking care of the sheep of Jethro, his father-in-law, Moses received the education that prepared him for his future role as the God-sent deliverer of Israel. “While he was living in retirement, the Lord sent His angels to especially instruct him in regard to the future. Here he learned more fully the great lesson of self-control and humility. He kept the flocks of Jethro, and while he was performing his humble duties as a shepherd, God was preparing him to become a spiritual shepherd of His sheep, even of His people Israel” (SR 110). GP 23.3

After forty years in Midian, Moses returned to Egypt with the assurance that God would be with him. He was to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt and into Canaan. The ten plagues in Exodus 7-11 overcame Pharaoh’s resistance to letting Israel go, and following a series of miracles along the way, Moses, under God’s guidance, led Israel from Egypt to the borders of the Promised Land. There the people listened to the report of the ten spies about the people in Canaan and became so discouraged that they decided to return to Egypt (see Numbers 14:4). This display of unbelief led God to threaten to destroy the people of Israel, prompting Moses to intercede for them. As a consequence of this rebellion, the people of Israel had to wander another thirty-eight years in the wilderness (see Deuteronomy 2:14), and the generation that rebelled against God died out, except for Caleb and Joshua. GP 23.4

The most tragic event in the life of Moses, who was called the most humble man on the earth (see Numbers 12:3), took place at Kadesh-Barnea. There, instead of speaking to the rock, as God had instructed him to do, Moses struck the rock to bring water from it (see Numbers 20:8-12). This single act of disobedience barred him from entering the Promised Land, reminding us that one cherished and unconfessed sin will keep us out of the kingdom. “One cherished sin,” says Ellen White, “will, little by little, debase the character, bringing all its nobler powers into subjection to the evil desire” (PP 452). GP 24.1

Shortly before his death, Moses told the Israelites, ” ‘The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear’ ” (Deuteronomy 18:15). This prophecy was initially fulfilled through Joshua and the prophets who followed him. It found its ultimate fulfillment in the appearance of the Messiah, who was the Prophet who would lead God’s people from the slavery of sin into the heavenly Canaan. GP 24.2

Many years after Moses’ death, when Joshua wrote the closing verses of Deuteronomy, he said, “Since then there has not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face” (Deuteronomy 34:10). There was no other prophet like Moses until the time of the Messiah who, the book of Hebrews says, was not only greater than any other prophet, including Moses (see Hebrews 3:3), but greater even than the angels (1:4). He was, after all, “God . . . manifested in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16). GP 24.3