Like most children, I had a superhero. While my friends couldn’t wait until Saturday mornings to watch the new adventures of Superman, Spider-Man, Batman or Aquaman on television, what I looked forward to on those Saturday mornings was hearing a new adventure of my superhero, Moses. I loved going to synagogue and listening as my rabbi would tell us about Moses and the Egyptian taskmasters, or Moses and the burning bush, or maybe Moses and Pharaoh’s magicians or Moses and the 10 plagues. Nothing written in Hollywood could compare to the superpowers that were gifted to Moses.
It is easy to understand why those who follow Judaism look at Abraham as the father of our faith, but we look at Moses as our deliverer and hero. The truth is that we all need a hero. Someone, who at least in the back of our minds and in our dreams, we would love to be. A person who, although endued with powers on gifts beyond the abilities of mortal men, we strive to emulate to the best we can. A role model for all of us who strive to be better than we are.
For me, growing up Jewish, that person was Moses. A man who stood up for the downtrodden. A man who saw a burning bush and moved toward it instead of running away. A man who killed the Egyptian, stood before Pharaoh, parted the sea, defeated armies and was not afraid to debate with G-D Himself. Moses was a hero’s hero. What’s not to like?
Breaking News. Spirit-Filled Stories. Subscribe to Charisma on YouTube now!
Yet, with all of these accolades and accomplishments, Moses ultimately failed to complete his mission. While he did lead the Israelites out of Egypt, while he did lead the Israelites to the mountain, while he did write the Torah at the command of G-D, while he did defeat armies in the wilderness, in the end, he did not lead the Israelites into the promised land.
Just imagine Superman flying in to rescue the woman in distress, only to drop her out of his arms just before bringing her to safety. Imagine Spider-Man defeating Green Goblin, but failing to catch the busload of innocents who were careening to the ground after driving off the bridge. Imagine Batman arresting the Riddler, but failing to figure out his riddle, ending in the horrible deaths of those locked in the safe with no oxygen. What if Aquaman stopped his evil enemy, but the ocean was poisoned because he failed to stop the nuclear waste from being released?
If the above happened, would we still want to emulate these heroes? Would we still dream of being like them? I don’t think so, do you? Yet growing up, I saw Moses as such a larger-than-life figure that I overlooked not only his failures in the wilderness (beating the rock), but I also overlooked his failure to complete his mission to lead the people into the promised land. It was only when I became an adult that I realized that the true hero of Israel was not Moses, but rather Joshua. Joshua was actually the one who led the Israelites into the promised land.
It was also as an adult I realized that while Moses did lead the people out of Egypt and write the Torah, it was Joshua who actually led the people not only into the promised land, but also into the covenant that the Torah offered. One only has to read the first chapters of Joshua to learn that in all of the years in the wilderness, Israel neither observed the Passover or circumcised their sons. It isn’t until Joshua’s leadership that Israel fully entered into not only the land of promise but also into the covenant of Abraham.
As a believer in Yeshua (Jesus), this analogy goes even deeper. The names “Joshua” and “Yeshua” are from the same Hebrew root, and essentially mean the same thing: Savior. This helps us see the absolute truth of the example that while Moses was the beginning of deliverance, Joshua was the fullness of deliverance. Likewise, while I know Torah (Moses) was the beginning of my deliverance, it was Yeshua who brought it to fullness. As we read in Galatians 3:22-24 (TLV):
But the Scripture has locked up the whole world under sin, so that the promise based on trust in Messiah Yeshua might be given to those who trust. Now before faith came, we were being guarded under Torah—bound together until the coming faith would be revealed. Therefore the Torah became our guardian to lead us to Messiah, so that we might be made right based on trusting.
So, while Moses was mighty, Joshua was a superhero, and while Moses (Torah) is mighty, Yeshua is truly our superhero.
Join Charisma Magazine Online to follow everything the Holy Spirit is doing around the world!
Eric Tokajer is the author of “Overcoming Fearlessness,” “What If Everything You Were Taught About the Ten Commandments Was Wrong?”, “With Me in Paradise,” “Transient Singularity,” “OY! How Did I Get Here?: Thirty-One Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me Before Entering Ministry,” “#ManWisdom: With Eric Tokajer,” “Jesus Is to Christianity as Pasta Is to Italians” and “Galatians in Context.” Visit his website at rabbierict.com.
