For those who only want the answer to the question in the title, the name “Moses” means “to draw out.” In Exodus 2:10, Moses is “drawn out” of the water, so that name symbolizes the manner in which Moses was connected to his adopted mother, the princess of Egypt.
But that’s not all that Moses means, does it?
If you mention the name Moses to anyone across time, they think of deliverer. Leader. Law-giver. Promised-land-guider.
If you think about it, there are so many ways the name of Moses applies. He “brought forth” the commandment to Pharaoh to let the people go. He “brought forth” the people out of Egypt. He “brought forth” water from the rock.
All of the above designations talk about him in terms of a trailblazer, how he guided the people in his charge to an area that they were unfamiliar with.
But it also symbolizes something new. The people that were “brought forth” out of Egypt eventually found their way to Canaan. Even though they refused to enter into Canaan and wandered the desert for forty years, Moses stayed with them through that time period and brought them all the way back. Along the way, new experiences tested their faith.
This idea of a deliverer that “brings forth” is nothing new, especially within the context of Moses. Paul would use the image of the Israelites in 1 Corinthians 10 to talk about how even though all of them experienced the same things, they didn’t all end up in the same place. The ones that sinned fell in the wilderness, despite Moses’ “bringing them forth” from Egypt.
Paul then spiritualizes it by saying that those are examples to us. Despite us “coming forth” through baptism (1 Peter 3:21), we can still fall to temptation. As a deliverer, Moses can only bring the Israelites out of bondage and give them the opportunity for Canaan. Their own obedience to God’s word defines the rest.
Such as it is for us. Though we are “brought forth” from a life of sin to serve God, the real question for us is whether or not we’ll continue to walk with Him. Will we turn as they did? Will we grumble as they did? Will we sin as they did?
If so, a similar fate awaits us.
