When the Lord appeared to Moses in the burning bush, he made a remarkable claim about Moses. Exodus 4:16 says, “So [Aaron] shall be your spokesman to the people. And he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God.” Later on in Exodus 7:1, the Lord says to Moses, “See, I have made you as God to Pharaoh.”
Through the power of God, Moses would be made like God to free the people out of the land of Egypt.
Now, these two verses do not mean that Moses in anyway became God or a god. Some would claim that Moses was a god in the same way they think Jesus was like God, even writing that all humans can become gods, citing Moses. It’s not true. Jesus was and is God; Moses was not. To Aaron, Exodus clearly says he was “as” God and with Pharaoh, God “made” him to be like God to Pharaoh, not that he was a god.
But what does it mean that Moses became “as God” to Aaron and Pharaoh?
Aaron was chosen to be a spokesperson to the spokesperson, the end of a conduit by which the Word of God would pass through Moses, then him, and finally to Pharaoh and the people. In that way, Moses was God to Aaron, because Moses was the only means by which Aaron would hear the Word of God. Similarly, Moses (and by extension Aaron as his spokesperson) was made to be like God to Pharaoh, because it was through these two men that the will and power of God would be displayed to him.
So what is “as God” to us?
It is not Jesus. He Is not “as God,” but is God.
It’s the Bible. The pages and words are not God themselves, of course, but the Bible is the conduit by which we receive the Word of God, the only means by which God speaks.
To the Colossians, Paul warned, “See to It that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ” (Colossians 2:8). In other words, don’t mistake other teachings for the truth, but instead rely on Jesus and His word: “Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives In him, rooted and built up In him, strengthened In the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness” (Colossians 2:6-7).
Root yourself in the Bible. Just as Moses was the only way Aaron would hear God’s Word, the Bible is “as God” to us, revealing His will and power to anyone willing to listen.