Egypt was the homeland of the greatest of the Israelites who were never to set foot in their native country, Canaan.  His name Moshe, meaning Child of the Nile, was Egyptian.  It had been given to him by the Pharoah’s daughter when she rescued him from the waters of the Nile and then adopted him.  His whole upbringing and education at the courts of the Pharaoh was Egyptian.  Here he was introduced to all the wisdom of this highly gifted people.  Yet he never became an Egyptian, but remained faithful to Israel.  Only Israel could bring his people freedom, one of the mysteries of divine providence.
Moses was descended from Levi, to whom the dying patriarch Jacob had bitterly reprimanded because he once had, together with his brother Simeon, slain the men of Sichem in unbridled lust for revenge for the dishonouring of his sister... Moses was to transform Jacob’s curse into Israel’s blessing.   
Not until he was eighty did the crucial hour of Moses’ life draw near.  God spoke to him from the burning bush on Mount Horeb.  He called him by his name and commissioned him with the difficult task of leading his people out of Egypt to the land of his fathers.  For a long time the old man refused, in humble realization of his own inabilities, but God's matchless power persuaded him.  God’s presence remained with Moses him until the end of his life. Moses towered above all the great men of his nation.  The forty years spent at the courts of the Pharoah had by no means softened him, the forty years spent in the desert had not made him lonely, the forty years of worries as a leader of his people had not embittered him.  He followed and observed the commandments he had received from God.  As God’s most faithful servant his example influenced and determined the worship of his people. 
Moses, although human, was a type of Christ.  As such, he was anointed by God to broker the Old Covenant for the nation.  He foreshadowed the Messiah, the Son of God, who was to be anointed by God to bring in the New Covenant for all nations. 
At the ripe old age of 120 Moses died on Mount Nebo on the west border of East Jordan and was buried at a site known to God alone.