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Bible History of the Old Testament |
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No. 32 The Birth and Training of Moses In Egypt
It is quite remarkable that the very measure with which Pharaoh had taken to try to destroy Israel, is what God used to deliver them. Pharaoh had commanded that all the baby boys be cast into the river and drowned. If this had not happened, Moses would not have been rescued by Pharaoh's daughter, nor trained in all the wisdom of Egypt that would have so fit him for the great calling that lay ahead for him. All throughout this story, though, you can see events which are just natural, but have supernatural purposes and results. Moses came from the tribe of Levi and was a descendant of Kohath. His father was Amram and his mother Jochebed. They were both Levites, and already had two children, Aaron and Miriam, when Moses was born. This was right at the time when the murderous edict of Pharaoh was issued. Their heart must have been broken when they heard about the cruel law from Pharaoh. God had his hand on Moses from the very start, though, and he totally won over his parents' hearts. There had to be something supernatural here, even though they may not have known it. God did not give to them any special revelation of what the future held for Moses, they just obtained the victory by faith. They resolved to trust God and have faith that He would take care of their son. By faith, they concealed him at home for 3 months. When that was no longer possible, that same confidence of faith in God led the mother to lay the child in an ark of papyrus and see what would happen. Papyrus was a strong three-cornered rush, that grew to a height of 10 - 15 feet. It was used to make the light Nile-boats that navigated the river at the time. It was made water-tight by either Nile-mud or asphalt, and coated with pitch. Scripture does not tell us how Miriam chose the spot where she put Moses, but it was the spot where Pharaoh's daughter came to bathe each day in the river. Most of the Nile was infested with crocodiles, but this place named Zoan, was one that Egypt had captured from the shepherd-kings. It was the only arm of the Nile where the princess could have bathed, because there were no crocodiles there. There is an illustration on one of the Egyptian monuments of the scene described in the rescue of Moses. A noble lady is represented as bathing in the river with four of her maidens attending her, just like the Bible represents the story. Moses was a beautiful baby to look upon, and when Pharaoh's daughter found him, he was crying. Naturally, she would have felt compassion on him just because she was a woman. It would have been inhuman to throw him into the river and let him drown. After all, she must have thought that it would do no harm to save just one of the Hebrew babies. The Egyptians worshipped the Nile River just as if it were a god. The princess surely must have thought that the river had bestowed a wonderful gift upon her, and therefore would not have wanted to reject this gift. When Miriam came and asked if she wanted one of the Hebrew women to feed him until he could be weaned, she readily consented. Of course, Miriam would call her own mother to take care of the precious charge. Such are the wonderful ways of God. Pharaoh's very own daughter would be the one who would save the one child that God had chosen to lead the Israelites to freedom from Egypt. Aaron and Miriam were never in danger of losing their lives, because they were already too old by this time. It has been written in history that "somehow the salvation of Israel was always connected with the instrumentality of the Gentiles. It was so in the history of Joseph, and even before that; and it will continue so till at the last, through their mercy, Israel shall obtain mercy." In his great mercy, God gave these wonderful Hebrew parents 3 years to mould the mind of the adopted son of the princess of Egypt. God must have supernaturally let Moses remember all the teachings of his mother about all the stories and traditions of Israel. These would all come back to him in later years, and they were so strong that he would be able to turn away from all the many years of Egyptian teachings that he had been steeped in so that God could use him to lead Israel out of Egypt. It seems almost natural that over the years Moses would be reminded of the future deliverance of Israel that his mother had taught him, and all the promises that God had made to his people. Even now, many of our deepest purposes have their root in earliest childhood, the lessons learned there, the thoughts conceived there, and many times we have carried them out to the end of our lives. When Jochebed brought the baby back to the princess, he was given the Egyptian name of Moses. This name has been written on several of the old Egyptian papyri, as one of the royal princes of Egypt. This name means "brought forth", because the princess said that she drew him out of the water. Moses was heavily instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. There was no other country at the time to where there was such value given to an education, nor where that education started as early as it did in Egypt. As soon as a child was weaned, he was sent to school and instructed by appointed scribes. They did not learn to write by words, but by hieroglyphics. These were pictorial symbols or signs, and they have been found to be for single letters, for syllables, and for words. It was such a complex language, that it must have taken years to master it perfectly. For those that were destined for higher professions, education was carried out to an even greater length. The students learned various sciences, mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, medicine, etc. They also learned theology, philosophy, and had a great knowledge of the law. As the son of Pharaoh's daughter, Moses would have surely had the best training available in the land. The Bible tells us that he was "mighty in his words and deeds". There are also many Jewish and Egyptian legends which extol his wisdom, and military and other achievements. It was in this way that the first 40 years of his life passed. If he had been of the mind set, undoubtedly he could have been #1 in the land eventually. Ultimately, though he had to decided with whom he would cast his lot - with Egypt or with Israel. That is, with the world or with the promises that he had been given as a very young child. No doubt, the providence of God helped him to make the right decision in the situation. It would have been totally impossible for Moses to "be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter" and at the same time to have a part in being "with the people of God". The only way that Moses was able to refuse Egypt and all its pleasures was purely by "Faith" in the One True God, and believe totally in all the promises that had been made so long ago. Moses not only had to "refuse" all the earthly beauty and glories of Egypt, he had to totally accept the burdens and afflictions of his people. He had to want the riches of Christ more than the riches of Egypt. It was in this spirit that "he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens in Exodus 2: 11. The faith that he had acquired was deep and genuine, but it was far from pure and spiritual. The ancient Egyptians were known for their discipline, and their many monuments scattered throughout the land depict "taskmasters" armed with heavy scourges that were made of tough bending wood. They used these unmercifully. When Moses witnessed these horrible things that were being inflicted on his brothers, it would have naturally roused much resentment on his part. No doubt, it was already in his head that somehow he was to become their deliverer, so he went about it the only way that he knew how. He couldn't see the whole picture like God could, so he thought becoming their deliverer would mean some sort of physical uprising in the flesh. Then when he got his chance, he killed an Egyptian. It must not have been a spontaneous thing, because the Bible says that he looked "this way and that way to see that there was no man" to observe what he had done. What he had done was attempt to carry out spiritual ends by carnal means. Moses was trying to become their deliverer before he was actually called to do it by God, and he was trying to accomplish it by other means than those that God would have approved. This could be compared with Peter getting mad and cutting off the ear of the high priest's servant when they came to arrest Jesus. Both the hearts of Moses and Peter had hearts that resembled a field that was covered with weeds, but gave promise to good fruit when that same field had been broken up and sown with good seed. So Moses had to be cut down before he could be of any use to God. He had to strike roots downward before he could spring upwards. Moses was confronted with what he had done, and even the Hebrews thought he had done wrong. From what we know now of Egyptian society, this crime could not have gone unpunished even if it was committed by the son of a princess. Moses had not only killed an Egyptian official, he would have encouraged the rebellion of the Hebrews had this gone unpunished. Pharaoh wouldn't have been able to take the chance that he could lose his slave help to build all his cities. Basically, the only alternative that Moses had now was to either renounce his affiliation with his people or leave the country. God intervened again and Moses "forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured (remained stedfast to his people) as seeing the Invisible one". Just like Jacob and Joseph under similar circumstances, Moses had to now move to a strange land. He had already been taught everything that Egypt could teach him, and now everything else he needed to know he must learn in loneliness, humiliation, and suffering. In his own view, he must have thought that all his plans of freeing his people from slavery were totally gone now, and he had only brought misery to himself. What he did not know at the time was, the very thing that had seemed to remove him from his special calling would be the very thing that would prepare the way for its final attainment. This is what many times happens to us in the most important events in our lives. This is so that we may learn the lessons of faith and total self-surrender so that God alone may have the glory. Next month's text will delve further into the circumstances of Moses during this very difficult time in his life. For more information from this book, go to the Archives Page at my site www.cathydeaton.com There are other articles of interest there also. This text is taken from the book Bible History Old Testament written by Alfred Edersheim. This book has been used by permission.
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