A. Moses' birth and
childhood.
1. (1-2) Moses is born - a beautiful child, of the tribe of Levi.
And a man of the house
of Levi went and took as wife a daughter of Levi. So the woman conceived
and bore a son. And when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she
hid him three months.
a. So the woman conceived and bore a son:
The baby Moses opened his eyes to an
unfriendly world. He was born in a superpower of a nation, but was of an alien,
oppressed race during a time when all babies such as himself were under a royal
death sentence. Nevertheless, Moses had something special in his favor: he was
the child of believing parents.
b. A man of the house of Levi went
and took as wife a daughter of Levi: Exodus 6:20 tells us the names of Moses' parents: Amram and Jochebed.
Jewish legends say that Moses' birth was painless to his mother, that at his
birth his face was so beautiful that the room was filled with light equal to
the sun and moon combined, that he walked and spoke when he was a day old, and
that he refused to nurse, eating solid food from birth.
c. She hid him three months:
The parents of Moses did not do this
only because of the natural maternal instinct; they did it also out of faith in
God. Hebrews 11:23 describes the faith of Moses' parents: By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his
parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of
the king's command.
2. (3-10) Pharaoh's daughter finds Moses.
But when she could no
longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt
and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river's
bank. And his sister stood afar off, to know what would be done to him. Then
the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river. And her maidens walked
along the riverside; and when she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her
maid to get it. And when she had opened it, she saw the child, and
behold, the baby wept. So she had compassion on him, and said, "This is
one of the Hebrews' children." Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter,
"Shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women, that she may
nurse the child for you?" And Pharaoh's daughter said to her,
"Go." So the maiden went and called the child's mother. Then
Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child away and nurse him for
me, and I will give you your wages." So the woman took the child
and nursed him. And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter,
and he became her son. So she called his name Moses, saying, "Because I
drew him out of the water."
a. Laid it in the reeds by the river's
bank: In a literal
sense, Moses' mother did exactly what
Pharaoh said to do: put her son into the river (Exodus 1:22). However, she took
care to put him in a waterproofed basket and strategically floated him in the
river.
i. But more so, this is a great example of trusting the child's welfare
and future to God alone. When Moses' mother let go of that ark made of
bulrushes, she was giving up something precious, trusting that God would take
care of it, and perhaps find a way to give it back to her.
b. So she had compassion on him:
In God's providence, Pharaoh's
daughter finds baby Moses, and then hires Moses' own mother to take care of
him. Not only does Moses' mother get to still be with her child, now she gets paid for it.
i. God greatly rewarded the faith of Moses' mother, both as she trusted
Him as she hid Moses for three months, and as she trusted Him by setting Moses
out on the river.
c. And he became her son:
Being the adopted son of Pharaoh's
daughter, Moses was in the royal family. The ancient Jewish historian Josephus
says Moses was heir to the throne of Egypt and that while a young man, Moses
lead the armies of Egypt in victorious battle against the Ethiopians.
i. Certainly, he was raised with both the science and learning of Egypt.
Acts 7:22 says, Moses was learned in all
the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds. Egypt was
one of the most academic and scientific societies on the earth at that time. It
is reasonable to think that Moses was instructed in geography, history,
grammar, writing, literature, philosophy, and music.
ii. Since he was of the royal family, we expect that as Moses went
anywhere, he went in a princely chariot and his guards cried out "bow the
knee!" If he floated on the Nile, it was in a magnificent yacht, with
musical accompaniment - he lived the royal life. We also know that Moses' Hebrew
mother had an influence on his life, so he was certainly raised in the Hebrew
heritage of his mother.
d. An ancient Christian writer named Origen had a fanciful allegorical
way of interpreting the Scriptures, and what he does with this account of Moses
and Pharaoh's daughter is a good example of the peril of over-allegorizing the
Scriptures. In Origen's take on this passage:
·
Pharaoh
represents the devil
·
The male and
female Hebrew children represent the animal and rational aspects of the soul
·
The devil
wants to kill the rational character of man, but keep alive his animal
character
·
The two
midwives are the Old and New Testaments
·
Pharaoh wants
to corrupt the midwives so that the rational character of man will be destroyed
·
Because the
midwives were faithful, God builds houses of prayer all over the earth
·
Pharaoh's
daughter represents the church, and gives refuge to Moses - who represents the
law
·
The waters of
the Nile represent the waters of baptism
·
When we come
to the waters of baptism and take the law into our heart - the royal palaces -
then the law grows up into spiritual maturity
i. Clarke says well of this kind of interpretation: "Every passage
and fact might then be obliged to say something,
any thing, every thing, or nothing,
according to the fancy, peculiar creed, or caprice of the interpreter."
B. Moses' escape
from Egypt.
1. (11-14) Moses kills an Egyptian and his crime is discovered.
Now it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown,
that he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens. And he saw an
Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So he looked this way and that
way, and when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
And when he went out the second day, behold, two Hebrew men were fighting, and
he said to the one who did the wrong, "Why are you striking your
companion?" Then he said, "Who made you a prince and a judge over us?
Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?" So Moses feared and
said, "Surely this thing is known!"
a. When Moses was grown:
Acts 7:23 says this happened when
Moses was forty years old. Up until then, he was trained and groomed to become
the next Pharaoh of Egypt, all the while aware of his true origins because of
his mother.
b. He killed the Egyptian:
Moses was certainly right in
preventing the beating of one of his brethren; yet at the same time this
was perhaps a premature attempt to fulfill his destiny. Moses tried to make
himself Israel's deliverer in a way that made sense to the way man thinks and
plans.
i. Acts 7:23-25 shows us exactly where Moses' heart was: Now when he was forty years old, it came
into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. And seeing one of
them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck
down the Egyptian. For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that
God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand.
ii. If Moses ever sat down and decided to deliver his people from their
Egyptian bondage, he would never plan
it this way: "My brother Aaron and I will go to Pharaoh with a special
stick that turns into a snake. We'll ask him to let us go back to Canaan, and
if he says no, we'll bring plagues of blood in the Nile River, frogs,
mosquitoes, flies, cattle disease, boils, hail, locusts, and darkness. If all
that doesn't work, we'll kill all the firstborn of Egypt and escape across the
Red Sea, which will part for us and flow back to drown the Egyptians. Then
we'll cross the wilderness and come to Canaan."
iii. Moses planned the deliverance of Israel the way any man would, and
logically saw himself as the key man - because of his accepted leadership among
the Egyptians. The only problem was that God was going to deliver Israel
and use Moses in a way that no man would ever dream of.
iv. Moses had no idea of it at the time, but he was too big for God to
use. Moses tried to do the Lord's work in man's wisdom and power. It wouldn't
work. After 40 years of seemingly perfect preparation, Moses had another 40
years of seemingly meaningless waiting to perfect God's preparation.
c. Who made you a prince and a
judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? Moses' leadership was not accepted by the
Jewish masses, even though God had
made him a prince
and a judge over them.
Moses, like Jesus, was rejected by Israel at his "first coming."
i. Both Moses and Jesus were:
·
Favored by God
from birth
·
Miraculously
preserved in childhood
·
Mighty in
words and deed
·
Offered
deliverance to Israel
·
Rejected with
spite
·
Rejected in
their right to be ruler and a judge
over Israel
ii. Just like Jesus, Moses could not deliver when he lived in the
palaces of glory. He had to come down off the throne, away from the palace and
into a humble place before he could deliver his people.
2. (15-19) Moses escapes to Midian.
When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he sought to kill Moses.
But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian; and he
sat down by a well. Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. And they came
and drew water, and they filled the troughs to water their father's flock. Then
the shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and
watered their flock. When they came to Reuel their father, he said, "How is
it that you have come so soon today?" And they said, "An Egyptian
delivered us from the hand of the shepherds, and he also drew enough water for
us and watered the flock."
a. Moses fled from the face of
Pharaoh: Moses, fleeing for
his life, probably felt that God's plan for his life was completely defeated.
He probably believed that every chance he ever had to deliver his people was
now over and there was nothing he
could do. At this point, Moses was right where God wanted him.
b. Dwelt in the land of Midian:
If Moses went into the area of Canaan
and Syria, he would have found no refuge - there was a treaty between Rameses
II and the Hittite king to the effect that fugitives along the northern route
to Syria would be arrested and extradited. So Moses went southeast instead, to Midian.
i. In that day Midian described
the area on both the west and east sides of the Reed Sea, land that today is
both Saudi Arabia (on the east of the Reed Sea) and Egypt (on the Sinai
Peninsula, on the west of the Reed Sea).
c. The priest of Midian had seven
daughters: Finally
coming to Midian, Moses met the daughters of a priest of Midian - likely a
descendant of one of Abraham's other children through Keturah named Midian
(Genesis 25:1-2).
i. Because of this connection with Abraham, we have good reason to
believe he was a true priest, and worshipped the true God. God led Moses to
this specific family at this specific time.
d. Moses stood up and helped them,
and watered their flock: In
Egypt Moses enjoyed life as one of the royal family and was waited on hand and
foot. In the distant desert of Midian, Moses finally had an opportunity to be a
servant and he did a good job, working hard to help water the flocks of
Jethro's daughters.
3. (20-22) Moses is accepted into the family of the priest of Midian.
So he said to his daughters, "And where is he?
Why is it that you have left the man? Call him, that he may eat
bread." Then Moses was content to live with the man, and he gave Zipporah
his daughter to Moses. And she bore him a son, and he called his name
Gershom; for he said, "I have been a stranger in a foreign land."
a. Moses was content to live with the man:
By taking a wife and having a son,
Moses seems to give up on Egypt and his hope of being a deliverer for Israel.
Moses was content with where God put him, even though Midian was very different
from Egypt.
b. We make a mistake when we think that the years in Midian were a
"waiting" time for Moses. They were instead, working years; he had never worked this hard in his life! God
trained him, shaping him for his future calling, but Moses was certainly not
"on the shelf."
4. (23-25) God remembers Israel and turns His attention to them.
Now it happened in the process of time that the king of
Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and
they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. So God
heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac,
and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged
them.
a. So God heard their groaning, and God
remembered: If Moses
"forgot" about Israel in Egypt (in the sense of turning his active
attention away from them), God did not. God remembered (again, in the sense
of turning His active attention towards them) Israel and their affliction.
b. God remembered His covenant with
Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob: God did not turn His attention to Israel because they were such good
people, but because of the covenant He made with them. He gives His love and
attention to us on the same basis - the covenant relationship we have with God
through Jesus.
© 2004 David Guzik - No
distribution beyond personal use without permission