Moses: An Unlikely Deliverer

 

Last time, in A Review and A Preview, we took a look back at what we had learned in Act 1, Scene 2 of God’s One Big Story—as well as a brief look forward to this episode, which marks the beginning of Act 1, Scene 3—Long Engagement, Short Honeymoon. As a reminder of how this scene fits into the overall Big Story picture, let’s review the Program Guides that we were given back at the beginning of our study…

 

 

As you can see from the guides, in this upcoming scene Israel’s long engagement to God will come to an end when she is whisked away to their long-awaited wedding at Mount Sinai. However, this marriage will not take place without its fair share of difficulties.

That’s because, when the curtains open on this episode, hundreds of years will have gone by since the death of Joseph, and the circumstances of Israel’s descendants will have taken a terrible turn for the worse. As a result of their exploding population, they will have fallen into disfavor with the Pharaoh who no longer views them as an asset but as a political liability. Instead of living their best lives in the fertile land of Goshen—as they had in days gone by– they will find themselves in bondage to the king and subjected to brutal treatment by their Egyptian taskmasters. This is where our story resumes…

 

Episode #1 for Act 1, Scene 3 of God’s One Big Story
Cast:     Narrator     Pharaoh     Midwives   Pharaoh’s Daughter     Miriam     Moses     Hebrew Man
Reuel/Jethro      Jethro’s Daughters

Part 1

Narrator:  Now these are the names of the children of Israel who came to Egypt; each man and his household came with Jacob:  Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin; Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.  All those who were descendants of Jacob were seventy persons (for Joseph was in Egypt already).  And Joseph died, all his brothers, and all that generation.  But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.  Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.  And he said to his people…

Pharaoh:  Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land.

Narrator:  Therefore, they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Raamses.  But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were in dread of the children of Israel.  So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor.  And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage—in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor. Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah; he said…

Pharaoh:  When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.

Narrator:  But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive.  So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them…

Pharaoh:  Why have you done this thing, and saved the male children alive?

Midwives:  Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them.

Narrator:  God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very mighty.  And so it was, because the midwives feared God, that He provided households for them.  So Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying…

Pharaoh:  Every son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.           

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Part 2

Narrator:  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.  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 opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby wept. So she had compassion on him, and said…

Pharaoh’s Daughter:  This is one of the Hebrews’ children.

Narrator:  Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter…

Miriam:  Shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?

Pharaoh’s Daughter:  Go.

Narrator:  So the maiden went and called the child’s mother.  Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her…

Pharaoh’s Daughter:  Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.

Narrator:  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.’

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…

Moses:  Why are you striking your companion?

Hebrew:  Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?

Narrator:  So Moses feared and said, ‘Surely this thing is known!’  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.

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Part 3

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…

Reuel/Jethro:  How is it that you have come so soon today?

Jethro’s Daughters:  An Egyptian delivered us from the hand of the shepherds, and he also drew enough water for us and watered the flock.

Reuel/Jethro:  And where is he? Why is it that you have left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.

Narrator:  Then Moses was content to live with the man, and he gave Zipporah his daughter to Moses.  And she bore him a son. He called his name Gershom, for he said…

Moses:  I have been a stranger in a foreign land.

Narrator:  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.

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Our Review

To help facilitate our review of this introductory episode in God’s Rescue and Redemption of His Bride, Israel, let’s break it down into the following three parts…

 

Part 1–Setting the Stage for this Episode

To help us set the stage for this episode, here are a few things that we should know about life in Egypt during this period…

Egypt was the first of the great empires to be mentioned in the Bible. What started out as a series of small villages along the Nile River many millennia ago eventually grew into the two kingdoms of Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt. Around 3100 BC, these two united to form the world’s first major empire where, in the centuries that followed, an advanced and orderly civilization was created that was unmatched in the world at that time.

At the heart of this empire was the Nile River which, during the rainy season in Central Africa, would overflow its banks and transport water from its headwaters more than 4100 miles to the Mediterranean Sea—depositing a layer of rich soil as it went. This layer of soil, about six miles wide on each side of the river, enabled the Egyptians to produce food in such abundance that they not only had enough for themselves but also enough to sell to other countries. Over time, this trading led to the development of a prosperous “middle class” made up of businessmen, artisans, and craftsmen.

Since it was the Nile that made life in Egypt productive, prosperous, and peaceful, the river and its annual flooding were worshipped as gods under a number of different names, with the human representative of these gods being the Pharaoh. As a god in the flesh, he was looked to as the mediator between the gods and man, the one responsible for implementing the laws and maintaining the order that the gods had established at creation. As a result…

From birth to death, and covering nearly everything in between, rank-and-file Egyptians lived under a highly structured set of customs and beliefs that were designed to keep them and their blessed land in the good graces of the vast pantheon of gods they worshipped. Proper care for these gods—and their physical manifestation, the pharaoh—ensured the cosmic order, a concept that the Egyptians call maat and that was personified in the goddess named Maat, beloved daughter of the sun go Re…

The universal harmony of maat—the holy and ethical concept that meant truth, justice, and righteousness, as well as order—was achieved through a religious system in which the gods protected Egypt and held the forces of chaos, destruction, or simple, everyday misfortune at bay, both through proper individual behavior and obeying the laws of the land…Overseeing those ritual laws was a priestly class—one of the world’s first government bureaucracies—whose expertise was in knowing how to please the gods.^[1]

So, to keep the gods happy and ensure that they continued to bless Egypt with peace and prosperity, the Pharaoh was to see to it that truth, justice, and righteousness prevailed throughout the kingdom. However, that is not what we will find him doing in this episode and the ones to come.

 

 

The Most Important Points in Part 1—

— The land was filled with them—although Pharaoh makes it sound like all of Egypt had been overrun by the Israelites, they were, in fact, confined in Goshen—a relatively small space in the rich delta area created by the Nile River.  [See Map]

— A king who did not know Joseph—given that Joseph had died in 1806 BC, and the oppression of the Israelites was believed to have begun in either the reign of Amosis or Amenhotep I, anywhere from 236-280 years would have passed since Joseph’s death.

— In the event of war—since Goshen was so near the northeast border, Pharaoh’s concern was that they would ally themselves with their neighbors to the east.

— They set taskmasters over them—seemingly overnight, the Israelites went from privilege to poverty and bondage.  Instead of working as shepherds, they were suddenly subjected to backbreaking labor.

— Supply cities, Pithom and Raamses—the Israelites did not build but rebuilt these cities, which were originally called Pi-Atum and Per-Ramesse, and could be traced back to the time of the Hyksos dynasty.

— The King spoke to the Hebrew midwives/duties of a midwife—rather than come right out and kill the babies himself, Pharaoh—who was supposed to be the dispenser of justice and maintainer of order in the kingdom—delegated his dirty work to the midwives for the Hebrew women.  As midwives, their duties not only included helping with the delivery of the babies but also with what we would call prenatal and postnatal care of the mother and child.

It is unclear what nationality these women were but it is doubtful that they would have been Israelites, as they would never have agreed to kill the babies, and it is unlikely that they were Egyptian because they would have been too afraid of Pharaoh not to have obeyed. In other places in the Bible, when someone is said to “fear God” or to be a “God-fearer,” it usually meant that person was not Jewish. So, in this instance, if is likely that the midwives belonged to another group of foreigners who were then living in the country.

God dealt well with the midwives—because the midwives obeyed God instead of the King, God blessed them with families of their own families.

— Pharaoh commanded his people—once again, Pharaoh delegated his dirty work to someone else—this time, to the everyday people of Egypt.  Why throw the babies in the river?  Since they considered Pharaoh and the Nile to be gods, the people may have been convinced that the babies were the sacrifices they needed to make in order to please their gods and maintain peace and order (or ma’at) in their kingdom.

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Part 2—The Introduction of Our Main Character

With the big picture having been set for us in Part 1, the focus now shifts to a closeup of the events surrounding the birth of Moses, the leading man in this scene…

The Most Important Points in Part 2—

— A man of the house of Levi—from Exodus 6:20, we learn that this man was named Amran and his wife was named Jochebed.

— The woman…bore a son—Jochebed already had one son named Aaron, born three years before Moses—obviously before the edict about throwing the babies in the Nile was given.

— She took an ark—the word for ark here is the same one used for Noah’s ark, the place of salvation that was provided for him by God.  Instead of throwing him in the river as commanded, Jochebed placed Moses on the river—by faith, committing  him to God.

— His sister—in Numbers 26:59, we learn that this was Miriam.  Having his sister there watching out for him would have drawn a lot less attention than if his mother had been present.

— The Daughter of Pharaoh/had compassion on him—it is believed that Pharaoh had more than fifty daughters so it is uncertain who this particular one was—however, some think that she could have been Hatshepsut.

— A nurse/she called the child’s mother—a child was typically nursed for three years, in special circumstance it could have been up to five.  In His providential care, God put Moses back in his natural family long enough for him to identify with them, the Hebrew people, and with their God.

— He became her son/Moses—Moses became the princess’s adopted son, with all the rights and privileges of royalty.  In Egyptian, Mose means “to bear, produce, or bring forth”, and in Hebrew it means “to draw out.”

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Part 3—A Character Closeup and His Preparation for Service

At this point, a curtain is drawn over the life of Moses and we are not told anything else about him until many years later…

The Most Important Points in Part 3—

— When Moses was grown/he went out to his brethren—Moses was forty at this time.  No reason is given for this seemingly sudden interest in the welfare of his fellow Hebrews but we are given some insight into his motives later in Acts 7:23ff…

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.

— He looked this way and that—Moses’ actions were premeditated, making him a murderer.

— Pharaoh sought to kill Moses—as Moses was the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, it seems unlikely that his actions would have elicited this response from Pharaoh.  However, if he felt that Moses was a threat to his rule, this incident may have given Pharaoh the opportunity to get rid of him that he had been looking for.

— Moses fled…to Midian—the Midianites, descendants of Abraham through his wife, Keturah, were nomadic/semi-nomadic desert dwellers, living in and around the Arabian peninsula.  [See Map]

— Priest of Midian/Jethro/Reuel/Hobab—being a descendant of Abraham may explain why or how this man—known by these three names in scripture—knew of God and became the “Priest of Midian.”

— Seven daughters/shepherds came to drive them away—girls of this era usually served as shepherdesses up unto the age of puberty.  Moses came to their aid, much like Jacob did for Rachel at the well outside of Paran.

— He gave Zipporah to Moses—Moses would have had to wait until Zipporah reached marrying age, and he may have worked for Jethro until then as a way to pay the bride price for her—as in the case of Jacob and Laban.  Moses would have been considerably older than Zipporah when they married.

— Gershom—since Moses considered himself a stranger in a foreign land, he named his son Gershom, which means “a sojourner there.”

— The King of Egypt died/the people cried out—the man who had been king when Moses fled forty years before—and the one who had sought to kill Moses—finally died, but his death brought no relief for the people—so they cried out to God.  When they did…

— God heard—He listened and…

God remembered—unlike the Pharaoh who had forgotten all that Joseph had done for Egypt, God remembered the covenant promises He had made to Abraham; and,

God acknowledged—their plight and immediately set about providing a remedy for it.

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In Summary

Before we leave this episode behind, let’s take a few moments and consider the some of the things that we can take away from it…

The Inconsistencies and Contradictions Found in this Episode;
The Moral and Ethical Issues Raised in this Episode; and,
The Reason for Moses’ Failure in this Episode.

 

The Inconsistencies and Contradiction Found in this Episode—

Having reviewed the characters presented in this episode, we can now see a number of inconsistencies and contradictions revealed by their actions…

 

Such contradictions as these remind me of the old saying, “the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry”–  words penned in 1785 by Scottish poet Robert Burns in a poem…

…about a mouse that builds a nest in its hopes for the future only to be met with disaster, and having all its plans amount to nothing due to extenuating circumstances…[2] 

…an idea which certainly seems to apply in this case. Given Pharaoh’s position and power, it’s surprising that what must have seemed like a simple and foolproof plan to get rid of the Israelites in the beginning, was afterward thwarted at every turn by a group of relatively insignificant and powerless people.

As for the women in our story, they appear to have learned from firsthand experience the truth that…

Do they not go astray who devise evil? But mercy and truth belong to those who devise good. (Proverbs 14:22)

However, the Egyptians could have saved themselves a lot of grief if only they had known about God’s promise to Abraham that…

…I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed… (Genesis 12:3)

…and the truth that…

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. (Proverbs 14:12)

 

The Moral and Ethical Issues Raised by this Episode—

When we consider the acts of defiance taken by the Midwives in this episode, we come face to face with what may be one of the first recorded acts of civil disobedience in history. Although this particular phrase wasn’t coined until the mid-1800’s,[3] it describes the actions of resistance taken by people of conscience throughout history when they were confronted by the unjust laws and practices, and the corrupt rulers and governments of their day.

However, the refusal of the Midwives to obey the direct command of Pharaoh, as well as the lies they told him when questioned about it, have given rise to such ethical questions as, “Is disobedience to the law ever right in the sight of God?” and “Are there ever occasions when lying is justified?” From what we are told later by the Apostle Paul in Romans 13:15…

…Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same.  For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake…

…and by the Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 2:13-17…

…Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good.  For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men— as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king…

…the answer to both questions would seem to be a resounding “no.” However, in Acts 4 and 5, when Peter, John, and the other apostles were called before the Jewish religious rulers and commanded to stop preaching the gospel, they responded with…

…Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge… (Acts 4:19)

…We ought to obey God rather than men… (Acts 5:29)

…answers clearly indicating that there are some circumstances in which disobeying the laws of men would actually be a way of obeying the higher laws of God. If so, how would this apply to the Midwives in this story—what higher laws of God would they have been honoring by their disobedience to laws of Pharaoh?

Although the Mosaic Law containing the Ten Commandments had not been given at this point in our story, there was a universal law that had been instituted immediately after the Flood, when God decreed that…

Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God ​​He made man. And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply in it. (Genesis 9:5-7)

If the Midwives had chosen to obey Pharaoh rather than this higher law of God, they would have been cursed. Instead they chose rightly and as a result, they found favor with God and became the beneficiaries of His blessing.

Moses’ Character Closeup

Although we have only just met Moses, we’ve already noticed some things that have set him apart as the leader whom God will eventually use to lead His people from bondage to freedom…

• • He made a remarkable entry into the world and, for all intents and purposes, he was the one Hebrew that Pharaoh was unable to kill;
  • During the first few years spent with his real family, he was able to learn something of his Hebrew heritage and of God’s covenant promises to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob;
  • Born a slave, he miraculously grew up as a prince, a status which provided him with the education he would later use to record the first five books of the Bible;
  • As the son of the princess, he would later be entitled to appear in the court of Pharaoh to present the claims of God; and,
  • In his actions toward the Hebrew slave and toward the daughters of Jethro, he demonstrated a deeply held concern for justice.

What Moses seems to be lacking at this point is humility—something which will certainly be worked into him during his time in the wilderness. He also seems to be unaware that the deliverance of his people is not something that can be accomplished through human effort. That’s because the redemption and deliverance of those in bondage to the world’s system is a spiritual issue and can only be accomplished through the power of God. But that is something that we will learn more about as we go along. So please be sure to check back next time to learn about Moses—A Most Reluctant Deliverer!

 

 

 

 

Featured image by James Tissot, part of the Tissot Collection at the Jewish Museum in New York–courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

[1] Kenneth C. Davis, Don’t Know Much About Mythology (New York: Harper-Collins Publishers, 2006), pp. 61-62.
[2] https://www.thehistoryofenglish.com/the-best-laid-plans-of-mice-and-men.
[3 Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) is credited with creating the term “civil disobedience” when, in his protest against slavery in the United States, he refused to pay his taxes. https://www.humanrightscareers.com/issues/civil-disobedience-101-history-types-examples/