February 01, 2025
Last week we concluded Genesis with Joseph’s death at 110. By that time his family had been living in Egypt for 70 years.
Much like Genesis, there are things in Exodus that God has chosen to leave out – things not important to the story he is trying to tell.
In the first 2 chapters of Exodus time is compressed – they cover a span of time from the death of Joseph to the time of Moses’ call in Midian. They are heavy on information, but light on the details.
An important detail is that when Jacob and his family came to Egypt there were just 70 direct descendants of Abraham.
Eventually, Joseph and his generation died but the family continued to grow and multiply and fill the land.
“Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt.”
It is highly unlikely that this new Pharaoh didn’t know who Joseph was. It is more likely that he desired to minimize what Joseph had done because Joseph was a foreigner and may have served during the time of the Hyksos rulers (who were also foreign). To this new king, Joseph’s work on behalf of Egypt meant nothing.
The one thing that the new Pharoah did take notice of was the situation in Goshen and he was nervous.
His concern? There were a lot of Israelites and if a foreign power ever attacked Egypt, they might join with the enemy against Egypt.
It was extremely important to the Egyptians that Ma’at be maintained:
• Ma’at was the Ancient Egyptian concept of truth, justice and cosmic order – all things being in their correct place. Ma’at was represented by a goddess with an ostrich feather on her head.
• Ma’at was charged with regulating the stars, seasons, and actions of both mortals and deities. At the moment of creation, Ma’at had set the universe in order and the Egyptians believed that she maintained balance and harmony in the universe and prevented it from returning to chaos.
Anything outside the borders of Egypt was chaos - the land of Seth:
• Seth (Set) was a god of war, chaos and storms. He was associated with the desert, foreign lands, eclipses and earthquakes. His glyph appears in the Egyptian words for "turmoil", "confusion", "illness", "storm" and "rage". He was a powerful and frightening deity.
It was the responsibility of Pharaoh to maintain Ma’at – one way to do that was by keeping foreign people OUT of Egypt. Foreigners were viewed with suspicion because they might disrupt the order of things and reintroduce chaos, so you can understand Pharaoh’s concern regarding another group of people who came from the land of Seth and who outnumber the Egyptians. It would be important to keep that group of people under control.
His solution? Enslavement and forced labor.
I want to remind you of the Villain. A this point in history his primary goal is to make sure the “bruise his heel and crush your head” prophecy in Eden never transpires.
The only way that happens is if he can disrupt or destroy the family through whom the prophecy would be fulfilled.
He would use Egypt’s belief system to create fear, which would eventually lead to oppression and enslavement.
Never, ever forget the Villain!!
Pharaoh’s plan backfired. The more Israel was oppressed the more they multiplied, so the Egyptians worked them harder and made their lives bitter AND YET they continued to grow, so the king came up with a different plan: kill all the male babies at birth.
Why not all the children? In that time and culture, nationality was determined by the father, so if the father was Egyptian the children would be considered Egyptian regardless of the nationality of the mother. With all subsequent generations of male Israelites dead, their destruction as a distinct group of people would be ensured.
To implement his plan, Pharaoh enlisted the help of the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah.
The midwives defied Pharaoh’s orders and when called before him to explain why the baby boys were not being killed, they responded: “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”
The Children of Israel increased and became even more numerous….. So, despite the Villain’s best efforts, God was with his people – turning evil to good and making 12 small tribes into a great people.
Pharaoh changed tactics again. He gave orders to all Egyptians, “Every boy that is born, you will throw into the Nile, but you will let the girls live.”
Enter a man from the house of Levi.
This man and his wife had a baby boy. He was a beautiful child and his mama chose to hide him rather than risk him being killed. After 3 months she could no longer hide him, so she constructed a basket from Nile reeds, coated it with tar and pitch, placed the baby inside and set it adrift on the river.
Hebrews 11:23 – By faith Moses' parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king's edict.
His sister kept watch to see what would happen to the basket.
Pharaoh’s daughter found the basket and opened it. The baby was crying and she felt sorry for him - she noted that he was Hebrew.
His sister boldly approached the princess and asked if she should go get one of the Hebrew women to nurse him.
Pharaoh’s daughter thought that was a good idea, so the girl ran home and brought her own mother back with her.
Exodus 2:9-10 – Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you." So the woman took the baby and nursed him. When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, "I drew him out of the water."
Here we see Moses combining the Egyptian form of his name, which means “son of” or “the one born of,” which was used heavily in the 1st part of the 18th Dynasty:
• Kamose (son of Ka)
• Ahmose (son of Akh)
• Thutmose (son of Thoth)
With the Hebrew “Mosheh” which means “to draw out.”
Exodus doesn’t tell us how many years go by, just that, “One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor…..”
We have to go to the book of Acts to get more specifics:
Acts 7:22-23 – Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action. "When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites….”
Returning to Exodus:
Exodus 2:11-15 - …. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
This was a turning point in Moses’ life. He had chosen to identify himself with The Children of Israel and he was certain they would appreciate his actions and rally around him and declare him their leader - they did not…
The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, "Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?" The man said, "Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid and thought, "What I did must have become known." When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well.
• Ellen White (PP 247.3) – In slaying the Egyptian, Moses had fallen into the same error so often committed by his fathers, of taking into their own hands the work that God had promised to do. It was not God's will to deliver His people by warfare, as Moses thought, but by His own mighty power, that the glory might be ascribed to Him alone. Yet even this rash act was overruled by God to accomplish His purposes. Moses was not prepared for his great work. He had yet to learn the same lesson of faith that Abraham and Jacob had been taught--not to rely upon human strength or wisdom, but upon the power of God for the fulfillment of His promises. And there were other lessons that, amid the solitude of the mountains, Moses was to receive. In the school of self-denial and hardship he was to learn patience, to temper his passions. Before he could govern wisely, he must be trained to obey. His own heart must be fully in harmony with God before he could teach the knowledge of His will to Israel. By his own experience he must be prepared to exercise a fatherly care over all who needed his help.
According to Acts 7:30a, 40 years went by. In that time, Moses married Zipporah, became a shepherd and welcomed his 1st child – Gershom – in other words, life fell into a routine and Moses adjusted to his new life.
Meanwhile, in Egypt,
Exodus 2:23-25 – During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So, God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.
In the Bible, whenever God “remembers” there is always an accompanying action. It is not that he is forgetful, but that the time has come for him to fulfill his promises and act on behalf of his people.
Moses was now 80 years old and the time had come for the Children of Israel to return home – not through Moses’ might and power, but through Gods.
Until Next Time…………..
