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RUSSELL SANDERS
1-31-2022
THE LIFE OF MOSES – LESSON 1
Moses was born in Egypt of the tribe of Levi, the tribe which God later sanctified unto Himself as the priestly tribe. At the time of his birth, somewhere between 1700 to 1800 B.C., the Israelites had been in Egypt about 350 years, of which 320 years of it were as slaves. They had been a free people for the 30 years of Joseph’s life.
During this time, their population had grown from the original seventy persons to around two million. Such a large population of slaves became a major concern for the king, Pharaoh. Consequently, he ordered the Hebrew midwives to kill every newborn son. The midwives did not comply, so he ordered all Egyptians that discovered a newborn Hebrew baby boy to cast him into the river. It is possible that this order could be seen as a human sacrifice to the Nile River, because the Nile was actually considered to be one of the Egyptian’s gods. Also, the crocodiles in the river were also considered to be a god named Set (Satan).
Upon Moses’ birth, his mother hid him for three months until she no longer could hide him. She had a plan (or God had a plan). She made him an ark, which was a covered basket made from the bulrushes of the river. She used tar (pitch) to seal it against leakage. It was placed among the bulrushes at the river’s edge. Moses’ sister Miriam stood watch from a distance to see what might happen.
A daughter of Pharaoh came to the river to bathe. Her maidens accompanied her. One of her maids discovered the basket with a crying baby in it. As the princess received the ark, she was moved with compassion for this baby boy of three months old. This story is told in Exodus 2:1-10.
Miriam hastened to the princess and offered to find a Hebrew nursemaid for the baby. The princess agreed and offered to pay for a nursemaid, after which she would adopt him as her son. This is how Moses was raised by his own Hebrew mother until he was weaned, then he was delivered to the princess to be raised in Pharaoh’s court as a prince of Egypt.
As a prince, although by adoption, he received the finest of Egyptian education. Being raised in that culture, he also would have become familiar with many of the pagan Egyptian gods. This knowledge would serve him well in the destiny that would lie ahead of him. Nevertheless, he never forgot that he was a Hebrew. God had a plan for him that he did not yet know.
God has a planned destiny for each of us, regardless of whether or not we know of it. The ultimate destiny is that we will serve as kings and priests (priestly kings) in the future world to come. It is the destiny of those who are faithful.
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