Moses and the Exodus
The boys and I have been studying the Life of Moses at Bible Study Fellowship. I love to talk about what I learn when studying the Bible and since we are somewhat secluded here I thought I would talk with you…
1) Egypt
At the time that Moses was born, Egypt was the greatest nation on Earth.They were the center of knowledge.
Moses didn’t receive just a good education. He would have received the best education available to anyone at that time.
Reading, writing, extensive mathematics, some medicine, military combat, languages and law are just some of the “subjects” he would have learned.
God planned for him to be born in this country and at that time. He would need the reading and writing to record the first five books of the Old Testament. Mathematics would have come in handy in the overseeing of the building of the tabernacle. Military combat would be vital as Israel would end up in multiple wars and need to conquer the nations that inhabited the land God had promised them. Languages would come in handy when needing to communicate with these other nations. His knowledge of law would help when he had to act as judge for the Israelites.
2) Pharaoh fears the Israelites
It is not known for certain who the pharaoh was during the time that Moses was born. We know that this pharaoh enslaved the Israelites, ordered the death of all the baby boys at their birth and when that wasn’t working ordered that all baby boys be thrown into the Nile River and be drowned.
A thought I had never considered that was brought out in our BSF notes: Was this the beginning of anti-semitism?
3) Who’s name would be recorded?
Pharaoh ordered the midwives to the Israelite women to kill all Israeli boys at birth. How could he expect Israelite women to do this. To obey him in the destruction of their own people. Could it be that these women were not Israelites but were Egyptians? It seems reasonable to believe that pharaoh would expect Egyptian women to obey him.
Yet they didn’t. Exodus 1:17 tells us that these women, named Shiphrah and Puah, feared God and didn’t obey pharaoh. As Egyptian women who worked closely with the Israelites they must have learned enough about the one true God to fear Him more than the most powerful man on Earth.
The thing I love about this part of the story is that the Bible records the names of the midwives yet doesn’t tell us the name of the pharaoh who ruled the most powerful nation on earth during this time.
That is it for now. I’ll post more soon.
Hugs,
Karen
Great insight. Just a thought, … that anti-semitism might have started back with Isaac and Ishmael, as these half brothers became two separate nations.
love you
Yes, very possible. I had never considered when anti-semitism began before the notes suggested that. Really, it was probably Satan who started it when he started to target the male offspring of Eve. Who knows, but it is fun to think about.
Love,
Karen