Although Moses’ critics come and go, he still stands out as the foremost man of the pre-christian era. Even to the worldly eye this must be so, for he took a race of slaves and, under inconceivably trying conditions, moulded them into a powerful nation, a nation which has altered the whole course of history. As one writer puts it : “From between the paws of the rock hewn Sphinx rises the genius of human liberty ; and the trumpets of the Exodus throb with the defiant proclamation of the rights of man”.
Yes with Moses came a point of climax in the progress of mankind. But this climax was not only political, for in the code given to the Israelites by God, through Moses, was “a sense of individual morality and social justice ; a feeling of consideration of the rights and privileges of others” which was foreign to the age. In it was expressed a
“standard of goodness beyond the general outlook of the time” and it instilled a feeling that each person had an intrinsic value which made him equal to his neighbour, not to be looked down on, or despised, or bound to poverty. From these ideals, as re-expressedand developed by Christian teachers, have come many of the humanising influences in our modern world.
Who was this Moses, in whose hands the nation was reformed ? When did he live ? What type of person was this who received God’s laws? Who were his contemporaries?
Israel’s Servitude
The captivity of Israel is not a myth. That such a nation was enslaved in Egypt is well evidenced in wall paintings discovered in ancient buildings in the land. One shows people of similar features to the Israelites working under taskmasters, making and laying mud-bricks. It is interesting to note the figure of an overseer in one corner with a stick in his hand and, carved in hieroglyphics above him, the sentences, “The rod is in my hand. Be not idle”.
“And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour : and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage in morter and in brick . . .” is the record in Ex. 1. 13, 14.
The period of the paintings and inscriptions would be somewhere between 1,400 B.C. and 1,250 B.C., so that the period of the Israelites in Egypt could include the reign of the famous Queen Hatshepsut and Pharaoh Tutankhamen—more of archeological than political importance. It would seem, also, that the pharaoh at the beginning, or at least during the Oppression, would be Seti, who recovered Palestine, and began the building of the Great Karnak Hall and the treasure city of Raamese. This would mean that the pharaoh of the Exodus was Raameses II (1,301-1,234 B.C.) . He expanded the empire and was a great builder (and plagiarist it seems, placing his name on renovated buildings as well as those constructed during his reign), who finished the treasure city of Raameses and built the city of Pithomi.1
It is into this resurgent Egypt that Moses is born. He comes to a nation which is re-gaining some of its lost glory, not to a nation whose power is gone. Moses saw at first hand the glory and wealth of temporal power—saw rulers who, “taking, like genius, their prerogative of blood, mind, treasure, would say, Tomorrow I shall be gone ; if you lack slaves, make war! The measure of things is man, and I of men. By this you live.”
The name Moses was not unusual for the time, meaning “boy” or “child” in Egyptian, but having the strikingly different “drawn out” in Hebrew2. It would be ironical if the daughter of the pharaoh who had said, “Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river . . .” were to draw out Moses and raise him to lead her father’s slaves to freedom !
Being raised as the son of pharaoh’s daughter, he would have had opportunity for an above average education and access to important civil or military power when he matured. Indeed Josephus suggests that he commanded the Egyptian southern army! His playmates and later associates were princes of the palace, and through this contact would be developed the confidence and consciousness of power which seems to be implied when he slew the overseer, and which expected that the people would know that he was to lead them out of captivity. Though he failed at this stage, we need to realise that Moses had been instructed, (by whom or how, we can only guess), in God”s promises and belief in the passing of the slavery of the Israelites.
The Choice Of Faith
So Moses failed and fled into Midian, but in so doing he was only reaping consequences of which he must have known before he acted. Moses knew what the reaction of the pharaoh and his counsellors to his act would be. There is here evidence of deliberate choice. Did he hope for power, fame or leadership ? These were more easily available in Egypt as an Egyptian, but “he refused to be called the son of pharaoh’s daughter”.
In Egypt would have been wealth, power, honour and pleasure, but the Bible record says, “He chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.” Moses’ choice, the choice of faith, was based upon an accurate evaluation of the worth of things present and those of promise. He knew that the heirs of the world were to be in Abraham, and not in Egypt ; he saw that the life of material possession was but a short one, while God’s promises were eternal ; and so he made the choice of faith.
This was a faith which displayed a complete trust or reliance on God ; a faith in things unseen, instead of in the visible glory of Egypt. Here was a man who was willing to “give and hazard all he hath” for the glory and honour of God.
He spent 40 years in Midian, developing qualities complementary to those formed in Egypt and at the same time gaining a knowledge of an area in which the Israelites were later to wander. Now came the time, in God’s purpose, for him to return : and he received the revelation at the burning bush, together with God’s commission to return.
Imagine the strength and reliance which Moses must have placed on God as, with Aaron, he returned to Egypt—to a land from which he had fled in fear of his life and to a people who had refused to accept him, even when he was a man of authority. How would you or I feel in similar circumstances : fearful, doubtful, dubious about the result ? Not so Moses : his faith stood firm and he returned to confront pharaoh and bring the plagues upon Egypt.
The response of Pharaoh to the first plague, and those immediately following, was one of arrogance : not only were the Israelites to remain, but they must now gather their own straw for brickmaking. The diggings at Pithom by Naville in 1883 and Kyle in 1908 bear mute witness to this event, as the lower courses of the buildings were made from bricks containing chopped straw, the higher courses contained stubble and roots, and the highest courses of bricks were pure clay.
But, despite the ill feeling from his brethren because of their increased labour, “he (Moses) endured as seeing this invisible king”, and slowly the tide turned in his favour3, until the final plague came.
The record in Ex. 12. 12,13 indicates the command to Israel. Here was a call to faith ; not only must they believe that God could perform this miracle, but also that the sprinkling of a few drops of animal blood would prevail against the angel of death. But faith was vindicated and the people were set free, to be led by Moses from the land of captivity.
So the people proceeded to the sea, to an apparently hopeless trap between the water and the Egyptian army. What might our thoughts have been in this situation: regret at leaving Egypt, anger that Moses had brought us to this?
On Moses rested all the visible responsibility for the safety of the people—their lives and possessions were in his hands. But his faith in God was amply repaid and they went forward in safety, with the waters a wall to them on either side. Truly, it was a remarkable and awe inspiring spectacle as the first stage of the exodus was completed.
On looking back over these events, we might contemplate the importance of the plagues and some of their related significance.
Yahweh’s Superiority
Examining Ex. 12. 12, we see that the plagues of Egypt were also directed against the gods of Egypt and were designed to show the superiority of Yahweh over their multiplicity of idols. Over and over again we are left with the impression that by these miracles both the Israelites and the Egyptians would be forced to admit, ‘Yahweh is God”. When we realise that the surrounding peoples had gods in the forms of bulls, rams, cows, vultures, goats, frogs, apes, serpents, cats, we are able to see that a great spiritual truth is being emphasised. Even the river Nile was deified, yet by the power of Israel’s God it was made to stink.
In this very act is emphasised the complementary idea of faith—faith in the sense of belief in religious doctrines, a spiritual apprehension of divine truth apart from demonstrable proof. Throughout these plagues is indicated the root of our present faith, for Moses, brought up in a land with a host of deities, proclaims one God alone : ‘I am the Lord, thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Moses is expressing an idea of God, without magic or idolatry to taint its figure, and is showing that this present life is to be lived in obedience to God, for its own sake, and not merely as a materialistic preparation for living as oneself in a land beyond the grave.
This, too, became the dominant feature in Jesus’ faith. “Hear, O Israel ; The Lord our God is one Lord” are his words in Mark 12. 29. But we wonder if the religions of to-day have lost this pure, simple faith, for the implication that no other object or symbol is to be worshipped, only God alone, seems to have been disregarded, or re-interpreted into man-made concepts.
It is evident, too, that Moses in his belief and reliance on God saw another Great Prophet to come4—other than his successor, Joshua. In Acts chapters 3 and 7, both Peter and Stephen make it clear that this prophet was the Lord Jesus Christ, indicating that Moses looked forward to Jesus as the Great Saviour of Israel (through God). The New Testament gives abundant evidence that this salvation was extended by Jesus to all who would come to Him.
Strength For Today
Yes, Moses’ faith comes through to us and is not left back there 3,000 years’ ago ; even the spirit of his faith or reliance on the sprinkling of the passover blood comes to us, “For even Christ our Passover is slain for us”5, and the record in John 1. 29 speaks of the “Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.”
But, just as it needed evidence of the faith of Moses and the Israelites in their actions and lives, so we need to indicate our acceptance of God by our willingness to obey Him and to follow the example of his son in our pattern of living. Moses’ way was not easy, nor will ours be, for our day-to-day actions require just as deliberate a choice as did those of the ancient Israelites.
The question we might ask ourselves could be phrased in Blake’s challenging words, “What the hand dare seize the fire? —a fire to forge a future for ourselves and others.
Moses had refused honour and authority ; he had esteemed reproach for Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt ; he had gone out from Israel’s house of bondage and had, at God’s command, instituted the typical blood of sprinkling in the passover. These events have more than passing value, for the teachings of Jesus are expressed against this background. Against a background of Moses’ implicit trust and belief in One God, coupled with a vision of the Great Prophet to come, Jesus speaks of his own suffering and death.
These same ideals and hopes come through to us, for their voices unite in proclaiming the oneness of God and our responsibility to him and to our fellow men and women. Let us answer the challenge, “What the hand dare seize the fire ?” with the word, “Mine”!, and live to him in whom our lives are hid with Christ.
References
1-Ex. 1. 11
2-Ex. 2. 10
3-Ex. 11. 3
4—Deut. 18. 15 ; 34. 10
5—I Cor. 5. 7
Daniel The Prophet – (Part 3)