We are still continuing with the
series on Moses' life. We have seen how his mother hid him from the
Egyptian warriors and how she put him in a basket on the Nile by
faith. His sister followed the basket, and when she saw that one of
Pharaoh's daughters found him, she offered that his mother nursed
him until he was old enough to return to the palace. The princess
agreed and so Moses stayed with his mother until he was old enough
to go to the palace and become a prince himself. What an amazing
turn of events. Here he was, a boy born of a slave, destined to be
killed after his birth, and now he was going to live in the palace,
as a prince of Egypt, one of the mightiest nations of the ancient
world. He was made for life!
Now the Bible doesn't elaborate on
his life as he grew up. We can only speculate. I have watched a lot
of animations about Moses' life and in it they depict Moses' life
as one of utter luxury. He was waited upon, he attended the best
schools the earth had to offer at that stage and he had every whim
of his satisfied. He had everything any human being could wish
for.
Now the next thing the Bible says
about him is:
"Many years later, when Moses had
grown up, he went out to visit his people, the Israelites, and he
saw how hard they were forced to work." Exodus 2:11
Now how Moses knew the Israelites
were 'his people' we don't know. He went to live in the palace
after he was weaned, which could be anything between 1 and 3 years
old. So he could have vaguely remembered living amongst the
Israelites. But more likely someone might have told him. Maybe his
Egyptian mother, or maybe he had heard rumors going round that he
was not truly an Egyptian. Maybe he looked a bit different from the
other Egyptians, we will never know. But I can just imagine the
shock when he found out that his Egyptian parents weren't truly his
parents and his brothers not truly his brothers. It must have hurt.
He must have felt like an illegitimate child, as if he didn't
belong anywhere. He wasn't a true Egyptian, and he wasn't a true
Hebrew either as he knew nothing of their ways. He was merely
taught from childhood to despise the 'slaves' and to simply use
them to build their empire. He must have had true turmoil
inside.
Now if we look at his life we can
perfectly see that he had to grow up in the palace to understand
the ways of the Egyptians. He was the perfect one to free them as
he knew how the minds of the Egyptians worked. Plus as an Egyptian
he learned how to read and write, which the Hebrews didn't. He was
thus the perfect one to receive the 10 commandments from God later
on and the perfect one to write down the Law and ultimately the
first 5 books of the Bible. He was simply bred and handpicked for
the task. But he didn't know it then.
We also don't understand some
things that come on our path. Why did we have to work at a certain
place? Or why did we have to study that? Or why did certain people
cross our paths? Or why can't we have children? The list can go on
and on. But when we look back on our lives we will see the pieces
fit together and work to our good. Even the things we did without
consulting God first, can work to our good if we entrust Him with
our lives. God is good and will use things along the way to prepare
you for your task ahead. Just trust in Him and also do your part by
listening to Him and being obedient to His Voice!
Lord, thank you that You have a
wonderful plan for our lives. We might not understand everything
that is happening to us, but You do. May it all, whether good or
bad, work to the good of us that are called according to Your
purposes. In Jesus' Name. Amen