The story of Moses leading the children of Israel through the dessert to the Promised Land is a familiar one to Christians, but as I was reading in the book of Exodus recently I was thinking about how many details in the beginning of Moses' life I often read over without thinking too much about because they are familiar.
We know that Moses' parents feared the Lord (Hebrews 11:23) and that they taught their children to do likewise.
In verses five and seven of chapter two we see that Moses' sister was obedient and watchful. She protected Moses by thinking and acting quickly and offering to help Pharaoh's daughter find a nurse, knowing her mother would gladly be the nurse for her own son and would be able to give Moses a good foundation in the first few, but very important and teachable, years of his life. Many children raised in good Christian homes have gotten saved at a very young age because their parents were faithful and careful to start teaching them at a very young age--some even before the child was born. Children learn far faster and at younger age than people like to admit. I've seen a video of a two year old quoting the 23rd Psalm. Start early and be consistent. (No charge for the extra "rant")😃
In verse six we are told that Pharaoh's daughter wanted Moses as her own child even though he was a Hebrew child--and her dad had decreed that all male Hebrew babies were to be killed. God miraculously spared Moses' life.
Though the position of Pharaoh's daughter's son had given Moses the
opportunity to be highly educated we read in Hebrews 11:24-26 that
Moses, "When he was come to years, refused to be called the son of
Pharaoh's daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people
of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the
reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he
had respect unto the recompense of the reward.
As we read on, reading Acts 7:19-44 at the same time, we learn that Moses was a well educated man that was "mighty in words and deeds," that he was a "full forty" years old when "it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel, that he apparently already knew that God was going to use him to deliver the children of Israel and supposed they knew too, but "they understood not," and when things didn't go as he expected and his people rejected him, he fled.
(Clarke says on verse 13 of Exodus chapter two, "Two men of the Hebrews strove together - How strange that in the very place where they were suffering a heavy persecution because they were Hebrews, the very persons themselves who suffered it should be found persecuting each other! It has been often seen that in those times in which the ungodly oppressed the Church of Christ, its own members have been separated from each other by disputes concerning comparatively unessential points of doctrine and discipline, in consequence of which both they and the truth have become an easy prey to those whose desire was to waste the heritage of the Lord.")
Forty years later Moses sees the burning bush and talks with the angel of LORD who tells him that he (Moses) is to deliver the children of Israel, to which Moses replies, "Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?" God's response takes the focus off of Moses and puts it back on obedience to God who sent him. "Certainly I will be with thee." God then promises Moses that, "When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain," and God never breaks a promise.
When Moses asks God what name he should give the children of Israel for God, He gives Moses a name heretofore not known, but definitely one that the Jews would recognize later. (See John 8:58) He also gives Moses a name for Himself that even the heathen knew--Jehovah Elohim--LORD God: The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Exodus 3:15 And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.
Of course the story goes beyond this, but this is where I'll end for now with just a few concluding thoughts. In Moses we see a type of Christ: He was chosen by God to deliver His people (when both Moses and Christ were born the leaders of the countries they were born in were having the male babies killed), he was rejected by his own people, went to the Gentiles, married a Gentile bride, came back to his own people and was accepted this time, delivered his people from slavery, was a mediator between God and the people, and led his people to the Promised Land.
(Moses also told the Israelites, "A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; Him shall ye hear." Acts 7:37)
When we read or think about Moses (and many other Bible characters) it seems that their lives were filled with many big decisions--and some of them were--but it's the little decisions that we make every day that shape and determine who we really are. You don't get to the "big" decisions without first making the "little" ones.
"He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much." Luke 16:10
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