“And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.” Thus his name, Moses, spoke of the power of Him who in His sovereign love and grace had saved him from death, had drawn him out of the waters of judgment and had chosen him to be the deliverer of His people — type of an infinitely greater One. And so it must be with all whom the Lord would use in His service. Each must experience in his soul the power of the truth of being dead and risen with Christ.
Moses was now grown and the time had come when the happy days in the home of his family were ended. Pharaoh’s daughter was ready to receive into the royal palace him who as a little child had been nursed by his mother. Faith in God had marked Amram and Jochebed from the beginning, and while no doubt parting with their little son was a tearful experience, they could commit to the mercies of God the son whom they had observed to be an “exceeding fair and proper child.”
Little is told us concerning Moses during the years that followed. Perhaps he was in touch with his family, for many years afterward he was reunited with Aaron his brother in a touching and affectionate manner, and Miriam, the sister, too was to be with her brothers for many years. It is evident that, during these many years in the palace, Moses was aware of his relationship with the persecuted people of Israel, and if not physically with them, he sympathized with them in their sorrows and slavery under the Egyptians.
The life of Moses was divided into three forty-year periods. The first of these was spent amid the luxury and benefits of the palace of Pharaoh. During this time he benefitted by the teaching of the finest tutors of the land, became “learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,” and was “mighty in words and in deeds.” Acts 7:2222And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds. (Acts 7:22). In such a favorable atmosphere he remained until he was “full forty years old,” a man of favor, skill and privilege—a prince in the greatest nation of its day!
But God had not set Moses apart from his brethren without His own divine purposes. Moses was not to abide indefinitely in the comforts and security of the royal home. Looking upon the pitiful plight of his own people he was truly exercised about them, and the conviction came into his heart that his proper place was with them—not with the rulers of an idolatrous land. It was at this point in life that he “refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.” Perhaps at first this was an inner determination only and not made known to those around him. Nonetheless it was very genuine—the result of God’s exercising his heart and conscience. In Pharaoh’s court he had the finest opportunities for easing the lot of the Israelites, and it might be for the accomplishing of that which was so dear to his heart, their deliverance from slavery. This he entirely declines. God was working for a deliverance according to His own heart, in a manner which would bring Him glory, and this in a measure Moses understood through faith.
ML 05/19/1968