Exodus: The Untold Story of Moses

 

God said to Moses, “I AM that I AM.” And he said, “You must say this to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”  Exodus 3:14

 I’ve mentioned before how in scripture we only get snapshots of the timeline of history. Years, even decades, can take place in between verses and we don’t know all that took place in them. Sometimes we are given clues though, and from what we are told about Moses’ life, we can infer a lot…

 You can read the incredible story of Moses’ birth and adoption into Pharoah’s family by his daughter in the first part of Exodus Chapter 2. That part is known, but what we don’t read about is what that was like. What privileges did Moses receive being raised in Pharoah’s household? It is clear that he knew he was adopted and who his people were because in Exodus 2:11 we read about Moses going out to see “his own people.”  Odds are this wasn’t a perfect, idyllic childhood because of this. He likely faced prejudice and racism in his own family and from the servants as he was growing up. Perhaps these experiences were behind his extreme reaction in verse 12 when he kills the Egyptian mistreating one of his people. The wording of this verse shows intention, he looked around to make sure he could get away with what he was about to do before he did it. In fact, he thought he’d gotten away with it until he was confronted the next day by an Israelite, one of his own people whom he thought he was defending, who put him in his place and called out what he had done. Who knows how the Israelite, or later Pharoah, came to know about Moses’ sin, but once the cat was out of the bag Moses had to get out of Egypt! Looking back at this, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if God orchestrated the awareness of Moses murdering the Egyptian to move him away from where he was and into his next phase of life.  Much later, in Acts 7:23, we find out that Moses was 40 when this happened. Yes, people lived longer back in that time, but it was time for him to move on out of Pharoah’s household and into a place that God could grow him in new ways.

 In the second phase of Moses’ life, from about 40 to 80, he lived in the land of Midian with the family of Jethro, the high priest. There’s a lot of confusion and intrigue surrounding Jethro and he’s actually become a major figure in other religions, both Islam and Druze. Because we know God’s nature and His promises, we can know that God placed Moses in exactly the family he needed to be in to prepare him for the huge undertaking in his future. Rabbinic literature tells stories of Jethro saying that he was excommunicated from Midian because he saw worshipping idols as foolishness and that’s why his daughters had to shepherd their flocks. Some academics believe that as a descendant of Abraham through his second wife, Keturah, Jethro was perhaps a priest of the One True God. Only God knows the truth about all that, but we do see Moses spending his next 40 years living in Midian watching over his father-in-law’s sheep. That’s a big step down for someone who was raised in Pharoah’s household, especially because Egyptians saw shepherds as being the lowest of the low. You can see his sense of ostracism in how he named his first son Gershom which sounded like the Hebrew word meaning “a foreigner there.” Most likely he struggled to fit into his new family as much as he had his old one.

 The last third of Moses’ life is much more documented. God used him to set His people free from slavery in Egypt and then watch over them as they wandered in the wilderness. Sometimes, like when he had the faith to stretch out his hand over the Red Sea and ask God to fulfill His promise and make a way for His people to escape Pharoah, simultaneously decimating Pharoah’s army, Moses did well, but he wasn’t perfect. In the Desert of Zin (sounds a little like sin, doesn’t it?) Moses stepped outside of God’s clear direction, taking the credit for God’s miracle. His discipline was rough, he didn’t get to enter the Promised Land that he’d been leading the people to for 40 years. But the Bible doesn’t say anything about Moses throwing a fit about it. In fact, it doesn’t seem to have impacted his relationship with God negatively. At the end of Moses’ life, God took him up to Mount Nebo where He showed Moses the promised land he wouldn’t get to enter and Moses died there in peace, buried by God Himself. He gave Moses what he needed to become the man he needed to be. God spoke directly to Moses. He brought advisors, like Jethro, and helpers, like Joshua, into his life. Moses lived for 120 full and vibrant years. At the end he had the strength to climb up Mount Nebo alone. What a life he lived!

Here's the Thing: For two-thirds of Moses’ life, he presumably didn’t know God at all, but God knew him. Even though Moses wasn’t in a relationship with God, God still brought people and circumstances in his life to mold and shape him into the man he would need to be in the last third. It’s not up to us. We don’t have to figure it out or make it work. It’s up to God, and we can trust that He will do whatever is needed to put things together perfectly.