The Parentage of Moses

I really like Paul’s description of the faith of Moses in Hebrews 11.  He said, “By faith 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….  By faith he forsook Egypt” (Hebrews 11:24-27).  It’s easy to forget that Moses grew up in Pharoah’s court and could have had the prestige and wealth of a prince.  After Moses was found by Pharoah’s daughter and then nurtured by his own mother, we read that “the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharoah’s daughter, and he became her son” (Exodus 2:10).  He must have had the privileges of a child of Pharoah, and yet he chose to “suffer affliction” with those who were his real people. 

                The language in Paul’s account reminds me of the story we have in Moses 1 with his encounter with the adversary.  I have to wonder if as Moses grew up he didn’t struggle concerning his own identity.  Was he a Hebrew or was he an Egyptian?  Who were his real family?  Whose son was he?  We don’t know exactly what knowledge he had of his true parents, but Paul certainly seems to suggest that at least at some point in his youth he understood that those who had raised him were not really his people and that he was out of place among them.  So perhaps Satan was seeking to emphasize the uncertainty of Moses’ identity as he came saying, “Moses, thou son of man, worship me” (Moses 1:12).  Satan was of course trying to tell Moses that he was not a son of God by using the phrase “son of man”, and I think at the heart of it he was trying to stir up old uncertainty that Moses must have had during his childhood about his identity.  But Moses had paid the price to understand who he really was for he had been willing to “esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt.” 

                Moses won both battles about his identity.  He was able by faith to forsake Egypt and defend the people of his earthy parentage against Pharoah, and he stood grounded in the knowledge of his divine parentage when the devil came to convince him otherwise.  Each of us has to decide whether we will see ourselves as a child of God or whether we will succumb to the world’s view of a godless earth under which we might “enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.”  By faith we too much forsake Egypt and the world and claim our blessings as children of God.