MOSES (Life)

(Heb. “Mõsheh”, “from”, but the Egyptian root is “ms’”: “son, child”). Pharaoh’s daughter gave the name “son” to the one she had taken out of the waters (the same name is called in Tutmose, Ahmose: son of Tut, of Ah, etc.).

The great leader and legislator of the Hebrews; Levite, of the family of Kohath, of the house of Amram (Ex. 6:18, 20). His mother was named Jochebed (Ex. 6:20).

The edict ordering newborn Hebrew male children to be thrown into the waters of the Nile endangered Moses’ life. His mother hid him for three months in his house; he was beautiful in appearance (Acts 7:20).

Unable to hide him any longer, she put him in an ark made of reeds, sealing it with asphalt and tar, and placed it among the reeds in the river. Her mother ordered her daughter María de ella, then a teenager, to watch the casket.

Pharaoh’s daughter came down, along with her entourage, to bathe. According to Josephus she was called Thermutis (Ant. 2:9, 5). Courville indicates an identification already noted long ago. There is a legend stating that Moses’ adoptive father was called Chenefres.

Professor Wiedemann noted the similarity of Sebek-hotep III’s name, Kha-nefer-re, to Chenefres, a king whose wife Merrhis, according to legend, raised Moses. Another name of Chenefres’ wife was Sebeknefrure.

This possible identification was ruled out, however, because according to the conventional chronology of Egypt it was outside the possible historical framework of Moses. However, in the revised chronology it is found in the same historical framework.

Courville also gives good reasons for the possible identification of Moses, within the framework of the revised chronology, with Amenemhet IV, who was co-regent for nine years, as prince of the Twelfth Dynasty.

Courville also points out the curious fact that all the tombs of all the kings of this dynasty have been discovered, with the exception of that of Amenemhet IV.

This puts Paul’s words in Hebrews in a new light: “By faith Moses, when he was grown, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the temporary pleasures of sin.” » (Heb. 11:24, 25). (See also EGYPT, EXODUS; cf. D. E. Courville in Bibliography).

When the Egyptian princess saw the casket, she had it opened, and, recognizing that the crying child was a Hebrew, she took pity on him.

Then Mary, with admirable presence of mind, asked the princess if she would give her permission to get a wet nurse for the child, to which the princess agreed.

In this way, Moses received his first training at the hands of his own mother under the protection of Pharaoh’s daughter.

When he was weaned (at the age that can be assumed to be three years, cf. 1 Sam. 1:24), he took him to the princess, who adopted him, and named him Moses, a name that would at the same time remind him that He had taken him out of the water and adopted him as his son (Ex. 2:110).

Moses received an aristocratic education, and was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians (Acts 7:22), the most civilized nation of that time.

That child was destined for high functions in Egypt, and was in line for the throne, because Pharaoh’s daughter had to marry her brother, her male heir to the throne, so her son was her son. once heir to the throne.

But God was preparing him to be leader of the Hebrew people. Moses, extremely gifted, received the necessary instruction for the great task that awaited him.

The discoveries of the pyramids and other various monuments have shown how widespread writing was at that time, just as the cuneiform tablets of Egla show the ancient use of syllabic writing throughout much of the Middle East (see MARDIKH [TELL]). .

There is no doubt that the young prince learned to write Egyptian hieroglyphs, Akkadian cuneiform, and an already alphabetical script such as that of Ugarit, which was almost identical to that of Hebrew.

Moses became familiar with the Egyptian court, with its great characters, with the pomp of religious celebrations, with the sumptuous display of rites and symbols, with the literary and artistic current of his time, and with the administration of justice. .

However, Moses never forgot his origin, and believed in the promises made to his people. By the end of his stay in Egypt, he had already understood that God was calling him to be the judge and liberator of the Israelites.

Seeing an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, he killed the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand. The next day, seeing two Israelites quarreling, he wanted to reconcile them.

One of them addressed him these words: «Who has made you prince and judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” (Ex. 2:14). Knowing then that his action had been observed and that the fact was known, and that Pharaoh sought to kill him, Moses fled to the country of Midian.

Thus he renounced the title of son of Pharaoh’s daughter, and clearly associated himself with the people of God. He was then 40 years old (Ex. 2:11-15; Acts 7:23-28; Heb. 11:24, 25).

Arriving in Midian, Moses helped the daughters of the priest Jethro water their flocks. Jethro offered him hospitality, gave him work and gave him Zipporah, one of his daughters, as a wife, with whom Moses had 2 sons: Gershom and Eliezer (Ex. 2:22; 18: 3, 4).

He lived for 40 years in Midian (Acts 7:30), participating in the life of a people who descended from Abraham and who possibly worshiped the same God as him (cf. Ex. 18: 10-12).

This new period of preparation put Moses in close contact with Jethro, head of a tribe of Midianites, a priest gifted with much discernment (Ex. 18). During this period, Moses’ religious thought matured.

On the other hand, he became familiar with the roads of the desert, with its resources, with its climate and with the life of its inhabitants. The solemn grandeur of the desert spaces and the profound solitude of it favored meditation.

Towards the end of this period, the future leader of Israel saw an astonishing phenomenon: a burning bush, but it was not consumed. The moment he turned out of the way to observe this, he heard the divine call.

The Lord rejected Moses’ objections concerning: (a) his own person (Ex. 3:11); (b) to his inability to reveal to the people the name and character of the God who wanted to free them (Ex. 3:13);

(c) his lack of authority before the people (Ex. 4:1); (d) his poor eloquence (Ex. 4:10); (e) finally, the express rejection of him from him (Ex. 4:13). In the face of Jehovah’s wrath, Moses finally had to obey, and the Lord assigned Aaron as spokesman (Ex. 4:14-17).

Moses left for Egypt with his wife Zipporah and his two sons (Ex. 4:18-20), one of whom, undoubtedly the youngest, had not yet received circumcision because of the opposition of his mother. he.

By yielding to it, Moses had disobeyed divine instruction, and had proven himself incompetent to carry out the great mission entrusted to him.

Guilty of having neglected the sign of the covenant, Moses was confronted at an inn one night by the Lord himself, in an unspecified manner, but putting his life in grave danger. Zipporah, eager to save her husband, performed the operation herself, exclaiming: “In truth you are a blood husband to me” (Ex. 4: 24-26).

Moses and Aaron appeared on numerous occasions to Pharaoh to tell him that God demanded the departure of the Israelites. The king’s refusal to obey brought the ten plagues upon himself and his people (Ex. 5-13:16).

When the time came for the exodus, Moses, under the command of Jehovah, led the Hebrews. On Mount Sinai God manifested himself to Moses in a very personal way; the people heard the voice of God, but only the prophet was admitted to speak with Jehovah as a friend (Ex. 24:9-11; 33:11, 17-23; 34:5-29).

The God of Israel gradually revealed to his servant what he was to teach the people. This is how Moses received the Ten Commandments and the laws that accompanied them on the mountain (see THEOCRACY).

Immediately afterwards, the prophet spent forty days of fasting on the mountain, during which God revealed to him the shape, dimensions, materials and utensils of the Tabernacle that he should erect in the desert (see TABERNACLE).

Likewise, Moses received the two stone tablets on which the Decalogue was engraved. Discovering on his descent from the mountain that the people had given themselves over to the cult of the golden calf, Moses, indignant, broke the stone tables. This gesture made the people understand that the Covenant with Jehovah was also broken.

The Levites then executed all the Israelites who persisted in worshiping the golden calf. After having acted as judge, Moses interceded with God on behalf of the Israelites, even offering his own salvation for theirs (Ex. 32:32; cf. Rom. 9:3).

Jehovah relented, and promised to take away his wrath from Israel. Thus, God ordered Moses to go up the mountain again. The people had violated the fundamental ordinances of the cult; The Law was given again on two new tables similar to the first (Ex. 19; 20; 32-34).

On both occasions when he spent forty days on the mountain, Moses did not eat or drink (Ex. 24:18; 34:28; Deut. 9:9, 18). Elijah would later observe an identical fast (1 Kings 19:8). The fasts of these two prophets would prefigure that of Jesus (Mt. 2:4).

The name of Moses will be forever associated with the laws promulgated at Sinai and in the desert (see LEVITICUS, NUMBERS). When Moses descended from Sinai after the second forty-day fast, rays of light (Heb. “Horns”) appeared from his face, so that the people were afraid to approach him (Ex. 34:29).

Moses, however, gathered them together and communicated to them the commands of Jehovah. In Num. 12:1 tells of an Ethiopian wife that Moses had, about whom Aaron and Miriam reproached him.

This is the only biblical allusion to this person. Jewish commentators generally believe that she is Zipporah, daughter of the priest of Midian, whose death is not recorded (Ex. 2:21; 4:25; 18:2-6).

Later Jews affirm that the Ethiopian in question was a princess named Tharbis, who became the wife of Moses when he led a military expedition into Ethiopia at the time when she was still part of Pharaoh’s court (Ant. 2:10). , 2).

Although many have completely dismissed it, this story may nevertheless have truly historical elements. Shortly after passing through Kadesh, Korah and other princes rebelled against Moses and Aaron, but God destroyed them (Num. 16; see KORAH).

The second time they planted their camp in Kadesh, Moses and Aaron themselves disobeyed God (Num. 20). God had commanded them to speak to the rock to make water come out of it.

But Moses said to the people gathered there; «Listen now, rebels! Shall we bring water out of this rock?” With this attitude, the two brothers were distancing themselves from their position of dependence on God.

They put themselves in the place of Jehovah, since it was He who had led the Israelites out of the land of bondage, and who had fed them for forty years in the desert.

Instead of acting on behalf of Jehovah, they intervened on their own behalf. They gloried in the power that God had given them. Moses then “striked” twice on the rock, instead of simply “speaking” to it (cf. Num. 20:8).

This disobedience was extremely serious. Aside from the fact of disobedience itself, the act of striking betrayed the typical meaning of the rock, which was Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 10:4). Christ died only once for us, and his sacrifice is never repeated.

The benefits of his work always flow based on the work done once for all (cf. Heb. 7: 26-28; 9: 23-28; 10: 1-18; etc.). And it was this capital disobedience that prevented them from entering the Promised Land.

But this severe punishment did not alter in any way Moses’ fidelity to his Lord; He resumed his humble attitude and continued leading the people in the direction of Canaan.

God commanded him to take Aaron to Mount Hor and to pass on the priesthood to Eleazar, Aaron’s son. Aaron died on that mountain (Num. 20:22-29) When the Israelites were attacked by the plague of fiery serpents, Moses interceded with God, who ordered him to raise a bronze serpent on a pole.

Anyone who saw the serpent was healed. The prophet introduced the people into the country of Sihon and Og, and conquered those lands for Israel.

With the camp established in a valley of the mountains of Abarim, he could see from there the country promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Abraham’s emotion was expressed in a prayer: “Lord, you have begun to show your servant your greatness and your mighty hand… Let me go over, I pray you, and see that good land that is beyond the Jordan, that good mountain.” , and Lebanon.”

But the Lord answered: “Enough, speak no more to me about this matter… you will not cross the Jordan” (Deut. 3:24-27). The camp was broken up and then replanted in the valley of Shittim.

Knowing that his death was near, Moses made the last arrangements and gave his farewell speech to the
people (see DEUTERONOMY). God had appointed Joshua as Moses’ successor.

The old prophet placed the son of Num in the presence of Eleazar, the high priest, and laid his hands on him in the sight of all the people he had to lead (Num. 27: 18-23, Deut. 34.9).

Moses then brought Joshua to the entrance of the tabernacle of meeting so that Jehovah could give instructions to the new leader of Israel (Deut. 31:14, 23). Afterwards, Moses taught the people a song full of divine wisdom (Dt. 32), gave his blessing to the different tribes (Dt. 33), ascended Mount Nebo, from where he contemplated the Promised Land, and died at the age of 120. on the summit of Pisgah.

“His eyes were never dimmed, nor did he lose his strength” (Deut. 34:7). God himself buried him in the valley (Deut. 34:6).