| |
|
| |
(9) Then Pharaoh"s daughter said to her, "Take this
child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages." So the
woman took the child and nursed him. (10) And the child grew, and she brought
him to Pharaoh"s daughter, and he became her son. So she called his name Moses,
saying, "Because I drew him out of the water." New
King James Version Change your email Bible version
"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not
depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6).
Train means "to hedge in," "to put walls around," "to narrow the
way." God was doing this through Amram and Jochebed: They were starting Moses
down the right path.
We do not know for sure how long Moses was with his real parents. It was at
least until he was weaned. In those days, it seems to have been customary for a
child to be on the breast for about two years before he was weaned. It is
possible, some commentators say, understanding the culture of Egypt, it is
likely that Moses was with Amram and Jochebed until he was about six years old.
The reason, they say, was to get the child through those "bad years," for
instance, "the terrible twos," because they had them too. By the time he was
turned over to Pharaoh's daughter, he was over the hump, and she would not have
such a hard time taking care of him. So, he may actually have lived with Amram
and Jochebed through what we could call the pre-school years.
In verses 9-10, there is an ironic twist. God worked it out that the child
who, by order of Pharaoh, should have been killed at birth is now under the
secure protection of the powerful family that ordered his death. God has a sense
of humor, does He not?
Not only that, the family of Moses not only received their precious baby
back, but they were paid wages for doing something that they would gladly have
done for free had the situation been different. It is examples like this that
caused later writers to comment that God knows how to deliver the godly out of
their temptations and trials. For instance, in Ephesians 3:20, Paul says that God can do exceedingly
abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in
us, the Holy Spirit.
— John W. Ritenbaugh
To learn more, see:
Conviction and Moses
Related Topics:
Amram and Jochebed.
Childrearing
Conviction
Faith
Faith, Building
Moses
Training
Please cancel my subscription to The Berean |
|
|
|
|
Posts