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BIBLE STUDY
                                   
                                   
 

Moses – Foundling, Prince and Fugitive

Moses (born c. 1526 BC) was a son of Amram, a member of the Levite tribe of Israel, and his
wife Jochebed. Moses’ sister Miriam was older by seven years, and his brother Aaron by three.
Adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter Thermuthis, called Bithiah (“daughter of God”) by the Israelites,
he was raised a prince in Pharaoh’s household. It was Thermuthis who gave Moses his name,
an Egyptianized form of the Hebrew word mashah, meaning “to draw out” (since was drawn out
of the Nile).

The Jewish historian Josephus, writing in the first century AD, describes Egyptian culture and
their relations with the Israelites as follows:

[T]he Egyptians grew delicate and lazy, as to pains-taking, and gave themselves up to
other pleasures, and in particular to the love of gain. They also became very ill-affected
towards the Hebrews . . . . And having, in length of time, forgotten the benefits they had
received from Joseph, particularly the crown being now come into another family, they
became very abusive to the Israelites, and contrived many ways of afflicting them; for they
enjoined them to cut a great number of channels for the river, and to build walls for their
cities and ramparts, that they might restrain the river, and hinder its waters from
stagnating, upon its running over its own banks: they set them also to build pyramids, and
by all this wore them out; and forced them to learn all sorts of mechanical arts, and to
accustom themselves to hard labor.

Josephus also recounts the

legend that a prophet among
the Egyptians “told the king,
that about this time there
would a child be born to the
Israelites, who, if he were
reared, would bring the
Egyptian dominion low, and
would raise the Israelites; that
he would excel all men in
virtue, and obtain a glory that
would be remembered through
all ages.”
Finding Moses
Read Exodus 2. Lawrence Alma-Tadema

1. While we don’t know much about Moses’ parents, Miriam and Aaron feature prominently
in his story. What can you glean about 7 year old Miriam from her actions (vv. 4-7)?

2. What kind of person is Themuthis, Pharaoh’s daughter?

3/4/10: Lesson 2
3. At some point, Moses became aware he was an Israelite (v. 11). How and when do you
think that happened? What might he have been told about his heritage? What kinds of
thoughts and feelings do you think he struggled with as a result of this revelation?

4. Why did Moses kill the Egyptian overseer (v. 12)? What happened afterwards (vv. 13-
14)? What do his actions tell us about Moses? How do they foreshadow – and how
might they have interfered with – his eventual calling by God as Israel’s leader?

5. What kind of man is Reuel, priest of Midian (vv. 16-21)? Why might Moses’ relationship
with his father-in-law have been significant?

6. How does God respond to the Israelites’ cry for help (vv23-25)?

Egypt, Midian and

the Lands Between
in Ancient Times

3/4/10: Lesson 2