SERIES C --- EXODUS FROM BONDAGE --- LESSON 02

THE SHEPHERD PRINCE

BY A WELL IN MIDIAN

From Exodus 2:11-25

One day when Moses had grown to be a man, he went out among the Hebrew slaves and watched them toil under the hot sun. When Moses saw an Egyptian beating one of the Hebrew slaves, he became angry, looked about to be sure no one was watching, then killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand. The next day Moses returned and found two of the Hebrews fighting. [Why are you hitting one of your own people like that?] Moses shouted at the man who had started the fight. But the man snarled back at Moses, [who made you our prince and judge? Do you plan to kill me as you did that Egyptian?] Moses grew frightened, for he realized that he had been discovered. [Surely others know about this, too,] Moses thought. Soon Pharaoh heard what Moses had done and made plans to kill him. But Moses escaped from Pharaoh and ran away to the land of Midian, where he stopped to rest beside a well. The seven daughters of the priest of Midian often came to this well to water their father’s flocks. While Moses watched them arrive on this day, some shepherds came too and forced the girls away so that their flocks could get water first. But Moses drove the shepherds aside and helped the girls water their flocks. When the girls returned home to their father Reuel, who was also called Jethro, he was puzzled. [How did you finish so quickly today?] he asked. The girls told him what had happened. [An Egyptian rescued us from some shepherds and even drew water from the well to water our flocks for us,] they said. [But where is this fellow?] Jethro asked. [Why did you leave him there? Go find him so that he may eat with us.] When Moses had come, Jethro invited him to live there with him and Moses gladly accepted. In time, he married Zipporah, one of Jethro’s seven daughters, and they had a son. Moses named the child Gershom, which meant -- Foreigner, -- for he said, “[I am a stranger in a foreign land.] As the years passed, the king of Egypt died. But the people of Israel continued to work as slaves for the new king, groaning under their bondage and crying out for YHVH’s help. YHVH heard the cries of His people and remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. As He looked upon His people in their misery, He knew that it was time for YHVH to set them free.

COMMENTARY

HATSHEPSUT: WAS THIS THE PRINCESS?

Moses was educated as an Egyptian prince. But he never forgot his roots. The New Testament tells us that when he was grown up, he refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose rather to be mistreated along with the people of YHVH. When Moses was about forty, he was forced to flee Egypt, and met his future wife by a well in Midian. For four more decades he lived as a shepherd in Midian, while in Egypt the bondage of the Israelites grew worse. One of the most fascinating mysteries of the Bible is the identity of the princess who rescued Moses and made him her son. No one knows for sure who she was, but there are two main theories. Some believe the princess was the daughter of Pharaoh Ramses II. If so, Moses grew up during his cruel reign and led the Israelites from Egypt during the reign of Merneptah, the next ruler. Others think the princess was the daughter of Thutmose I, who lived about two hundred years earlier. This daughter, named Hatshepsut, was married to her half-brother, Thutmose II, who became pharaoh when his father, Thutmose I died. Although Thutmose II was the pharaoh, Hatshepsut was a much stronger person and ruled the land as the power behind the throne. This must have created a quarrel between the royal couple, for at one point, Thutmose II wanted to make his son by a harem girl the next pharaoh. This would have taken the power away from Hatshepsut and any of her descendants. Since she had no children, Hatshepsut may have raised Moses to be the next pharaoh. This would have been sweet revenge, to put a hated Hebrew on the throne of Egypt instead of her husband’s son. Or she may have done this at a later time, after her husband died. Hatshepsut seized the throne immediately after the death of Thutmose II, called herself -- king, -- and became the only known female ruler of ancient Egypt. Twenty-two years later, her husband’s hated son gathered enough strength to seize the throne from her. Again, Hatshepsut had a motive to raise a Hebrew to become the next pharaoh. Nobody knows for sure, but these theories are as fascinating as the mystery.