Study 3: Moses Profile – Moses, a Man of Many Cultures Exodus

Study 3: Moses Profile – Moses, A Man Of Many Cultures Exodus

Moses The Egyptian, Moses The Israelite (Hebrew), Moses The Midianite

Moses The Egyptian 1. Acts 7:21 Adopted grandson of Pharaoh, the Hebrews’ oppressor. 2. Exodus 2:5, 10, Acts 7:21 Pharaoh’s daughter found Moses in the river and adopted him as her son. She defied her father’s (Pharaoh’s) command to put all male Hebrew babies to death. She must have been a courageous person. 3. Acts 7:22 Moses was a prince of Egypt. He was part of Egypt’s royal palace and its status as a world power. 4. Acts 7:22 He was educated in Egypt’s best universities. 5. Acts 7:22 Moses was a powerful and dynamic speaker. 6. Acts 7:22 He was powerful in his actions. 7. Acts 7:21-22 He was part of Egypt’s oppressive government and a product of that system of power. 8. Exodus 2:7-10 After being saved from the river, Pharaoh’s daughter had his mother nurse him until he was old enough to eat on his own. 9. Exodus 2:11, Acts 7:23 At the age of 40, Moses took an interest in the Hebrews. 10. Exodus 2:11-14 To defend a Hebrew being beaten by an Egyptian, Moses killed the Egyptian to save the man. 11. Exodus 2:15 When Pharaoh found out, he placed death sentence on Moses. 12. Exodus 2:15, Acts 7:23 Moses fled to the east, to the land of Midian, to save his life. He became a political refugee. 13. Exodus 2:14, Acts 2:27-28 The Israelites (Hebrews) saw Moses as being an Egyptian. 14. Exodus 2:15 Pharaoh saw Moses as an Egyptian traitor. 15.Exodus 2:19 The Midianites saw Moses as an Egyptian too. 16. Exodus 2:21-22 Moses saw himself as a failure in Egypt.

Moses The Israelite (Hebrew) 1. Exodus 1:1-7 In their early years in Egypt the Israelites were accepted by the Egyptians. 2. Exodus 1:8-14, Acts 7:17-19 Then a new king feared the Hebrews growth and power. 3. Exodus 1:15-22, Acts 7:20 Moses was born under a death sentence. All male babies were to be murdered. It was a time of great fear. 4. Exodus 2:1-2 Moses’ mother and father were Levites. (The future priesthood came out of this tribe.) 5. Exodus 2:3-10, Acts 7:21-22 Moses’ mother devised a plan that ended with Pharaoh’s daughter saving her baby son’s life. Moses’ life was protected by the Pharaoh himself. 6. Exodus 2:8-10 His mother nursed him for the Pharaoh’s daughter. Then Pharaoh’s daughter raised him in the Egyptian palace. Moses grew up in an interracial environment. d 7. Exodus 2:1-10 There is a work of faith here in Moses’ mother and in his adopted mother, the Pharaoh’s daughter. 8. Exodus 2:15-22, Acts 7:20-22 God protected Moses’ life. 9. Acts 7:25 Moses knew something about God 10. Hebrews 11:24-26 Moses refused to find his security and identity in being an Egyptian prince. 11. Exodus 2:11, Acts 7:23-26, Hebrews 11:25 Moses saw himself as a Hebrew. He saw the Hebrews as his own people. 12. Exodus 2:12, Acts 7:23-25 To demonstrate his Hebrew commitment, he killed an Egyptian to save an Israelite man who was being beaten. 13. Acts 7:25 Moses thought the Hebrews would know God had sent him to save them from their slavery. 14. Exodus 2:14, Acts 7:27-28 But the Hebrews refused his leadership and said, “Who made you a ruler and judge over us?” 15. Exodus 14-22, Acts 7:29 Moses became a refugee and foreigner in Midian for 40 years.

16. Exodus 2:22 Moses saw himself as a failure as a Hebrew. “I have been a stranger in a foreign land.”

Moses The Midianite 1. Exodus 2:15-22, Acts 7:29 Moses became a political refugee living under a death sentence in the land of Midian. 2. Exodus 2:15-21 Moses ran to a place of safety in the desert. 3. Exodus 2:19-22 Moses was accepted into a new family and married into it. 4. Exodus 2:16 His father-in-law was a priest of Midian and a religious leader in the area. Reuel worshiped God or a god. 5. Exodus 2:16-17 The family was dominated by capable women. Reuel had seven daughters. 6. Exodus 2:16-22 Moses entered into a new culture, new food, a new job and new circumstances. 7. Exodus 3:1 He became a shepherd. It was a shattering experience of culture shock for him. Genesis 46:34 says: “Every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.” Moses moved from the role of the aristocracy’s elite in Egypt to a career change that emotionally and mentally was impossible for an Egyptian leader to believe could happen to him. It was worse than death. It was the worse than anything else that could have come into his life. 8. Exodus 4:10 Possibly Moses had to learn a new language at the age of 40. 9. Exodus 2:19 Others consistently identified him as being an Egyptian. 10. Exodus 2:22 But Moses wanted to known as a Hebrew or Israelite. 11. Exodus 2:22 As a result he never felt as home in Midian. He saw himself as an alien and a foreigner. The names he gave his two sons expressed these feelings. 12. Moses in running away from Egypt to save his life became a political refugee without a country and without a people he considered to be his own.