John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: April 5

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John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: April 5

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Early Deeds of Moses

We know, historically, that Moses was “mighty in words and in deeds” after he received his commission to deliver Israel. But the declaration of Stephen clearly intimates that this was the case before he was forty years of age—before he visited the Israelites—and therefore while he was still at the Egyptian court, and was still regarded as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. The information furnished by Josephus and other Jewish writers is, doubtless, such as was current at the time when Stephen uttered these words, which must be regarded as referring to facts held to be true, by all those who heard him, and recognized as being at least substantially true by this reference to them. Indeed, it is not easy to see how, in the position which he occupied, Moses could be “mighty in deeds” but by rendering important public services—and that probably of a military kind—to the Egyptian crown and people. We are, therefore, somewhat inclined to take the Jewish accounts, and especially that of Josephus, as substantially true; and, consequently, as supplying an interesting connection of the several parts of the history of Moses. The Scripture, having only the object of setting forth those portions of his history which bore directly on his high mission, as connected with the Israelites, relates most briefly all that portion of his life which precedes his call in Horeb; and it altogether omits, or leaves to common sources of information, his life among the Egyptians. It may be added that the account given by Josephus has all the internal marks of authentic history, from whatever source the particulars were derived.

According to this account, the land of Egypt was invaded by the Ethiopians, who at first contemplated only an inroad for the sake of spoil. But having defeated the Egyptians in battle, and perceiving that the conquest of the country would be a less difficult enterprise than they had imagined, they ceased not, till they had overrun the land—one city after another yielding to them, even to the walls of Memphis and to the sea.

The Egyptians in the desperateness of their affairs consulted their oracles, which were constrained by God to declare that their deliverance could only be effected through Moses. On this the king prevailed upon him to take the command of the army; and it seems to be inferred, as is indeed in itself probable, that the Hebrews acted with the Egyptians under his orders. Indeed, the Jewish historian indicates the difference in the views with which this appointment was regarded by them. “The sacred scribes of both nations were glad.” Those of the Egyptians, relying upon the oracle, hoped that the nation would be delivered by him, but trusted, that in the course of the inevitable conflict, he might by some management be slain. The Hebrews, on the other hand, calculated that under Moses as a victorious general, they might take their departure with a high hand out of Egypt.

The course followed by Moses was to take the enemy unawares. Therefore, instead of marching along the river, he conducted his forces inland, through a region which none would expect him to traverse, on account of the multitudes of fierce and venomous serpents with which it was infested. Moses, however, met this difficulty by an ingenious stratagem. He caused a large number of crates to be provided, in which were enclosed a multitude of that serpent-slaying bird, the ibis, formerly so abundant in Egypt, where it received sacred honors for its useful services to mankind. As, therefore, the army reached the land of the serpents, the birds were let loose, and cleared the way for the safe advance of the troops. Different readers will differently estimate the probability of this story. Those who have read the Stratagems of War by Polyaenus, will have found there accounts of contrivances quite as remarkable. This does not appear to us to offer any great difficulty. The ibis being a tame bird, might be secured in almost any number required for such a purpose; and both sacred and secular history evince that whole districts bordering on Egypt were grievously infested by serpents, so numerous as to form a very serious obstruction to the progress of armies. Being thus enabled to come upon the Ethiopians unexpectedly, and so to take them unprepared, they were soon put to the rout and driven out of Egypt, pursued by the victorious army. The fugitive host at last threw itself into Saba, a royal city of Ethiopia, rendered impregnable by strong ramparts and surrounding waters, which in a later age received the name of Meroe. While the Egyptian army lay idle before thus place, unable to bring the Ethiopians to battle, Moses unconsciously won the affection of the Ethiopian king’s daughter, Tharbis, who had beheld his person, and witnessed his valiant acts, from the walls. She caused a proposal to be made to him, through the most faithful of her servants, that he should make her his wife; which he promised to do if she procured the surrender of the city. No sooner was this agreement made than it took effect. The city surrendered; Moses made the Ethiopian princess his wife; and having returned thanks to God, led the Egyptians back to their own land.

The latter incidents of this account are remarkable. Josephus, who gives this notice of the acquisition by Moses of an Ethiopian wife, says nothing in the sequel of his history of the variance between Moses on the one part, and his brother and sister on the other, on account of an Ethiopian wife that he had, Num_12:1. It is clear, therefore, that neither he nor his authorities devised this marriage to account for that variance. It is a fact which is not to him of any historical use. But the Scripture itself does record the misunderstanding between Moses and his relatives respecting an Ethiopian wife, without stating how that wife was acquired. This perfectly undesigned coincidence between the Scripture narrative and the Jewish historical tradition, does therefore afford a material corroboration to the latter. Nor is this the only instance in which the silence of the one account is supplied by the declarations of the other.

All our readers have felt some difficulty in realizing to their own minds the circumstances under which Moses, who had just before been described as “the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,” appears among his countrymen in Goshen, apparently as an unattended and powerless man. If we turn to Josephus, we at first seem to get no satisfaction, as he passes this visit altogether over, and makes Moses withdraw at once from the Egyptian court to the land of Midian. But it is yet possible to connect the reasons which he gives for that withdrawal with the actual visit to the Israelites. The historian states, that the renown which Moses acquired in this expedition, made him seem more dangerous in high quarters, and roused the fears and the envy of the king. Plots were laid against his life; and, being daily pressed by the sacred scribes; the king had nearly assented to his being quietly disposed of. Hearing of all this, Moses withdrew secretly from the court. Josephus says he retired to the land of Midian; but we know that he went first to visit his nation in Goshen. He perhaps expected to find concealment among them, until he could prevail upon them to follow him out of Egypt. That this was his object, is clearly indicated by Stephen, who says, “he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God by his hand would deliver them; but they understood not.” If the Jewish historian is to be regarded as a sufficient authority for believing that they had been prepared to regard him as a leader and deliverer, when he appeared as a victorious general against the Ethiopians, the grounds of the expectation with which he went among them may appear; neither is it difficult to understand the views upon which they now declined to place themselves in revolt under the guidance of one who, at a time when circumstances were more favorable—when their hosts were in embattled array under his orders, and ready, in the ardor of triumph and invincible might, to follow where he listed—had refused to respond to their wishes. The reason of Moses’ conduct under this view would be plain. He had in the first instance been the trusted servant of the Egyptians, and could not betray the high trust committed to him; but the base return he had experienced, left him at liberty to act in freedom from the ties of obligation and public trust. He threw up his connection with the Egyptian court; he refused any longer to be regarded as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; and went to cast in his lot with the people of his fathers, whose sad condition engaged his sympathy, and whose great heritage of promises and hopes had more charm for him than all the riches, the honors, the power and the wisdom of Egypt. But the time was not fully come; and the Israelites refused to recognize in the powerless fugitive, clad only in his inherent greatness, the leader they would have hailed with shouts as the commander of armies and the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.

It is thus, as we apprehend, that the Jewish accounts may be made to supply the silence of Scripture, and that the details may be woven into one consistent and harmonious whole.