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20. Moses.
So now there was no
one left of Abraham's name and descendants in the beautiful land of
Canaan except the dead. In Egypt, however, they multiplied over time to
become a numerous people. But when a new king arose who knew nothing
more of Joseph, he was afraid of their multitude and at first had them
oppressed with hard labour and mercilessly mistreated. Indeed, he
finally ordered that all newborn Hebrew male children were to be thrown
into the water, as one throws poor little animals into the water and
drowns them if one does not want to raise them. That's how bad the
promise looked back then: ‘To your descendants I will give the land, and
in your descendants all the families of the earth will be blessed.’ But
as the stranger said to Abraham, ‘Should something be impossible for God?’
And isn't the king's daughter already walking by the water? -
One day, as the king's daughter was walking by the water, she saw a
small box on the bank among the reeds. She did not know whether it was a
little boat or a coffin; whether it contained something living or
something dead. But when she had the casket fetched and opened it, a
Hebrew baby lay in it, weeping. For so its mother had laid it in the
water that God wanted to have mercy on it - God moved the heart of the
royal daughter to have mercy on the child.
God touched the royal daughter's heart so that she took pity on the
child. For she said at once, ‘This will be one of the Hebrew children,’
and would gladly have sent it to a good Hebrew woman to suckle and raise
it.
But there was a strange maiden standing on the shore; she was the
child's sister, so that she might see what had become of her little
brother. She came to the Egyptian king's daughter and asked her if she
should call one of the Hebrew women to suckle the baby for her. She
called her mother. God gave her son back to the mother from the hands of
the royal princess, and the princess rewarded her for his care and
upbringing. But when the child grew up, the princess took him back to be
her son and called him Moses.
Moses was a vigorous young man, though he had a difficult tongue. Yet he
was a hearty and fierce man, who especially could not suffer injustice.
Once he went out and saw the suffering of his brothers and how an
Egyptian beat a Hebrew mercilessly. So he looked to his right and to his
left to see if there was anyone else there, and he struck the Egyptian
dead and buried him in the sand. Nevertheless, the king found out, but
Moses fled to the land of Midian.
In Midian, at a well, he defended seven virgins against the violence of
the shepherds. For the virgins wanted to water their father's sheep, and
the shepherds would not suffer it. This is the right kind of
kind-heartedness, that it resists injustice but does not carry it out,
and that it takes care of the oppressed, albeit with understanding and
deliberation. Through this good deed Moses became acquainted with the
father of the virgins. He was a priest of God and had large flocks. His
name was Jethro. Jethro gave him one of his daughters, Zipora, in
marriage and entrusted him with the care of his flocks. So the foster
son of the royal princess became a shepherd in a foreign land, as his
fathers had been.
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