274
T h e K i n g ’ s B u s i n e s s
June 1932
COMMENTARY Children’s Division In Holy Places B y H elen G ailey B y H erbert H. T ay
LESSON Golden Text Illustrations B y A lan S. P earce
Outline and Exposition B y B. B. S utcliffe
Blackboard Outlines B y B essie B. B urch
JULY 3, 1932 CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION OF MOSES E x o d u s 2:1-10; A c t s 7:20-22-
she confidently expected would protect and guard the babe she thus delivered into His keeping. Her husband was one with her in this, for we are told that “by faith . . . they" did this thing (Heb. 11:23). They were not afraid o f the king’s command, because their faith reached up to One who was above the king. Miriam, Moses’ sister, stood afar off and watched to see the out come o f this venture o f faith. m T he P rovidence for M oses (E x . 2:5-9). When the daughter o f Pharaoh came down to the river to bathe, she saw the lit tle ark among the flags and sent her maid to retrieve it. It was no mere chance that moved this daughter of Pharaoh to appear just at this time and place. It was no hap penstance that directed her eye toward the ark. This pagan woman’s movements were all controlled by the overruling providence o f God, and the result was the working out of His purposes. When the maid brought the ark, and it was opened, the daughter of Pharaoh saw the “goodly, exceeding fair” babe lying there, and her woman’s heart was touched as the babe just at that moment began to weep. Where is there a woman’s heart which remains untouched by a helpless, weeping babe? And neither was it mere chance that caused this wee babe to weep. The God who set the sun and moon and stars in the heavens was there to start the tears rolling and to lift the appealing face o f the babe as Pharaoh’s daughter looked down upon it. This belief may seem child ish to some, but the greatness o f our God is nowhere seen to better advantage than when He stoops to what we term “little” things. All things, small or great, are noted by our omniscient God. There is nothing little and nothing great to Him. At the moment when this woman’s heart was drawn to the babe, Miriam appeared and volunteered to secure a nurse for the child. The suggestion was at once ac cepted, and Miriam quickly brought Joch- ebed, and the child was committed to his own mother’s care. Thus by the overrul ing providence of God, Moses was return ed to his home and there became imbued with those principles o f his parents’ reli gion which molded his character and ever after controlled his conduct. in. T he E ducation of M oses (E x . 2:10; Acts 7:20-22). Without doubt, Moses’ education began at his mother’s knee, and from his father he probably learned the traditions and his tory o f his people. The promises o f God made to his fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were doubtless instilled into his mind, while the faith o f his parents press ed home to his heart the living reality o f every one, in spite of the distressing condi tions that faced them. Later on, when he was transferred to Pharaoh’s house, Moses’ education took on a wider scope, and he became “ learned in all the wisdom o f the Egyptians, and was mighty in word and deed” (Acts 7).
Golden Text: “Train up a child in the way he should g o : and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6). The Wisdom of the Egyptians , , ■ 7 1 r n d M o se s was instructed in all the w' s oppressed and persecuted by those who held them in bondage. But in spite of their condition and their position as slaves, they were a godly family, faithfully following what light they had, and even in the face o f seemingly brazen heavens they con tinued to look up, if, perchance, God would hear and heed their cry for relief. At his birth, Moses’ mother perceived that he “ was a goodly child.” This opin ion was something more than a mother’s fond deception; it spoke o f the child’s possession o f something special from God. For instance, we learn from Hebrews 11: 33 that at his birth he was a “ proper” child, and from Acts 7 :20 that he was “ex ceeding fair,” even as a babe. The latter passage has a marginal reading which translates “exceeding fair” as “ fair to God.” Hence, there was about this child, even at the time o f his birth, that which betokened great things both for himself and for the people among whom he would have his place. The time in which he was born was a period o f bitterness and despair for his people. They were under excessive bur dens and subject to the most brutal task masters. Their very existence was threat ened by an edict from the ruling authority that all male children o f the Hebrews should be slain at birth, and the midwives attending the Hebrew mothers at child birth were instructed to carry out this bru tal order. It was “at this time” (Acts 7) that Moses was born. The words stand out emphatically —"at this time ”—as though to call our attention to the fact that in the darkest period of Hebrew history, God was watching over His people and even then preparing a deliverer who should lead them out o f bondage into freedom. When he could no longer be hid in his humble home, Moses’ mother made an ark o f bulrushes, and daubing it with bitumen and pitch, she placed him within it and hid the little ark in the reeds at the river’s side. To thus consign her son to death by star vation or possibly drowning, or perhaps destruction by wild beasts, seems a strange thing for a mother to do. But as this mother placed her babe in the ark, and then put the ark in the river, she passed it into the hand of the eternal God, whom BLACKBOARD LESSON something about this by studying the re mains of that ancient civilization. In the field of sci ence, the a n c i e n t Egyptians w e r e re markably advanced. They were exception ally skillful builders. The stones in many of their buildings were laid without mortar. Yet, in many instances, it is almost impos sible for us, four thousand years after ward, to see the joints in the masonry. The pyramids were, and still are, wonders of architectural skill. They were originally cased with granite or alabaster, set with out mortar, the joints of which were un- discernible to the naked eye. One of the pyramids resembled a solid block of gleaming alabaster. Their knowledge o f the arts blended with their knowledge of the sciences. They were excellent sculptors, and great quan tities of their products still remain. The jewelers were both artists and extremely skilled artisans. Some pieces of jewelry now on exhibition in the museum at Cairo are beautiful beyond description. They are wrought from gold, with inlays of precious stones in the form o f a mosaic. The work is so fine and delicate that only the most skillful lapidaries of the present day, equipped with magnifying glasses, could duplicate it. The archaeological remains o f art, lit erature, government, religion, astronomy, and science are so marvelous that we know that Moses, who was learned in all the wis dom of the Egyptians, was a very wise person. Outline and Exposition I. T h e B ir t h of M o se s (E x . 2:1-4). Moses was well born, being o f the tribe o f Levi, the tribe from which Israel’s priesthood was to come. His father was Amram, and his mother was called Joche- bed (Ex. 6:20). Besides these, Moses’ family consisted of a brother, Aaron, who was about three years o f age when Moses was born, and a sister, Miriam, about fif teen years o f age (Num. 26:59). . At the time of Moses’ birth, the family was in dire distress, virtually in slavery,
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