Moses Identifies with God’s Chosen People
December 9, 2022
Commentary
Stephen summed up the characteristics of Joseph in two words – grace and wisdom.
1. Grace in its simplest form means beauty. Its nearest English equivalent is charm. It would have been extremely easy for Joseph to become embittered. But he dealt faithfully with each duty as it emerged, serving with equal devotion as slave or as prime minister.
2. There is no word more difficult to define than wisdom. But the life of Joseph gives us the clue to its meaning. In essence, wisdom is the ability to see things as God sees them.
A major portion of Stephen’s sermon pertained to Moses and the Exodus. When Moses was born, the order by Pharaoh was that every male baby was to be killed at birth. Moses’ mother, Jochebed, hid him at home for three months (v. 20). Then she placed him in a little ark and placed him in the water. It was there that Pharaoh’s daughter found him and took him to the palace to raise (v. 21).
It was here that Moses “learned all the wisdom of the Egyptians” (v. 22). He gave up the throne to meet Israel’s need, just as our Lord did many years later. It was not curiosity that took Moses from the palace to Goshen, but it was because he wanted to be identified with his people. As he tried to bring about reconciliation among his people, his ministry was regarded as meddling. He was greatly misunderstood, as his own people thought he had stepped out of the royalty where he had been living just to make them feel more wretched and to judge them. Instead, he had come to identify himself with them and to save them (vv. 23-29). This same thing happened to our Lord years later.
Application
Ask – Are my primary interest and goals centered upon the things of this life like Moses had in the palace, or am I identifying with the people of God and the will of God?
Acts 7:20– 29 (NET)
20 At that time Moses was born, and he was beautiful to God. For three months he was brought up in his father’s house, 21 and when he had been abandoned, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. 22 So Moses was trained in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his words and deeds. 23 But when he was about forty years old, it entered his mind to visit his fellow countrymen the Israelites. 24 When he saw one of them being hurt unfairly, Moses came to his defense and avenged the person who was mistreated by striking down the Egyptian. 25 He thought his own people would understand that God was delivering them through him, but they did not understand. 26 The next day Moses saw two men fighting, and tried to make peace between them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why are you hurting one another?’ 27 But the man who was unfairly hurting his neighbor pushed Moses aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us? 28 You don’t want to kill me the way you killed the Egyptian yesterday, do you?’ 29 When the man said this, Moses fled and became a foreigner in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.