Lesson 2: Background and Insights – bishopbiblestudies.com

Lesson 2 Study Notes

Well, hello friends. I am Bishop Andy C. Luther and this is the second of my four lessons that I am doing on the mini course concerning Moses's Egyptian adopted mother. Now, we know that Moses was born to a Hebrew family, but those of you who are familiar with the story, and I spent a considerable amount of time on last week detailing, describing to you the particulars of the biblical narrative.
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What we do know is that Moses' life was literally saved because he was adopted by Pharaoh's daughter. Without that adoption, he very well may have perished, and he certainly would not have gone on to do the many things that he did for the Lord in the aftermath of his birth. And so, the format that we're using for this mini-course includes week one, detailing and describing the biblical narrative. We're doing that because we don't want to assume that those of you who are engaged in this mini course already know the story. Now, we grew up with

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Bible study in Sunday school and Vacation Bible School, and many of us learned the stories of the Bible through those mediums and platforms, but such is no longer the case. And so I have made made it a personal resolve and resolution to make sure that the people that I come in contact with, the people who are attached to my ministry, are very familiar with the biblical narrative as it is recorded and recited in the Word of God. And so, we accomplished that on last week. Now, this week, I'm looking at into some of the more deeper background information regarding this story. And I hope to enlighten

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you to some things that you perhaps have not known before. And then of course, in the third week, which will be the coming week, we will look at specific Christian doctrines that have developed as a result of this story in the Bible. And then we'll close out this mini course by looking at practical behaviors and practices that we can adopt or rather that we should adopt as a result of being knowledgeable and being informed by the story of Moses in general, but more specifically by the story of this Egyptian daughter who takes him into her own home and raises him as her own.

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So with that said and done, I do hope that you have come with some writing material, the ability to take notes in this mini course. At the close of each lesson, there are around five study questions that we provide to you simply to measure just how much information and material you have retained from these exercises. So with that done, I am both delighted and extremely excited about sharing with you the Egyptian mother of Moses. And this my friends is lesson two. Well, we're going to get started. We all know Jacobet, the Hebrew

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mother of Moses, along with Miriam and Aaron, his brother and sister. But who was his Egyptian mother? Now, this is very, very important. She is depicted here on the screen. And she's very important because the birth mother of Moses, while being allowed to live in close proximity to him, she was not permitted to function and to operate as his mother.

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It is this woman, whom we will name in just a few moments, that had the chief responsibility for his rearing, his nurturing, his mentoring, and all that Moses would become. I'm actually doing this mini course at the suggestion of our executive pastor at the Queens Ministry in New York City, who said to me, Bishop, we know a great deal of the Moses story, and you have spent time actually helping us to understand the Moses story a little bit better because of your involvement

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and your participation in the Netflix movie, Testament, the story of Moses. However, there's very little time and attention that is given to this Egyptian Pharaoh's daughter who was actually responsible for the raising of Moses. And so could you do a specific course on Moses's mother, not the mother who gave birth to him and nursed him as a wet

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nurse in the household of Pharaoh, but Pharaoh's daughter, who took the initiative to claim Moses as her own and to raise and rear him as her son. And so that is exactly what we're going to do. And I want to delve into some of the deeper background regarding this story and regarding this figure who comes to us from the pages of the Old Testament.

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Now, to set a biblical context, friends,

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permit me to read in your hearing two particular passages of scripture. One is coming from the Old Testament, the book of Exodus, which actually details the story of Moses and his mother. And then the second is a New Testament testimony to Moses' Egyptian mother. And I'm doing this because as Christians,

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the dedication and the allegiance that we have to sacred literature that we call the New Testament. I wanna make sure that you are able to see that this story resonates even in the pages of the New Testament. But I also equally am excited about you seeing that the story has its commencement and its beginning

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in the pages of the Old Testament. So let's consider just a little bit, just a little bit of what Exodus 2 has to say to us. Then Pharaoh's daughter went down to the Nile to make and her attendants were walking along the river back. Now, I invite you to take a look at the remainder

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of that text as it's found in the early chapters of the book of Acts. But I wanna jump now because we are Christians and we have a great loyalty to the New Testament, let's take a look at what we find in the book of Acts regarding this very same story. Pharaoh's daughter took him and brought him up as her own son Moses, was educated in all the wisdom. And of course,

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the text goes on to talk about the benefits and the entitlements that he had available to him as a prince of Egypt growing up in the household of Pharaoh, being recognized and identified and treated as the son of the daughter of Pharaoh, which would have made him in the line of succession, which would have made him a prince of Egypt,

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even if he was not in the direct line of succession, that would have culminated with him becoming Pharaoh. Now, again, friends, I am taking the time to give you both an Old Testament reading and a New Testament reading, because I want you to see just how comprehensive and just how inclusive this story is for the faith community in general,

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but more specifically, the Christian faith community. As Christians, we lean very heavily upon what we find in the pages of the New Testament. So if this story did not appear in some form or fashion in the New Testament, it would not have the same equality that it does have in our hearing and our understanding. But because we find it, beloved, in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, it makes it extremely a treasure for us as members of the Christian faith community.

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So here is the name that I have been so anxious to share with you. It is pronounced Hatshepsut. Hatshepsut. Now let me readily remind you that this doesn't come to us from biblical literature. The Bible does not mention her name, but Egyptian records reveal that she could only have been Hatshepsut, the only daughter of Pharaoh when Moses was born. Now, we believe that Moses was born in the year 1526 BC. There was only one Pharaoh on the throne at that time,

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in 1526 before the Christian era, that would have been Thutmose I. At that particular time, in 1526, he only had one daughter, and that daughter was Hatshepsut. Now, he would later have additional children who would figure prominently into the story, but at this particular juncture, the only child

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and the eldest of his children of this particular genre and time would have been Hatshepsut. Now, she would go on to become queen herself, and I'm going to talk about that in just a moment, she ends up becoming a pharaoh. However, at this juncture, she is the daughter of Pharaoh. And it is because of that, we do now, scholars now do believe that the actual daughter of Pharaoh who is involved in the story that we have

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from the book of Exodus is the figurine that history, Egyptian history, refers to as Hatshepsut. And so, you will hear me refer to her as such probably for the remainder of this lesson. Now, last week, we spent time detailing the biblical narrative of the story, which included the fact that Moses was born and adopted by the daughter of Pharaoh. Now, I read you a scripture from the Old Testament, I read you a scripture from the New Testament that confirms without a doubt, without question, without argument, without debate, that Moses was raised and reared by the daughter of Pharaoh,

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up as a prince of Egypt.

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Now, since the main source

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that we have for the story comes from the Bible itself, let me say to you that in those areas where the Bible is absent or silent, or either the subject, the topic, or even the name of individuals, we are able to refer to other sources of information that were available and written and recorded at the time that the Bible was written as well. And one of those sources would be the Jewish historian, Josephus.

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Now, you see him pictured here on the left side of your screen. And one of the books that Josephus wrote was a book called the Antiquities of the Jews, the Antiquities of the Jews. Now again, this is not the Bible. This is not Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers

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or Deuteronomy. So I'm not suggesting that what I'm about to give you from Josephus is the equal to biblical literature, but it is a contemporary. And it does help us understand some of the vague areas that we have from the biblical reading itself.

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Now, in the antiquities of the Jews, chapter nine, verse two, this is what Josephus has to say. According to Josephus, there was an Egyptian prophecy that foretold a Hebrew male that would be born

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and that would liberate the Israelites from their slavery by the Egyptians. Now, until I saw this and until I came in contact with this, it suddenly made sense, because one of the things that I knew from my research and my understanding of Jewish and Hebrew and Israelite history a factor for being labeled and called a Hebrew came from the mother. Let me say that again.

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So one was known to be a Hebrew because their mother was a Hebrew. I need to say that again. I need you to understand this. One was known to be a Hebrew because their mother was a Hebrew.

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You were a Hebrew if you had a Hebrew mother. Now, it certainly would help if you had a Hebrew father, but that wasn't absolutely necessary. That even foreigners who had children by Hebrew women, those children were considered Hebrew because their mother was a Hebrew.

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I don't want to get lost in the weeds here, but the story of the Assyrians and the Hebrew women that produced the Samaritans. One of the reasons the Samaritans were part of the same faith community of Jesus, and this is what Jesus argued, was because their mothers were Hebrew. Their mothers were Israelite.

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And if their mothers were Hebrew, that made the children Hebrew. Now, the reason this is important, beloved, is because up until now, we have assumed that children were being killed and wiped out was to limit the amount of Hebrews that were in Egypt. But if that was the real task and agenda, it would not have been the male children that would have been killed by Pharaoh. It would have enlarged and expanded the number of Hebrews in Egypt. So it could not be that these male children were being killed to limit the amount of Hebrews

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in Egypt, because as long as women were having children, whether it was by the Egyptians or even Hebrew fathers, then those children, those offsprings would have been Hebrew as well. No, what Josephus helps us to understand is that the real fear of the Egyptians and the real fear of Pharaoh wasn't that the expansion or the multiplication of the Hebrews in Egypt, but that there would be a Hebrew male child that would come, be born, grow up, and lead the children of Israel, emancipate and liberate them from Egyptian slavery. That was the real agenda. And the reason the midwives were instructed to kill the male child at birth

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this prophecy amongst the Egyptians that a liberator was about to come. Now, that's a detail that you probably have not heard before, and I'm so anxious to share it with you, but it makes all the sense in the world that if Pharaoh was trying to stop the expansion of the Hebrews, he would have killed the female children that were born, because it is by the mother that a person becomes a Hebrew. By killing the male child, we now know that he is trying to thwart

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the prophecy in Egyptian circles that were saying that there would be a male child that would free the Hebrews from their slave masters, the Egyptians. So, let me just continue with a little more of Josephus. Josephus refers to the daughter of this Egyptian pharaoh as the Muthis, which happens to be the river in which she was bathing at the time. So Josephus, in referring to her, of course the Egyptians referred to her as Hatshepsut,

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but Josephus, who is a Jewish historian, refers to her as Thermuthes. And I think it's just a little more than coincidental that he gives her a name or he hangs a name on her that is the equivalent or the same name of this tributary or this river or this stream that she was bathing in and found the infant Moses in.

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And we get that, again, not from the book of Exodus, not from the Pentateuch, not from Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers or Deuteronomy, but we get that by examining the records of Josephus that gives us information that is absent from the biblical record. Now, just for the record, I want to remind you that the birth parents of Moses are Jacobite and Ammonite. And what is peculiar or interesting about them, pictured here, is that they both, not one, but they both were members of the

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tribe of Levi. Now, you'll remember going back in a little bit of history, Jacob would have 12 sons, Reuben, Simon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Nephthali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, the descendants of the tribe or the son Levi would be the tribe of Levi. Now, later on, this is the tribe that will become the Levitical tribe

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or the Levite tribes or the priestly tribe. They're not the priest at this particular juncture. So it would become the priest of Israel later on. But I do find it interesting that both Amron and Jacob, the birth parents of Moses are both members of the tribe of Levi.

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Now, let's jump for a moment back over to Egyptian history. According to Egyptian history, Hatshepsut was soon to become queen when she adopts Moses. Now, this is what you need to know and understand. A woman could only become queen after her father if she herself had a husband or a male son. Now, beloved, this is really gonna help you understand why she would have been willing and even anxious to adopt Moses, even though Moses was a Hebrew child.

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It increased her eligibility to follow her father as Pharaoh in Egypt. Now, what we do know is that not too long after the adoption of Moses, Tutmos the first dies and according to law his daughter Hatshepsut replaces him as the pharaoh in Egypt. But this is what I need you to see and understand. She could only have done so if she had a husband and she was not married so she had no husband

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The other item that would have made her eligible to become queen, queen pharaoh of all of Egypt would be to have a son. So the adoption of Moses made it possible for her not only to be a princess in Egypt, of Egypt following the reign of her father, Tutmos I. Remember, Tutmos I is the pharaoh in 1526, before the common era at the time that Moses is born. By 1522, maybe just a little bit later, he dies and he is replaced by his daughter. But his daughter, and this is the point that I'm

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making here, his daughter is only able to become Queen. Why? Because she has Moses in her life. She has a son that she has named and is recognizing as her son. That's what made her eligible to be elevated to the office of Queen and the office of Pharaoh. Now, I've talked to you about Josephus who provides for us additional material, information and content where the Bible is absent or the Bible is silent on certain subjects.

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Another source would be the Midrash. I'm going to refer to that in just a moment. Another source would be the Talmud, the Talmud and the Midrash. The Midrash argues that the child had shakhanah glory about him, causing him to be embraced not only by Pharaoh's daughter, ah, but by Pharaoh himself.

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And so what the Midrash tells us is that even though the counselors to Pharaoh and the wise men who surrounded Pharaoh said, ah, this may be the child to bring down the kingdom, you need to do away with him, you need to kill him, you need to be consistent in terms of what your law has been, your law has been all male children are to die and they pressed Pharaoh to do that. The Midrash says that Moses had such a glow, he had such a presence, he had such an appearance until Hatshepsut ignored all of the complaints and the criticism

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that was being leveled at her and being leveled at her child and simply took the child according to the Midrash and placed the child in the arms of a father who was the Pharaoh and the Pharaoh taking one look at Moses

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and seeing the Shekinah glory, the obvious anointing that was upon his life. He broke his own rule. His rule was that all male children had to die. Well, it was Pharaoh in part who broke this rule by not insisting that Moses be put to death and that

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Hatshepsut would be able to raise this child in the palace as her own son, and as a prince of Egypt. And this is a very, very powerful, again, we don't get this from the biblical record or the biblical narrative. It is the Midrash that says that the globe,

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the Shekinah glory of God that was resting upon Moses as an infant softened the heart of Pharaoh until Pharaoh broke his own rule and allowed his daughter to keep this child and to raise this child as her own, thus making it possible in a matter of years for this daughter to become Pharaoh queen herself. So let's take, since we're doing this background information, let's take just a moment, boy,

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and take a look at the name of Moses. Now, again, this is not Hebrew, but in the Egyptian language, you have probably seen it as hieroglyphics, probably for the most part of your life. In the Egyptian language, water, the word for water is mo,

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and the term U-S-E-S means to be saved from. So if you take the mode, drop the U and add the SES, you end up with M-O-S-E-S, which literally means to be saved from water or to be rescued from water. And that certainly describes the circumstances and the conditions under which

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Moses becomes a prince of Egypt. Because it is from this water, the Muthis, this river, this stream, the Muthis, that Hatshepsut actually retrieves Moses from a bassinet from the water. And thus he is named in the Egyptian language, the term Moses, which means to be retrieved from water. Now, it also, and I don't want to deal too deeply in the woods here, get in the details here, but there is also the connection to Ramses, R-A-M-S-E-S is in the name Ramses, which was a very common and popular name for pharaohs as well.

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And so we see that Moses has this name that means that he was rescued from water, but he also has a regal name. He also has a noble name. He also has a princely name because in his name of Moses is the very name of many of the pharaohs

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who served as kings in Egypt. Let's deal with just a little bit of legend here. According to Egyptian legend, again, this is not the Bible, this is not Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, or Deuteronomy, but according to Egyptian legend, Hatshepsut converts to the religion of the Hebrews, converts to the religion of Moses in the year 1488, which means that not only did she have an enormous impact upon Moses, but that eventually, watch this, beloved, Moses had an enormous impact

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upon her as well. Now, you will recall that Moses, and let me just read what I have here on the screen. Once Moses fled Egypt because of murdering a soldier, Hatshepsut would have had to forfeit her throne to her stepson, Tutmose II. Now, let me just kind of go back and remind you of what the law was

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and what the rules of kingship and queenship were at the time. Remember, Hatshepsut becomes queen because in the absence of having a husband, she did have a son. And that son made her eligible to serve as queen. Well, that son murders an Egyptian soldier. He murders that soldier, as you know from was abusing a fellow Hebrew. And this sight of this soldier abusing a fellow Hebrew,

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even though we're not sure if Moses recognized that that Hebrew that was being abused was a member of his own family and was possibly kin to him. But he ends up murdering the soldier. And as a result, he becomes a fugitive from Egypt.

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He leaves and he abandons Egypt, and he remains gone for a period, beloved, a period of 40 years. Well, with the flight of Moses, that means that Hatshepsut no longer has a son. And since she no longer has a son,

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and she does not have a husband, she can no longer existed. And that would have been Tutmose II. His mother was a subsequent wife of Tutmose I. Remember in 1526, he only had the one child. He later marries, again, has another child, and that child is Tutmose II. Well, when Moses takes flight, stripping Hatshepsut of her eligibility, it is this half-brother that Hatshepsut has that becomes Pharaoh in

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place of her. So understand that the flight of Moses from Egypt had impact not just upon Moses, but even upon his family and even the status of his mother who had to forfeit the throne because he had left the kingdom. died of diabetes, bone cancer, and an infection from an abscessed tooth. Now, penicillin and so many of the modern medical conveniences that we have, we rely upon, we depend upon, and that we take for granted were not available in this day and time. And so when she contracted bone cancer, there was no chemotherapy to treat it. When she contracted diabetes, there was no insulin or other medication that she could take to limit the severity of her diabetes. And even when her tooth became infected,

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again, with the lack of penicillin and other medication, all of these things combined to sarcophagus or the tomb of Hatshepsut has been discovered. Her torso or her remains have been found and they have been medically examined. And an autopsy, even after all of these years of almost 4,000 years, revealed that she suffered from an abscess to all of which would have contributed to her death in the absence of modern medicine. How interesting it is that the woman who saved the child from the river preserves and protects

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the one who shall deliver the Hebrews from Egypt. And let me also say that the very prophecy that her father, Thutmose I, was so fearful of, so paranoid of, came to pass that the child that she spared, the child that she rescued, the child that she brought into her home and the fulfillment of the prophecy that a male child would be born and it would be that child that would grow up and lead the children of Israel out of Egypt as slaves to the Egyptians. Well friends, that takes up just about all of my time and I thank you for yours. I know this is probably been one of the

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lengthier lessons that I have on this topic. I pray that you enjoy it. And I pray that the items that I have been able to point out and share with you as a part of this Bible webinar, not only benefits you, but widens and deepens your understanding

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of the story that we have of Moses in the pages of the Old Testament. Listen, God loves you, we love you. We look forward to seeing you soon. Go in peace, go in joy, go in love, and go in happiness. For the author of the saying Go in peace, go in joy, go in love, and go in happiness. For the author of the saying

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goes with you. God bless.