Reading the Bible in chronological order is fascinating! God used Joseph, who was a respected man in Pharaoh’s palace, to lead his people into Egypt. Then he uses Moses, again a Hebrew in the Egyptian palace, to lead his people back out of Egypt.
I never realized the connection to Moses’ temper and his lineage. His parents were “a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son”.
Back in Genesis chapter 48 when Jacob was on his deathbed and called for all of his sons, this is what he said about Levi:
5 “Simeon and Levi are brothers—
their swords are weapons of violence.
6 Let me not enter their council,
let me not join their assembly,
for they have killed men in their anger
and hamstrung oxen as they pleased.
7 Cursed be their anger, so fierce,
and their fury, so cruel!
I will scatter them in Jacob
and disperse them in Israel.”
I never contemplated that Moses inherited some flawed DNA. “for they have killed men in their anger” describes Moses as a young, hot-headed, rich teenager. He carried out his genetic tendencies.
Exodus 2: 11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. 12 Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
As the old saying goes, “the apples doesn’t fall far from the tree.” Moses had some serious temper issues.
Another interesting thing occurred to me. Moses’ mother didn’t disobey the orders of Pharaoh. He said, “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile”
His mother actually did put him in the Nile River. Only in a basket sealed to float and keep him safe.
God uses people with a zest for life! People who are clever and daring. He just needs us to be willing.
Dr Vet Sonya 