sojourn of the children of Jacob in Egypt. The people of Israel were
appointed to guard the name and worship of Jehovah, until He who was to
bring life and immortality to light should rise from among them. Until
the "Star" that was to come from Jacob should shed its glorious radiance
over this darkened earth. When all the children of men were departing
from God, He chose this family to perpetuate the memory of his works and
his mighty acts in preserving the first history of the race, and to
prepare the way for the fulfilment of the designs of infinite mercy
toward a sinful and apostate world. By miracles and judgments, by type
and prophecy, by altars and sacrifices, he kept before this people the
mysterious promise given in the hour of transgression.
From this family was to descend him who was to be the light of the
Gentiles, and the glory of Israel, him who was at once the Almighty
Saviour, the everlasting Father, the wonderful Counsellor, the man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief, who bore our sickness, and took upon
himself our iniquities. And while from the family of Israel that high
spiritual influence was to emanate, which was to renovate men's moral
nature and change the aspect and condition of the race, restoring the
knowledge of the true God; and again, through the great atoning
sacrifice, opening the gates of eternal life and bringing spiritual
blessings to all mankind,--the character of the children of Israel,
their civil institutions, their legislation, their history, their laws,
their literature, were to leave their impress upon all the nations of
the earth.
The apostle accounts it the chief honour of the Jews that unto them were
committed the oracles of God. They were employed to transcribe and
preserve the inspired books. From them went forth those who first
announced the great truths of a Saviour crucified and a Comforter
promised. For successive ages the nation of Israel stood surrounded by
the heathen world,--stood the witnesses of the faithfulness of Jehovah,
the monuments of his truth and power, the only nation upon the face of
this earth who worshipped the true God.
Thick moral darkness shrouded all other lands--the nation of Israel
alone had light in their dwellings, and the beams of the rising Sun of
righteousness fell upon them and revealed the gross darkness around
them.
And he who had chosen the people of Israel for such a high purpose, in
infinite wisdom devised the means to fit them for their destination, and
he guided and guarded them in each stage of their national existence.
Egypt was one of the first kingdoms founded after the deluge, and it is
probable that those who repeopled it after this event, had retained many
impressions of the former world. Her monuments, yet remaining, attest
the high antiquity of her arts and sciences, and her early advancement
in refinement and civilization.
Her priests and wise men were the instructors of the ancient world, and
the philosophers of Greece resorted to Egypt to study legislation and
philosophy, and Egypt imparted to Greece, and Greece to Rome, the arts
and sciences by which they refined and elevated Europe.
God designed Egypt to be the nursery of the nation of Israel. The
granary of the ancient world offering abundant sustenance, he brought
Jacob and his sons into it as one family, and here they remained until
they multiplied and increased, and became like the stars of heaven for
number; and He who led them into Egypt ordained all the events of their
national history so as to promote his own eternal plans.
The patriarch led his children, with their flocks and herds,--the wealth
of a pastoral people,--into this land as the invited guests of Pharaoh,
the monarch of Egypt. And as he bowed before the king, the aged
patriarch taught him at once the brevity of man's life and the
unsatisfying nature of all earthly enjoyments, as recalled at the close
of a long pilgrimage: "Few and evil have been the days of the years of
my pilgrimage." Pharaoh received the aged man with respect, and showed
him all honour; while in consideration of the pastoral habits of his
sons, a portion of land, separate from the Egyptians, was allotted them
for a place of abode. Thus they were kept a distinct, unmingled people,
and enabled to maintain their own peculiar institutions, practise the
rites of their own religion, and preserve the worship of the God of
Abraham. And in all the oppression which they here sustained, we do not
find that their religion was ever persecuted or their rites forbidden.
And as Egypt was the cradle of the nation of Israel, so it was to be the
school in which the children of Jacob were to form a national character.
The wandering, pastoral tribes, transformed into an agricultural people
and settled residents, and instructed in the arts of civilized life,
were fitted to take possession of the allotted heritage. After fostering
their infancy and feebleness, the monarchs of Egypt gradually changed
their course as the increasing numbers of the Israelites excited jealous
apprehension. Yet all this varying policy and every cruel edict advanced
the designs of Jehovah and promoted the welfare of his chosen people.
The cruelty of the Egyptians alienated the hearts of the Israelites from
the nation and from the land of Egypt, and kept freshly before them the
remembrance of the inheritance promised. While considered as strangers,
treated as aliens, and surrounded by enemies, the bonds of brotherhood
were more closely drawn, and they clung together, a distinct and
separate people.
The tribes were one nation. While the people of Israel were oppressed,
they were not enslaved. They were tributary, but not reduced to
personal bondage. They dwelt together in that portion of Egypt assigned
to them. They spoke their own language. They seem to have regulated
their internal affairs by their own elders. They maintained their own
worship. Their family relations were unbroken. They must have amassed
riches, for they brought great wealth out of Egypt, as the offerings at
the tabernacle show--and although in part this may have been received
from the restitution which the conscience-smitten Egyptians offered upon
their departure, all could not have been thus derived. The whole
narrative of the Israelites shows that they were rich in silver and
gold, and possessed much cattle. Yet all their property was
personal--they owned no land. And much of the tribute was, doubtless,
exacted as rent, paid by many in personal labour; and while they thus
erected, perhaps, the proudest monuments of Egyptian art by this
enforced labour, they were acquiring the various knowledge needful to a
nation; while their very task-masters, by compelling them to acquire the
habits of industry, to which a pastoral people are always averse, were
school-masters, needful though harsh, teaching them to develop their
energies and forcing them to exercise patience and to acquire skill.
Learning and wisdom have departed from Egypt. She has long been the
basest of kingdoms. The race of the Pharaohs has passed away. She has
been for ages governed by slaves. Temple and palace are in ruins. Her
tombs, sacred and precious, have been pillaged; And the bones of her
great and noble ones, her priests and kings, feed the fire by which the
wandering Arab prepares his food. Yet many monuments of her ancient arts
remain, interesting as attesting her power, grandeur, and high
advancement in civilization, and still more valuable as corroborating
the sacred history and throwing light on many passages of the inspired
word,--at once showing the former residence of the Israelites in Egypt,
the close connection of these ancient people, and affording proofs of
that wisdom which selected Egypt for the cradle and school of the chosen
race.
The Egyptians, gradually after the flood, lost the knowledge of Jehovah
and departed from his worship.
At the time Joseph married the daughter of the priest of On, the
Egyptians could not have sunk into that gross idolatry which contrasted
so strangely with their wise legislation and scientific attainments; and
their priests are supposed to have concealed, under mystic symbols,
mysterious truths, which they imparted to the initiated, while they
taught a grosser system to the common mind. While in Egypt the
Israelites seem never to have been exposed to the debasing immoralities
which prevailed among the nations around the promised land.
The children of Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham four hundred years.
When Jehovah called his people out of Egypt they were fitted to receive
the laws and institutions which he designed to give them, and to take
the high position he assigned them among the nations of the earth. And
lest, during their long sojourn in the wilderness, they should lose the
arts of civilized life, they were employed in the construction of the
tabernacle. By the minute enumeration of all that was required for the
completion of this work, we see that the erection involved an extensive
acquaintance with the mechanical arts, and of those, too, which indicate
a high degree of advancement in the luxuries of polished life. Thus the
generation born in the wilderness were instructed, and preserved from
degenerating into mere shepherds, hunters, or warriors. The restless
were occupied, and the work proved a bond of union for the whole people,
exciting the interest and employing the energies of all the different
classes of the great multitude.
The long ages of the sojourn of the children of Jacob were drawing to a
close. The iniquity of the Canaanites was now full; the children of
Israel were prepared to be numbered among the nations of the earth; and
the events dictated by the craft and policy of men were ordained to
promote the infinite designs of Jehovah. For four hundred years the
descendants of Jacob had dwelt in Goshen. From a pastoral they were
already become an agricultural people; they had learned to prize the
comforts of an established life, of quiet, peaceful homes, of pleasant
places of abode. Dwelling in the richest portion of Egypt, protected
from all foreign aggression, they there enjoyed abundance, peace, and
prosperity, to which their wanderings in the desert furnished a sad
contrast.
The policy of Egypt had excluded the Israelites from her crimes. The
energy, the love of change and adventure, which a martial life imparts,
were unfelt; and had not oppression driven the Israelites from Egypt,
the promise of that goodly land destined for their race had hardly
induced the nation to leave their present abundance and protection.
Thus, by the various dispensations of his providence, Jehovah was at
once preparing a guide, leader, ruler, and future lawgiver for his
people, while by the continued vexation, oppression, and cruelty of the
Egyptian rulers, he was suffering them to alienate the affections of the
children of Jacob from a country which had become the native land of the
Israelites, which was the birth-place of generation after generation.
At the time Miriam, the sister of Moses, appears before us, the children
of Israel had reached the fourth generation. A family had become a
nation, a people in the bosom of another, dwelling together, distinct,
separate, too numerous to be easily or safely held in subjection, too
valuable as tributaries to be relinquished. Thus to hold them safely in
bondage and to prevent their further increase, it became the settled
policy of Egypt to oppress and degrade them. As their jealous
apprehensions were at length awakened, by a policy as profound as it was
cruel, the Egyptian monarchs endeavoured, in destroying the sons of this
people, to force the daughters of Israel to intermarry with their
oppressors, that they might obtain the wealth of the sons of Jacob,
while the name and memory of his family would be swept from the earth.
Yet dwelling, as the Israelites did, in a separate province, it was not
easy for Pharaoh to find those who would execute his purposes; and the
first efforts to cut off the race of the chosen, failed. He was however
so intent upon their extermination, that he did not hesitate to direct
that all the male children of the Israelites should be cast into the
river as soon as they were born.
While there were so many to court the favour of the monarch and ever
ready for the darkest deeds, how could the sons of the Hebrews now
escape? When Moses was born, his mother hid him three months; and when
concealment was no longer possible, she sought for the babe a strange
place of safety--in the very element which was indicated for its
destruction. The slender ark is framed by the mother's hands, and
deposited among the flags on the bank of the Nile. The morning was
perhaps dawning, and the sky yet gray, when the anxious mother
withdrew.
In a few hours after, the chant of the boatmen is suddenly hushed, and
the passing labourers shroud their heads in token of reverence, as,
surrounded by her attendants, the daughter of Pharaoh approaches the
river. The slight ark, with its precious burden, floating among the
reeds, attracts her eye, and, as her maidens draw it from the water, the
wail of the desolate infant strikes her ear.
"The babe wept"--and full fountains of womanly tenderness were broken up
in the heart of the princess of Egypt. "This is one of the Hebrew
children," said she; and as she drew him from the waves, she resolved to
save and adopt the child.
Miriam, the sister, had lingered near to watch, if not to save the
child. We may fancy the Hebrew maiden at a little distance, eagerly
bending forward, and gazing with intense and breathless interest. And
when the princess announces her intention to protect the infant, in all
the gladness of childhood she bounds forward, and, mingling with the
royal train, asks, "Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew
women, that she may nurse the child for thee?" And Pharaoh's daughter
said unto her, "Go;" and the maid went and brought the child's mother!
Thus had the God of Israel overruled all the designs of evil to his
people, by providing in the very family of Pharaoh a shelter and a home
for the child--doomed by the impious monarch to destruction--but
designed by Jehovah to be the saviour of his people. He who was thus
drawn from the water was the ordained deliverer, guide, legislator, and
prophet of Israel.
As Jehovah had appointed him to this high vocation, he not only guarded
his life, thus threatened, but made the instruments intended for the
extermination of the race the means of the full accomplishment of all
its mysterious destiny.
The child thus adopted into the royal family was not only saved from
death, but was thus placed under influences most propitious for the
attainment of all the various knowledge which could fit him for the high
station to which he was destined. That helpless infant was not only to
be the deliverer of Israel, but by his political institutions, his
legislative enactments, his moral precepts, his inspired teachings, he
was to mould the character of his own people, and to influence other
nations down through all coming ages. High was the honour allotted him
as the deliverer and the lawgiver of Israel--still higher that as the
prophet of the Lord. He was the promulgator of the great moral laws of
the universe, originally engraven on the hearts of men, but now so
effaced by sin as to be scarcely legible;--he was to establish those
institutions which were to perpetuate the name and the worship of
Jehovah among the children of men; and that memorial which, by a long
line of types and sacrifices, was at once to prefigure and prepare for
the great atoning sacrifice, offered for a lost world.
Of all the fallen sons of Adam, none were ever destined to a station of
more arduous responsibility, of more extensive and long-continued
influence than that appointed to this Hebrew infant; and He who had
marked out his destiny ordained the means which were to prepare him for
it. Transplanted into the family of Pharaoh, he was there instructed in
all the "wisdom of the Egyptians," and Egypt (as we know) was the
fountain of ancient learning, science, and philosophy. While Jehovah
communicated by direct inspiration to Moses, yet the mind of the ruler
and leader of Israel had been prepared by that instruction which
develops the capacity, expands the mind, and enlarges the apprehension
to receive and understand the institutions Jehovah gave his people, and
he was thus enabled to co-operate with an enlightened mind in all the
designs of God. But if the schools of Egypt imparted that intellectual
attainment, mental discipline and knowledge of legislation in its
various forms, so necessary for the lawgiver, there were other
influences which were needful for the perfection of the character. There
was a knowledge higher and holier than that ever taught by priests or
Grecian philosophers,--a wisdom beyond that of the Egyptians, "the
knowledge of the Lord," the God of his fathers, and the first great
truths of religion should be breathed into the soul in the whispers of
parental love. The earthly parent should lead the child to the feet of
the great Creator.
And then in the formation of a character which was to leave its impress
upon all future ages to the close of time, the affections were to be
cultivated, the sympathies awakened, and all that is pure and kind and
elevated in the nature of man drawn forth. And where is the influence
which so gently moulds the character, refining, softening, and elevating
it, as the affectionate, intelligent sister? As a man advances in life,
the continual influence and association of virtuous and accomplished
women is felt in all the relations he is called to sustain.
We see in the various circumstances of the life of Moses a Divine
recognition of the value of the family relation and of the importance of
the influence of women in the formation of character.
Before Moses was admitted to the schools of Egyptian learning, before he
was exposed to the snares and the splendours of a court, before he was
called to a throne, he had learned lessons of the deepest wisdom from
the lips of his parents. One higher than the royal of earth spoke
through the princess, when she said, "Take this child and nurse it for
me, and I will give thee wages." And faithfully did the mother fulfil
her charge. She strove to imbue the soul of her child with living faith,
while upon that infant heart she impressed the maxims of eternal
truth--she imparted those lessons of trust and confidence, and
inculcated that deep conviction of the power of truth, which led the
man, by the grace of God, in the prime and flush of life, to refuse to
be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer
affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for
a season.
Had that mother been unfaithful to her high trust, had she infused into
that infant heart lessons of ambition and worldliness, he had perhaps
failed in the hour of trial, and another had led the tribes of Israel to
the chosen land. A little band guarded Moses; the princess of Egypt,
the mother of Moses, and his sister Miriam. Each one exerted her
peculiar influence upon his character, while his future destiny attested
the varied power of these influences and their relative value.
As the saviour of the young Hebrew, as his protectress and adopted
mother, the daughter of Pharaoh had a large claim upon him, and to her
he was indebted for many of those high attainments which fitted him for
his office. The slight incidental notices of the daughter of Pharaoh
give us a delightful impression of her character.
There is something higher and nobler than a princess. She was a true
woman, filled with all the quiet sympathies and kind affections of her
sex, and possessing an energy and a persevering constancy which led her
to fulfil her generous purposes, and made her impulses bear the fruits
of benevolent action.
Such women show what women should be, and such women in all ages make
the influence of their characters to be felt. To her fostering care
Moses owed life and advancement, education, honour, the standing of a
prince, the polish and the refinement of the court. She proved her
appreciation of knowledge, and we may well infer her own cultivated
intelligence from the care with which she provided for the instruction
of her charge. She showed that she could feel and that she cherished all
the sympathies of domestic love, by providing for their indulgence, by
allowing their continuance, and yielding to their claims, even though
she was a princess of Egypt, the daughter of the haughty Pharaoh, and
her adopted child belonged to a race studiously oppressed, degraded, and
exposed to all contumely, and while, doubtless, she was no stranger to
the prejudices which led her countrymen to look upon the sons of Israel
as an outcast and despicable race. Still the bonds of national
affection, of kindred and brotherhood, were all respected. The whole
narrative shows that Moses was never alienated from his family, never
taught to forget that he was a Hebrew. His patroness felt that there
were holy ties never to be disregarded nor trampled upon.
And while the princess of Egypt surrounded her infant charge with right
influences, while she provided wisely for his intellectual culture, she
likewise brought the influence of her own personal character to bear
upon him. The influence of a pure woman, who unites refinement to
intelligence, and adds to them the polish of the court without its
corruption, would be as powerful as it would be salutary, and when to
the higher qualities, mental and moral, the polished refinement and
graceful attention to all the proprieties of life are imparted, a high
finish is given to the character. Nor was that acquired grace and
courtly manner a thing of frivolous import. It exerted an important
influence upon the future destiny of the individual. The successful
leaders of great multitudes have often owed almost as much to that high
bearing and dignified demeanour which should be the distinct badge of
those who are numbered with the great, as to their skill and
discernment; and while treated in the court of Pharaoh as a scion of
royalty, the young Hebrew acquired that air of conscious authority to
which inferior minds always defer. He gained there that knowledge of
courtly splendour and gayety which forced in him the conviction of their
perfect insufficiency for the high demands of the spiritual nature, and
that knowledge of the heart of man and its depraved qualities most
needful to one who was at once to lead and control a multitude, and who
was to stand before kings as the envoy of Jehovah.
The Israelites never seem to have entered the Egyptian armies. It would
have been contrary to the policy of the kings either to have encouraged
a martial spirit or to have placed arms in the hands of this multitude;
yet as one of the family of Pharaoh, Moses led the armies of Egypt. And
needful it was that the future leader of Israel should be well
instructed in all the tactics of war--should understand all the
providing for, the ordering, and the encamping of vast hosts. It was
perhaps only by arduous military service that he could have developed
that capacity indicated by the vast skill with which an army of six
hundred thousand men, encumbered with their wives and little ones, could
be encamped in regular order, whether marching or resting. Ever
desiring peace and acting on the defensive, yet ready to repel
aggression, for forty years the nation of Israel were encamped as the
hosts of an army. Each tribe with its own banner, marching and
countermarching, taking down and putting up their tents, with all the
skill and regularity of a disciplined army, and often engaged in actual
warfare. He who could thus order and regulate such a host must have
possessed the skill and science of the general. While the habits of long
command, added to the consciousness of authority and Divine reliance,
enabled him to prevent or control turbulent outbreaks.
While the legislator of Israel owed so much to the fostering care of the
daughter of Pharaoh in preparing him for his high destination, we cannot
but feel a deep interest in her who so unconsciously contributed toward
an influence and prepared an instrumentality quite adverse to the
apparent interests of her people. We cannot but hope that, while she
thus hastened the accomplishment of promise and prediction, she was
herself led to the knowledge and worship of Israel's God.