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This Week's Reading: Exodus 1-6
Come Follow Me Insight #1
During the time that Joseph ruled in Egypt and his family came to live there, Egypt was being ruled by the Hyskos — who were not Egyptian. Hyskos literally means “Rulers of Foreign Lands.”
The Hyskos replaced Egyptian administrators with their own choice of rulers, including some Canaanites.
It took generations and many wars for the Egyptians to come back into power and drive out the Hyskos. It’s not surprising then that the new pharaoh, Ramses II, would see the Israelites as “outsiders” who needed to be kept under control. (Source)
Come Follow Me Insight #2
The Pharaohs during this time often had names that included “m_s_s” in some way. This root word “m_s_s” came from the verb “msi” which means to be born, give birth, or give form.
The “m_s_s” would then be combined with the name of a god so that the final name would mean “born of [name of the god]” or “child of [name of god].”
Take for example Ramses.
“Ra” “msi” = “born of Ra” (the sun god) or “child of Ra.”
There is alsos Thutmoses.
“Thut” “msi” = “born of Thoth” (the moon god) or “child of Thoth”
This could mean that Moses– with his name that included the “m_s_s” root, was being prepared for leadership in Egypt. (Source and Source)
Hieroglyphs for “msi” = 𓄟𓋴𓁒
Ramses = ??
Moses = ??
Also, just for fun– you can learn how your name would appear in hieroglyphics here: https://www.penn.museum/cgi/hieroglyphsreal.php
Come Follow Me Insight #3
Was Moses really “slow of speech”?
Possibly but there is another– more likely– explanation.
When Moses tells the Lord, “I am slow of speech” the word “slow” comes from the Hebrew kahed. This word can mean, heavy, difficult, burdensome (BLB). So in other words, it wasn’t easy for Moses to speak.
We might automatically assume that means Moses had some sort of speech impediment, but there’s more to consider. By this time Moses had been away from Egypt for 40 years, living with the Midianites near the southern border of the Gulf of Aqab— several hundred miles away from Egypt. (Acts 7:30)
The Midianites were descendants of Midian, one of Abraham’s sons (Genesis 25:2) which means they likely spoke the same language that Abraham spoke: Hebrew and Aramaic. This means Moses wouldn’t have spoken the Egyptian language for over 40 years.
Keeping that in mind, it is likely that Moses was simply telling the Lord, “My Egyptian is REALLY rough, there’s no way I can speak well enough to convince the Israelites that You have called me or to convince Pharaoh to let the Israelites go.”
Slow of speech? Probably, “slow to remember the Egyptian I haven’t used in 40 years.”
My Favorite Scriptures for the Week
- Exodus 1:9-11
- Exodus 1:15-17
- Exodus 3:5
- Exodus 3:8, 10
- Exodus 4:10-12
- Exodus 4:21
- Exodus 5:2
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