Word to the Wise
Tuesday, July 18, 2023 - Tuesday in the 15th Week in Ordinary Time
[Exod 2:1-15a and Matt 11:20-24]Pharaoh's daughter came down to the river to bathe, while her maids walked along the river bank. Noticing the basket among the reeds, she sent her handmaid to fetch it. On opening it, she looked, and lo, there was a baby boy, crying! She was moved with pity for him and said, "It is one of the Hebrews' children." Then his sister asked Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and call one of the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?" Yes, do so," she answer. So the maiden went and called the child's own mother...." [Exodus]
The nativity stories of great heroes (including Jesus!) are an important part of understanding the meaning of their lives. Those who compose these stories draw on legends, eyewitness accounts and their own imagination. The Torah (or Pentateuch) did not take written until for centuries after the events being recounted. The story of Moses' birth and early life shows that the author was acquainted with legends from another Middle Eastern culture, notably Babylonian. In any case, the irony of Moses' rescue by Pharaoh's daughter and being handed over unwittingly to his own mother and then raised in Pharaoh's house - all contrary to Pharaoh's command to let Hebrew male children die at birth - shows the power of great storytelling.
Eventually Moses loses his status in Pharaoh's house because he kills an Egyptian abusing a Hebrew slave. Thus Moses' role as a liberator is established and he will subsequently come and liberate the Hebrews from Egyptian slavery. But first, he has to flee into the desert where he is going to meet God in the Burning Bush. That episode lies ahead on Wednesday.
The gospel passages continue from the Gospel According to Matthew and in that gospel Jesus has been portrayed as a "new Moses" preaching the Kingdom of God. Thus, it behooves us to pay attention to the story of Moses, the central figure (after Abraham) in pre-Christian salvation history. It is not just the history of the Jewish faith, it is also ours. AMEN