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In the Torah reading שמות Shemot (“names,” Ex. 1:1–6:1) and its parallel passage, we learn about Moses and Samuel, great leaders of ancient Israel. But their greatness came from their humility, not grasping at the reins of power. Because of their meekness, Heaven appointed them to be chief agents of the power of Heaven on Earth.
How much more does the Messiah, the exact representation of Heaven (Heb. 1:3), show us what a faith-worth leader should be.
Who does God remember?
When the Torah gives us the name of a person, it’s because God wants us to remember that person for some reason. The reason we don’t know the name of the pharaoh that was the oppressor of the Hebrews is that God didn’t want him to be remembered. This is why to this day we can only guess as to which pharaoh was the arch-oppressor of Israel.
In Egyptian theology, if your name is forgotten on earth, your spirit dies in heaven. God was happy to make sure this particular pharaoh’s name was forgotten so that his name died with him.
On the other hand, the names of the righteous midwives who refused to kill the Hebrew babies are recorded for us so their memory is eternally with us.
God valued these people enough to make sure their names were recorded and if He finds them valuable, we should too. He also rewarded these midwives with households that survived the onslaught that decimated the rest of Egypt.
Playbook of oppression: taxation and slavery
Pharaoh’s attempts to check the Israelite proliferation unfolded in four stages which were more oppressive. First they were subjected to forced or draft labor, slavery, a secret attempt to murder newborn boys, and a public attempt to do the same.
They also attack the leadership of the community they want to dehumanize, then they use those humiliated leaders to humiliate and subjugate the others. Oppressors always use incremental steps to subjugate others. That is human nature, which was the same in the time of the Pharaoh as it was in the days of Hitler as it is now.
The Egyptians were enslaved to Pharaoh by having to pay him 20% of their income every year, but the type of slavery he forced on the Israelites was far more brutal.
The slavery in Egypt doesn’t appear to be chattel slavery that we think of in America. Based on Moses’ statement to Pharaoh that the children of Israel needed to take their own flocks with them into the desert for three days to worship HaShem, we can ascertain that the slavery of Egypt was more of an extreme sort of feudalism or serfdom where they had to give Pharaoh their labor for a good portion of the year.
Amram and Jochebed had three children: Aaron, Miriam and Moses. Aaron was three years older than Moses and it is most likely that Pharaoh’s edict to kill the Hebrew boys was put into law well after Aaron was born and was only applied to the youngest children. It appears that Pharaoh’s edict to throw all the Hebrew boys into the Nile was not retroactive.
The midwives who spared the Hebrew boys from execution used very sophisticated racist code-language to plant the idea in Pharaoh’s head that the Hebrew women didn’t need midwives because they bred like animals.
The best leaders are those who don’t want to be
When God calls Moses at the burning bush, we are told the bush was a thorn bush. I don’t know for sure why God chose a thorn bush rather than another tree for this revelation but this is not the last time we read about thorn bushes in the TaNaKh.
Gideon’s son Jotham in Judges 9 uses the thorn bush in a parable as he compares different trees to different kinds of leaders and how they can use to rule other people or they can choose to serve God and their fellow man by producing something valuable.
“Now when they told Jotham, he went and stood on the top of Mount Gerizim, and lifted his voice and called out. Thus he said to them, “Listen to me, O men of Shechem, that God may listen to you. “Once the trees went forth to anoint a king over them, and they said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us!’ “But the olive tree said to them, ‘Shall I leave my fatness with which God and men are honored, and go to wave over the trees?’ “Then the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come, reign over us!’ “But the fig tree said to them, ‘Shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit, and go to wave over the trees?’ “Then the trees said to the vine, ‘You come, reign over us!’ “But the vine said to them, ‘Shall I leave my new wine, which cheers God and men, and go to wave over the trees?’ “Finally all the trees said to the bramble, ‘You come, reign over us!’ “The bramble said to the trees, ‘If in truth you are anointing me as king over you, come and take refuge in my shade; but if not, may fire come out from the bramble and consume the cedars of Lebanon.’” (Judges 9:7–15 NASB)
Those who desire leadership and control over their fellow man probably should never be given leadership and control over people.
“Samuel said, ‘Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.
‘For rebellion is as the sin of divination, And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has also rejected you from being king.’” (1Samuel 15:22–23 NASB)
Moses was the reluctant leader, he didn’t seek power, it was imposed on him. King Saul was the same way, at least at first. When Samuel called Saul to kingship, Saul didn’t want it. So, on the surface, Saul appeared to be a leader who could walk in kingship the way Moses did.
Scripture tells us how we can tell if someone is righteously reluctant or if they are presenting a false humility.
There was a key difference between Saul and Moses. Saul was a reluctant leader because he was stubborn and rebellious. Moses was a reluctant leader because of his genuine humility.
How do we know that Moses was genuinely reluctant to take the mantle of leadership? Even after God gave Moses miraculous power, he still asked God to call someone else to be a leader of His people.
The Messiah had the power of God at His fingertips, yet He refused to ever misuse it. Moses didn’t misuse his great power until nearly 40 years after his call as leader. Both Yeshua and Moses were meek, who exercised power under control.
“But he said, ‘Please, Lord, now send the message by whomever You will.’ Then the anger of the LORD burned against Moses, and He said, ‘Is there not your brother Aaron the Levite? I know that he speaks fluently. And moreover, behold, he is coming out to meet you; when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. You are to speak to him and put the words in his mouth; and I, even I, will be with your mouth and his mouth, and I will teach you what you are to do. Moreover, he shall speak for you to the people; and he will be as a mouth for you and you will be as God to him. You shall take in your hand this staff, with which you shall perform the signs.’” (Exodus 4:13–17 NASB)
Additional insights
The phrase “bridegroom of blood” (Ex. 4:24–26) might mean that Zipporah had to save her bridegroom with her son’s blood. It could also mean that Zipporah had to circumcise her son to save him from death, not Moses, which is why she appears to be so angry about what she had to do.
“The saving power of the bloody foreskin may foreshadow the protective role of the blood on the Israelites’ doorposts on the eve of the exodus.”
Jewish Study Bible
Three supernatural signs that God gives Moses were given to confirm that Moses was God’s appointed leader of the Hebrew people. All of them were ominous, turning water into blood, turning Moses’ hand into death and the rod turning into a snake, all portending doom to Egypt if they resist God’s command to let the Hebrews go.
Summary: Tammy