Mistaken Identity

Exodus 2:1–14 “Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived and gave birth to a son; and when she saw that he was beautiful, she hid him for three months. But when she could no longer hide him, she got him a papyrus basket and covered it with tar and pitch. Then she put the child in it and set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile. And his sister stood at a distance to find out what would happen to him. Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the Nile, with her female attendants walking alongside the Nile; and she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her slave woman, and she brought it to her. When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the boy was crying. And she had pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call a woman for you who is nursing from the Hebrew women, so that she may nurse the child for you?” Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go ahead…”

Introduction

In a very real sense, our human existance- or life, to put it simply- is the collective result of our decisions. Or so it would seem, because above & beyond our decisions- the product of the gift known as free will, is the will and plan of God who exists in eternity. In His infinite wisdom, He somehow makes a way to honor the gift of free will without allowing it to interfere with His sovreignty, even in the slightest way. How this is done is a mystery to us, but as we look over our lives and the lives of others, it is clear that there are certain nexxus events- particular points in the timeline of one’s existence that are crucial to one’s development and propel us to our destiny. And by destiny, I mean that for which each of us was born, and was a part of God’s plan for all life before its inception.

Adam & Eve- the conversation with the serpent & willful eating of the fruit. The even know as “The Fall” not only set the trajectory of human history, but set the stage for the Gospel itself. The Gospel message does not begin in the New Testament; it is found throughout the entire Bible, and God’s intention is established from the very beginning. Gen 3:15 is know in theological terms as the “proto-evenagelion” or the “first gospel”

Deal with the etymology of the words “mistake” and “mistaken” as a derivitive. From the old Norse (late middle English) word “mistaka”, meaning, “to take in error, miscarry”; to take something into one’s hands that didn’t belong to you-whether an item that was not meant to be in your possession or a decision that you were not intended to make ever or in that point in time.

know your place. you are God’s child- you have assess to Him, and all that His is- but you are not Him. So even if you get to dress up in Daddy’s clothes, drive Daddy’s car, sit in Daddy’s chair- you are not Him.

We are not given an exact timeline on the “adoption” of Moses into the royal Egyptian family. He was a child when his mother presented him again to Pharaoh’s daughter (V.10);

His name- I find it fascinating that he was not given a name, or at least no name was referenced prior to the one given to him by the Egyptian princess. He was named after the circumstances in which he was discovered. {CONFIRM} She gave him a Hebrew name

4871. מָשָׁה mâshâh, maw-shaw´; a prim. root; to pull out (lit.) or fig.):—draw (out). draw (out).

MOSES (מֹשֶׁה, mosheh; Μωϋσῆς, Mōusēs). Name means “[is] born” [Egyptian] or “he who is drawn [from water].”

משֶׁה “Moses”. Egyptian word meaning “child, son” without the theophoric element; cf. Egyptian Tutmose (with the theophoric element Tut), the name of a Pharaoh.

We are not told when his true identity was revealed to him. Perhaps he always knew. He didn’t look like his contemporaries. He had the same teachers, dressed in the same clothes he lived like an Egyptian, but the truth is that he never was. We are in this world but not of it; we were born into the culture, raised up in it, but it does not change who we are after our adoption into the TRUE royal family