Stephen's Lecture Continues

Tom: In this our Understanding the Scriptures segment, we are in the Book of Acts:7:17But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,
See All... - we’ll pick up right there. But, Dave, let me, just…a little aside here: for all that we have been saying in our previous segments, it’s a privilege for us to go through the Word of God and have our listeners hear this, but our exhortation is for them to search the Scriptures. You’re giving, I believe, wonderful insights; nevertheless, they’re to check you out, to search the Scriptures on their own, to read the Scriptures on their own, and that’s our encouragement to every believer that is listening.

Dave: Exactly.

Tom: Acts:7:17But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,
See All...: “But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, Till another king arose, which knew not Joseph. The same dealt subtly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live.”

Dave: There is so much here, we can’t go into it. Stephen is covering the whole Old Testament - not all of it, but much of it. And “when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham…” Well, that was the promise that he would, after they were slaves for 400 years - and you find that in Genesis 15 - that he would deliver them and bring them into this promised land. And the time is coming when it will be fulfilled, and Satan, I guess, is stepping up his attacks to destroy the people of God, to continue to keep them as slaves, because, it was very clear in Genesis 15, God said, “Your seed,” that is, the seed that will inherit the land, “will be slaves for 400 years.” It never happened to the Arabs; it never happened to those people who call themselves Palestinians, which is a fraud. They’re not Palestinians; there never was a Palestinian people; in fact, the Arabs denied that they were Palestinians right up to the very end. In 1956, Ahmed Shukari testified to the UN - he said: “There’s no such people as Palestinians. Arabs - we’re not Palestinians.” 

And then eight years later in 1964, he was the founding chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization. So they changed their mind, they lied, and so forth. 

But this is what he’s talking about here: God promised Abraham this land, and Abraham lived in it for a long time. I would hesitate to say, but I think Abraham lived there about 100 years in this land. He came in when he was 75, and I think he was around 175 when he died, and he had been living in Hebron, in Canaan, almost continuously during that time. Isaac lived there and Jacob lived there, and then because of the famine in that land, they went into Egypt, and this is when they became slaves. That 400 years had to go by, and this is the promise that God gave. The Jews are the only ones who spent 400 years as slaves in a foreign land; the only ones who were brought out miraculously; the only ones who keep the Passover as proof that this happened, and that land, therefore, belongs to them. It’s an interesting statement - “…until another king arose, which knew not Joseph.” You know, for a time, the children of Israel had a pretty good time there, because Joseph - what a highly honored man he was; but then along comes a king - he doesn’t know Joseph. It’s like Paul said: “Deliver us from wicked and unreasonable men.” They don’t all have faith, and they certainly don’t all know Jesus, and you get in the hands of someone who doesn’t know Jesus like this king didn’t know Joseph, you’ve got some troubles coming up.

Tom: But maybe to a good end, because - Dave, here’s a little speculation: you think the Israelites would have gone back to their land if things were wonderful in Egypt? 

Dave: You know, Tom, very often in our lives, adversity…we need some adversity. It’s where we learn our greatest lessons, our deepest lessons.

Tom: And the flesh - God does use the flesh; he moves us.

Dave: You have to struggle through certain things. But the Lord delivered them. 

So he’s talking now, verse 20: “In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father’s house three months.” In all fairness we ought to say many of the Israelites, apparently - I don’t get that too much from the Old Testament - but apparently they did throw their children out. They were only to keep the females, because the Egyptians would have them as slaves and wives and so forth, and have children through them which would be half-Egyptian, and pretty soon they could do away with these Israelites that they realized now were multiplying and were a threat. But it does tell us about the mid-wives who came to deliver the babies, but they saved the males alive, and their excuse would be, “These Israelite women, they give birth so quickly that it’s all over before we get there, and we just can’t help it.” But it was a very difficult time. 

Anyway, Moses - he was such a beautiful boy, and his parents loved him so much, which I am sure was the case with many others.

Tom: Well, the daughter of Pharaoh was certainly attracted to this beautiful baby.

Dave: Mm-hmm. So they raised him as long as they could in secret, and that’s not easy. It says, “They nursed him up in his father’s house three months,” and that was as long as they could keep this kid. I guess he could make a pretty good noise when he cries. And when he was cast out - now, it doesn’t go into the details, but Stephen is speaking to these Rabbis; they know the details. You know, they put him in a - like a basket, but it was waterproofed…

Tom: Pitch.

Dave: …and they put it in the Nile River among the bulrushes. And then his older sister is hiding, waiting to see what would happen. Verse 21: “And when he was cast out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son. And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.” So we know that Moses knew the science - I mean, he was taught all of this nonsense. This is the best stuff they had: rattlesnake venom as cures, and all kinds of who-knows-what…superstition. And certainly they didn’t have the hygienic laws that God gave to the Jews through Moses. 

So one of the proofs of the Bible - people sometimes say, “Well, the Bible, that just reflects the culture and the teaching of that day.” No, it does not! And when God spoke through Moses - at least this is what Moses said - gave him the law, gave him many hygienic rules, and so forth. You would not find those in Egypt at all. Moses gave the children of Israel a wisdom that was beyond anything that they had - even told them, you know, well, a lot of hygienic rules, to which I won’t go into. He taught them to wash their hands and so forth. And they didn’t do that; they didn’t understand anything about germs.

Tom: Verse 23: “And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.” So as you say, Moses is basically trained, living, enculturated by Egypt, yet we don’t find any of this in his writings.

Dave: See, what it doesn’t tell us here, Tom - because Stephen can’t go into every detail, but the Rabbis know - when Pharaoh’s daughter sees this baby and opens this basket up and it’s crying, she has great sympathy with it, but she’s not a nurse. Then Moses’ sister makes herself known, you know, comes out from where she has been hiding, and she recognizes that this is a Hebrew child, and she says to her, “Well, would there be some woman among the Hebrews, you know, that might be able to nourish this child,” and so forth. And so, she takes it to Moses’ mother. And it’s his mother who raises him for a period of time, and he knew who his relatives were; he knew that he was an Israelite. It’s amazing! Forty years old, he finally decides he’s going to see what’s going on with his people, the Jews. Maybe that was a little bit late, but no, it was not; it was in God’s timing, and Moses was established as a leader in Egypt by the time he did this.