Who Are You?
A reading for Monday, October 5, 2015: Exodus 2:1-25.
Much has been made about Moses being raised in the house of Pharaoh, the son of the daughter of Pharaoh. Perhaps it makes a good story. How a Hebrew slave could have enjoyed all the benefit and blessing of wealth and power, privilege and pleasure. A mighty prince of Egypt, right?
But the Bible itself only offers one paragraph, really only one sentence. A Hebrew woman, actually the mother of Moses, nursed him and brought him up. She was paid by Pharaoh's daughter wages for such work. Then comes the sentence: "When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son." That's all we have about the story of Moses as a child of Pharaoh.
Then the big jump to the realization that Moses still sees himself as a Hebrew: "One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and saw their forced labor." Perhaps Moses was never really Egyptian, but Hebrew all along? Pharaoh's daughter took Moses as a son, but did Moses ever really identify with her as his mother? Truth is, we don't know...
For most of us, like Moses our identity is complicated and diverse. We are the children of the culture and the children of God. We have loyalties that are put upon us, and others that seem inherent and part of being human. The trick for us as God's people (really not a trick at all) is to discern what God wants for us and our lives. Then we can know how to embrace our true identity...
Much has been made about Moses being raised in the house of Pharaoh, the son of the daughter of Pharaoh. Perhaps it makes a good story. How a Hebrew slave could have enjoyed all the benefit and blessing of wealth and power, privilege and pleasure. A mighty prince of Egypt, right?
But the Bible itself only offers one paragraph, really only one sentence. A Hebrew woman, actually the mother of Moses, nursed him and brought him up. She was paid by Pharaoh's daughter wages for such work. Then comes the sentence: "When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son." That's all we have about the story of Moses as a child of Pharaoh.
Then the big jump to the realization that Moses still sees himself as a Hebrew: "One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and saw their forced labor." Perhaps Moses was never really Egyptian, but Hebrew all along? Pharaoh's daughter took Moses as a son, but did Moses ever really identify with her as his mother? Truth is, we don't know...
For most of us, like Moses our identity is complicated and diverse. We are the children of the culture and the children of God. We have loyalties that are put upon us, and others that seem inherent and part of being human. The trick for us as God's people (really not a trick at all) is to discern what God wants for us and our lives. Then we can know how to embrace our true identity...
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