Godbey's Commentary - Acts - Romans - Enter His Rest

y his crying, she at once conceives the idea of his adoption to herself for a son, and thus feigned
maternity, circulating the report and sending away her two maid-servants, who alone knew to the
contrary, to regions unknown, never again to be seen; receiving the baby in her arms, calling a nurse
through the loving little sister, Miriam, who proved to be none other than the loving mother of the
dear little foundling, now, with her husband and four-years-old Aaron and first-born Miriam, moving
at once into a tenement house on the royal premises; Amram receiving the appointment of
horticultural superintendent.
22. “Indeed Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians: and was mighty in his words
and deeds.” God needed in Moses the highest scholarship in the world to reveal the Bible, write the
Pentateuch and legislate for all mankind. Therefore He avails Himself of the Egyptians, whose
philosophers and magicians stood at the head of the world’s learning and became the educators of
Moses, believing him to be the son of their queen, the heir of the blood-royal and their future king.
Of course, they lay under contribution all the scholarship of the age to educate their bright and
promising young king, flattering themselves that in Moses Egypt would have a Pharaoh eclipsing
all his illustrious predecessors of the royal line. To be “mighty in his words,” or as the Greek says,
“in sciences,” was to be a great intellectualist and scholar, such as Moses doubtless was, reaching
the very acme of the world, and little dreaming that God in His wonderful providence was preparing
him to be prophet, legislator, leader and mediator of Israel, thus treading an apex hitherto reached
by no human being. To be “mighty in his works” in that age meant to be a great military man. This
is abundantly corroborated by Egyptian history, which certifies that Moses led the Egyptian armies
in the Ethiopian wars, rising to pre-eminence as a military chieftain. Thus the statement in the
Pentateuch that he received “an Ethiopian woman for a wife” is accounted for. During the
memorable siege of Thebes, the beautiful and magnificent Ethiopian capital, the rival of Memphis,
the capital of Egypt, the daughter of the Ethiopian king ever and anon gazed from the high towers
of the royal palace far out over the wall, beholding with admiration the military evolutions of the
Egyptian army. Recognizing their grand, beautiful and majestic leader, she falls in love with him at
a distance, sends him a messenger, proposing to maneuver the opening of the gates and the
admission of his army into the city, on condition that she receive his hand in wedlock. It works out
to a charm; magnificent Thebes is captured by the Egyptian army, and the long war winds up with
victory perched on the banner of the Pharaohs. Of course she becomes the wife of Moses. Having
either passed away by death or returned to her own country, she was not his wife at the time of the
above quotation, as he was then the husband of Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro.
23. “And when the time of the fortieth year was being fulfilled to him, it came into his heart to
visit his brethren, the sons of Israel.” Here culminates a crisis, more copiously revealed in Hebrews
11:24-28, where it is said that he
“refused to be called the son of Pharaoh, preferring to suffer affliction with the people
of God, rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of
Christ greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt.”
This clearly confirms and corroborates the preceding. As Egypt was an absolute monarchy, the
king owned the country, all the people and all the money. Thus, in the capacity of king, Moses had
it in his power to own all the “treasures of Egypt.” History says that after be had passed his thirty-