ellauri108.html on line 379: Solomons hubris, his tragic flaw, is the meat and bone of the Ethiopian bible, the Kebra Nagast, which, translated, is the glory of the kings. In this work, unlike the King James' bible, we see King Solomon struggling with his own mortality. Bayna-Lehkem, or David, as he is called by Solomon because of likeness to the boy's grandfather, King David, is a man of virtue who will extend his glory to Ethiopia. So, Solomon's weakness for women, which brings about his dissolution, gives him the thing he is truly seeking: a son to walk his own footsteps, like Shakespeare's Hamnet, a son wiser, by dint of his virtue, than himself. A son wiser than himself, that sounds rather like a stone too big to both create and throw. Solomon is disinherited by the lord when he marries the daughter of the Pharaoh and worships her golden insect idols. A hairy spider on its back. For this he is punished severely. We discern his absolute nihilism. His ultimate disillusionment. Knowledge is nothing but sorrow. He that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. In the bitter nutmeat of the Ecclesiastes. Who was the mother? Of course, Queen Sheba. She was, by all reports, black.
ellauri153.html on line 320: evil”, which underlie stories like the Exodus story of God defeating the Pharaoh and the Gospel
ellauri164.html on line 485: We first encounter Moses in the opening chapters of the book of Exodus. In chapter 1, we learn that, after the patriarch Joseph rescued his family from the great famine and situated them in the land of Goshen (in Egypt), the descendants of Abraham lived in peace for several generations until there rose to power in Egypt a pharaoh who “did not know Joseph” (Exodus 1:8). This pharaoh subjugated the Hebrew people and used them as slaves for his massive building projects. Because God blessed the Hebrew people with rapid numeric growth, the Egyptians began to fear the increasing number of Jews living in their land. So, Pharaoh ordered the death of all male children born to Hebrew women (Exodus 1:22).
ellauri164.html on line 487: In Exodus 2, we see Moses’ mother attempting to save her child by placing him in a basket and putting it into the Nile. The basket was eventually found by Pharaoh’s daughter, and she adopted him as her own and raised him in the palace of the pharaoh himself. As Moses grew into adulthood, he began to empathize with the plight of his people, and upon witnessing an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave, Moses intervened and killed the Egyptian. But that was not a sin because the guy was just an Egyptian. In another incident, Moses attempted to intervene in a dispute between two Hebrews, but one of the Hebrews rebuked Moses and sarcastically commented, “Are you going to kill me as you did the Egyptian?” (Exodus 2:14). Realizing that his criminal act was made known, Moses fled to the land of Midian where he again intervened—this time rescuing the daughters of Jethro from some bandits. In gratitude, Jethro (also called Reuel) granted his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage (Exodus 2:15–21). Moses lived in Midian for about forty years.
ellauri164.html on line 489: The next major incident in Moses’ life was his encounter with God at the burning bush (Exodus 3—4), where God called Moses to be the savior of His people. Despite his initial excuses and outright request that God send someone else, Moses agreed to obey God. God promised to send Aaron, Moses’ brother, along with him. The rest of the story is fairly well known. Moses and his brother, Aaron, go to Pharaoh in God’s name and demand that he let the people go to worship their God. Pharaoh stubbornly refuses, and ten plagues of God’s judgment fall upon the people and the land, the final plague being the slaying of the firstborn. Prior to this final plague, God commands Moses to institute the Passover, which is commemorative of God’s saving act in redeeming His people from bondage in Egypt.
ellauri164.html on line 495: The book of Deuteronomy shows Moses giving several sermon-type speeches to the people, reminding them of God’s saving power and faithfulness. He gives the second reading of the Law (Deuteronomy 5) and prepares this generation of Israelites to receive the promises of God. Moses himself is prohibited from entering the land because of his sin at Meribah (Numbers 20:10-13). At the end of the book of Deuteronomy, Moses’ death is recorded (Deuteronomy 34). He climbed Mount Nebo and is allowed to look upon the Promised Land. Moses was 120 years old when he died, and the Bible records that his “eye was undimmed and his vigor unabated” (Deuteronomy 34:7). The Lord Himself buried Moses (Deuteronomy 34:5–6), and Joshua took over as leader of the people (Deuteronomy 34:9). Deuteronomy 34:10–12 says, " Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, who did all those signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt—to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land. For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel."
ellauri164.html on line 498: So, now, what can we learn from Moses’ life? Moses’ life is generally broken down into three 40-year periods. The first is his life in the court of Pharaoh. As the adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter, Moses would have had all the perks and privileges of a prince of Egypt. He was instructed “in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds” (Acts 7:22). As the plight of the Hebrews began to disturb his soul, Moses took it upon himself to be the savior of his people. As Stephen says before the Jewish ruling council, “[Moses] supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand” (Acts 7:25). From this incident, we learn that Moses was a man of action as well as a man possessed of a hot temper and prone to rash actions. Did God want to save His people? Yes. Did God want to use Moses as His chosen instrument of salvation? Yes. But Moses, whether or not he was truly cognizant of his role in the salvation of the Hebrew people, acted rashly and impetuously. He tried to do in his timing what God wanted done in His timing. The lesson for us is obvious: we must be acutely aware of not only doing God’s will, but doing God’s will in His timing, not ours. As is the case with so many other biblical examples, when we attempt to do God’s will in our timing, we make a bigger mess than originally existed.
ellauri164.html on line 506: These are just a handful of practical lessons that we can learn from Moses’ life. However, if we look at Moses’ life in light of the overall panoply of Scripture, we see larger theological truths that fit into the story of redemption. In chapter 11 the author of Hebrews uses Moses as an example of faith. We learn that it was by faith that Moses refused the glories of Pharaoh’s palace to identify with the plight of his people. The writer of Hebrews says, “[Moses] considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt” (Hebrews 11:26). Moses’ life was one of faith, and we know that without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). Likewise, it is by faith that we, looking forward to heavenly riches, can endure temporal hardships in this lifetime (2 Corinthians 4:17–18).
ellauri164.html on line 623: It is Numbers 20:1-13 again. Miriam was gone. Moses had just buried his sister in Kadesh, in the Wilderness of Zin (Numbers 20:1). She had placed his basket among the reeds of the Nile and had run to get his mother when Pharaoh’s daughter drew him out. His sister had been with him through all his trials in the wilderness. But now Miriam was gone.
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3. Pogrom: Pharaoh kills babies
ellauri171.html on line 423: This meant a good survival rate for their children. But too many foreign workers can pose a threat. Pharaoh certainly thought so. ‘The Egyptians came to dread the Israelites.’ (Exodus 1:12)
ellauri171.html on line 424: The problem was made worse by the fact that the Israelites occupied border territory. If there was an invasion, they might defect to the enemy. This could mean the collapse of the Egyptian Empire. Just like the Ukrainians. So off with them. Wait! Pharaoh did not want to eject them from Egypt – they were too valuable as workers. So he sought to control their numbers by forced labour and by child slaughter. Hmm. Mitähän opetuxia tästäkin tarinasta voisi ottaa?
ellauri171.html on line 427: This plan was thwarted by the Hebrew midwives, including Shiprah and Puah. So Pharaoh ordered instead that every newborn Israelite boy was to be hurled into the Nile waters and left to drown. This solution worked. Except for Moses.
ellauri171.html on line 429: But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. So the king of Egypt called the midwives, and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the male children live?” The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and are delivered before the midwife comes to them.”
ellauri171.html on line 430: Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.” Exodus 1:15-22
ellauri185.html on line 791: Killing of the firstborn was the best. In the 10th, and last plague, Moses tells the Pharaoh that all the firstborns in the land of Egypt would perish.
ellauri190.html on line 345: Thutmose III was the sixth Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. During the first twenty-two years of Thutmose's reign he was co-regent with his aunt, Hatshepsut, who was named the pharaoh. While she is shown first on surviving monuments, both...
xxx/ellauri148.html on line 248: And when the days of the Messiah arrive, Gog and Magog will come up against the Lord of Israel, because they will hear that Israel is without a king and sits in safety. Instantly they will take with them seventy-one nations and go up to Jerusalem, and they will say; “Pharaoh was a fool to command that the males [of the Israelites] be killed and to let the females live. Balaam was an idiot that he wanted to curse them and did not know that their God had blessed them. Haman was insane in that he wanted to kill them, and he did not know their God can save them. I shall not do as they did, but shall fight against their God first, and thereafter I shall slay them…” And the Holy One, blessed be He, will say to him; “You wicked one! You want to wage war against Me? By your life, I shall wage war against you! Instantly the Holy One, blessed be He will cause hailstones, which are hidden in the firmament, to descend upon him, and will bring upon him a great plague… And after him will arise another king, wicked and insolent, and he will wage war against Israel for three months, and his name is Armilus. And these are his marks; he will be bald, one his eyes will be small, the other big. His right arm will be only as long as a hand…..And he will go up to Jerusalem and will slay Messiah ben Joseph…. And thereafter will come Messiah ben David….And he will kill the wick Armilus…And thereafter the Holy One, blessed be He, will gather all Israel who are dispersed here and there. (Midrash waYosha[19])
xxx/ellauri166.html on line 52: Moses and Aaron appear before the pharaoh, and Aaron's rod is transformed into a serpent. Pharaoh's sorcerers are also able to transform their own rods into serpents, but Aaron's rod swallows their rods (Exodus 7:10-12). Aaron's rod is again used to turn the Nile blood-red. It is used several times on God's command to initiate the plagues of Egypt.
xxx/ellauri166.html on line 63: The staff with which Jacob crossed the Jordan is identical with that which Judah gave to his daughter-in-law, Tamar (Gen. xxxii. 10, xxxviii. 18). It is likewise the holy rod with which Moses worked (Ex. iv. 20, 21), with which Aaron performed wonders before Pharaoh (Ex. vii. 10), and with which, finally, David slew the giant Goliath (I Sam. xvii. 40). David left it to his descendants, and the Davidic kings used it as a scepter until the destruction of the Temple, when it miraculously disappeared. When the Messiah comes it will be given to him for a scepter in token of his authority over the heathen. (And we don't mean INRI here.)
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