CHAPTER II
MOSES, THE FRIEND OF THE WEAK AND OPPRESSED
Exodus 2.11 to 23
Interpretation. The chief interest in the narrative contained in these verses lies in the light they cast on the character of Moses and the traits that made him the ideal emancipator, leader and legislator of his people. The first of these is his sympathy with their suffering and his sense of kinship with them, which leads him, though a prince of Egypt by rank and education, to go out among his brethren and look upon their burdens. The second, is his indignation at anything in the nature of injustice, whether perpetrated by an Egyptian or an Israelite; and, finally, there is shown his chivalrous zeal in the service of the weak and oppressed, which sends him on a mission like that of the ideal knight-errant, "to ride abroad redressing human wrongs", and which even in a strange land, leads him to interfere in the cause of the shepherdesses of Midian against the rude shepherds.
Aim. The aim of this lesson is to cultivate in the child, through his admiration of Moses, those traits in Moses' character which we have shown the narrative in these chapters to illustrate.
Suggestions to the teacher. Try to bring out the nobility of the course of action that Moses took by calling the attention of the children to other possible courses that he might have taken. Moses, having had wealth and luxury at his disposal, might have given up his life to enjoyment; because of his superior education, he might have looked down with contempt upon his more ignorant brethren and held aloof from associating with them; fearing the reproach of his Hebrew origin, he might have avoided such association for prudential reasons. But he did none of these things. He felt that if he had been so wonderfully saved, and he alone been given advantages that the rest had not received, it was because God intended him to use these for the good of all his people. It is well, in pointing out the courses of conduct open to Moses, to use illustrations from modern life, thus:
"How many children who receive all they need from their parents and spending-money in addition, think only of spending it on sport and amusement, and never stop to consider the needs of the poor children who have not even food or clothing or a warm room and to share their money with them. But Moses was not like that; although, being brought up as the son of Pharaoh, he might have lived a life of ease, idleness and pleasure, he preferred to go about among his poor brethren and help them with their burdens. Moreover, though Moses had received the best education that an Egyptian could receive in those days, he did not let that make him conceited. No matter how educated or how noble one may be by birth, one should not keep aloof from the lowly and common people. So Moses, though a learned prince, was never too proud to associate with the ignorant slaves, his people."
In teaching of how Moses slew the Egyptian, do not fail to bring out the heroic character of the action by emphasis on the motive of Moses, namely, his violated sense of justice, and on the perils to which he must have known in advance that this act would expose him.