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.
CHAPTER III
GOD SENDS MOSES TO SAVE HIS PEOPLE
Exodus 3.1-4.31
Interpretation. The time now being ripe for God's fulfilling His covenant to redeem Israel from the bondage of Egypt, He makes His purpose known to Moses and entrusts him with the mission of announcing the redemption to the elders of Israel and demanding it of Pharaoh. But Moses hesitates. He doubts his qualifications for the task, asking, "Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?" And God's answer is, "Certainly I will be with thee." But this does not yet satisfy Moses, he wants a guarantee of Divine aid in God's statement, "I am יהוה." For in asking God for his name, Moses was not merely seeking information. There is no space in this book to take up a discussion of the critical questions raised by these verses. The interpretation given by Wiener[7] seems the most reasonable. He calls attention to the fact that among primitive people—and the narratives of the Pentateuch had to be made comprehensible to a primitive people—the name of a person, and, more especially, of a god, was regarded as having certain powers which were conferred upon anyone to whom he revealed his name. When Moses asked for the name of God, it was, therefore, as a sort of positive irrevocable guarantee of success, but God, at this juncture, refuses to say directly, "I am יהוה" and gives the evasive reply, "I am that I am." Then Moses, dissatisfied, declares that the people will not believe him, and God replies by showing him the miracle of the staff turning into a serpent, etc. Still Moses hesitates, pleading lack of eloquence as an excuse for not going, and God promises to inspire his utterances and to commission, also, his brother Aaron, who was eloquent, to assist as his spokesman. The significance of this dialogue of Moses with God is usually explained as contained in what it reveals to us of the characteristic meekness of Moses. It does, indeed, illustrate this conspicuous trait of his character, but if it were the chief aim of the Biblical author to commend the meekness of Moses we should scarcely be prepared for the statement (Exodus 4.14), "And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses." The main purpose of the Biblical author seems rather to be to emphasize the apparent impossibility of the task which Moses was asked to accomplish in order that the miraculous character of the deliverance be the more evident. It is significant that before Moses goes to speak to Pharaoh, God refuses the revelation of His name, but after he has gone on his mission God does reveal it (Exodus 6.2). It would seem that He resented Moses' refusal to go without a special guarantee. The moral of the narrative is perhaps most clearly brought out in God's rejoinder to Moses, "Who maketh a man dumb or deaf, or seeing or blind? is it not I, the Lord?" Exodus 4.11.
Aim. The aim of this lesson should be to inculcate in the child faith in God's power and providence as revealed in Jewish history. The teacher should endeavor to make the child, through admiration of the heroism of Moses in attempting the apparently impossible in the service of God, feel with deep conviction that in His service, there can be no failure. He should try to get not only the child's intellectual assent to the idea that God can accomplish anything that He purposes, but he should arouse an emotional appreciation of that heroism begotten of faith which leads great men to undertake what would, to others, seem impossible.