A Rose Among Thorns
A Rose Among Thorns
Today I speak to you about simple contemplations on the life of the Prophet Moses:
He lived in an extremely difficult atmosphere: he was born among an enslaved and humiliated people, in an era of persecution under a harsh Pharaoh who had ordered the killing of all Hebrew children. Moses could have died at his birth, had God not preserved him like a rose among thorns.
The story of the Prophet Moses shows us how life lived in the midst of death, and how saints grew up in difficult surroundings amid dangers…
In his childhood, we see stories of righteousness from holy and faithful women, even Gentiles…
The first holy woman was his mother, who raised him in the fear of God, and who by faith did not submit to the king’s command, but hid him for three months, doing as much as human will could do, leaving the rest to God’s providence.
In addition to his mother, there were the two midwives who did not fear the king’s command but saved the children alive, because they feared God…
Thus these two midwives contributed to preserving the life of Moses. Therefore God rewarded them and made houses for them. Perhaps in their eyes, Moses was merely an ordinary child, and they did not know that he would become a great prophet…
We add to these women also Miriam, Moses’ sister.
She was a courageous child who, despite her young age, poverty, and the lowliness of her people, was able to go and meet the princess, Pharaoh’s daughter, speak to her concerning the child cast into the river, and suggest bringing a nurse for him. She did this without hesitation or fear, without exposing herself as the child’s sister and that the nurse would be his mother.
This sister of Moses was later called Miriam the prophetess. She had her leadership role in the story of the Exodus when she took the tambourine in her hand and led the singing, saying, “Sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously; the horse and its rider He has thrown into the Red Sea.”
Another lady who performed a noble deed in Moses’ childhood was the princess.
She was characterized by tenderness and had compassion on the child as he wept. She adopted him as her son, brought him a nurse, and paid her wages. Although the child was Hebrew, the princess was courageous enough to present the matter to her father; she must have obtained his approval and convinced him of the soundness of her request.
Thus we find a wondrous divine providence: that his mother would nurse her own son and receive wages for nursing him. And God turned evil into good.
Behold this poor child, who was threatened with death, being raised in the king’s palace as a prince, as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. At the same time, he enjoyed his mother’s upbringing and her instruction in the principles of religion, and he had the opportunity to be educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.
Moses was a symbol of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was exposed to death in His childhood and escaped it. Likewise, it happened to John the son of Zechariah (the Baptist).
The person who lives under God’s protection is not troubled by the tribulations surrounding him, because God is ready to provide a solution for every problem.
Moses, who was exposed to death from his infancy, had the Lord prepare for him the two righteous midwives who feared God; He prepared for him the holy and wise mother who did not fear the king’s command; He prepared for him the courageous and bold sister who went to meet the princess; and He also prepared for him the noble and compassionate princess who embraced him, adopted him, and spent on him.
The child Moses was born, and the divine will moved: entering every place and every heart, arranging emotions, human wills, actions, and circumstances. All things were working together for good for him.
His childhood was wondrous. God did not pamper His children in it. On the contrary, when Joseph the righteous was pampered in his childhood, he suffered greatly because of it; his brothers envied him, cast him into the pit, and sold him as a slave.
Many of God’s children were raised in orphanhood and poverty, like the Virgin Mary; and it was a good upbringing that God used for their benefit.
Heaven and earth were working for the sake of the child Moses. God had prepared for him these holy women in their various conditions: the poor mother, the great princess, the sister, and the two midwives. Truly, the keeper of children is the Lord.
It is wondrous that the graces God sends to us are sometimes brought through tribulations and troubles that no one would think could produce graces and blessings.
Let us take Joseph the righteous as an example between tribulations and blessings:
God wanted to appoint him ruler over Egypt; the means was his imprisonment. But for him to be imprisoned, a vile accusation had to be fabricated against him; for there to be an accusation, he had to be a slave; and the means of slavery was his brothers’ envy and conspiracy to sell him.
How amazing, O Lord—what are all these tribulations? They are the path to blessings. And all things work together for good for those who love the Lord.
The God who “brings sweetness out of the strong” and who turns evil into good did not use tribulations only as a path to blessing, but even people’s sins and weaknesses He produced from them good and blessing—for example: the betrayal of Judas, the cowardice of Pilate, and the envy of the chief priests.
God, who wanted to train Moses in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, to raise him in the luxury of the royal palace and test his heart by this luxury, allowed persecution in that time and a royal decree to kill the children.
Do not therefore look at matters in their outward appearance or at their beginning. The beginning may be very bad, while the end may be good and righteous. As the Scripture says, “The end of a matter is better than its beginning.”
All this makes us live a life of faith. Every bad thing that happens to us, we smile with confidence, joy, and peace, and say: God’s good will must turn this bad matter into good.
The ark that contained the child Moses was cast into the water, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. He was drawn out of the water and was named Moses.
Do not be terrified if you are cast into the water or if a royal decree is issued to kill all the children. It happened in Bethlehem that the only child intended for death could not be reached by the hand of the king who killed tens or hundreds of thousands of children.
In Moses’ childhood, as we do not forget God’s preservation of him from death, we also do not forget His preservation of him in faith and the role of his holy mother.
He was raised in a holy family from the tribe of Levi, from a righteous mother who was able to instill in him all the principles of faith and plant in him the love of God. Through this strong upbringing, she was able to preserve him from all the pharaonic worship and from all the stumbling blocks in the palaces of kings. Nothing external affected him over the decades because of his wondrous upbringing in his earliest childhood years while he was under his mother’s care.
The proverb says, “Give me life, and cast me into the sea.” This happened with Moses. He not only escaped from the physical sea, but God gave him faith and cast him into a sea of unbelief, and he emerged safe, leading the people in faith.
Scripture mentions Moses’ parents as an example in faith: “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s command” (Hebrews 11:23).
If Moses was so beautiful as a child, how beautiful was his face on the Mount of Transfiguration! And how radiant was his face when he descended from meeting God on the mountain, so that he had to wear a veil because the people could not endure the brightness of his face.
Our Lord Jesus Christ also was exceedingly beautiful—fairer than the sons of men. The Song of Songs explains the beauty of the Bridegroom and the beauty of the bride.
In speaking about beauty, we must mention the relationship between the beauty of the face and the beauty of the soul. Man was created beautiful, in the image of God. But sin distorted human beauty with its ugly effects.
Consider an angry person, for example, and see how sin changes his features. Likewise, the lustful person’s features change. A person’s looks, for instance, can be an expressive image of what is inside his heart, whether good or evil.
Undoubtedly Cain’s features changed through cruelty, murder, and a life of anxiety, fear, and terror, and he bequeathed to his descendants features different from the descendants of Seth.
Through successive inheritance, people’s features changed and differed generation after generation.
Even those who did not inherit beautiful features—if their souls are beautiful, their beauty will cast a shadow upon their features through the marks of gentleness, kindness, cheerfulness, purity, simplicity, and love.
Hence the mother’s responsibility is serious during pregnancy:
What are the qualities of the blood by which her fetus is nourished? Is it blood troubled by anger, darkened by hatred, boiling with lust, or is it pure blood?
Moses, beautiful in face, was beautiful in spirit. His spirit could not endure living in luxury while his people were in humiliation. A struggle arose within him and ended with his casting off all manifestations of comfort and luxury in order to be humiliated with his people, bearing his cross like them.
As the Apostle Paul said about him: “By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than.
And finally, he emptied himself of princely status, leadership, and the palace, and took the form of a servant like his brethren, and gave himself for them until he delivered them from the yoke of bondage. Thus he was a symbol of the coming Lord, the Savior of all.
An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – in El-Keraza Magazine – Year Seven (Issue Thirty-Nine), 24-9-1976.
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