March 9, 2025 - Moses's Palace Education and Faith Training (Exodus 2:11-15)

Moses's Palace Education and Faith Training (Exodus 2:11-15)

Rev. Myung-Sin Choi

11 Now it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens. And he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. 12 So he looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 And when he went out the second day, behold, two Hebrew men were fighting, and he said to the one who did the wrong, “Why are you striking your companion?” 14 Then he said, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” So Moses feared and said, “Surely this thing is known!” 15 When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian; and he sat down by a well.

Introduction

I know that you are continuing to do the 7-7-7 prayer. Every morning, for two hours, I pray with the 7-7-7 prayer. When I pray with this prayer, I was able to discover that the foundation of this prayer is focused on the gospel. Not only that but I also believe it is theologically correct. And no matter what, it records the life that an evangelist should live. The more I pray with this prayer, I realized that this is the correct prayer that we must have. From here, what are the answers that we can receive? After I pray, I feel closer to God. As you pray, what kind of heart do you pray with? When you pray with the word of God, you must pray while hearing God's voice. Through prayer, you must find what kind of prayer content God wants you to pray with. If you do this, then God will give you great realizations. I am sure you feel this as well but pray with these kinds of thoughts and heart. What is absolute is that we must pray with the heart with thanksgiving before God. All prayers are led by the filling of the Holy Spirit. When we receive today’s sermon, if you receive it as God’s living word then great works will arise through you. Today’s sermon is the message that was given to Moses but if you just take as Moses’ message and part of history then it has no meaning to you. Through today’s sermon, think about what kind of message God wants to relay to you and if you realize this, then great works will arise in your life. In other words, if you take the word of God as yours and as God’s promise to you, then this word of God will become yours. Then the word of God will be fulfilled in your life. 

1. Moses's Life in The Palace

1) How God put Moses through schooling in the palace

Verse 11 - The setting of today’s Biblical scripture was when Moses was growing up in the palace. God was summarizing the time when Moses was growing up in the palace. The fact that Moses was grown up, this means that not only was Moses physically grown but he has grown in maturity and spiritually. 

It doesn’t say it in today’s scripture but if you look in Acts 7:22 “And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.” - The princess took Moses in as her son and after that, the princess took Moses to be educated inside of the palace. This means that Moses received the best education possible at that time. If you look at the content of what kind of education that Moses received, he was able to learn about everything from different languages, other countries, history, law, and other cultures. He also learned how to speak and write like an elite. Not only that but he learned all kinds of military strategies and learned the best of the best knowledge. This means that when he was in the palace, he received the greatest privileges in terms of education. When you look in the history regarding Moses, it was recorded that he led the Egyptian army against an Ethiopian army, and gained a great victory. He won many wars and showed great leadership. This was all because God wanted to train and prepare Moses for His great plan. There was a great training and education that Moses received. 

2) Moses's state of faith

The greatest training and education that Moses received was the education that he received from his mother, Jochebed. Jochebed would educate Moses regarding his Hebrew identity. 

Verse 12 - At that time, it said that Moses went to his brethren. The person who wrote the book of Exodus was Moses. Moses, himself, called the Hebrews his brethren and it said that he went out to see his brethren. When Moses saw the Hebrews, he saw them as his brothers like his family members. He was a prince in the palace but he saw his parents not the princess and pharaoh of Egypt but he saw his family members as the Hebrews. But when he went out, he saw great burden on his Hebrew brethren. Not only that but he saw Egyptians beating up his Hebrew brethren. They weren’t just beating them up with their fists lightly but being beaten to death. He saw his brethren being beaten to the point that they were bleeding and almost dying. When your brothers or sisters are being beaten, imagine how much fury or heartbrokenness you must have. 

So Moses made a decision in verse 12 - Moses decided to kill the Egyptian, beating up the Hebrews, and watched to make sure no one was watching and killed the Egyptian. He was watching for the perfect timing by looking to his right and left and killed the Egyptian. He made sure no one was watching and killed the Egyptian. As you know Moses had great training in killing and in war in the palace so he had no trouble killing the Egyptian. Moses was a prince so if a royal member kills someone, it should become no problem. But the problem arose that Moses killed an Egyptian for a Hebrew slave. Even though Moses knew that this was wrong according to the Egyptian law, he still killed the Egyptian. Here, you can see the true faith of Moses. There was something that Moses could not see. He didn’t know that God was watching Moses the entire time. This shows the state of Moses’ faith. 

2. Moses's Faith Training

1) God's rebuke

Verses 13-14 - The next day, Moses went out to see his Hebrew brethren. Moses cared about his Hebrew brethren so he went to go see them regularly. But when he went out, he saw Hebrew men fighting against each other so Moses rebuked them for fighting against their own brethren. If you look at this, Moses was basically acting like a prince and judging other people. As the prince of Egypt, he thought that he had the right to rebuke people of their wrongdoing. 

When Moses was rebuking them, you can see the Hebrew men’s response in verse 14. When the Hebrew men said this to Moses, Moses was so taken aback. This was a Hebrew slave talking back to the prince of Egypt. 

Acts 7:27, 25 “But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? 25 For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand.” - This is astounding. How could a Hebrew slave push away the prince of Egypt, Moses like that? From here, Moses was so shocked. His own brethren did not see Moses as the prince of Egypt. Not only that but they did not see Moses as their own brethren. 

Moses had a great misunderstanding here and it can be seen in Acts 7:25 - Moses had a misunderstanding that God raised him up as the prince so God will use him to deliver the Hebrews out of Egypt. Moses thought that everybody knew this but no one knew or cared about this. There is one Hebrew who is the prince of Egypt and you would think that the Hebrews would hope that Moses would deliver them but none of the Hebrews thought that. The Hebrew asked Moses if Moses would kill them just like Moses killed an Egyptian. When Moses heard this, he was so shocked. He thought that he was helping out his own brethren but no one saw him as a hero. 

2) God's new training

At that time, Moses grew fearful. This means that God allowed Moses to gain this heart of fear. Moses realized that he was in the wrong. What does God want? God did not want a nation just for the Hebrews but God wanted to save all nations. God raised up Moses to show the representation of the cross. When we don’t pray and live however we want, imagine how many mistakes we end up making. There are absolute plans of God and you think that you are following God’s plan but you realize that it was not God’s plan at all but it was your own misunderstanding and thoughts. Moses had everything that he needed in his life and he thought that he committed the perfect crime, God humbled Moses immediately. Not only was Moses humbled by God but he was betrayed by his own brethren. 

Verse 15 - Not only that but Pharaoh gained the heart to kill Moses. Thutmose III was 9 years old when his father, the pharaoh, died. At that time, Moses was 22 years old which means that he was old enough to be the next pharaoh. 

Hebrews 11:24-25 “By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.” - The pharaoh’s daughter commanded Moses to become pharaoh when her father died. At that time, the response of Moses is seen in Hebrews 11:25 - The opportunity for Moses to become pharaoh came to him but he rejected that position so that he could suffer along with his Hebrew brethren. If you look in history, Thutmose III who was only nine years old became pharaoh over Egypt. Since he was young, Moses’s pharaoh supported Thutmose III from the back. She was considered the first female pharaoh and was seen as a powerful figure. But today’s Biblical passage was seen when Moses was 40 years old. This means that Thutmose III was about 27 years old. If you look in Egyptian history, Thutmose III had a political struggle with his mother. But at that time, Moses caused a problem by killing an Egyptian. So Thutmose III used this opportunity to kill Moses. At that time, Moses fled to Midian. The history records that Moses’ mother died five years after Moses fled. Moses’ Egyptian mother was never able to have children. When she found Moses, she loved Moses so much as her own child. She raised Moses with everything that she had. But Moses rejected the Pharaoh position and God made Thutmose III the pharaoh. When there was a power struggle between Moses’ Egyptian mother and Thutmose III, God made it where Moses fled. It was all part of God’s plan for Moses to go to Midian to receive spiritual training. You may think that all of the education and everything that you possessed was done by you but it is all moved by God. God moves everything according to God’s plan. Then, what is God’s ultimate plan? You must always remember the blood sacrifice. 

3. The Objective Behind God's Test

1) To remember blood sacrifice

Exodus 3:18 “Then they will heed your voice; and you shall come, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt; and you shall say to him, ‘The Lord God of the Hebrews has met with us; and now, please, let us go three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’ ” - God’s great direction for all things is to discover salvation. When you are inside of salvation, then you can experience the splitting of the Red Sea.      

2) To experience the Red Sea

1 Corinthians 10:2 “All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” - The Red Sea was the salvation movement. The fact that you are saved, you have experienced a miracle just like the Red Sea splitting and be able to walk through it. It is like experiencing the miracle of a Red Sea splitting. You must understand this. The fact that you are saved, this is a miracle. Why did God allow us a miracle like a Red Sea splitting? So that you can experience the great works of salvation.  

3) The fulfillment of the covenant

Exodus 3:8 “So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.” - In order to fulfill the works of salvation, God gave us a perfect covenant. You must hold onto this. You are who are in the covenant of God, you are in the midst of God's plan and God is fulfilling His perfect plan in your life. You are not just living mindlessly. You are in the midst of God’s great and perfect plan of God. You are living in God’s providence.  

Conclusion  

Hold onto Exodus 3:12 “So He said, ‘I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.’ ” - Hold onto this covenant. God is absolutely with you. God is with you. Until now and in the future, God promised that He will be with you. God has guided you until now and He will continue to guide you. God wants to receive your worship. God wants to give you evidence. What is the covenant that you must hold onto? Whether you live or die, you are the Lord’s. God will take responsibility over you.