Life Of Moses Research Paper

As presented both in our lecture and in our textbook by Holdcroft, the life of Moses is divided into three forty year stages. The first stage is from his infancy to the age of forty. In the second chapter of Exodus we are told that Moses was born to parents from the tribe of Levi and was hidden by his parents until the age of three. When the mother of Moses could no longer hide him she placed him in a basket made of wicker and sealed with pitch and set it among reeds along the shore of the Nile River. In verse 5 we learn that Moses was found by the daughter of Pharaoh. Moses was given to a Hebrew woman to nurse him until the time he was weaned. Moses was then given back to Pharaoh’s daughter and she raised Moses as her own son and a princes of Egypt. As such, Moses would have had the best education that Egypt could provide. He would have also been educated in the art of war and how to command and deploy warriors on the battle field. In this stage of life Moses would have developed the skills of leadership.

Moses then kills the Egyptian and hides the body in the sand. Exodus 2:14 describes the killing of the Egyptian and the feeling of fear in Moses when he finds out that the killing was known among the Hebrews. Moses flees his princely life and runs to the east until he arrives in the land of Midian. Moses is no longer commanding people but is now shepherding flocks of sheep for Reuel, a priest in the land of Midian. During this time Moses has had to go from the status of a prince to that of a shepherd. Moses is now being taught humility and the life of a servant. Moses was willing to accept this as his life and took for a wife Zipporah, a daughter of Reuel. It is in this stage of his life that God makes himself known to