She is unnamed in the Biblical text. This appellation was given to her by the rabbis of the Talmudic age. Her name means "daughter of the Lord." In the Bible she is known as the daughter of Pharaoh. Why the name change?
We have to contrast Pharaoh with the Lord to understand this. Pharaoh thought of himself as a god. He was worshipped as a god. His word was law. He also had a certain worldview that was completely at odds with God's plan for humanity. Pharaoh decided it was ok to work the Hebrew slaves seven days a week without a break for the Sabbath. The idea of the Sabbath was probably completely foreign to him and would have sounded like madness. What? A day off to worship the Lord? A day when the slaves weren't working? Unheard of! Who ever heard of letting the slaves decide when they would work and when they wouldn't? One of the excuses Pharaoh gives for not letting the Israelites go into the wilderness to worship the Lord is that they are lazy. See Exodus 5:8, 17. Pharaoh also decided that it was permissible to beat the slaves and kill them if necessary. To order the murder of all male babies by having them thrown into the Nile was fine with Pharaoh. And see how completely at odds with God all this is.
The first holy day instituted by God was the Sabbath. God decreed that we are to work six days and rest on the seventh. God gave us life and it is up to us to preserve it, to reverence it. Murder is specifically prohibited. Mistreatment of slaves is prohibited. Although, there is some debate about that since if a slave takes to his bed as a result of a beating but can get up after 3 days, there is no penalty imposed on the slave's owner. But certainly the beating of slaves to the point of death is no ok at all. If a slave lost an eye or a tooth because of a beating, the slave must go free. The point being that even the slave is made betzelem Elohim (in the image of God) and is also to be afforded dignity.
Pharaoh's daughter knew what her father (the king of Egypt) had decreed. She probably also saw the suffering of the Hebrew slaves. One day she goes down to the Nile to bathe and sees the little ark with the baby Moses in it. Had she paid heed to her father's instructions, she'd have just turned the akr over and let baby Moses drown and/or get eaten by a crocodile. The fact that she didn't, that she took pity on the baby shows her true colors. She raised Moses as her own son. No daughter of Pharaoh would take pity on a Hebrew. Therefore, she must be a daughter of God. Her values are much more in line with God's than Pharaoh's.
Praise the Lord for Bit'yah. May we all aspire to take pity on the helpless, the victims of unfortunate circumstance. May we have compassion on the stranger and always answer to our Father's calling to be a light unto the nations.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Thanks for coming to my blog. Malachi 3:16
6 comments:
I was wondering about the whole "3 day bed ridden" rule thing in regards to beating a slave. In what law(/book of law) is that found?
See Exodus 21:20-21
20 "If a man beats his male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies as a direct result, he must be punished, 21 but he is not to be punished if the slave gets up after a day or two, since the slave is his property.
Why were slaves even allowed, though? *sorry, off topic*
Excellent question!
I have a hard time with this myself. If slavery was so horrible, and the vast majority of accounts from history seem to indicate as such, why allow it?
Perhaps allowing slaves-in the way that the Bible mandates-was a way of weaning the people off of the slavery mentality.
Slaves are people too. They are made betzelem elohim. They are to be afforded dignity. Who knows, but you yourself might have been a slave if circumstances were different.
Yeah, I have a hard time understanding that... even in the new testament it doesn't outright condemn slavery. It tells slaves to obey their masters, so they'll be a good witness, but it never tells the christians to stop owning them... =/
And that brings into question the whole rightness of the underground railroad and such...weren't christian slaves sinning by running away(and also those christians that helped them)? Oy...
There is the concept of the Sabbatical year and the Jubilee year, or the year of release in which all debts were forgiven and property reverted to its original owner. A person who became a slave in order to pay his/her debts was to go free. Even slaves who had their ears pierced and proclaimed their servitude for life, were to be released in the Jubilee year. So, there is some merit to the argument that slavery was only for a set period of time.
The Underground Railroad I think was born of deep Christian beliefs. I think it was born out of compassion for the stranger, the poor, the outcasts of society. It was a way to help the unfortunate and the downtrodden. Would not Jesus have applauded such behavior? Did he not say that those who gave the hungry food or drink to the thirsty or clothing to the naked even for the least of his brothers did the same for him? And I believe that helping a runaway slave would be doing a kindness for Jesus.
Why would a slave run away? I think that the overwhelming reason would be mistreatment. And the Bible itself says not to return a runaway slave.
"Do not return a slave to his master when he has escaped from his master to you." Deut 23:15
The fugitive slave law that said runaway slaves were to be returned was completely contrary to the Bible. And yet it was supported by the very people who used the Bible to condone slavery!
Post a Comment