by C.
Knapp
The fact that the Egyptian
princess who made herself foster mother to Moses is unnamed in the Bible is one
of the most remarkable cases of anonymity in all the sacred volume of God, and
there are many such recorded from Genesis to Revelation. The concealment of
identity in the Scriptures of those worthy to be had in remembrance is altogether
contrary to history as written by men. In the language of the Bible itself,
"It is the glory of God to conceal a thing" (Prov. 25:2), and this
matter of names in particular.
"Happy is the people, the
nation that has no history," it has been said. This, no doubt, is in view
of the other well-known saying that the history of a land is largely a history
of its wars. "The happiest women, like the happiest nations, have
no history," wrote the novelist George Eliot. And the gossipy remark
sometimes heard, that a certain female "has a history," is intended
as an innuendo derogatory to her character. Many of the finest female
characters mentioned in holy Scripture either are nameless or have no history
besides the briefest mention of them in some chapter or verse, after which they
are heard of no more (see 2 Ki. 4:8-10; 5:2,3; Matt. 26:6-13; Luke 7:36-50;
Rom. 16:1,2,6,12; etc.).
The daughter of Pharaoh here is
one such person. She, happy woman, has no signature attached to her most
motherly and beneficent deed, no honored name to be inscribed on urn or
monument by which she might be remembered by the world or the nation directly
benefited by her recorded act. The omission of her royal name was no
chronicler’s oversight, we may be sure, in view of the fact that "all
scripture is given by inspiration of God," and not one jot or tittle is
added or omitted but by the express knowledge and ordering of God.
Here we have to do with an
Egyptian princess, who, it has been remarked, had almost "as much
influence in shaping the destiny of Israel as Joseph himself. Three daughters
of the Egyptian Pharaohs are mentioned in Scripture:The one who rescued Moses,
the one who became the bride of Solomon (1 Ki. 3:1; 9:16,24), and "Bithiah
the daughter of Pharaoh which Meded took" (1 Chron. 4:18). Of this trio of
powerful princesses, but one, the first, deserves anything like commemorative
notice, and she, to the almost incredulous wonder of all, is left on the sacred
page without any identifying name.
This daughter of Pharaoh stands
to the fortunes of the Israelite nation as its instrumental providence and
contributory savior. Her royal father, alarmed at the rapid increase of his
enslaved population, resorted to the cruel and barbarous expedient of dictators
by ordering the instant and indiscriminate destruction of all male infants of
the Israelites. Jochebed, the resourceful mother of the newly born child,
contrived a plan by which she hoped, in faith, to defeat the murderous purpose
of the brutal king. She hoped by this device that her beautiful baby might be
hid from the prying eyes of Pharaoh’s countless spies. During the space of
three anxious months she had succeeded in keeping the existence of her loved
and lovely child a secret; and when he could no longer be hid she resorted to
the oft-told expedient of placing him in a little ark of bulrushes (papyrus),
which fragile cradle and its precious contents she committed to the sluggish
waters of the crocodile-infested Nile, if he but might escape the bloody hands
of the alarmed and wicked king.
Here, as we know, the child was
discovered by the princess as she with her attendant maidens came to the
riverside to bathe. "And when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent
her maid to fetch it. And when she had opened it, she saw the child; and
behold, the baby wept. And she had compassion on him and said, This is one of
the Hebrews’ children. Then said his sister to Pharaoh’s daughter, Shall I go and
call to you a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?
And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the
child’s mother. And Pharaoh’s daughter said unto her, Take this child away and
nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages. And the woman took the child
and nursed it. And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter,
and he became her son" (Exod. 2:5-10).
Ah, what motherly emotion flooded
the breast of this royal princess! What womanly instincts moved the
compassionate heart of the greatest of women (in political position) as in the
impulse of her tender nature she decided to adopt as her own this seemingly
abandoned child of the Hebrews! Perhaps no incident so brief ever meant so much
to a family and a nation. Without knowing it, Pharaoh’s daughter was a part of
one great movement of the divine will and a factor in its results. Her high
position figures less in her memorial than the spirit of her deed. Her
gentleness braved the tragic law of her own house; and her gentleness made her
great (Psa. 18:35). In adopting the son of a slave she unshackled a hand that
would free two million slaves. Under her fostering care Moses had all the
attention that love could suggest or unlimited wealth could make possible. She
took every available means to have him educated in "all the wisdom of the
Egyptians" (Acts 7:22).
The fond foster mother of the
future deliverer of his race had difficulty enough, doubtless, in screening the
son of her adoption from the jealousy of other members of the royal household.
Whether she lived to the day of her son’s showing as the deliverer of his
people we have no means of knowing. If she was still living at the time that
Moses "forsook Egypt "not fearing the wrath of the king" (Heb.
11:27), he would scarcely have either time or opportunity to say a last
farewell to the kindly lady who for 40 years had been to him a mother. And when
he departed form the "land of Zoan" to dwell another 40 years among
the deserts of Midian, it is doubtful if she ever again set eyes on her adopted
son.
We close with the words of Theron
Brown (slightly modified and condensed):"The tomb of this interesting
woman has not been found. If ever her [mummified body] is brought to light …
we shall know her name. But it would be dearer to know that her living soul
dwells not far from the son she adopted and loved, the grandest man of sacred
(and all) history, who but for her would never have been. In all the
years of his ripening manhood there was time to learn from him more than
she could teach him of religious knowledge. Did she in their long
communion acquire something of his clearer Israelite thought and absorb a few
rays of the primitive light once lost but restored to the Abrahamic race?"
So we leave the unnamed daughter
of Pharaoh till the day when the Lord shall "come, who both will bring to
light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the
hearts; and then shall every man [and woman] have praise of God" (1 Cor.
4:5).
(From Holding Fast &
Holding Forth, Vol. 20. See the January-February and March-April 1995
issues of Words of Truth for additional articles by C. Knapp on unnamed
persons of the Bible.)