Moses is one of the most important characters in the three Abraham religions who freed the Israelites from the Egyptian servitude. The life of Moses was full of the dramatic and the supernatural and raises questions, such as the age at which he left Egypt. This article examines the different phases of Moses’ life in an attempt to understand this aspect of his life and how old he was when he left Egypt.
Contents
Early Life and Royal Upbringing
Moses’s childhood was a dangerous one, and he had received divine help. Moses was born during a time when the Pharaoh had ordered that all male Hebrew children be killed, and to escape this, Moses’ mother hid him for three months before placing him in a basket and setting him adrift on the Nile River. Pharaoh’s daughter found him, adopted him, and raised him in the Egyptian royal family (Exodus 2:1-10).
Moses was a Hebrew by birth but was adopted and raised in the Egyptian royal family, which gave him insight into both cultures. He was also educated in Egypt’s wisdom, and therefore, he must have learned leadership, governance, and military strategies, which would be useful when he led the Israelites.
The Turning Point: Moses’ Flight to Midian
At the age of 40, Moses’ life was to change in a big way. In the book of Acts, in chapter seven and verse twenty-three, Moses saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. He grew angry with an Egyptian and killed him and hid him in the sand (Exodus 2:11–12). When Moses came to know that his deed had been exposed and that Pharaoh had planned to kill him, he escaped from Egypt and went to live in the land of Midian.
While in Midian, Moses married Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro, the priest of Midian, and they had a family. For the next four decades, he became a shepherd, which was a complete change from the way he used to live. This period of Moses’s life was one of learning and character building, teaching Moses patience and showing him the humility that would be needed as a leader.
The Divine Call at the Burning Bush
It was when Moses was eighty years old that he had one of the most important events in his life, the encounter with God in the burning bush. Moses was taking care of his father-in-law’s sheep, and he saw a bush that was burning yet not burning. From this bush, God appeared to Moses and said to him, “Go, return to Egypt, for all the men of Israel have come out of the hand of Egypt” (Exodus 3:1-10).
At first, Moses was hesitant and shared his concerns about his disability to convey such a message as he was not a man of words. But God was kind to him, encouraging him and offering him divine backing and his brother Aaron as a mouthpiece. Moses, at the age of eighty, embarked on a mission that was to have a great impact on the history of mankind.
Confronting Pharaoh and Leading the Exodus
Moses went back to Egypt, knowing very well what God had called him to do. With Aaron, he stood before Pharaoh to demand the liberation of the children of Israel. Pharaoh did not yield, so God dispatched ten calamities upon Egypt, each one worse than the previous one. The last and the most severe one was the death of all the firstborns in Egypt, which made Pharaoh set the Israelites free (Exodus 7-12).
Moses then got the Israelites out of Egypt, and one of the most well-known events was his splitting the Red Sea so that the Israelites could cross and the Egyptians could not follow. This was the start of the Israelites’ 40 years of wandering in the wilderness on their way to the promised land. This period of Moses’ life is important because the Bible states that at this time, Moses was eighty years old (Exodus 7:7), yet he was still able to perform his tasks with vigor.
Biblical Chronology and Symbolism
The Bible divides Moses’ life into three distinct periods of forty years each: He was in Egypt for forty years and in Midian for forty years, and he led the Israelite people for forty years. This is not only a historical organization of events but also has a symbolic meaning. This number forty has been used in biblical settings to portray a time of trials or a time of trial. The Israelites roamed the desert for forty years, and Jesus was taken into the wilderness to be tempted for forty days, thus representing similar ideas of perseverance and personal development.
There are scholars who believe that Moses’ age should be understood in the symbolic rather than the actual sense. The three forty-year periods might indicate completeness or divine order. But others have said that one has to look at Moses’ life as historical and that one has to consider the stamina and energy that it took to accomplish the task that he had at hand.
The Absence of Extrabiblical Evidence
Despite the fact that the Bible offers a rather detailed account of Moses’ life, there is very little to support this story from outside the biblical sources, for instance, Egyptian documents. Attempts have been made to identify the events of Moses’ story with historical facts such as the Hyksos’ expulsion, but these are still hypotheses. This is not necessarily a problem because history is often written based on the information available to us, and the biblical account is not the only historical event that does not have direct archaeological evidence.
Moses’ story is thus still, to a large extent, a story of faith based on religious history and the Bible. Thus, there is no external evidence that would have supported the biblical story; however, the fact that this narrative has influenced the thinking of millions of people for centuries proves the strength of the biblical narrative.
Theological Implications and Legacy
There is much symbolism attached to Moses’ age at the time of the Exodus. It shows that God’s call can happen at any age and that one is never too old to answer God’s call. Thus, Moses’ life is an example of a leader who had to go through a number of trials to become a true leader.
The age of Moses also has implications for redemption and deliverance, which are evident in the Bible. In the same way that Moses was called to free the Israelites after eighty years of waiting, the Bible also presents the idea that God’s time is always right and can even go beyond human comprehension.
Conclusion
Moses was eighty years old when he started leading the Israelites out of Egypt, and that is why the mission was unique. His life can be divided into three forty-year segments, which show both the physical and the metaphoric journey. Moses, a prince of Egypt, a herdsman in Midian, and the deliverer of a people described Moses’ life as a divine journey of change, faith, and destiny. His age at the time of the Exodus shows that with God, everything is possible and that age is just a number.
