18 July 2017
Tuesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
“Moses” is not a Hebrew name. It’s Egyptian. Pharaoh’s daughter gave the name “Moses” to the child whom she found floating in the Nile river in a papyrus basket. It appears that “Moses” is a version of the Egyptian word “mes,” which means “son.” Thus, the Egyptian name “Rameses” means “Son of Ra,” Ra being the Egyptian god of the sun.
We don’t know what Moses’ own family called him. Recall that he lived with his mother for three months before she hid him in the basket on the Nile, and he lived with her again for some time after he was found by Pharaoh’s daughter. His Hebrew birth name is simply lost to history.
Many years later, when Moses turned aside to see the burning bush on Mt. Horeb, God called out to him: “Moses, Moses.” Even God Himself used the Egyptian name, and not the Hebrew name. It may seem strange that as Moses realized his true identity as a Hebrew and as the liberator of the Hebrews, he did not revert to his Hebrew name, but kept his Egyptian name. Such was the will of God for him.
If something has attached itself to you from some foreign source, and it feels alien and maybe even hostile to your identity, reconsider: could God be using this for His own greater glory?