Note here as regards Moses; although it is evident that he was put under a long humbling process to prepare him for the work, as nothing in himself, yet the thing that God notices of him in Heb. 11 is, that energy of faith in which yet much of flesh was mixed up, at least energy which had not the known direction of God—he thought, but they understood not; Acts 7:25. Besides this, it is his independent action, not fearing the wrath of the king; this is full of practical instruction.
22. In Gershom (a stranger here), we are at once put in connection with the sentiment of Moses (the position of Christ as to Israel) as to the people, though in Egypt, in contrast with Ephraim (fruitful) and Manasseh (forgetting), where we have the exalted Christ connected, in a heavenly way, with Gentiles.
23. Za-ak, crying out; sha-va crying out more to some one.
24. This word vay-yiz'kor (remembered) is a touching word.
Note.—There is a difference between Moses and Joseph. Both are separated from their brethren, both represent Christ as so separated; but Joseph takes the Gentile glory and Church place, Moses the identification with his brethren. Moses descends to identify himself with them, Joseph is rejected and sold by them; it is their sin which separates from him, and they return to him exalted, through famine humbled before him. Joseph goes through their rejection of him, through death (so to speak) but into exaltation; and there, having received a Gentile wife, calls his son Manasseh (forgotten) because the Lord had made him to forget all his toil, and all his father's house. He receives in grace, but in his place of glory, the people that had rejected him.
Moses has a Jewish character; he sees, where God saw it, the affliction of His people—he leaves, for the time was not come to deliver, and though the heart of the wicked ones rejected him, he is in no way separated in heart from the misery of Israel. His son is not Manasseh, but Gershom (a stranger)—he was a stranger away from his people—he returns, as identified with them—to them he makes himself known, to deliver them, in spite of the resistance of the king, from another king who knew not Joseph. He is their head and deliverer. God is not, "God sent me before you to preserve life," but Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews, demands the deliverance of His people, "Let my people go!" Sovereign, saving grace was before—delivering title and power now. We do not find Eliezer (my God is a help) till chapter 18:4, when Israel is delivered, and the Gentiles come to eat bread with the elders of Israel. We have then the double character of the Lord's relation with Israel—a Stranger with them when they are oppressed, and their Deliverer as the God of their fathers.