Exodus 20:12

God’s people have been liberated from slavery in Egypt! As they now make their journey to the Promised Land, the Lord, through Moses, created laws and customs on how to live as a disciplined community. Over these next few weeks as we study the remaining books of the Torah (Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), we are going to be studying various laws that have been established that show how God cares about women!

The Ten Commandments are arguably the most famous laws given by God. God shows that He cares about women by including mothers in the fifth commandment: “Honor you father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12). The Ten Commandments are believed to have been given to and written by Moses around 1446 BC. Although this is not 100% agreed upon. This date has been chosen due to the archaeological evidence of Jewish presence in Egypt during the 13th and 15th dynasties of Egypt. The Brooklyn Papyrus is a 7-foot-long Egyptian papyrus dating from 1809-1743 B.C. during the reign of Pharaoh Amenemhat III, the 13th dynasty. The significance of this papyrus is that it lists the names of 95 household servants of a woman named Senebtisi and about 30 of the names are Semitic and are identified as Hebrew. Some examples are: Dawidi-huat (David), Hayah-wr (Eve), Sekera (feminine name of Issakahr), and Hy’b’rw (Egyptian translation of Hebrew). This sets up that there were Hebrew slaves before the beginning of Exodus. Another example is the tomb of Rekhmire (TT100), a 15thcentury BC Egyptian vizier, which features paintings of Semitic slaves making mud bricks under Egyptian overseers. This aligns with Exodus 1 where the Hebrew slaves are described as doing the same thing the paintings depict. The Ipuwer Papyryus, believed to have been written in the late 13th century B.C., details a time of great destruction, which includes the Nile turning to blood, darkness, and widespread death, which all align with the 10 plagues at the beginning of Exodus. The Exodus is believed to have occurred during the 18thdynasty of Egypt which was at some point during the years 1550 to 1320 BC. While an exact date is not confirmed, there is lots of archaeological evidence proving the events of Exodus and you can find more here: https://armstronginstitute.org/878-did-the-israelites-really-live-in-egypt         

Archaeologists and Biblical scholars use this evidence to estimate when the events of Exodus occurred. I shared these archaeological discoveries with you so we can place where in history the Exodus occurred and compare Israelite society to other societies at this time. It is believed to be around 1446 BC, during the time (1550 to 1320 BC), the prominent dynasties in the world were the 18th Dynasty pharaohs of Egypt (New Kingdom of Egypt), Hittite Empire (Modern Turkey), Kassite Babylonia, Middle Assyrian Empire, and the Shang Dynasty. While the women in ancient Egypt had more legal and financial independence than most women in modern Egypt do today, the society was still a patriarchal society where men held all of the political, administrative, and religious roles. In the Hittite Empire, although it was a patriarchal society, married women could own property in their own name, yet women were still bought and sold to their husband’s families when married. However, women were far less restricted in Egyptian and Hittite society verses the Middle Ayssyrian Empire, Kassite Babylonia, and the Shang Dynasty. Women in those three were strictly controlled by their husbands or fathers and were often seen as property, confined to domestic work, and were limited in their freedoms. The Shang Dynasty had a few exceptions for elite women, for example the tomb of Queen Fu Hao revealed that women could lead armies and participate in politics. However, that was the exception and the overall life of woman in the Shang Dynasty was very restricted. Women’s domestic labor was seen as less than in these societies and the norm was that women and their work are less than men’s (with a few exceptions). 

I point all of this out because it is important point of reference to keep in the back of our minds as we study God’s Old Testament laws. God’s commands are often countercultural to this world, and we see a clear example of this in the 5th commandment. In a world where once a woman was married and had children, her role was seen as less than because the father was the head of the household, God elevated the mother’s position to a position of equal honor. This law was also used to challenge adult children, not only young children. As children, we often heard this phrase to make us obey our parents, but this law also challenges us as adults to honor our elderly father AND elderly mother. Both fathers and mothers should be treated with equal respect because the Lord has made them equal!