[17] "When the time drew near for the fulfillment of the promise that God pledged to Abraham, the people had increased and become very numerous in Egypt, [18] until another king who knew nothing of Joseph came to power (in Egypt). [19] He dealt shrewdly with our people and oppressed (our) ancestors by forcing them to expose their infants, that they might not survive. [20] At this time Moses was born, and he was extremely beautiful. For three months he was nursed in his father's house; [21] but when he was exposed, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. [22] Moses was educated (in) all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his words and deeds. [23] "When he was forty years old, he decided to visit his kinsfolk, the Israelites. [24] When he saw one of them treated unjustly, he defended and avenged the oppressed man by striking down the Egyptian. [25] He assumed (his) kinsfolk would understand that God was offering them deliverance through him, but they did not understand. [26] The next day he appeared to them as they were fighting and tried to reconcile them peacefully, saying, 'Men, you are brothers. Why are you harming one another?' [27] Then the one who was harming his neighbor pushed him aside, saying, 'Who appointed you ruler and judge over us? [28] Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?' [29] Moses fled when he heard this and settled as an alien in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.
(CCC 707) Theophanies (manifestations of God) light up the way of the promise, from the patriarchs to Moses and from Joshua to the visions that inaugurated the missions of the great prophets. Christian tradition has always recognized that God's Word allowed himself to be seen and heard in these theophanies, in which the cloud of the Holy Spirit both revealed him and concealed him in its shadow. (CCC 708) This divine pedagogy appears especially in the gift of the Law (Cf. Ex 19- 20; Deut 1-11; 29-30). God gave the Law as a "pedagogue" to lead his people towards Christ (Gal 3:24). But the Law's powerlessness to save man deprived of the divine "likeness," along with the growing awareness of sin that it imparts (Cf. Rom 3:20), enkindles a desire for the Holy Spirit. The lamentations of the Psalms bear witness to this. (CCC 709) The Law, the sign of God's promise and covenant, ought to have governed the hearts and institutions of that people to whom Abraham's faith gave birth. "If you will obey my voice and keep my covenant,… you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Ex 19:5-6; Cf. 1 Pet 2:9). But after David, Israel gave in to the temptation of becoming a kingdom like other nations. The Kingdom, however, the object of the promise made to David (Cf. 2 Sam 7; Ps 89; Lk 1:32-33), would be the work of the Holy Spirit; it would belong to the poor according to the Spirit.
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