And the LORD said unto Moses,
See, I have made you a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet.
Read Chapter 7
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
But if they think [Christ] is called God because he had an indwelling of the Godhead within him, as many holy men were (for the Scripture calls them gods to whom the word of God came)—they do not place him before other men but think he is to be compared with them. They consider him to be the same as he granted other men to be, even as he says to Moses: “I have made you a god unto Pharaoh.” Similarly it is also said in the psalms: “I have said, you are gods.” .
He so far exceeded the dignity of his human state that he was given the title of “god” as we read in the Scriptures, where the Lord speaks: “I have appointed you the god of Pharaoh.” He was in fact victorious over all his passions and was not allured by the enticements of the world. He enveloped this our habitation here in the body with a purity that savored of a “citizenship that is in heaven.” By directing his mind and by subduing and castigating his flesh with an authority that was almost regal, he was given the name of “god,” by whom he had modeled his life through numerous acts of perfect virtue. .
Moses was appointed god of the Egyptians when he who was giving the revelation spoke to him in this manner: “I have appointed you the god of Pharaoh.” Therefore the title conveys an indication of some power, either protective or active. But the divine nature in all the names which may be contrived remains, just as it is, inexplicable, as is our teaching.
The God of Pharao, viz., to be his Judge; and to exercise a divine power, as God's instrument, over him and people. (Challoner)
Artapanus says, Moses was afterwards adored by the Egyptians.
Prophet, or interpreter. Thou shalt reveal my orders to him. (Calmet)
Moses participated in the divine nature, as judge, priest, prophet (Worthington)
So Moses was a god to Pharaoh, but a servant of God, as it is written. The stars which illumine the night are hidden by the sun, so much that you could not even know of their existence by daylight. A little torch brought near a great blaze is neither destroyed nor seen nor extinguished; but it is all one blaze, the bigger one prevailing over the other.
“I said: You are gods, all of you sons of the Most High.” Let Eunomius hear this, let Arius, who says that the Son of God is son in the same way that we are. That we are gods is not so by nature but by grace. “But to as many as received him he gave the power of becoming sons of God.” I made man for that purpose, that from men they may become gods. “I said: You are gods, all of you sons of the Most High.” Imagine the grandeur of our dignity; we are called gods and sons! I have made you gods just as I made Moses a god to Pharaoh, so that after you are gods, you may be made worthy to be sons of God. Reflect upon the divine words: “With God there is no respect of persons.” God did not say, “I said, you are gods, you kings and princes”; but “all” to whom I have given equally a body, a soul and a spirit, I have given equally divinity and adoption. We are all born equal, emperors and paupers; and we die as equals. Our humanity is of one quality.
I say that they are gods, lords and kings not by nature but because they have ruled over and dominated sufferings and because they have kept undebased the likeness of the divine image to which they were made—for the image of the king is also called a king. Finally … they have freely been united to God and [by] receiving him as a dweller within themselves have through association with him become by grace what he is by nature.
Hence it is that through the influence of these three things Moses is made a god: for the sake of his military triumphs he brings all the elements under his control. He bids the sea to withdraw, its waves to solidify, its bottom to become dry and the sky to drop its rain. He supplies food, compels the winds to scatter meats, illumines the night with the splendor of the sun, tempers the sun by the veil of the cloud. He strikes the rock to make it yield from its fresh wound cool streams of water for those who thirst. He first gives to the earth heaven’s law, writes down the norms of living, sets the terms of disciplinary control.
