Exodus 2:11 – 22 “One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people and observed their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. After looking this way and that and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand. The next day Moses went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you attacking your fellow Hebrew?” But the man replied, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “This thing I have done has surely become known.” When Pharaoh heard about this matter, he sought to kill Moses.
But Moses fled from Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, where he sat down beside a well. Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock. And when some shepherds came along and drove them away, Moses rose up to help them and watered their flock. When the daughters returned to their father Reuel (Jethro), he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?” “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds,” they replied. “He even drew water for us and watered the flock.” “So where is he?” their father asked. “Why did you leave the man behind? Invite him to have something to eat.” Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. And she gave birth to a son whom he named Gershom, for he said, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”
Moses had good intentions but lousy timing and acted out of righteous indignation. Consider Moses’ situation: Moses was a Hebrew but raised in the palace as an Egyptian. Had Moses truly been an Egyptian noble, it’s likely that he would have gotten by with a slap on the wrist for killing a brutal Egyptian overseer. After all, those assigned to oversee slaves were generally lower level socially. It’s even possible that had Moses been an Egyptian noble, Pharaoh might have commended him for eliminating a bully who was mistreating valuable slaves.
But Moses was not an Egyptian; he was a Hebrew caught between two cultures. Moses’ mother had kept him until he was a few years old, so it’s likely that she would have told him of his Hebrew heritage. Then Moses went to live with Pharaoh’s daughter and was educated with the princes. Poor Moses! How confusing! One Ghanaian pastor friend ministering in a tribal group traditionally opposed to his own described this situation perfectly. Our friend said that he was “hanging like a bat” between the two tribes, with each tribe suspecting he was sympathetic to the other!
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APPLICATION: How does this story illustrate the mercy of God?
1. Moses understood two cultures, both that of the Hebrews and that of the Egyptians. Moses would need all of that knowledge in the future.
2. God delivered Moses from this predicament by allowing Moses to escape to the land of Midian, where he became a sheep herder. Until then, Moses had been living in the royal palace in Egypt and had no idea of how to live outdoors or cope with situations in which water was scarce. On his own, Moses would never have chosen such a lifestyle.
3. God allowed Moses to become a sheep herder for another reason as well. Sheep are not easy to handle. Sheep are willful and make stupid choices. If the sheep herder fails to watch closely enough, the sheep will wander into all kinds of danger. There are wild animals that are always ready to attack the sheep. God used decades of herding sheep to prepare Moses to lead the Israelites, who, as it turned out, frequently had a lot in common with those sheep!
Many times when things get rough, we want to complain or blame God. We have no idea that God is mercifully working out His purposes in our lives and preparing us for something higher and greater.
PRAYER: Father God, thank you that you have far bigger plans for us than we have for ourselves. Thank you that you refuse to leave us sitting in one place but that you move us into new situations in which we are forced to learn in order to survive. Thank you that ultimately we will see your hand of mercy in all you are doing in our lives. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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