Moses Runs Away

A grown man. “When Moses was grown,” he went out to see his people, the Hebrews (2:11). Stephen, preaching many years later, says Moses was “forty years old” (Acts 7:23). He had grown up in Pharaoh's palace, but he knew the slaves were his brothers. A right concern. Moses “looked at their burdens.” He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew (2:11). It is right to care when someone is treated cruelly. God Himself cared about His people's suffering. A wrong action. “So he looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand” (2:12). Moses checked that nobody was watching. Then he hid the body. People who are sure they are doing right do not usually need to hide it. Anger is not God's tool. James says, “the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:20). Moses wanted justice, but he tried to get it by his own anger and his own strength. When we try to fix wrong things with our anger, it still goes wrong today.

Forty years in the palace. Exodus gives no age, but Stephen says that “when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren” (Acts 7:23). Stephen also says Moses “was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians” (Acts 7:22). The adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter had every advantage Egypt could give. His brothers. Exodus 2:11 calls the Hebrews “his brethren” twice: he went out “to his brethren,” and the man beaten was “one of his brethren.” Moses knew he belonged with God's people, not with Pharaoh's court. The verb for the Egyptian “beating” the Hebrew and for Moses striking him down is the same, nakah (say: nah-KAH), to strike. Moses answered violence with violence. Looking both ways. “He looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one” (2:12). Moses checked for human witnesses only. He did not look up. He acted in secret, by his own hand, without any word from God. Later in Exodus, God would judge Egypt openly, by His own power. What Stephen said. Stephen says, “he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand” (Acts 7:25). Israel was slow to recognize the one God had chosen. But God never approved of the killing. Moses had the right desire to rescue his people, but not the right time or the right way.

Moses saw an Egyptian hurting a Hebrew man. That made Moses very angry. It is right to care when people are hurt. But Moses did a terrible thing. He killed the Egyptian. Before he did it, he looked this way and that way. He did not want anyone to see. When we hide what we do, it is usually wrong. Moses wanted to help. But anger made him sin. God wants us to help in good ways. We can tell a grown-up. We can pray and ask God what to do. God always has a better way.

Moses wanted to help his people. But he did it the wrong way. God wants us to do right things in right ways.

A fight among brothers. The next day Moses found “two Hebrew men were fighting,” and he asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you striking your companion?” (2:13). The slaves were not only hurt by Egypt. They were hurting each other too. A hard question. The man shot back, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” (2:14). Moses wanted to lead his people, but they did not accept him. Nobody had chosen him, and God had not yet sent him. Found out. “So Moses feared and said, ‘Surely this thing is known!’” (2:14). The secret was out. Sin we try to hide has a way of coming to light. A picture of Jesus. Stephen tells this story to show that God's people often rejected the very one God sent to save them (Acts 7:25). The same thing happened to Jesus. “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him” (John 1:11). But Jesus never sinned, and He did not need to hide anything.

Israel's own sin (2:13). The next day the problem grew. The Hebrew in the wrong is called rasha' (say: rah-SHAH), the guilty one, a word for a wicked person. Israel's trouble was not only Pharaoh. Israel had sin of its own, and the rest of Exodus will show it again and again. “Who made you a prince and a judge?” (2:14). The question was sharper than the man knew. Nobody had appointed Moses. He had acted on his own. When Moses returns in chapter 3, it will be because God sends him, and God's call will answer this very question. Moses and Jesus. Stephen quoted this question in Acts 7:27 and then said: “This Moses whom they rejected… is the one God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer” (Acts 7:35). He was speaking to the leaders who had just rejected Jesus. God's deliverer was rejected first by his own people, and the same thing happened to Jesus. Fear and exposure. “So Moses feared” (2:14). The secret act of 2:12 was public knowledge within a day. Numbers 32:23 warns, “be sure your sin will find you out.” This is the first time we hear of Moses being afraid, and the fear sent him running.

The next day two Hebrew men were fighting. Moses tried to stop them. But the man who was wrong talked back. “Who made you our boss?” he said. “Will you kill me too?” Moses was trying to help his own people. But they did not want him. That must have hurt. Nobody likes being pushed away. Moses also learned something scary. His secret was not a secret anymore. Sins we try to hide often come out. It is always better to tell the truth. We can tell God we are sorry right away. He is ready to forgive us.

Moses tried to stop a fight. But the man said, “Who made you the boss?” His own people did not want his help.

Running for his life. “When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian” (2:15). The prince of Egypt became a man on the run. At the well. In Genesis, good things often happened at wells. Abraham's servant found Rebekah at a well, and Jacob met Rachel at a well. Now Moses “sat down by a well” (2:15), alone and far from home. The same Moses, a better way. When shepherds drove the seven daughters away, “Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock” (2:17). He still could not stand to see people bullied. But this time nobody died, and nothing was hidden. He protected the girls and then did the hard work of drawing water. Helping the weak. God cares about people who are pushed around. “The Lord watches over the strangers; He relieves the fatherless and widow” (Psalm 146:9). Moses, a stranger himself, helped strangers. When we stand up for someone who is picked on, and then help with ordinary work, we are acting the way God acts.

The flight (2:15). Pharaoh “sought to kill Moses,” and Moses “fled from the face of Pharaoh.” Hebrews 11:27 says, “By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king.” Since Exodus 2:14 says Moses was afraid when he fled, Hebrews is most likely speaking of the later exodus, when Moses led Israel out without fear of Pharaoh. Either way, Moses' whole break with Egypt was an act of faith that looked to God. At the well. God's people often met their future families at wells (Genesis 24; 29). Abraham's servant found Rebekah at a well, and Jacob met Rachel at a well. Here too a traveler helps at the water, the daughters run home, and a marriage follows. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was still guiding the life of a man on the run. “Moses stood up and helped them” (2:17). The verb for “helped” is yasha' (say: yah-SHAH), to save or deliver. It is the root of the names Joshua and Jesus. The daughters report it with another rescue word: “An Egyptian delivered us” (2:19). Moses was already doing on a small scale what God would do through him on a great scale. This is very different from 2:12. Here he rescued without killing, in the open, and he served.

Moses ran far away to Midian. He was alone and had nothing. But at the well, Moses did something good. Some shepherds were being mean to seven sisters. Moses stood up for the sisters. This time he did not hurt anyone. He helped the girls water their sheep. Moses was learning a better way to help. He used his strength to protect, not to hurt. We can stand up for people too. We can be kind to someone who is picked on. We can share and help with the work. That pleases God. Helping is better when nobody gets hurt.

Moses saw mean shepherds chase the sisters away. Moses stood up and helped them. That was a good way to help!

A meal and a home. Reuel asked his daughters, “And where is he? Why is it that you have left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread” (2:20). The runaway was welcomed to a family table. “Then Moses was content to live with the man, and he gave Zipporah his daughter to Moses” (2:21). A son with a sad name. Zipporah “bore him a son. He called his name Gershom, for he said, ‘I have been a stranger in a foreign land’” (2:22). Moses had a wife and a son, but he still felt he did not belong. Strangers and pilgrims. Moses was not the first of God's people to feel that way. Hebrews says Abraham and his family “confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13). Christians feel it too. “Our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20). Waiting time is not wasted time. Moses would care for sheep in Midian for many years. It may have looked as if his life had stopped. But God was teaching him patience and how to lead a flock. When God called him, he would lead God's people as a shepherd leads sheep.

Hospitality (2:18-20). Reuel's questions, “And where is he? Why is it that you have left the man?”, scold his daughters for failing to show hospitality. In that world, inviting a stranger to “eat bread” was a serious duty. Reuel is also called Jethro (compare Exodus 3:1). Gershom (2:22). The name is a wordplay on ger (say: GAIR), a resident foreigner, someone living where he has no rights of his own. Moses named his son after his own condition: he was not Egyptian, not living among Israel, and not a Midianite by birth. The long wait. Stephen says forty more years passed before God appeared to Moses (Acts 7:30). Exodus 2:23 simply says, “in the process of time.” God was not in a hurry, and He did not explain Himself. The man who tried to deliver Israel by force had to learn that deliverance belongs to God. A people of strangers. Peter uses the same idea for Christians: “I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims” (1 Peter 2:11). Yet in Christ, believers are also “no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19). Both are true. We are at home with God and not yet at home in the world.

Reuel invited Moses to eat with his family. Moses stayed and married Zipporah. They had a baby boy named Gershom. His name sounds like the Hebrew word for stranger. Moses felt like a stranger in Midian. He was not an Egyptian anymore. He did not live with the Hebrews either. Moses would stay in Midian a long time. He took care of sheep there. It might seem like God forgot him. But God was getting Moses ready. God's people belong to Him wherever they are. God had not forgotten Moses at all.

Moses named his baby Gershom. Moses was far from home. But God was still with him and had a plan.

🎉 All Matched!