Moses Flees to Midian

Story: Moses Flees to Midian

Passage: Exodus 2:11-25

Characters:  Moses, Zipporah

Summary:  Moses went to see the burden on his people.  He killed an Egyptian who was abusing a Hebrew.  Pharaoh heard and tried to kill him but Moses fled to Midian.  In Midian, Moses helped the daughters of Reuel by fighting off some shepherds and watering their flock.  Reuel gave him his daughter Zipporah as a wife and they had a son.  The people in Egypt cried out to God because their burden was so heavy and God heard and remembered his promise to them.

Notes: I always imagined Moses did not know he was a Hebrew until he was older, but this passage implies that he was fully aware of his heritage.  I also always pictured the murder to be accidental.  I thought he just went too far in trying to help his kinsman.  The passage implies that the murder was fully premeditated and intentional.  The passage says he looked both ways and when he saw no one was coming he killed the man and hid him in the sand.  Would God really use a murderer?  In Acts 7, Stephen reveals that Moses was already forty when this event happens and that his reason for defending the Hebrews was that he thought they would understand he was to be their deliverer.  His methods were not God's however and the Israelites rejected him.  I almost wonder if this action was designed to show the Israelites that soon he would be Pharaoh and he would take up their case and they could trust him.  If that was his goal, it didn't work.  The people took offense that he thought he had authority over them.  Ironically, he did have authority over them!  Moses ended up in Midian and I find it humorous that after saving the women, they seemingly left him at the well.  Reuel’s reaction is funny to me.  He was like where is he?  Why did you leave him?  Very few details are given about this period of time.  All the passage says is that Moses got married and had a son.  Reuel was a priest of Midian.  He was probably related in some way to Abraham.  Therefore it is possible that he was a priest of the true God.  Gershom means sojourner.  Moses knew that he was in a foreign land that was not his home.  This name foreshadowed the fact that Egypt was not Israel’s home either.  The passage then turns to three verses indicating a change in fortune for Israel.  God hears their cries and remembers His covenant with them.  This doesn’t mean He had forgotten, but rather that He knew it was time to begin delivering His people.  I think the final sentence in the chapter is very epic in ESV.  “God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.”  God did not want to deliver them because they deserved it, but rather because He had told them He would.  

Questions:  How long was Moses in Midian?  How did he earn Reuel’s favor? How long after he arrived did he have a son?  Did he want to return to Egypt?   

Lessons:  Moses was a murderer but God is planning on using him in a major way to deliver His people from bondage.  I also take comfort in the fact that even though His people were suffering, God had not forgotten His covenant with them and even as they were in slavery, He was preparing Moses to deliver them.