There is one thing I know the Bible and TV/Movies have in
common. Sometimes they skip quite a bit
of time to move the story along. In
between Exodus 2:10 and 11, about forty years have passed according to Stephen
and his account of Moses in Acts 7:23.
Then after we hear the story of Moses killing the Egyptian slave driver
and fleeing to Midian, we find another huge gap of about forty years. (Exodus
7:7, Acts 7:30) In that gap of time we are to assume that Moses has been
dwelling in Midian as a shepherd with his family and his wife’s relatives. I bring this up because we could skim over
this fact and focus on the many intriguing details that happen in these
chapters without realizing how long it took for God to prepare Moses. Keep this passage of time in mind as we walk
through these scriptures and I will return to the topic in our family
application.
We begin in Ex. 2:11 with Moses now being “grown up.” He is aware that he is different, brought up
in Egyptian culture and education but feeling deeply connected to “his own
people.” Perhaps this suggests his
Egyptian family had sheltered him from the brutal treatment the Egyptians
brought upon the Hebrews and had finally felt he was mature enough to handle the
truth. Perhaps they were continuing to
attempt to shelter him but his curiosity would no longer be denied. Whatever the case may be, his compassion for
the Hebrews boiled over as he was enraged enough to murder who we presume to be
a slave driver beating a Hebrew worker.
Thinking no one saw him, Moses buries the man in the sand. But his later encounter with the two Hebrew
men fighting gives Moses cause to think he was not so discrete. Fearing for his life as Pharaoh tried to
have him killed, he flees to Midian. Though
murder is nothing to condone, this does show us that Moses already has a
passion to see his people free. He seems
to learn the hard way that two wrongs don’t make a right and his fellow Hebrews,
observing his brutal handling of the slave driver, would not be quick to trust
or accept his leadership. This may
account for why Moses was so full of questions and excuses when God called him
to lead his people out of captivity, but more on that later.
Can someone explain to me what it is about Old Testament Bible
heroes meeting their wives at water wells?
First Isaac met Rebekah at the well, then Jacob met Rachel, and now we
see Moses flee Egypt and arrive in Midian at where else, but the old watering
hole. And lo and behold, there are seven
damsels in distress, daughters of Reuel, a Midianite Priest. These damsels are in need of rescue from
mean, water thieving, shepherds. So
Moses rescues them and waters their flock as well. Of course, Reuel is impressed with this and
gives Moses his daughter, Zipporah, in marriage. Maybe this is where the old saying “there
must be something in the water” comes from.
I met my wife, Amy, at Tippecanoe Baptist Camp and people use to always
say there was something in the water there (Same might hold true for Dan and
Lori Cash). Anyway, Moses and Zipporah
have a son and name him Gershom, reminding Moses he is an alien in a foreign
land. This brings about another Biblical
tendency that raises my curiosity. Was
it a rule that you had to name your child whatever was on the father’s mind at
the time? Amy and I thought about naming
our first child “Overjoyed but Scared to Death” but we went with Hannah
instead.
Now we come 40 years later to the burning bush on Mount
Horeb (Sinai), the same mountain on which Moses would receive the 10
Commandments. Moses gets God’s attention
with the bush not because it was burning, but because it was burning and not
consuming the bush itself. Evidently, a
burning bush would have been curious but not totally uncommon as a nomad’s
unattended fire or a flash of lightning could cause a dry bush to burn, but in
dry middle-eastern conditions would likely consume it quickly. This bush was not consumed by the fire. Maxie Dunnam said the fire represents God’s
presence and the bush not being consumed represents our ability to experience
his presence eternally. (The
Communicator’s Commentary – Exodus p.64)
What amazes me in this passage is Moses’s hesitance to accept
his calling. From Exodus 3:11-4:17, we
see Moses expressing all his insecurities and God giving him pep talk after pep
talk to the point where God starts to get a little miffed (Ex 4:14). In a way I think Moses is still getting over
his first attempt at delivering at least one of his fellow Hebrews when he
killed the slave driver. It’s as if in
the back of his mind Moses is thinking “I tried this once. I failed and I ran. The Hebrews acted like they didn’t want my
help.” But the Lord patiently convinces
him “I will be with you” which brings light to the reason his good intentions
failed him the first time. His efforts
were human, not influenced by the divine.
God was driving home a lesson that even after 40 years was still hard
for Moses to grasp. “I am with you. It will be different this time.”
This brings us to our family application. I think most of us as Christians hold Moses
in pretty high esteem, but these two chapters give us evidence that he was just
a man, flawed like all of us. Yet, if we
know the rest of the story, God used him in a powerful way. God waited 80 years though. Moses had to go through some things
first. He had to grow up. He had to feel the pain of his people. He had to learn from and face his
mistakes. I know Amy and I try to teach
our girls lessons about life. We
struggle with Hannah sometimes. We try to improve how she responds to
disappointment. When the answer is “no”
or when she doesn’t want to be responsible for her actions her responses are
not often what you’d call civil. You
could say they are Biblical though (weeping and gnashing of teeth). It seems like we take one step forward and
two steps back sometimes and we wonder “when is she gonna get it?” I need to be reminded it took Moses 80 years
to “get it” and he was still hesitant. I
have to have faith that one day Hannah will “get it” and maybe, just maybe, one
day I’ll “get it” too. Hang in there and
believe you and yours will “get it” as well.
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