Moses Went Out

Exodus 2:11-25

Key Verse 2:11

One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people.

Today we would like to see how the Lord prepared an environment in which Moses could grow further as a shepherd for the slave nation Israel. 

Look at verse 11. “One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor.” According to other Scriptures, by the time Moses went out of the royal palace to his people, Moses was about 40 years old. 

Thus far, Moses grew up in the royal palace in Egypt. During the forty years of life in the palace, he must have received a very good education. Because he was the son of the Pharaoh’s daughter, and because of the possibility that he could be the next Pharaoh one day, people must have respected him and honored him like a king. 

But all the while Moses knew that he was not an Egyptian. He knew that he was a Hebrew. And he was concerned about his own people’s sufferings. 

One day, then, he went out to where his own people were. Most likely it was in private. Maybe he went out in plain clothes so no one within the palace or outside of the palace would notice him. 

After arriving at the place where his people were, he watched them at their hard labor. Then he saw a shocking scene. An Egyptian was beating a Hebrew, one of his own people.  

Obviously, the Egyptian was one of the slave masters. And the Hebrew was a slave under his supervision. We do not know exactly how the Egyptian mistreated the Hebrew. But we can easily imagine what happened. In those days, a slave was treated in the same way we treat our own possessions. One day I saw a man going out to be seated on a chair, not knowing that one of the four legs of the chair was broken. No sooner than the man sat down on the chair that the chair lost balance and fell to one side. The man became extremely upset with the chair. He then ran to the garage, found a jackhammer, and started finishing the chair. Wham! In a fit of anger the man slammed the chair and the chair was finished. Most likely the Egyptian beat the Hebrew in a way similar to the way the owner of the chair finished it off.  

Upon seeing this scene Moses’ blood pressure probably went up. Without knowing what he was doing, like a ninja in a Japanese movie, Moses flew in. He grabbed the Egyptian by the neck, separated him from the Hebrew, dragged him to a corner and, glancing this way and that and seeing no one, with a few karate punches knocked him down. The man collapsed. He was dead. “Oh, no!” Moses said to himself. But it was too late. Moses had no time to lose. He quickly hid him in the sand. He dusted himself off, pretending nothing had happened and returned to the palace through a back door. 

But he could not stay at the palace and do nothing for his people. The more he thought about his fellow Hebrews suffering, the more concerned he became. So the next day he went out again and saw a different scenario: this time two Hebrews were fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, "Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?" 

The man who was in the wrong could have said, “Oh, sir. I am sorry. Thank you for reminding me that fellow Hebrews should not hit fellow Hebrews. Please forgive me.” But that was not what he said. Rather he said, "Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?" This man pushed the right button, for on hearing about the Egyptian, Moses became afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.” 

Indeed, Moses’ hunch was right. Unbeknownst to Moses, the news spread quickly. The report went straight up to Pharaoh. And the report says that it was Moses who killed the Egyptian. 

How did Pharaoh respond? Look at verse 15. “When Pharaoh heard of this he tried to kill Moses…” 

But Moses acted more quickly than the Pharaoh. In no time he fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian. 

Let us stop for a moment and take a look at a map to see where Midian is located. We know where Egypt is located. Midian is located about 700 miles to the east of Egypt. In order to flee from Egypt to Midian you need to make a long journey. From Los Angeles to San Francisco it is about five hundred miles, and if you drive, it easily takes you 6 to 8 hours. But the distance between Egypt and Midian is greater than that. And in between Egypt and Midian is the Sinai peninsula, which is a hot desert area. So it must have taken a long journey, even a month or so, for Moses to flee to Midian. 

Finally, Moses arrived in Midian. Then he found a well. Exhausted, he sat down by the well. He must have quenched his thirst. And he was wondering which way to go, where to get a hot meal, and where to spend the night. 

Unbeknownst to Moses, the Lord God was waiting for this moment to come. The Lord God came up with a provision for him. What kind of provision was it? Look at verse 16. “Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father's flock.” In the Middle East, even nowadays, women do not associate with men publicly. The chador women are wearing gives us a pretty good idea of what I am talking about. In America, when boys and girls meet each other on high school or college campuses, they say, “Hi,” and then some of them start hugging or smooching etc. But in the culture of the Middle East that kind of practice was an absolute no, no. So, being a courteous man, Moses must have stepped aside away from the well. There he sat down looking the other direction, so the daughters would draw water without any disruption. 

While the women were working around the well, some shepherds came along. The rule of thumb is first come, first serve. Because the seven daughters came first the shepherds should have waited until the girls finished. But they acted like a bunch of bullies. They started driving the women away. 

Then Moses’ blood pressure went up. He got up. He went to the shepherds and said, “How dare you! These ladies came first. You go there and wait in line.” Then the toughest looking guy among the group flexed his muscles and tried to gang up on Moses. But he was no match for Moses. With a few quick moves, Moses twisted his arm, and put the bully under his control. Then all got scared and ran away. 

The seven daughters were overjoyed. They thanked Moses for Moses not only saved them but also assisted them to water their flock. Because Moses helped them water the flock, they could finish the job a lot quicker than usual. 

Look at verse 18. “When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, ‘Why have you returned so early today?’” Here the Midian priest’s name is “Reuel” which means “God’s friend.” It was another name for Jethro. A question then arises, “Why, at this moment of Moses’ life here on earth, did the Lord choose to describe the name of the priest not as Jethro but as Reuel? A quick answer would be this: Reuel was a god-send. In each generation the Lord God saves his people who are friendly to Him and his people. So, through Reuel the Lord God came up with a provision for Moses.

What kind of provision was it? Look at verses 19-22. “They answered, ‘An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.’ ‘And where is he?’ he asked his daughters. ‘Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat.’ Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, ‘I have become an alien in a foreign land.’”  

The Lord God provided Moses a home in a desert land for the next forty years. This provision turned out to be a good training ground for Moses to grow further as a gentle shepherd who knew how to serve the flock of God and lead them out from slavery to freedom to worship God. 

Let us now look at verses 23-25. “During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.” This passage ends with one important expression, “God was concerned about them.” 

God is the God of concern. He is not aloof or indifferent to our miseries. Moses understood God’s concern. So he too was concerned. So he was concerned about the needs his neighbors had. But he did not know how to bring about God’s salvation for them. So he used his own might, wit, and wisdom. The Lord God found that Moses was worthy of God’s divine training. He then put him in a divine training camp which was based in Jethro’s house in Midian. 

In conclusion, today we learn that Moses had Jesus’ image. Just as Jesus was concerned about our salvation, Moses was also concerned about the salvation of his people. After giving Moses necessary training, as we will study next Sunday, the Lord sent Moses back to Egypt to lead his people out. Thank and praise be to God for Moses who is a type of Jesus Christ the Savior. Thank and praise be to the Lord God who sent Jesus Christ, who in loving concern for all of us, left his Father’s house, came to our place, and gave his life as a ransom for many. May the Lord bless us to be concerned about our neighbors, for in our generation there are so many who are yet to be saved. May the Lord bless all of us to go out of our own places, to the places (particularly, college campuses) where sheep can be found, identify ourselves with them, and in our Lord Jesus’ gentle kindness, lead them out of troubled waters to green pastures where our Lord Jesus can feed them with His Living word.  

One word: Moses went out

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