Exiting Egypt Chapter Two Part 3

Exiting Egypt: Chapter Two –

When We’re Most Like God

By Dennis Lee Part 3

Read Ex. 2:11-15a

Let’s continue on

Moses is now a grown man, but notice something about his upbringing. It says that when he was grown he went out and looked upon his brethren’s burdens. Guess what, he hadn’t looked on them before. He had the ease and comfort in the palace and was blinded to the suffering of the Jews.

The shade of his heart was pulled down so as not to be touched by their oppression. That’s an easy thing to do. It’s easy to pull the shade down over our hearts so that we won’t see the oppression and suffering going on around the world.

And yet we see it all the time on the TV or over the Internet, so what gives. The shade these days have to do with our being so jaded by all of it we see. We feel that we really can’t do anything about it, and further, it isn’t on our front door step, it’s held at a distance, we may see it, but we cannot smell the squalor and stench of death, nor feel the sting of the whip, or the penetration of the bullet, so we go unaffected.

But going back to our earlier study of Moses rescue, there’s one who saw, and had compassion. It was Pharaoh’s daughter. It says she heard the baby crying, saw his precarious position, knew her father’s edict, but her compassion overrode everything else.

It is this that is needed today. We need to empathize. We need to identify with the suffering that is going on around the world, and the suffering that is going on in our own backyard. The Bible tells us that is what we need to be about, as it tells us to not only laugh with those who laugh, but mourn and weep with those who are doing the same.

And so Moses finally identified and did something about it. A little misguided to say the least, but it was the heart that was necessary. Jesus said,

Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me (Mt. 25:40 NKJV)

What is important about what we see is that Moses identified with his people, even though he grew up with the Egyptians.

And we cannot miss the irony here. After helping one out of the jam he was in, when he tried to intervene in the life of two Hebrews, instead of welcoming him, one of them rebuked him. He said, “Do you intend to kill me as you did the Egyptian?” In today’s terminology he told Moses, “Who died and made you boss?”

I feel as if Moses lived in Mesquite. Everyone knows what happens yesterday today. Or, like the church. I found it quite revealing that in my old church, on Tuesday when I heard the report about the condition of the building we were in, that is, it was badly invested and we needed to move out, and that I had tents coming in for Sunday service, when I announced it at Wednesday evening, everyone already knew it.

And it says that Moses feared for his life, because if they knew it, it wouldn’t be long before the Pharaoh hears of it, and puts him to death for helping the very people he’s trying to keep down.

So Moses flees into the wilderness to escape the wrath of Pharaoh.

Read Exodus 2: 15b-22

Moses was a man who just couldn’t help sticking his nose in and seeking justice for those who have been wronged. This time it was to come to the aide of the daughters of the priest of Midian.

Now, the Mideonites were what you might call distant relatives of the Hebrews. Midian in Genesis 25:2 is described as the son of Abraham by his second wife, Keturah. Seeing that Moses married into the family of the priest, he probably received instruction and insight then into the nature and character of God during this time of exile.

Now, it states that this priest of the Mideonites name was Reuel, yet in 3:1 it says that his name was Jethro, which is the name that most of us know him by. Why the difference? I’m not sure, except what is brought out by the Jewish historian Josephus, who said that Reuel was his real name while Jethro was his official name as priest.

The country, Midian, where Moses fled was along the Arabian Peninsula off the eastern shore of the Gulf of Aqabah. It’s terrain, scattered oasis and water sources served Moses well has he learned it all and helped him lead the Jews across similar terrain while they spent 40 years in the wilderness.

And so, Jethro gave to Moses his daughter Zipporah, who bore a son and Moses called his son Gershom, which means “stranger there,” because as Moses said, “I have been a stranger in a foreign land.”

And that is exactly how we should feel in this world we are living in right now, because this is not our home, and by faith we should be looking to our real home, heaven. The Bible says that we are ambassadors. Ambassadors are those who live on foreign soil representing their home country. And so, we are strangers in this world we live in, and as such we then need to be ambassadors, representing the government of God to this godless world.

But you know, as I read this I was also thinking that Moses felt like this because Midian was not the place that He needed to be. That he needed to be with His people, the Jews, and that living outside of community, even though the people around are good and decent, they were not his people.

And when we live outside of Christian community, this is how we should feel, like strangers. We need to start living as a community, not exclusive, but inclusive, inviting everyone we know to join in that community of believers.