The author of Hebrews praised the faith of Moses, saying, "By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin." (Hebrews 11:24-25) Today we study the incident that caused the name of Moses to be among those listed in what is called the "Hebrews Hall Of Faith".
In the beginning of Exodus 2 Moses was only three months old. Now in the second half of Exodus 2 he's a grown man of forty years old, according to Acts 7:23. He's of an age to get out and about to oversee things that are going on in the nation. He's beginning to notice more and more incidences of social injustice---especially social injustice against the Hebrews. He's been raised as an Egyptian but he knows he's of Hebrew heritage. He decides to check on the welfare of the Hebrew people. He sees something terrible taking place and takes swift action in an attempt to right the wrong.
"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." (Exodus 2:11) Hollywood usually portrays this Egyptian as one of the slave masters employed to oversee the forced labor. This is likely the case, even though as we'll see in verse 12 the Egyptian and the Hebrew were out of the sight of everyone else.
I believe the Egyptian was beating the Hebrew laborer unmercifully. Striking this person even once was wrong, but I have a feeling the Egyptian lashed out at this person a number of times. When the Bible says the Egyptian was "beating" this man I think it means he repeatedly struck him over and over with a club or a whip. Moses, coming upon this scene, flies into a rage of righteous indignation. He immediately intervenes, although perhaps not in the best way.
"Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand." (Exodus 2:12) Is this how God wanted him to handle the matter? If the Bible didn't tell us Moses "looked this way and that" before killing the Egyptian I'd be tempted to conclude he killed the Egyptian accidentally while struggling with him. Or I might have thought Moses had to kill the Egyptian to keep him from beating the Hebrew to death. But Moses clearly commits a premeditated murder. He stands there long enough to think about it, even if thinking about it only took a few seconds or minutes. He decides to kill the man, goes through with it, and conceals the body afterwards. Could he have defused the situation in some other way? Did he have enough authority in Egypt to order the Egyptian to stop at once? We don't know. We do know that Moses already realizes he's the man chosen by God to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt, for the book of Acts tells us, "Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not." (Acts 7:25) It may be that on the day Moses killed the Egyptian he thought the time had come. But it wasn't God's chosen time and Moses isn't ready. He may think he's ready but his actions in our passage today prove to us that he doesn't yet have the maturity and wisdom to lead a large group of people out of Egypt or to manage them later in the wilderness. He's too impulsive. He's too ruled by emotions. He needs more training before he's ready to fulfill his destiny.
Moses goes out again the next day to check on his people and he comes across a different violent situation. "The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, 'Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?'" (Exodus 2:13) He's already starting to try to take charge of his people but they don't want him in charge of them. If we stop to think about it we can see why they resent him. They know he's of Hebrew heritage but unlike the rest of them he's had a very soft upbringing in the king's palace. To the Hebrews he's just one more high-ranking Egyptian official in fancy robes who thinks he's better than others. They don't appreciate his interference. They don't want his help or his advice. What does he know about living under slave masters? How can he possibly understand the daily pressures the Hebrews live with? He can't relate to the way they have to live or the cruelty and discrimination they face every day of their lives. They want him to shut up and go back to the palace and stop meddling in their private business.
Moses thinks no one but the Hebrew he rescued the day before knows about his killing of the Egyptian, but that man went home and told his family and friends, then his family and friends told others, and now the news is spreading all over the land of Goshen. One of the Hebrew men who doesn't appreciate Moses' interference in the fight lets him know that the murder he committed is no secret. "The man said, 'Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?'" (Exodus 2:14a)
God has chosen Moses to be a ruler and judge over the people, but not now and not in this way. Moses is going to have to learn to do things by God's timing and not by his own timing. When the day comes that God is ready to take His people out of Egypt, the people will be ready to let Moses lead them.
"Then Moses was afraid and thought, 'What I did must have become known.'" (Exodus 2:14b) Moses is shocked and frightened when he realizes his actions are widely known. He may have been raised as the crown prince of Egypt, but he does not have the authority to kill an Egyptian for beating a Hebrew. He wouldn't have the right to kill an Egyptian even if the Egyptian killed the Hebrew. The Egyptians considered the Hebrews an expendable work force. If one died during forced labor or during a beating, the Egyptian government didn't care. They thought of the Hebrews as a sub-human race, in the same way the Nazis of Germany thought of the Jews, or in the same way many in our nation once thought of the people we enslaved from Africa. Moses might have had the authority to pass judgment on a murder committed by an Egyptian upon an Egyptian, but I feel certain that all crimes perpetrated by Egyptians upon Hebrews were completely overlooked by the government.
The news of Moses' deed reaches the king. "When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Egypt and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well." (Exodus 2:15) This king is probably the same one whose daughter adopted Moses. Forty years have passed though, so it could be that king's successor, but whoever he is he values the life of the cruel Egyptian slave master far more than he values the life of his legal relative Moses. Moses doesn't describe for us how the king intended to kill him, or whether he fled as soon as he learned of the plot or whether he physically had to fight himself free of Egyptian soldiers, but now he's sitting dejectedly by a well in the land of Midian.
Moses thinks he's failed. He believes he messed up and missed his destiny. He's sitting there in despair feeling like the Lord is finished with him and won't be able to use him now. Oh, but the Lord is just getting started! Sometimes what looks like an ending is really a beginning. Moses is about to meet and fall in love with the woman who will become his wife. Moses is going to spend forty years shepherding the stubborn sheep of this woman's father. The pastures and sheep folds of Midian are about to become his training ground while the Lord humbles him and teaches him self-control and wisdom and patience. The Lord is going to make him able to relate to the hardships the Hebrews are experiencing in Egypt. Moses is going to learn how to perform hard work and to eat by the sweat of his brow. When Moses at last fulfills his destiny, he's going to need the self-control and wisdom and patience learned from being the shepherd of sheep. Sheep are stubborn and fearful creatures who are not credited with much intelligence. If he can get them to obey him, he'll be able to get human beings to listen to him. He will use his hard-learned skills to shepherd a vast number of people who are intelligent and talented but who (like all of us) are sometimes fearful and stubborn just like the sheep he led for forty years.
Moses thinks God is finished with him, but God is only sending him to boot camp to make him into a great soldier and leader. Are you in a place today where you feel like life isn't moving forward? If so, Moses could certainly relate to you. But maybe you've merely been sent to the training grounds. God has something wonderful in store for your future, but He's simply sent you to boot camp first.
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