The Exodus – Part 4
Moses Flees to Midian
Pastor Bruce A. Shields
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SERMON TIMELINE
· The Book of Genesis
· The Book of Exodus (Between years 2368-2448 or 1400 – 1320 B.C.)
· Introduction
· Israelite’s Oppression
· The Birth of Moses
· Moses Flees to Midian
INTRODUCTION
After completing the Book of Genesis, we have embarked on the Book of Exodus. As mentioned in previous sermons over the last few weeks, where Genesis is the book explaining the fall, Exodus gives us redemption and salvation.
The Book of Exodus begins with the first section of the narrative portion addressing the oppression and bondage of the people whom God will redeem.
Allegorically speaking, Egypt represents sin and its bondage of people.
Moses, a type of Christ, was a leader and lawgiver. Chosen by God to deliver His people from the bondage of Egypt, just as Christ was chosen to deliver us from the bondage of sin.
During the time in the wilderness, Moses was the people’s mediator, just as Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant.
We read last week about Moses being discovered by the Pharaoh’s daughter and given back to his mother to be cared for as a wet nurse. Once old enough he would be returned to the Pharaoh’s daughter to be raised as her own child.
This takes place in Exodus 2:10 and we see the book jump to verse 11 where we are told Moses is now grown.
This omission of information from the time Moses was an infant to adulthood tells us a couple of things. Firstly, nothing of biblical importance happened during Moses’ upbringing. Secondly, Nothing the Pharaoh, his daughter or anyone else did during this time had an important impact on what Moses would accomplish for God over the remainder of this book.
This purposeful omission by the Holy Spirit in the Word of God is just as important to our understanding of the Book of Exodus as the words that are written within.
Today we will be looking at the remainder of Exodus 2:11-25 Moses Flees to Midian
SCRIPTURE READING
Exodus 2:11-25
“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. 12 Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 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?”
14 The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.”
15 When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well. 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. 17 Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.
18 When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?”
19 They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”
20 “And where is he?” Reuel asked his daughters. “Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat.”
21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. 22 Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”
23 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. 24 God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. 25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.”
TODAY’S MESSAGE
I. MOSES, THE MURDERER
a. What Moses saw
i. Moses “went out” to where his own people were
ii. He watched them at their hard labor
1. Remember Exodus 1:11, the Egyptians put slave masters over the people to oppress them with forced labor
2. The Egyptians dreaded the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly
3. This, along with trying to impose death on all boys born to the Israelites, was all an attempt to stop them from growing and multiplying
iii. Moses witnessed an Egyptian slave master beating a Hebrew
iv. Moses, knowing he too was Hebrew, could not stand to see this happen to “one of his own people”
b. What Moses did
i. This tells us that as a man, Moses did not, at least by this time, consider himself an Egyptian
ii. Though raised and educated by the Egyptians, he knew he was Hebrew
iii. This is a picture of us, being raised and educated in a fallen world, where we are taught sin is ok, acceptable, even good.
iv. We can turn as Moses did and seek after what we were created to be rather than what the world makes us.
v. We were created to belong to God, not the world. We, like Moses, can turn our backs on the sinful world’s upbringing, teachings, and run towards God.
vi. Moses, taking the law into his own hands, responded by killing the Egyptian. He knew it was wrong, or verse 13 would not have stated he was “looking this way and that seeing no one he killed the Egyptian.”
vii. He also “hid him in the sand.”
viii. He went out again the next day and saw two Hebrews fighting and asked the instigator, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?”
c. The man he replied
i. The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?”
ii. Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.”
iii. News travels fast, bad news even faster
II. PHARAOH WANTS MOSES PUNISHED
a. Moses flees to Midian
i. Wanting Moses killed for his actions, Moses flees to Midian
ii. Sitting at a well a group of women came to draw water.
iii. These women belonged to a Priest of Midian by the name of Reuel
b. Moses, a man who protects women
i. As Reuel’s daughters were getting water, Moses sees some shepherds come along and drive the women away
ii. We see Moses, once again the protector, jumping to their aid and rescuing them from the shepherds allowing them to water their flocks
c. Reuel sees potential in Moses
i. When the women return home and tell their father they say “An Egyptian rescued us”
ii. We know from this verse, although Moses may not feel he is Egyptian, nor does he want to associate with them, he apparently appears as one.
iii. Like Joseph, after years in the Egyptian courts, you would have the same clothes and hairstyles, including no facial hair.
iv. And like Joseph, Moses is Hebrew through and through.
v. On the outside, Moses beginning his journey towards God, he still appears as Egyptian though his heart is Hebrew. In the same way, some of us, when we first come to the Lord, still appear like the world, though our hearts may belong to the Lord.
vi. However, Reuel sees potential in Moses
vii. A man who protected his daughters, and he wants him to come for dinner.
viii. Having seven daughters, finding a good man for one of them would be a blessing!
III. MOSES FINDS A WIFE IN MIDIAN
a. Zipporah and Moses marry
i. Reuel offers one of his daughter’s hands in marriage, and Zipporah and Moses marry.
b. They have a son named Gershom
i. Now Gershom sounds like the Hebrew for “foreigner there”
ii. Even at the beginning of Moses’ trek to find God he knows that he is not where he is supposed to be, but a foreigner in a foreign land.
iii. With the death of Joseph, the new Pharaoh’s forgetting him and what God did for them and their land, and the fact that the Egyptians now loath the Israelites and want them dead, God must enact the next part of His plan to fulfill His promise He made to Abraham all those centuries ago.
c. During this time the Pharaoh dies
i. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out
ii. And their cry for help was heard by God
iii. Verse 24 tells us God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
CONCLUSION
“God remembered” is not to be taken as the opposite of “God forgot”.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “remember” as to “bring to mind or think of again,”
In every instance of God "remembering," we see that it always includes an action.
God never forgets His promises or His people — He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, and the creator of the universe. He doesn’t suffer from memory lapses.
· God “remembered” the evil deeds of Babylon and poured out His wrath upon her in Revelation
· God remembered Noah, then made the water recede.
· God remembered Rachel, then opened her womb.
· And, years later, hearing the Hebrews’ cries for rescue, God remembered His covenant with their ancestors and rescued them.
So, for God to “remember” means for God to have a person, or covenant on His mind when determining what action, He is going to take
NEXT WEEK
We will look at Moses at the Burning Bush
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