The Way
Flight to Midian
A prince sheds his robes and becomes a stranger
Story
Moses, raised in the palace, grew to be a man and went out to see his own people at their hard labour. There he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. Moses looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck the Egyptian dead and buried him in the sand. He thought no one had seen.
The next day he went out again and found two Hebrews fighting. When Moses asked the one in the wrong why he was striking his fellow Hebrew, the man shot back. Who made you our ruler? Do you mean to kill me the way you killed the Egyptian? Moses was afraid. The story reached Pharaoh himself, and the king sought to kill him. Moses left everything behind and fled from Pharaoh to the land of Midian.
At a well in Midian, the seven daughters of the local priest came to water their father's flock. Shepherds came and drove them off, but Moses stood up, came to their aid and watered the flock. Their father Reuel invited him into his home. Moses stayed in that house, married Zipporah, and had a son he named Gershom. Years passed, and the king of Egypt died. The cry of Israel, groaning under slavery, rose up to God, and God heard it.
Walk this scene on the map →God's Words
Who made you our ruler and judge? Are you planning to kill me the way you killed that Egyptian yesterday?
Where is he now? Why did you leave the man behind? Go and invite him to eat with us.
I have become a stranger in a foreign land.
The sayings are fresh renderings of the original meaning in today's language. Text: Ex 2:11–25
Background
Midian is thought to have been the land of nomadic peoples east of the Gulf of Aqaba, in the northwest of the Arabian Peninsula. In chapter 3 Reuel is called Jethro. Stephen says Moses was forty years old when he went to visit his own people.
Pause and Reflect
Do I believe God has not abandoned me, even after I have failed?