This will be a continuation of our examination of Moses, his life, and how God worked both in and through him with the events recorded in Exodus chapter 2 [read part 1 here]. To refresh his story and experiences up to this point: verse 2 records that he was born to Levite parents, foreshadowing his role as a spiritual leader and prophet to the Hebrew people as well as his brother Aaron later being named as the first high priest of God as stated by the law God would reveal to Moses later. Moses is hidden from the Egyptian Pharaoh for three months by his parents to save him from death, and is then placed in a basket placed in a river to send him away to safety; he was then discovered by the Pharaoh’s daughter, who takes him in to her family, ordering him weaned by his own mother in verse 9 and being named Moses in verse 10. Verse 11 shows that he went to see the Hebrews in captivity and saw an Egyptian beating one of the slaves - and in verse 12 we learn that Moses killed the Egyptian to protect them, with Acts 7:25 adding that Moses did so thinking that he would bring about God’s plan to free the Hebrew people.
We can resume our reading in verse 13; Moses saw two of the Hebrew slaves fighting and tried to mediate between them, asking why one had struck the other. This seems to be a leader’s reasonable reaction to witnessing a physical altercation, however Moses came to learn that his prior murder had not remained secret as he had hoped. Verse 14 records the Hebrew’s response, they ask Moses who made him a ruler and judge over them, and then pointedly asks him “do you intend to kill me as you did the Egyptian?” Whether they asked Moses this in genuine fear of retaliation, or in a sarcastic or accusatory manner is not certain; both are distinct possibilities and both reflect the turning point Moses experienced - despite his attempts to hide the killing and its intention to bring about God’s rescue of the Hebrew people, he could never go back to who or what he was prior. And verse 14 concludes that his response was also an uncomfortably human one: Moses was afraid that “surely this thing is known!”
Exodus 2:15 states that once Pharaoh learned of Moses’ killing of the Egyptian he sought to kill him in retaliation, and reports that Moses fled from the land. The text specifies this as another all-too-human reaction, that “Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh”, and went to the land of Midian. Moses ran away from the only home and peoples that he had ever known, from both his true and his adopted family, from the comfort and security that he had been afforded, possibly fleeing even from a position of power, because he was afraid of the wrath of man in response to his actions. However, even in humanity’s most scared or selfish moments, there is always a place for God to show us something important, to teach or support us - even if the only lesson is that He is still God, that He is still there and He still loves us; because God is ever faithful He never gives up on us. We are called to forsake our earthly comforts and physical security today and to follow God, and if we must separate ourselves from things held dear to us for the sake of obedience to God, then we must do so; we are likewise called to rely on God for our provision for not only our spiritual salvation, but for things even as physical as our daily bread.
However, there is a contrast here; Christ calls us as believers and members of the new covenant to do these things happily and voluntarily, to not look to physical wealth or power but to walk rightly as Jesus teaches us so that we may lay up treasures in the kingdom of Heaven, while Moses is actively fleeing for his life after committing a murder, and ran to the apparent safety of a foreign land. We can again ask, what application does that have for us today? The first is that there is nowhere that we can run where God cannot find us, and that can either be a great comfort or a terrible fear - this truth was as certain in Moses’ time as it was that of Christ; when many of Jesus’ followers left because His teachings were difficult, He asked the twelve if they would leave as well, with Peter stating in John 6:68 “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life”. There is no greater power or love than that of God; Moses would meet Him as he fled from Egypt, and we today can encounter God no matter how far we may travel - the important part is that when Moses heard Him, he listened with an open heart and mind.
Another lesson here, in Exodus 2, is that the Lord will care for and provide for us; verses 15-20 record that when Moses fled from Egypt to Midian, he encountered the family of a priest there at a well, he helped and protected them in a time of need, and was welcomed into their community. Verses 21 – 22 record how Moses married a woman named Zipporah, and that they had a son; God had continued to provide for, to protect, and to bless Moses even while he was in a foreign land and far from everything he had previously known. Not only could Moses not run from God’s sight, but he could never run so far away that God could not help him; truly there is never a place or time where anyone could go, then or today, where God is not looking out for us and seeking ways that He can support, teach, or guide us in His ways - because His love is so complete He will do anything to establish, restore, and strengthen His connection to us as His children, even going so far as sacrificing His own son Jesus for the sake of our salvation.
The final sections of Exodus 2 shift focus back to Egypt, while Moses had been living and growing in Midian, verse 23 records that the Pharaoh he had fled in fear of had died, but the Hebrew people enslaved there continued to be oppressed, and cried out to God. Verse 24 shows that God heard their cries, and uses the phrase “God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.” – and this doesn’t mean that God forgot about His people, or ever let them out of His sight. While God’s plan and timing are uniquely His to know and act on, when scripture uses the term “remembered” it is always followed by some kind of action God is taking to further His plan; in this case He saw their suffering in Egypt and acted to save them from their captivity - He would begin to work in Moses’ life to prepare him to do God’s work. In verse 25 when the scriptures say God looked at the Hebrew people and “acknowledged them”, it means that He saw them as His children, and as a loving father worked to free them and guide them to Him; and Moses was the method by which His will would be done.
God has likewise remembered His promise to us, and acted on it by sending Jesus to free us from our own earthly enslavement to sin. He has also likewise acknowledged us as His children, extending His love and salvation from just one group of people to all mankind. We have been freed from sin through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and as those who have responded to the gospel message, are now all united in Him, reconciled to God as our loving Father. Moses would go on to lead God’s people towards the promised land, but that was merely a physical place for a time; how much more blessed are we today that we have been saved and led by Christ to a heavenly kingdom!