GETTING STARTED
There is a universal desire and a passion that the world be “put to rights,” says N.T. Wright, professor of New Testament at the University of St. Andrews. There is a desire for all that is wrong and painful in the world to be taken care of. We want justice to prevail, and that desire is an echo of a greater reality, namely God. He is the Voice behind the echo, true justice for the oppressed. And since the Garden, he has been about righting what is wrong. In today’s passage we see the shaping and molding of a man God had marked to play a key role in putting things to right.
- Reflect on how the common desire of justice, the echo, points to the reality of God.
- What other echoes can you think of that point to a greater reality?
READ THE WORD: EXODUS 2:11-25 (ESV)
11 One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people.
12 He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
13 When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?”
14 He answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.”
15 When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well.
16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock.
17 The shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and saved them, and watered their flock.
18 When they came home to their father Reuel, he said, “How is it that you have come home so soon today?”
19 They said, “An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and even drew water for us and watered the flock.”
20 He said to his daughters, “Then where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.”
21 And Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah.
22 She gave birth to a son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.”
23 During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God.
24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
25 God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.
English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
DIGGING DEEPER
- Describe three instances of injustice in this passage.
- How did Moses respond to these injustices? What do his actions say about his character? How might they hint at his future role?
- Who else saw the trouble of the people and what was his response (vss. 24-25)?
- Moses would be God’s chosen one to deliver his people. What do you see about his life so far that might have helped prepare him for this role?
- How has God prepared you for service? What experiences has he used to shape and mold you so that you can be a blessing to others?
RESPOND TO GOD
Moses had an innate desire to put to rights the injustice before him. This desire was given to him by God. Moses’ path was unique—he had a royal education and was an insider to the ways of the Egyptians for forty years. And the next forty years he lived and learned the ways of the wilderness. Before God called Moses, he was preparing him for service. God used each part of Moses’ life—the good and the bad—to refine him for his glory and the good of others. Out of his infinite compassion for his people, God was raising up Moses to be his instrument of deliverance.
- Pray that God will show you how he has equipped and called you to be a blessing.
- Thank him that he sees and he knows your every cry for help.
