This section is not the story of a bad man but a good man moving too soon. A lesson for us all not to move in our own strength.
“One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labour. 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.” (Exodus 2 v 11-15)
Are you a person who stands with the oppressed, who cannot ignore suffering and who cannot simply turn a blind eye? Moses was that person. God would use all of that pent-up emotion one day. But for now, his timing and method were wrong.
He tried to cover up what he had done. He had to. He had hoped no one would have known, after all, there wasn’t anyone who had seen him killing the Egyptian. Well, no one except the Israelite whom he had saved.
The man he defended became his accuser. Ever known that?
So he ran, and God let him. God let him run to the desert, where the next part of his life will commence. This is a relocation for Moses, not a disqualification. He begins a refining process in the desert. One impulsive moment in Egypt needed forty years in the wilderness to teach that God’s work has to be done God’s way.
What feels like exile is often just formation. God had Moses where he wanted him, in the desert. He would emerge from there, but not for now.
Missions Paul 