And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out to his brethren and looked on their burdens; and he saw an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, one of his brethren.
One day the man raised in Pharaoh's palace walked out of it, and the story of Israel's deliverance begins with a look. What he saw, and what he did next, raise the question that shapes the rest of his life: how does God prepare a deliverer?
The verse skips decades in a single phrase. Commentators fill the gap from the book of Acts, which gives his age and what God was stirring in him.
The history here passes over many years, but Acts 7:22 tells us, "Moses was learned in all the wisdom of Egypt, and was mighty in words and deeds." Acts then adds that he was forty years old when Exodus 2:11 took place. At this time the Lord was moving him to take seriously his link with the suffering nation of Israel. No doubt the training of his early years finally did its work and woke a concern of heart that had lain asleep for years. His first action was to go out and watch how the Egyptians treated his people. It seems this shocked him, and when he saw an Egyptian beating an Israelite, it stirred his anger.
That early training came from his own mother.
No doubt his mother had given him a deep sense of the moral greatness of his own people as "the people of God" and "the sons of Israel." None of the tempting influences of Egyptian wisdom could ever erase it.
Two small words carry the weight of the verse. Older translations read "his brethren" where the ESV has "his people." Put that word next to "their burdens." Moses had every reason to call these slaves something else.
What a revelation in two words! He is a high courtier, yet he identifies himself with the crowd of cowering slaves. He "is not ashamed to call them brethren." He does not look at their sins. We know that, as with every enslaved people, oppression had bred among them the foulest and meanest vices. He looks instead at their burdens, at the grinding misery of their daily lives… Ah, what a different world, and what a different church, it would be, if we looked more at one another's burdens and less at one another's faults!
Moses' place in Egypt looked like an opening God Himself had arranged. One writer shows what faith did with that reasoning.
Now, here we learn that as surely as providence carried him into the house of Pharaoh, faith led him out… The providence of God had placed him in an illustrious position, unsought, unexpected. … Why not use his ability and his wisdom? Why not use the influence his high rank gave him, and his closeness to the royal family of the land? Why not turn such clear gifts of providence, gladly and wisely, to the service of God's people?… But no! Faith at once sets aside all such reasoning built on providences.
His love for them was real. His timing was not.
This was zeal for his brothers, but it was "not according to knowledge." God's time had not yet come to judge Egypt and deliver Israel. The servant who understands will always wait for God's time… All this was true. Yet he clearly ran ahead of the time, and when a man does that, failure must be the result.
The next verse records his glance over his shoulder. One writer treats that small detail as proof.
Moses "looked this way and that way." A man has no need to do that when he acts with God and for God, and when he fully understands His mind about the details of his work. Suppose God's time had really come. Suppose Moses knew that God had commissioned him to carry out judgement on the Egyptian. Suppose he felt sure of God's presence with him. Then he would not have "looked this way and that way."
A palace left behind, and brothers who did not recognise him — one writer sees this pattern pointing beyond Moses.
He left the palace and, perhaps, the throne, and came to his own to take up their cause. It all points to Him, who left the glory and came to His own and they received Him not. When Moses came the first time to his brethren to deliver them, "they understood not" (Acts 7:25). But they understood when he came the second time, as Israel will understand, when He, who is greater than Moses, comes the second time.
- Nursed — his mother's teaching outlasted forty years of Egyptian schooling. Nothing in Egypt could erase it.
- Chose — providence put Moses in the palace. Faith took him out. Rank and influence looked like gifts to spend on God's people, and faith set that reasoning aside.
- Looked — he saw burdens, not faults. That is the look that makes a deliverer, and the one the church still needs.
- Ran — love that acts too soon still fails. The glance "this way and that way" marks a man without a commission.
- Foreshadowed — a deliverer leaves a throne and comes to his own, and they do not understand him. He points to One whom Israel will understand at His second coming.
And he turned this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he smote the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.
Moses had grown up, and he went out to his own people under their burdens. The day ended with a dead Egyptian hidden in the sand — was that faith, or was it impulse?
One writer traces the scene, and finds even Moses' sideways glance revealing:
His brothers under their burdens lay on the heart of Moses; and as he looked, he saw an Egyptian strike one of them. Anger rose in him. "He looked this way and that," and seeing no witness, he took the law into his own hands and killed the offender, hiding the body in the sand. The love for his brothers was a right and holy feeling. But putting the Egyptian to death could not be justified. It led to his long exile, to escape the king's anger. He acted on the impulse of his heart, and in no way as one consulting God or obeying Him. Had he looked to Him, he would not have "looked this way and that." He spoiled his testimony for God by trying to avoid any witness of the deed, or of his hiding of the body, and to avoid the consequences.
Scripture states the fact and adds no verdict. That points to a rule for reading the whole Bible:
We must distinguish between the statement of a fact in the Bible and any approval given to it. This may help our appreciation of the word of God in all such cases. We must always refuse the thought that recording a fact in Scripture means it matches the full mind of God. The truth is that He speaks of good men and bad men. He mentions not only what was excellent in the good, but also the distressing and shameful things that draw out His own discipline — it may be a long while after.
Exodus records the deed. The letter to the Hebrews shows what was behind it:
No doubt Moses acted in the energy of the flesh. He had not yet learned his own nothingness and inability, yet he still desired to act for God. It is from the letter to the Hebrews that we learn the true character of his actions before God. That there was failure is clear. But it was the failure of a man of faith. His actions were precious in the sight of God, because faith enabled him to refuse everything that might have tempted the natural man, and to identify himself with the interests of God's people.
Moses had the right cause and the right training. What he lacked was God's timing:
This was zeal for his brothers; but it was "not according to knowledge." God's time had not yet come for judging Egypt and delivering Israel. The wise servant will always wait for God's time. "Moses had grown up"; "he was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians"; and further, "he supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand." All this was true. Yet he plainly ran ahead of the time, and when a person does this, failure must be the result.
The people Moses tried to help refused him. That refusal was repeated later, on a far greater scale:
His brothers, however, did not understand, for they did not share his faith. So they rejected him as their deliverer. They wanted to go on in their own wrongdoing, and not to stir up revenge from the power of Egypt. In Acts 7, Stephen is led to make these points clear. He shows that in rejecting the Lord Jesus the Jews had repeated what their fathers did before with Moses — on a scale infinitely more serious. In the Lord Jesus there was not the slightest element of imperfection. In Moses there was distinct failure. His desires were right: his action wrong.
The exile that followed was not wasted time. It was training:
Moses was not brought to nothingness in his own eyes. He was playing the hero, not the saint who waits on God — not only for the revealed goal, but for every step of the way… And Moses had, as it were, to unlearn in Midian for as many years as he had spent learning the wisdom of the Egyptians… The solitude of the wilderness and the lowly life of a shepherd gave this discipline the setting it needed. There his impulsive spirit could be broken down, and he himself become "very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth."
- Right love. Moses' heart for his suffering people was holy. The killing was not.
- Wrong strength. He acted on impulse, without asking God. Looking "this way and that" showed whose eye he watched.
- Wrong clock. God's time to judge Egypt had not come; running ahead of it guarantees failure.
- Real faith. The letter to the Hebrews shows the true character of the act: the failure of a man of faith, not of a hot temper.
- Long school. His own people rejected him. In Midian he unlearned Egypt for as many years as he had spent learning it, until the hero became the meekest man on earth.