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.
And he went out on the second day, and behold, two Hebrew men were quarrelling; and he said to him that was in the wrong, Why art thou smiting thy neighbour?
The day before, Moses had struck down an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew. Now he goes out again. This time the fighting is inside his own people, and his effort to stop it will end with him running for his life.
The change from day one to day two is the whole difficulty. Yesterday's wrong had a clear villain. Today both men belong to God's people.
Visiting his brothers the following day, a very different situation faces him — an Israelite striking an Israelite. Moses made two mistakes. He thought his brothers knew something they in fact did not know, and he acted before God's time. The falseness of his position comes to light through these two brothers fighting each other. No doubt he faced a very severe test. An Egyptian striking an Israelite was easy to settle, but an Israelite striking an Israelite was beyond him, whatever their reason for fighting. How many of us have the grace and wisdom to handle cases like this?
Moses does not ask who started it. He speaks to the man in the wrong. His question rests on what the two men share — a plea Acts records in fuller words.
But God was not in their thoughts, and Moses was misunderstood. Worse than that: "And on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarrelling and tried to reconcile them, saying, 'Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?' But the man who was wronging his neighbour thrust him aside, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?'" The sharpest wound, and the lowest blow, comes from God's own people. When man rules there instead of God, Satan is working underneath it all, and at his worst.
Moses had denied himself for these men. He assumed they would read his actions and see God's hand in him.
Moses thought that his brothers would certainly admire his self-denial and devotion to their cause. As Acts 7:25 says, "he supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand." What a terrible disappointment! "They did not understand." The very Israelite he was correcting for wronging his neighbour "pushed him aside." What was the good of having "refused," "chosen," and "esteemed," if this was the result?
Writers read this scene as a picture of Christ, resting on a promise God later gave through Moses. One writer sets Joseph's story beside it.
That he was a type of Him is clear from this passage: "The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers — it is to him you shall listen" (Deut. 18:15). So we are not dealing in human imagination when we view Moses as a type; it is the plain teaching of Scripture. In Joseph's case we see open hostility to his person. In Moses it is the rejection of his mission. Of Joseph we read, "they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him" (Gen. 37:4). In the case of Moses the words are, "Who made you a prince and a judge over us?" In short, the first was personally hated; the second was officially refused.
The two days together shape the picture.
Moses, seeing his brothers oppressed, steps in to save them from their enemies with temporary effect (Ex. 2:11-12); but when he goes further and tries to save them from themselves (Ex. 2:13-14), they scornfully reject him.
Moses cared for his people. What failed was his method, and Midian became his training.
Moses was not yet brought to nothing in his own eyes. He was playing the hero rather than being the saint who waits on God — not only for the end God has revealed, but for every step of the way. So we walk by faith, not by sight. It is a path of constant dependence on God, guided by His word. Moses had to spend as many years unlearning in Midian as he had spent learning the wisdom of the Egyptians.
The scene has a plain use wherever people who belong to God turn on one another.
This is war in the middle of the people of God. Such a course can never be good. Why not suffer injustice, if necessary? "Why not rather suffer wrong?" (1 Cor. 6:7). Why not wait for the Lord to overrule in matters that arise between brothers?
- Brothers fighting. Day one, an outsider hurt a Hebrew. Day two, Hebrew fights Hebrew — an easy case became one beyond Moses.
- Brothers appealed to. His question rests on kinship, not on blame: you are brothers, so why wrong each other?
- Brother refused. The wrongdoer pushes him aside. Writers see a mission refused here, while Joseph's brothers hated the man himself.
- Brother exiled. Refused by his own people, he goes to Midian, where the years unlearn what Egypt had taught him.
- Brother taught. He was right that God would use him. He was wrong about the timing — and the saint waits on God for every step.
And he said, Who made thee ruler and judge over us? dost thou intend to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? Then Moses feared, and said, Surely the matter is known.
Moses' first effort to rescue his people ends here. The man he tried to correct throws the question of authority back at him, and shows that the killing of the Egyptian is already known. Commentators see a rejected deliverer driven into forty years of hiding, and a shadow of a greater rejection to come.
The sting did not come from Egypt. It came from the people Moses risked everything for — and from the man in the wrong.
But God was not in their thoughts, and Moses was misunderstood. Worse than that: "On the following day he appeared to them as they were quarrelling and tried to reconcile them, saying, 'Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?' But the man who was wronging his neighbour thrust him aside, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?'" The sharpest wound, like the lowest blow, comes from God's people. When man rules among them and not God, Satan works underneath it all and at his worst.
The words attack Moses' office, not his person. Joseph's brothers rejected him in another way.
In Joseph's case we have positive hatred against his person. In Moses it is the rejection of his mission. Of Joseph we read, "they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him." In the case of Moses the word is, "Who made you a prince and a judge over us?" In short, Joseph was hated as a person; Moses was refused in his office.
The wrongdoer throws yesterday's act back at Moses. Writers trace the failure to the source of his power, not to the sincerity of his love.
Moses was mighty in deeds, and he worked on behalf of the people of God too. But he acted in the energy of the flesh, not as one sent by God, and so what followed came about. Moses was thinking how Moses would deliver the people. "He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand." But no, "they did not understand." Moses had another lesson to learn. God had to teach him that He will only be served by the power and strength that come from Himself, not by the strength or wisdom of Egypt.
Exodus points to Pharaoh's anger as the reason Moses ran. Acts ties his flight to the words of the man in this verse.
When he found that the thing was known, and that his people had rejected his action, however well meant it was, he left. Reading Exodus, we get the impression that his main motive was the anger of Pharaoh. Acts 7:29 casts a somewhat different light on it. "Then Moses fled at this saying" — the saying of the wrongdoer — "Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?" So it is plain: rejection by his own people is what hurt him most. Forty years later they all had to discover that it was GOD who made him a ruler and judge over them, but for the time being he was lost to them.
God Himself answers the question at the burning bush.
As Stephen put it, "This Moses, whom they rejected … this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush." What he had tried to do in his own wisdom and strength, and failed at, he will now do in the wisdom and power of God.
A man leaves a palace, comes to his own people, and they turn him away. Commentators see the outline of a later story in it.
He acted in self-will, taking up the office of judge and leader without having received the divine call. Still, it was faith that led Moses into this path and to make this remarkable choice. But they did not receive him; they rejected him. 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 His own did not receive Him. When Moses came the first time to his brothers to deliver them, "they did not understand." But they understood when he came the second time. Israel too will understand when He who is greater than Moses comes again.
Later the same nation used Moses' name to refuse Christ.
The people of Israel, for all their boasted reverence for Moses, did not really receive him as God's messenger. They rejected him in Egypt, saying, "Who made you a prince and a judge over us?" … Later Jesus came, "the faithful and true witness," "the true light." The Jews rejected His claims by putting forward those of Moses. Man's evil heart and twisted will constantly refuse to acknowledge the rights of God. Despising His grace in Christ, they pretend to honour His rights in the law, and use the law to reject Christ.
- Refused — the wrongdoer rejects Moses' office, not the man. Joseph was hated as a person; Moses was turned down as a leader.
- Wounded — the deepest blow comes from inside. Not from Egypt, but from the people he gave up a palace to serve.
- Exposed — the question shows up strength drawn from Egypt, not from God. God accepts only service done in the strength He gives.
- Removed — Acts ties his flight to this taunt. His brothers' contempt drove him out as much as Pharaoh's sword did.
- Answered — God later sends the very man they rejected, as ruler and redeemer. The scene sketches One who came to His own, was refused, and will be understood when He comes again.
And Pharaoh heard of this matter, and sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from before Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian. And he sat by the well.
One sentence carries Moses from the palace of Egypt to a stranger's well in the desert. It raises a hard question: what does it mean when a sincere attempt to help ends in flight?
The verse names Pharaoh as the danger, but the trouble started closer to home.
It does say that Moses fled from Pharaoh (v.15), but the context brings out something more: his own people had rejected him. Moses saw two Hebrew men quarrelling and corrected the one in the wrong. The man answered him: "Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?" In fact, it was this opposition from his own people that put him in danger with Pharaoh.
Exodus tells us that Moses was afraid and ran. The New Testament looks at the same man and calls it faith.
Hebrews gives a most gracious view of what Moses did. This is how the Holy Spirit deals with the history of Old Testament saints. When He writes a man's history, He presents him as he is, and faithfully sets out all his failures and imperfections. But when He comments on that history in the New Testament, He gives only the real principle and main result of the man's life. So in Exodus we read that Moses "looked this way and that way," that "he was afraid and said, Surely the thing is known," and last of all that "Moses fled from Pharaoh." Yet Hebrews teaches that what he did, he did "by faith" — that he did not fear "the wrath of the king" — that "he endured as seeing him who is invisible."
Commentators differ over which departure Hebrews describes. Some tie it to this flight. Others tie it to the exodus out of Egypt.
Doubtless this refers to the second time that he left Egypt. On the first occasion, we read, "Moses fled from Pharaoh" (Ex. 2:15). On the second occasion he stood up to Pharaoh face to face. Under the mighty hand of God he brought the children of Israel out of Egypt in triumph.
Sitting by that well, Moses could have counted his whole life wasted. Commentators see the opposite.
What anguish for a faithful heart, blocked like this while sincerely trying to serve his own people! All his sacrifices and his surrender of the glories of Egypt may now have looked useless to others and of no profit to himself. He sat there, a wanderer and exile, like a withered, fruitless tree in the desert. But if these were Moses' thoughts, they were not God's. The mission was not forfeited, only postponed. God's time to deliver His people had not come, and the people themselves were not ready for that deliverance... And already, as he sits by the well in the land of Midian, he is under the discipline that will shape him. It is preparing him for the great service God has planned for him.
The forty years that follow do a specific work — not adding to Moses, but subtracting from him.
Moses needed forty years far out in the desert to fit him to lead God's people out of Egypt and through the wilderness. No doubt God used his education in Egypt to form the vessel for His service. But the forty years were needed to empty that vessel of all that had filled it during its making.
The flight looks like defeat. But God chose where Moses landed.
What could he do but leave Egypt altogether? He took a long journey to Midian, possibly nearly a hundred miles, which cut him off completely from his own people Israel as well as from Egypt. How intense his loneliness must have been! But it was God who had led him there. Sitting down to rest by a well, he saw a scene that again stirred his concern for the oppressed.
Commentators read the whole chapter as a prophecy in outline, with Midian standing for the Gentiles — the nations outside Israel.
Moses sees his own people oppressed and steps in to save them from their enemies, with temporary effect (Ex. 2:11-12). But when he goes further and tries to save them from themselves (Ex. 2:13-14), they reject him with scorn. So he withdraws into Midian among the Gentiles. There he finds others suffering injustice and oppression, and defends them. The earlier setbacks do not stop him. He opens to them the resources of the well, and wins Zipporah as his wife. Then he returns again to redeem Israel — and this time they receive him. All this is clearly a picture of the rejection of the Messiah by the Jews, and of His work since then among the Gentiles. There He receives the church as His bride... and afterwards He returns with her to save His Jewish people.
The same pattern appeared earlier with Joseph, but the two rejections are not identical:
In Joseph's case we have open hatred against his person. In Moses it is the rejection of his mission... Joseph was hated as a person; Moses was refused as a leader.
- Rejected. Pharaoh's sword was the visible threat. But his own people's refusal — "Who made you a prince and a judge over us?" — is what drove Moses out.
- Removed. Exodus records his fear; Hebrews records his faith. Scripture records the failure, then names the principle underneath it.
- Refined. The mission was postponed, not forfeited. Midian was not a gap in the story but the discipline that emptied the vessel Egypt had filled.
- Redirected. Alone and a hundred miles from his own people, Moses still defended strangers in Midian. Exile did not change his character.
- Returning. A deliverer refused by his own people takes a bride among outsiders, then comes back to redeem them. That is the shape of Christ's rejection, His church, and His return.
And the priest of Midian had seven daughters; and they came and drew [water], and filled the troughs, to water their father's flock.
Moses has run for his life from Egypt. The story pauses at a watering place in Midian, where seven young women arrive with their father's sheep. It looks like a small everyday scene. Yet it opens the forty years that turned a fallen prince into God's deliverer, and commentators see in it a picture of Christ Himself.
The flight behind this verse had two causes, not one. Pharaoh wanted him dead, but the deeper wound came from his own people.
It does say that Moses fled from Pharaoh (v.15). But the context brings out a further point: his own brothers had rejected him. When Moses saw two Hebrew men quarrelling, he reprimanded the guilty one. The answer came back: "Who made you ruler and judge over us? Do you intend to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian?" In fact, it was this opposition from his own people that put him in danger with Pharaoh.
The phrase "priest of Midian" belongs to an older order of things. Before the law, priesthood was not a fixed office held by one family. It was not limited to Abraham's line either.
Before the giving of the law, heads of families acted as priests. They served as need required or desire prompted, at the altars they built wherever they were staying in the land... Nor was this confined to the eldest male line of Abraham's descendants. Job acted in a similar way in his family, and Jethro, it would seem, filled that office among his people (Exodus 2:16). By the law, however, all this was changed for Israel... A regular order of priesthood was established, restricted to the family of Aaron.
Two verses later the text gives his name, and the name itself points to real knowledge of God.
He became an exile in Midian and met Reuel. His name is also Jethro (3:1). Reuel means "friend of God." He also was a priest, no doubt a true worshipper of God.
Commentators differ on how the family names fit together. One suggests Reuel may be the grandfather. In this view, "Hobab may have been the personal name, and Jethro an official name" (Morrish Bible Dictionary).
The daughters draw water and fill the troughs, and shepherds drive them off. Moses had just failed in public when he tried to help Israel. Here he refuses to sulk over his own losses.
He acts the part of a deliverer to the women at the well, who were driven away by the shepherds. He has been denied the chance to declare himself as such in a large circle. He does not refuse it in a very small one. He does not brood in dull sorrow over his own setbacks... Instead he submits to his circumstances, and rises above his own feelings, in his concern to serve others... Readiness to carry out our mission in the most hidden and unknown places, as well as the most attractive ones, is the strongest proof that it comes from God.
His unpaid kindness is what opens the door of a home to him.
At first Moses' service to those Midianite women meets with no reward... But it must not remain so. Reuel, their father, sends for him because of his service to his daughters, provides a home for him, and gives him his daughter Zipporah as his wife.
Where Moses happened to sit made him useful. One writer turns that into a rule for anyone who wants to serve.
We will never become a means of refreshing and blessing to others unless we drink, and drink daily and deeply, at the source ourselves. Every fresh testimony for Christ should be the result of fresh communion with Him... Like Moses in the land of Midian, sit down by the well — the well of living waters... Being close to the well, he was in a position to be helpful to the seven daughters of the priest of Midian and to his flock.
The sequence — refusal at home, service abroad, a bride, then a return — is read as a map of Christ's own path.
Moses sees his brothers oppressed. He steps in to save them from their enemies, and it works for a time (Ex. 2:11-12). But when he goes further and tries to save them from themselves (Ex. 2:13-14), they reject him with scorn. So he withdraws into Midian among the Gentiles. There he finds others suffering injustice and oppression, and he defends them. His earlier discouragements do not hold him back. He opens the resources of the well to them and wins Zipporah. Then he returns again to redeem Israel, and this time they receive him. All this pictures the rejection of the Messiah by the Jews. It also pictures His work since then among the Gentiles, where He receives the church as His bride.
- Rejection. Moses is at the well because his own people refused him, and that refusal is what exposed him to Pharaoh.
- Priest. "Priest of Midian" points back to a time when heads of families served at their own altars. Later the law limited the office to Aaron's family.
- Well. He sits at the source, and that is what puts him in a position to give water to others.
- Service. Denied a public role, he takes a hidden one — and readiness to serve in an unknown place is the proof of a real calling.
- Return. Rejected at home, he wins a bride abroad and comes back as a deliverer. That is the pattern of Christ: refused by Israel, receiving the church, and returning.
And the shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses rose and helped them, and watered their flock.
Moses arrives in Midian as a fugitive: his own people have refused him, Pharaoh hunts him, and nothing is left of his standing in Egypt. Why does a man whose life's mission has just collapsed still stand up for strangers at a well?
Moses had just failed and fled for his life. One writer asks what he must have felt as he sat there.
What a pile of distressing feelings must have weighed on this eager servant of God! What anguish for a faithful heart, pushed back like this when it sincerely tries to serve his brothers! All his sacrifices, all his giving up of Egypt's glory, may now have looked useless to others and worthless to himself. He sat there a wanderer and an exile, like a withered, fruitless tree in the desert. But if these were Moses' thoughts, they were not God's. The mission was not forfeited, only postponed. The vessel was not yet "ready for the Master's use."
He could have sat still and nursed his losses. Instead he stepped into someone else's trouble.
He acts the part of a deliverer to the women at the well who were driven away by the shepherds. Others denied him the right to show himself a deliverer in a large circle; he does not refuse that role in a very small one. He does not brood in dull sorrow over his own setbacks, like the fool eating his own flesh. Instead he accepts his circumstances and rises above his own feelings, because he wants to serve others... Nothing proves that our mission comes from God more than this: we carry it out just as readily in hidden, unknown places as in attractive, pleasant ones.
The verse holds two actions — driving the bullies back, and then drawing the water. One writer sees in that pair the same two traits Moses had already shown in Egypt.
Yet in spite of his rash act, Moses appears here in a two-fold character: deliverer and shepherd. The hand that struck the Egyptian was the hand of a deliverer. The heart of the shepherd shows in his concern to make peace between his quarrelling brothers. But his brothers refused him and Pharaoh hated him, so he flees to the land of Midian. There he shows other needy people that same hand of the deliverer and heart of the shepherd, stepping in for Reuel's daughters.
Another writer reads the scene simply as strength used on behalf of the weak. Seven women were no match for the shepherds; Moses made himself their advocate.
Sitting down to rest by a well, he saw a scene that stirred his concern once more for the oppressed. Seven daughters of one man, the priest of Midian, came to water their father's flock of sheep, but other shepherds came to drive them away. Moses took up the cause of the weak, helping the young women and watering their flock.
Where Moses sat mattered. Being near the water is what put him in a position to give it away.
Notice also, my soul: the fountain is not only the place of sweetest delight for yourself. It is also the place of the richest blessing for others. When we truly keep in touch with the source, we become a channel of living water to others... He was in the right position to help the daughters of Reuel water the flock.
Moses' exile put him among the Gentiles, the nations outside Israel. One writer reads the whole episode as a picture of something larger.
Moses sees his brothers oppressed and steps in to save them from their enemies, but the relief is temporary. When he goes on to try to save them from themselves, they reject him with scorn. So he withdraws into Midian among the Gentiles. There he finds other people suffering injustice and oppression, and he defends them. His earlier discouragements do not stop him. He opens the resources of the well to them, and he wins Zipporah as his wife. Then he returns to redeem Israel — and this time they receive him and obey. All of this clearly pictures the Messiah rejected by the Jews, and His work ever since among the Gentiles, where He receives the church as His bride and takes up relationships and responsibilities toward her family and her children. Afterwards He returns with her to save His Jewish people.
His courage at the well opened a door — a home with Jethro — but not yet the mission.
Jethro sent for the Egyptian who had helped his daughters so boldly, and in his house Moses found a home. In Midian, as we have said, he learned deep lessons. One was to distrust his own right arm, and to learn from God's own teaching, at the end of forty years there, who Jehovah was.
- Refused — The people he tried to save had turned him away. God did not cancel his calling; He only postponed it while shaping the man for it.
- Rose — He did not brood over his losses. He stood up and served, and such readiness in a hidden corner is what proves where a mission comes from.
- Rescued — Two things show at once: the deliverer's hand that drove the shepherds off, and the shepherd's heart that watered the flock.
- Reached — Seated by the water, he became a channel of it to others; nearness to the source is what makes anyone useful.
- Returns — His own people turned him away, so he blessed strangers and won a bride among them. Then he went back to deliver Israel, and this time they received him.
And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, Why are ye come so soon to-day?
Moses has fled from Egypt to Midian, sat down by a well, and defended seven sisters whom the shepherds drove off. Their father's surprise at how early they come home is the first notice anyone takes of a rejected man's quiet service.
The father named here goes by more than one name in the Bible, and commentators differ on how to fit them together. One reference work sets out the problem and the likely answer.
He seems to be called REUEL in Exodus 2:18, and HOBAB in Numbers 10:29, where RAGUEL is REUEL in the Hebrew. That passage says Raguel the Midianite was the father of HOBAB, the father-in-law of Moses (see also Judges 4:11). So in Exodus 2:18 "father" may mean "grandfather." Hobab may have been the personal name, and Jethro an official name.
One writer fills in who this man was, and what Moses gained by marrying into his house — a wife from outside Israel.
He became an exile in Midian and met Reuel. His name also is Jethro (3:1). Reuel means "friend of God." He also was a priest, no doubt a true worshipper of God. Moses received a daughter of the Midianite, Zipporah, for his wife. Rejected by his own people, he entered into union with a Gentile.
Moses says nothing about himself. The clock gives him away: the daughters are home early, and that starts the conversation.
Moses stepped in, and helped the young women so well that they came home early enough to make their father ask how it had happened. He sent word that the stranger should share his hospitality. The gift of his daughter as a wife followed.
Moses had wanted to deliver a nation, and his people refused him. At the well the job was tiny, and the way he took it shaped his exile.
He acts the part of a deliverer to the women at the well, who had been driven away by the shepherds. He has been denied the chance to declare himself a deliverer in a large circle, but he does not refuse to be one in a very small circle. He does not brood in listless sorrow over his own losses, like the fool who eats his own flesh. He submits to his circumstances, and rises above his own feelings, in his concern to serve others.
What he did for the sisters was not a new role for him.
The hand that struck the Egyptian was the hand of a deliverer. The heart of the shepherd shows in his concern to make peace between his own people when they were quarrelling. But his own people refused him, and Pharaoh hated him, so he flees to the land of Midian. There he shows other people in need the same hand of the deliverer and heart of the shepherd, when he steps in for Reuel's daughters.
One writer treats the well where Moses sat down as the reason he had anything to give.
But notice here too, my soul, that the fountain is not only the place of sweetest delight to yourself, but of the richest blessing to others. When we are truly connected with the source, we become the channel of living water to others. We are told that when Moses fled from Pharaoh to the land of Midian, "he sat down by a well." What a beautiful picture of the Christian's privileged place! He was now in the right position to help the daughters of Reuel water the flock.
One writer traces the whole sequence, and finds in it far more than one man's story.
Moses, seeing his own people oppressed, steps in to save them from their enemies, and it works for a while. But when he goes on to try to save them from themselves, they reject him with scorn. So he withdraws into Midian among the Gentiles. There he finds other people suffering injustice and oppression, and defends them, undaunted by his earlier discouragements. He opens the resources of the well to them, courts and marries Zipporah, and then returns again to redeem Israel. This time they receive him and submit to him. All this is obviously a picture of the rejection of the Messiah by the Jews, and of His work since then among the Gentiles, where He receives the church as His bride, returning afterwards with her to save His Jewish people.
The father's question ends in a home, and the home in a long education.
We are not surprised, then, that Jethro sent for the Egyptian who had helped his daughters so bravely. And in his house Moses found a home. In Midian, as we have said, he learned deep lessons. One was to distrust his own strength, and to learn by God's teaching, at the end of forty years there, who Jehovah was.
- Rejected. His own people refused him and Pharaoh hated him, so Moses came to Midian as an exile.
- Positioned. He sits by a well — near the source, and so able to become a channel of blessing to others.
- Noticed. He serves in a circle so small it seems to count for nothing, and the only witness is a father wondering why his daughters are home early.
- Received. The question leads to a summons, a meal, a home, and a wife — welcome among strangers after refusal among his own.
- Prepared. Forty years in that home teach him to distrust his own strength, so the deliverer his people once refused can come back and be received.
And they said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew [water] abundantly for us, and watered the flock.
Moses has fled Egypt because his own people refused him. Now he sits by a well in a foreign land, rescues seven strangers from bullying shepherds, and the young women go home and call their rescuer an Egyptian.
Their report answers their father's surprise that they came home early. A small act of help set the whole chain moving:
As he sat by the well, the seven daughters of Reuel came with their father's flock. But the shepherds drove them away from the troughs they were trying to fill to water the sheep. Moses stepped in and helped the young women. So they came back early enough to prompt their father's question about how it happened. Their father sent a message inviting the stranger to accept his hospitality.
The women report two things: he rescued them, and he drew water for them. Both acts mark him as deliverer and shepherd at once.
His brothers refused him, and Pharaoh hated him. So he flees to the land of Midian. There he shows other needy people the hand of the deliverer and the heart of the shepherd, stepping in on behalf of Reuel's daughters.
The watering was not a detour from his calling. It was training for it:
Moses had become a shepherd, just as David later was a shepherd before becoming king of Israel. If Moses was to be a true deliverer, he had to learn a heart of kindness toward the weak and dependent. Then he would treat Israel with a shepherd's care rather than a ruler's authority.
A foreign household takes in the man his own nation refused.
They refused to believe and rejected this deliverer. So the children of Israel are left a while longer at the Egyptian brick-kilns. But the one they pushed away is welcomed somewhere else. He is set at the head not of a nation but of a family, and enjoys closer and sweeter friendships than he had ever known among his own relatives. A stranger receives him. Jethro, the Midianite, opens his house to him and gives him his daughter in marriage, because he had been her deliverer. Israel had just refused him, despite the same grace shown to them.
Commentators read Moses' exile as more than history. They see in it where the Lord stands today.
The flight of Moses into the land of Midian is a marked picture of our Lord's present position toward Israel and the world. Rejected by His own, He has withdrawn. During this present time, when Israel does not know Him, He has, like Moses, found a bride among the Gentiles… But, like Moses, our Lord will return to deliver His earthly people, as Moses returned from the land of Midian and led Israel out.
The rescue at the well is tiny compared to the exodus. That is where its value lies. A man shows what he is by how he serves when almost nobody is watching.
He acts the part of a deliverer to the women at the well, who were driven away by the shepherds. He has been denied the chance to show himself as such in a large circle. Yet he does not refuse it in a very small one. He does not brood in listless sorrow over his own setbacks… Instead, he submits to his circumstances and rises above his own feelings in his interest to serve others… Nothing proves the divine origin of our mission more than the ease and readiness with which we serve in the most hidden and unknown places, as well as in the most attractive ones.
He could draw water for them because of where he had sat down.
Note also, my soul, that the fountain is not only the place of sweetest delight to yourself, but of the richest blessing to others. When we are truly connected with the source, we become the channel of living water to others… He was in the right position to help the daughters of Reuel water the flock.
- Rejected. His own people pushed him away; that refusal, not just Pharaoh's anger, is what drove him to Midian.
- Received. Strangers took in the man Israel would not have, and gave him a home and a wife because he had been their deliverer.
- Renamed. They call him "an Egyptian." Strangers name the rescuer by a foreign label while his own nation still does not know him.
- Rehearsed. Rescuing seven women and watering a flock trained the shepherd's heart that would later lead a nation. Small service proved the man.
- Returning. Commentators see a picture of Christ here: rejected by Israel, gathering a bride among the nations, certain to come back for His earthly people.
And he said to his daughters, And where is he? why then have ye left the man behind? Call him, that he may eat bread.
Moses has fled Egypt as a wanted man. At a well in Midian he defends seven sisters from bullying shepherds. Their father does not send thanks from a distance. He rebukes his daughters and tells them to bring the man home for a meal. That meal shapes the next forty years of Moses' life.
The daughters had accepted the help and walked away. Their father saw a debt still standing, and he moved to settle it.
At first Moses' service to those Midianite women meets no repayment, just as Joseph's service to the chief butler did. But it must not stay that way. Reuel, their father, sends for him because of his service to his daughters, provides a home for him, and gives him his daughter Zipporah as his wife.
Moses had tried to deliver a whole nation, and his own people turned him away. At the well the circle was tiny, but he served there anyway.
Whether Moses' forty years of exile are one unbroken season of sorrow and gloom, or whether comfort and cheer soften them, depends on how the disciplined man receives the discipline. The moment he submits, the discipline becomes effective and may be relaxed. It is not removed, but the scene may be brightened. And so it was with Moses. He acts the part of a deliverer to the women at the well, who were driven away by the shepherds. Although he has been denied the chance to show himself as such in a large circle, he does not refuse it in a very small one. He does not sit in sorrow over his own losses, like the fool who eats his own flesh. Instead he submits to his circumstances and rises above his own feelings in his concern to serve others.
The contrast in the chapter is sharp. His own people pushed him away. A foreign household now sets a place for him at its table.
The one whom they pushed away is accepted in another place. He is seated, not at the head of a nation, but of a family. There he enjoys closeness and affection sweeter and nearer than he had ever known among his own relatives. A stranger receives him. Jethro the Midianite opens his house to him and gives him his daughter in marriage, because he had been her deliverer. Israel had just refused him, despite the same grace shown to them.
The man who gives the order has two names in Scripture. The meaning of the first one points to who he was.
He became an exile in Midian and met Reuel. His name is also Jethro (3:1). Reuel means "friend of God." He was also a priest, no doubt a true worshipper of God. Moses received Zipporah, a daughter of the Midianite, as his wife. Rejected by his own people, he entered into union with a Gentile. All this is typical. Christ came the first time and was rejected by His own. He receives her who shares His rejection, and she will come with Him when He comes the second time. The church is indicated here.
The call to eat bread opened a door into a house. That house schooled Moses for forty years.
We are not surprised, then, that Jethro sent for the Egyptian who had so bravely helped his daughters. And in his house Moses found a home. In Midian, as we have said, he learned deep lessons. One of them was to distrust his own right arm, and to learn from God's own teaching, at the end of forty years living there, who Jehovah was.
Behind the father's hospitality, another hand is at work.
We see God acting in His providence and giving Moses a home and a wife in a strange land.
A place at the table did not settle Moses' heart. The name he later gave his son shows what the welcome could not remove.
This name reveals to us the secret sorrow of Moses. Though provided with a home, he still felt himself a stranger in a strange land. So his son, who tied him to the scene, had to carry a name that kept his exiled condition before him. No present mercies could shut that condition out.
- Serve — Moses had lost his large mission, yet he still helped seven strangers at a well. The invitation to eat bread came out of that small act.
- Sent for — the father would not let the kindness go unpaid. He sent for Moses, gave him a home, and gave him Zipporah as his wife.
- Received — his own people pushed him away. A foreign household took him in, and there he found closeness he had never known among his relatives.
- Schooled — that home became forty years of training. There Moses learned to distrust his own strength and learned from God who Jehovah is.
- Stranger still — the name he gave his son shows that a table and a family never cured his sense of exile. Commentators also read the whole scene as a picture of the rejected Christ receiving a bride from outside Israel.
And Moses consented to remain with the man; and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter.
Moses has fled Egypt, rejected by the people he tried to help, and he now sits by a well in Midian. Here that flight turns into a home and a marriage, and commentators find in it both God's care for a broken servant and a picture of something larger.
The plainest reading is that God, unseen and unmentioned in the verse, arranged all of it.
Exodus 2 compresses the next forty years of Moses' life into verses 15-22. Again we see God acting in His providence, giving Moses a home and a wife in a strange land.
Moses had wanted to rescue a nation. Instead he helped a few shepherd girls at a well — and that small act is what opened a home to him.
He acts the part of a deliverer to the women at the well, who were driven away by the shepherds. He could not declare himself a deliverer in a large circle, but he does not refuse to be one in a very small circle. He does not brood in sorrow over his own setbacks. He accepts his circumstances and rises above his own feelings, out of concern to serve others. Nothing proves better that our mission comes from God than the ease and readiness with which we carry it out. We serve in the most hidden and unknown places as readily as in the most attractive ones. Reuel, the father of these women, sends for Moses because of his service to his daughters. He gives him a home, and gives him his daughter Zipporah as his wife.
Commentators treat Moses as a picture of Christ. This is not a private idea: Scripture itself says a prophet like Moses was coming.
The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers — it is to him you shall listen. (Deuteronomy 18:15) So we are not inventing something when we see Moses as a picture of Christ. This is the plain teaching of Scripture. In the closing verses of Exodus 2 we see this type in two ways: first, Israel rejects him; second, he joins himself to a stranger in the land of Midian. In Joseph's case we have open hatred of his person. In Moses it is the rejection of his mission. Of Joseph we read that they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him. Of Moses the words are, "Who made you a prince and a judge over us?" In short, people hated Joseph as a person; they refused Moses as a leader.
The picture is real, but commentators are careful about how much weight it will bear.
Zipporah is one of the least known pictures of the church in the Old Testament. Some details of her life fit such a reading, but they are few, and perhaps less obvious than with Eve or Asenath. J. N. Darby said of her: "In her we see a faint type of the church."
Joseph also married a foreign wife, Asenath, but his situation was the opposite of Moses'.
Asenath shows quite a different side of the church from the one we see in Zipporah. Asenath joined Joseph in the time of his exaltation. Zipporah was the companion of Moses in the obscurity of his desert life. True, the brothers of both Joseph and Moses rejected them when they married a stranger. Yet Joseph was "governor over all the land of Egypt," while Moses tended a few sheep at the back of the desert.
Moses was content to stay. He had already had one education; the one that mattered began here.
The forty years spent by Moses in Midian were, as we say, the best years of his life. He had forty years' training in Egypt. Then the Lord took him aside into His own school, to train him for the great work He had chosen him to do. In the obscurity of the desert He prepared him to be "a vessel fit for the Master's use." How blessed his experience must have been — away from man, away from Egypt's pleasures, alone with God. The Lord has dealt this way with all His servants.
- Rejected. Moses' own people refused his mission. His exile in Midian begins with a door closed at home.
- Serving. He would not sulk over a lost calling. He acted as a rescuer at a well for a few strangers, and that hidden service is what won him a home.
- Given. God's providence, not Moses' planning, gave him a home and a wife in a foreign land.
- Faint but real. A rejected deliverer takes a foreign bride. Commentators see here a picture of Christ receiving the church while Israel refuses Him — a faint likeness, they say, not a full one.
- Trained. Zipporah joined Moses in the desert, not on a throne. His willingness to settle there turned forty hidden years into God's school for the man who would lead a nation out.
And she bore a son, and he called his name Gershom; for he said, I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.
Moses has escaped Pharaoh, settled in Midian, married Zipporah, and become a father. Yet the first thing Scripture records of those forty years is his son's name — a confession that commentators read as a window into Moses' heart, into Christ's rejection, and into the place of every believer today.
Gershom is not a sentimental family name. It states where Moses stood. Where the ESV has "sojourner in a foreign land", the writers here use the older wording: "a stranger in a strange land".
There, in that quiet place, Jethro gives him his daughter — a stranger — as his wife. She bears him a son, and the son's name tells us where Moses' heart turns. "I have been a stranger in a strange land": that is the comment made on him. The boy was called Gershom, which means "a stranger here."
Scripture tells us little else about those years.
It is strange that the main record of the forty long years Moses spent in Midian is this: he called his son by the Egyptian name Gershom, which means banishment. "For," he said, "I have been a stranger in a strange land." Exodus does not even give the name of his second son, born in Midian, until Moses had led Israel out of Egypt. Forty long years of schooling, and Scripture says almost nothing about this third of Moses' life!
Moses now had a home, a wife and work. None of it changed how he felt.
This name shows us the secret sorrow of Moses. He had a home, yet he still felt himself a stranger in a strange land. So his son, who tied him to the place, had to carry a name that kept his exile in front of him — an exile that present mercies could not shut out. Those mercies could not wipe away the deep and earnest purpose of his soul: to deliver his people. Nor should they. The purpose was right, yes, divine; but the vessel was not allowed to express it until it was prepared further.
Joseph also married outside Israel while parted from his brothers, and also named sons. Commentators call both men types of Christ — living pictures — but their names run opposite ways.
There is a difference between this type and that of Joseph. Joseph, as one put to death, takes the place of Jesus raised to the right hand of the supreme throne over the Gentiles, and in the end he receives back the brothers he had been parted from. To him his children are a witness of God's blessing at that time. He calls them Manasseh ("because God," he says, "has made me forget all my hardship and all my father's house"), and Ephraim ("because God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction"). Moses shows us Christ separated from His brothers. Zipporah might be seen as a type of the church... yet his heart and his feelings — shown in the names he gives his children — are ruled by one thought: he is separated from the people of Israel. His love for his brothers is there, his thoughts are there, his rest and his country are there. He is a stranger everywhere else.
Moses' own story runs from stranger to deliverer, and one writer sees the Lord's own way with Israel in it.
We have then the double character of the Lord's relation with Israel — a Stranger with them when they are oppressed, and their Deliverer as the God of their fathers.
Several writers see the marriage itself as picture-language. Moses gains a wife only after his own people refuse him.
Moses got a wife and children when his own brothers, the children of Israel, refused to believe him and turned him away, cutting him off from them. He was then, as he says himself, an "alien in a strange land" (Ex. 2:22; Ex. 18:3). In the same way, the unbelief of Israel and its rejection of the Lord has brought Him in among the Gentiles, and out from among them He is gathering a church, a wife and children.
Commentators differ on how far to press this. The verse dwells on Moses' feelings toward Israel, not on the comfort his wife and son brought him.
The lesson does not stay in Midian.
Here Moses gives a beautiful picture of our character and position in the world, and of Him to whom we belong. The wife no longer belongs to Midian, but to her husband. The "stranger" son never becomes a resident of the land where he is born... May God make us more Gershoms in the land of Midian — strangers in a world where Christ can find a bride, but not a home.
- Name. Gershom means "a stranger here". Moses made his son's name a daily confession: Midian was not home.
- Sorrow. A house, a wife and a child were real mercies. They could not remove the exile he felt, or the purpose in his heart to deliver his people.
- Contrast. Joseph named his sons for forgetting and fruitfulness; Moses named his for exile. Joseph pictures Christ raised over the Gentiles; Moses pictures Christ whose heart stays with Israel.
- Bride. The wife came only after his own people rejected him. Writers see Christ gathering the church while Israel refuses Him — though they differ on how far to press it.
- Ours. The believer is a Gershom: a stranger in a world where Christ can find a bride but no home.
And it came to pass during those many days, that the king of Egypt died. And the children of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and cried; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage;
The king of Egypt dies, and Israel's slavery rolls on unchanged. The people groan under the same load, their cry reaches God, and two questions open up: why had the wait been so long, and what moved God to act?
One writer asks what the king's death actually changed for Israel.
First, it tells us that the king of Egypt died, but his death brought no relief for the condition of the children of Israel. On the contrary, they "groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God." They had sunk to the lowest point. But God was not unfeeling.
The verse never says Israel prayed to God. It says they groaned, and the groan went up. One writer asks what kind of cry this was.
In His deep compassion God heard their cry. It does not appear to have been aimed at God at all. It was the cry of hopelessness and despair. There was no ray of hope to ease their sense of utter wretchedness. They expected no measure of relief and no eventual rescue from their state of deep misery and crushing bondage. They were not looking to God or counting on His mercy. But God is faithful!
The next verse says God looked on Israel. One writer stops at how an older translation renders that line.
Israel's cry came up before Him because of the affliction Genesis 15 speaks of... The margin of the older translation reads "He knew them." It is a great gain for someone in affliction to discover that God is his only hope. And what comfort there is in that thought — He knows them!
God hears in this verse, yet rescue is still a long way off. One writer asks why God let it run so long.
The length of time may seem to us too great, but God's wisdom is greater than ours. He did take account of their groaning, remembering His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Even so, the time before their deliverance would still be drawn out. They had to feel most deeply the oppression and bondage they suffered under, so that they might later appreciate the greatness of God's grace in delivering them.
A delay is not a broken promise. The writer who saw Israel at their lowest point also says why God can afford to wait.
It is impossible for God to forget His word. If He delays to carry it out, it is only for the brighter display of His unchanging grace and love.
What moved God to act was not a bargain Israel had kept. One writer points to the promise God was working from, and to when the law came.
The oppression of Israel continued, God heard their cry and groaning, and He remembered His covenant with Abraham. Note this: His stepping in, and His redemption of Israel from the house of slavery, happened under that covenant. The covenant of law was not put forward until we reach Exodus 19.
Their misery was not something that earned them rescue. It was the need that grace answered.
Here the absolute, free, unconditional grace of the God of Abraham, and of Abraham's descendants, shines out in all its native brightness. Nothing holds it back — not the "ifs" and "buts," not the vows, resolutions and conditions of the man who tries to earn it... He had not come down to check whether the people of His promise were good enough to deserve His salvation. It was enough for Him that they needed it. Their oppressed state, their sorrows, their tears, their sighs, their heavy bondage — all of it had come under His eye. Blessed be His name, He counts His people's sighs and puts their tears into His bottle.
One writer reads Israel's helplessness as a picture of every person's. The slave cannot free himself.
If we read Exodus 2:23 and 3:1-10, we see the condition of the people in cruel bondage and slavery. It is an exact picture of our own condition under the cruel bondage of sin and Satan. Their cries and groans came up to God... Think of the slave who cannot escape from slavery in any way. Such is the condition by nature of every man, whether he knows it or not. And note, the source of their deliverance was not in themselves. The source of our salvation is the love of God. God is love. He came down to deliver.
- Bondage. The king died and nothing got better. The misery was real, and God let Israel feel it fully before He lifted it.
- Cry. What went up was a groan of despair, not a polished prayer, and it still reached Him.
- Heard. God did not weigh their merit; He counted their sighs, and "He knew them."
- Covenant. The ground of rescue was God's covenant with Abraham. He acted on that promise long before the law came in Exodus 19 — pure grace, not a deal kept.
- Deliverance. The slave who cannot free himself is every one of us; the source of rescue was never in Egypt, but in the love of God.
and God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob;
Exodus 2 closes with Israel at the end of its strength. The king who oppressed them has died, but nothing has improved. Their suffering rises to God as sound, not as words. What moves God here is not a change in Israel, but the promise He made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
The groaning that reached God came from people who had lost the promise from view. One commentator draws out the contrast between what Israel had forgotten and what God had not.
They groaned and sighed because of the bondage; but they did not have the faith to cry to Him. Yet their cry came up to God. God heard their groaning, and remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. They had forgotten that covenant, sunk for years in the darkness and idol worship of their cruel masters. But God looked on the sons of Israel and acknowledged them.
Another writer weighs how little hope was in that cry.
God in His deep compassion heard their cry. They do not seem to have addressed it to God directly or in plain words. It was instead the cry of hopelessness and despair. There was no ray of hope to ease the sense of utter misery. There was no expectation of any relief, or of any deliverance in the end, from their state of deep misery and crushing bondage. There was no looking out to God, no counting on His mercy. But God is faithful!
The covenant God remembers here is older than the law. One writer notes which covenant Israel's rescue came under, and when the law arrived.
The closing verses of Exodus 2 tell of the death of the Pharaoh of those days. The oppression of Israel went on. God heard their cry and groaning, and He remembered His covenant with Abraham. Note this: He stepped in and redeemed Israel out of the house of slavery under that covenant. The covenant of law was not brought in until we reach Exodus 19.
That covenant carried no terms for Israel to meet.
These promises had no conditions at all. God gave them, and Abraham received them, without any condition whatsoever. We find them repeated, still with no condition, to Isaac in Genesis 26 and to Jacob in Genesis 28. Then we turn to Exodus 2, when the four hundred years had run out, and there we find these promises to the fathers mentioned again.
God's move toward Israel did not turn on what Israel deserved.
He had not come down to check whether the people He had promised to bless were in a fit state to deserve His salvation. It was enough for Him that they needed it. Their oppressed state, their sorrows, their tears, their sighs, their heavy bondage had all passed before Him in review. Blessed be His name, He counts His people's sighs and puts their tears into His bottle. He was not drawn to them by any excellence or virtue of their own.
God hearing is not the same as God acting at once. One writer finds purpose in the delay, and the same purpose at work today.
He took account of their groaning and remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Even so, the time would still be drawn out before their deliverance. They had to feel very deeply the oppression and bondage they suffered under, so that they might later appreciate the greatness of God's grace in delivering them. God deals the same way today with sinners He has awakened. He puts them through experiences that make them realize that bondage to sin is a dreadful thing. Then, when He delivers them, they have learned to hate sin so well that they never want to go back to it.
One writer reads this remembering as a pattern for what is still ahead.
All had come to pass according to God's Word. They had gone down into Egypt, and been afflicted there in a land that was not their own. The four hundred years were expiring, and their affliction was at its height... God will just as surely remember that same covenant, for that same people, in the far deeper afflictions still ahead of them.
- Groaning. Israel's cry was despair, not prayer. Yet it came up to God, because His covenant was the ground of hope, not their faith.
- Remembered. Israel forgot the covenant in the darkness of Egypt. God did not forget it, though He let the bondage press them longer before He acted.
- Covenant. God rescued Israel under the unconditional promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The law came only later, at Exodus 19.
- Grace. He did not come down to check whether they deserved rescue. Their need was enough. He counts His people's sighs.
- Still standing. God remembered this covenant at the height of their affliction. He will remember it again for the same people in deeper trouble yet to come.
and God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged [them].
Four short verbs carry God's part in this chapter: He heard, He remembered, He looked, and He knew. Then the chapter stops, leaving us to ask why the wait was so long, on what ground God moved, and why His answer starts with knowing.
God speaks no promise here, and the rescue has not begun. One writer points to the tenderness of these lines and dares the world's famous historians to match them:
Their bondage drew out sighs and cries. But their cry, as we are told with touching simplicity, "came up to God because of the bondage… and God looked upon the children of Israel, and God took notice." You who boast of Herodotus and Thucydides, of Livy and Tacitus, produce any sentence from those classic historians, or from any since, down to our own day, for words approaching these in tenderness.
The verse ends on two words: God knew. Older translations put it "God had respect unto them." A note in the margin goes further:
The margin reads "He knew them." It is a moment of great gain for someone in affliction when he discovers that God is his only hope. And what comfort there is in that thought — He knows them!
The text never says Israel prayed. One writer weighs what their cry actually was:
God in His deep compassion heard their cry. It does not appear to have been directly addressed to Him. Instead, it was the cry of hopelessness and despair. No ray of hope eased their sense of utter misery. They expected no relief and no eventual deliverance from their state of complete wretchedness and crushing bondage. They were not looking to God or counting on His mercy. But God is faithful!
God acts here on the ground of a covenant made long before with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Two things follow. First, the terms of the rescue:
The oppression of Israel continued. God heard their cry and groaning, and He remembered His covenant with Abraham. Note this: He stepped in and redeemed Israel out of the house of bondage under that covenant. The covenant of law was not put before them until we reach Exodus 19.
Second, the nature of those promises:
These promises had no conditions at all. God gave them and Abraham received them without any condition whatsoever. He repeated them, still without condition, to Isaac in Genesis 26 and to Jacob in Genesis 28. By Exodus 2 the four hundred years had ended, and there we meet these promises to the fathers again.
God takes notice here, yet the rescue is still far off. One writer treats the delay as deliberate:
He took account of their groaning and remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Even so, a long time would still pass before their deliverance. They had to feel the full weight of the oppression and bondage under which they suffered. Then they would later appreciate the greatness of God's grace in delivering them. God deals the same way today with sinners He has awakened. He puts them through experiences that show them how dreadful bondage to sin is. When He then delivers them, they have learned to hate sin so much that they never want to go back.
These closing verses are best read not as the end of Moses' story but as the opening of the rescue:
The end of the second chapter is a short preface. It really belongs with the third chapter, and it reveals the ground on which God was acting for the redemption of His people… They had sunk as low as they could go. But God was not unmoved… Their condition touched the heart of God and drew out His pitying mercies. Yet the ground on which He acted was His own sovereign grace… It is impossible for God to forget His word. If He delays in keeping it, the delay only shows His unchanging grace and love more brightly.
What God remembered once, He will remember again: "God will just as surely remember the same covenant, for the same people, in the far deeper troubles that still lie ahead of them" (W. Trotter).
- Heard — their groaning was despair, not prayer, yet it reached God. He hears the cry that has given up hope.
- Remembered — the rescue rests on the unconditional covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It does not rest on law, which comes only in Exodus 19.
- Looked — their misery moved His pity, but the ground of His action was His own sovereign grace.
- Knew — the margin reads "He knew them." The comfort of the afflicted is not that God will act soon, but that He knows them now.
- Waited — He took notice long before He delivered. The weight of bondage taught them the greatness of the grace that freed them.