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.