Moses Flees For His Life (MP 37)

A pampered life of pomp and patronage,
Moses could have had if he so desired,
But Hebrew roots over royal advantage
He chose to honor when his youth expired!
He became saddened at his people’s plight;
An Egyptian man he killed in anger,
For harshly beating a poor Israelite,
And he fled Egypt, his life in danger!
In Midian he found a foster home,
And passed the years of his younger manhood;
Till God, responding to His children’s groan,
Called him to free them from Egypt for good!
Israel’s years of slavery would soon end,
Despite Pharaoh’s intent to keep them penned!

Scripture Quoted (NIV) [Brackets added]
Exodus 2:11-12—“One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.”

Exodus 2:15—“When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to the land of Midian…”

Exodus 2:23-24—“During that long period [when Moses was away in Midian] the king of Egypt [Pharaoh] died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their plea for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob.”

Commentary on Exodus 2:11-25 (NIV)
Moses was reared in the royal palace as the son of the daughter of Pharaoh and could have lived as an Egyptian prince all his life. However, he knew that he was a Hebrew, and considered himself to be one of them. The scripture above describes how he intervened with an Egyptian slave master who was beating an Israelite, killed the Egyptian, and hid his body in the sand, thinking the act was unobserved. The next day he was out again and saw two Hebrews fighting. He separated them, asking the stronger, “Why do you hit your brother?” The man snarled back, “Who made you judge and ruler over us? Are you going to kill me like you did the Egyptian yesterday?” By this, Moses knew his treasonable act was known and was alerted; he fled the country of Egypt.

Moses went to Midian, a desert country to the southeast of Egypt. There he met Jethro, a Midianite priest with seven daughters. Moses was kind to the girls, who were being harassed by other shepherds, and was invited to live with them. He did so, becoming a shepherd over Jethro’s flocks; eventually he married Zipporah, one of Jethro’s daughters, and had a son. Mount Horeb, also called Mount Sinai and the “mountain of God”, was in the area used for pastures by Moses. It was at this mountain that God called Moses to return to Egypt and, with divine help, force Pharaoh to free the Children of Israel. It was also the mount where God met with the freed Israelites and gave them the Law by which they were to live.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)