EXODUS 2
16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17 The shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and saved them, and watered their flock. 18 When they came home to their father Reuel, he said, “How is it that you have come home so soon today?” 19 They said, “An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and even drew water for us and watered the flock.” 20 He said to his daughters, “Then where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.” 21 And Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah. 22 She gave birth to a son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.”23 During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. 24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 God saw the people of Israel—and God knew. – EXODUS 2:16-24
EXODUS 2 MOSES SETTLES DOWN IN MIDIAN
A poem by ILMA inspired by these verses
Fearing for his life after killing an Egyptian, Moses fled to Midian
It was in the well that he met the daughters of Reul, the priest
Moses saved them from the shepherds and drew water for them
So, their father Reuel gave his daughter to him and he settled in Midian.
David Guzik comments on that “If Moses went into the area of Canaan and Syria, he would have found no refuge – there was a treaty between Rameses II and the Hittite king to the effect that fugitives along the northern route to Syria would be arrested and extradited. So, Moses went southeast instead, to Midian. In that day Midian described the area on both the west and east sides of the Reed Sea, land that today is both Saudi Arabia (on the east of the Reed Sea) and Egypt (on the Sinai Peninsula, on the west of the Reed Sea).
Moses was at the right place and at the right time. God made him settle there, have a wife and a son and be ready for the bigger calling he had at hand. God will use him to deliver the Israelites from the cruelty of the Egyptians into his promised land.
REFLECTION
- How was Midian a place for training and preparation for Moses’ calling?
