Topic Content:
- Moses Flees to Midian (Exodus 2 verses 11-25)
- The Call of Moses (Exodus 3:1 – 15)
- Three Signs God Gave to Moses (Exodus 4:1-17)
Moses Flees to Midian (Exodus 2 verses 11-25):
The story of Moses continues through Exodus 2 verses 11-25. Moses grew up in the palace like an Egyptian, but never forgot his Israelite roots.
One day, Moses went out and watched his people (the Israelites) working extremely hard because they were slaves. He noticed an Egyptian beating an Israelite, and he became angry. He went over to them, checked no one was watching, then killed the Egyptian and buried his body.
The next day, he went out again, and this time he saw two Israelites fighting. He went to the person he believed was wrong to speak to him and help settle the issue. But the man asked him if he would kill him like he did the Egyptian.
Moses became afraid because he knew that the fact that he had killed an Egyptian must not be discovered. Eventually, the Pharaoh heard what Moses had done and tried to kill him. So Moses ran away from the Pharaoh and went to live in Midian.
One day in Midian, Moses sat by a well and helped the priest of Midian’s seven daughters, so the priest Jethro invited him to stay at his house. The priest Jethro gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses to marry. In time, she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. Moses named him Gershom, meaning, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”
During this time, the Pharaoh died, but the Israelites remained slaves and continued to suffer and cry out to God.
The Call of Moses: (Exodus 3:1 – 22, 4:1-17):
Moses was a shepherd for his father-in-law’s sheep. He led his sheep (or flock) through the wilderness and came to Horeb (Sinai), the mountain of God.
Mount Horeb and Mount Sinai are the same place in the Bible scriptures.
Here, Moses saw a bush burning, but the flames did not consume the bush, so he decided to get a closer look.
Then God spoke to him, he told Moses not to come any closer and to take off his sandals because he was standing on Holy Ground. Moses became afraid and hid his face because he was afraid to look at God. God told Moses He had seen the suffering of his people (the Israelites) at the hands of their slaveowners, the Egyptians.
In Exodus 3:8, God says; So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites – NIV.
God then told Moses to go to the Pharaoh to free the Israelites and get them out of Egypt. Moses told God he worried he was not powerful enough to say that to the Pharaoh. God assured Moses He would be with him. Moses then asked God what he should do if the Israelites doubted what he said.
God told Moses to say, “I AM WHO I AM”. I AM has sent me to you”.
Exodus 3:14
God explained to Moses to tell the Israelites that he was the God of their fathers – the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Moses complained that he was not eloquent in speech (that he had poor speaking ability), so God told him to take Aaron with him and that Aaron would speak for Moses to the people. God gave him some signs, which eventually came to pass (Exodus 4:1-17).
Three Signs God Gave to Moses (Exodus 4:1-17):
God provided Moses with three signs to help convince him and Pharaoh that God had sent him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.
The signs were:
(1) a rod turning into a serpent and back again (Exodus 4:2-5);
(2) Moses’ hand becoming leprous and then healed (Exodus 4:6-7);
(3) water from the River Nile turning to blood (Exodus 4:9).
Moses was used by God to deliver his people, the Israelites, from Egypt and set them free.