Ep. 6 | A Failing Fugitive — But Not a Forgotten Failure
Text: Exodus 2:16-22
15 When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well. 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.”
NOTICE THREE THINGS:
1.WHERE Moses SAT—(the well)
2. WHERE Moses STOOD—(for the women)
The word “stood” in verse seventeen means he “sprang to his feet.” WHAT CAUSES US TO SPRING TO OUR FEET? What do we defend? WHO do we defend? For what do we stand?
HELPED: Helped (yasha’) is used only one other time in Exodus when "Thus the LORD saved (yasha’; In the LXX—rhuomai) Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore" (Ex 14:30).
RHUOMAI (from rhúo = to draw, drag along the ground) means to draw or snatch to oneself and invariably refers to a snatching from danger, evil or an enemy. This is seen when God "delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son" (Colossians 1:13).
3. WHERE Moses STAYED—(in the wilderness [land of Midian])
Did Moses learn from his mistakes?
HIS ROLE in LIFE: Learned to be a servant.
His ROOM of LEARNING: Was given sand, solitude, and sheep.
David was taken “from the sheepfolds, from following the sheep,” to be ruler over God’s people, over Israel (2 Sam. 7:8).
Moses learned the desert—a clear indicator of God’s preparation of his future.
HIS RELIANCE on the LORD: Moses had to learn dependence in a place of enough, but not abundance.
REMEMBER: In God’s economy, disobedience in our past doesn’t equate to uselessness in our future. God doesn’t merely forgive the past. He redeems it!
DON’T FORGET: Daily obedience prepares one for divine opportunities.
Noah obediently constructed a boat on dry land before cruising a flooded earth.
Abraham was found faithfully pitching his tent before parenting a
nation.Joseph was humbly counseling prisoners before consulting a
potentate.David wrote choruses before he wore crowns.
Elisha plowed fields before receiving his promotion to be a prophet.
Daniel resisted compromise before receiving commendation from kings.
Moses was found shepherding sheep prior to standing before
Pharaoh and later shepherd souls.
THIS: God looks not on the size of your audience nor on the magnitude of the mission, but on your faithfulness to His voice and guidance.
John Wesley (1703-1791): “I am no longer my own, but yours. Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will; put me to doing, put me to suffering; let me be employed for you or laid aside for you, exalted for you or brought low for you; let me be full, let me be empty; let me have all things, let me have nothing; I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to your pleasure and disposal.” (from the METHODIST SERVICE BOOK)
