#5 – Exodus 2:15-22
A Well and a Welcome
Moses in Midian
Moses has killed an Egyptian and buried the corpse. But the deed itself isn’t covered, so he has a choice to make which will change both his circumstances and his destiny.
Pharaoh learns of his daughter’s adopted son’s deed. In response, he determines to kill Moses, who in turn escapes to Midian to find sanctuary. [1] As in so many Bible stories, he finds himself at a well seeking water. There he encounters seven maidens, daughters of the local priest, [2] and assists them in drawing water for their flocks.[3]
When local shepherds show up and chase the girls away, Moses stands up to them [4] and prevails. The girls return home and relate the story to their father [5] about “the Egyptian” [6] stranger who confronted the bullies. Dad wants to know why they didn’t invite the hero home for dinner, which they then do.
The meal must have gone well because Moses not only sticks around but becomes a member of the family, marrying the daughter named Zipporah. Their union is blessed with a son, whom Moses names Gershom (“a stranger there”), reflecting his own status as a foreign resident in Midian. A lot of living is condensed in a few verses in our narrative.
Fear factor/Misery index:
Moses’ lot in life has markedly changed. True, he no longer enjoys his status as a prince, but as a fugitive who has committed a capital offense, he’s at least out of danger of being executed.
Moses’ action to protect the girls against the Midianite shepherds demonstrates strength of character. He is now establishing a new life far from Pharaoh’s grasp, with a wife and son for whom to care. But his improved lot is in stark contrast to his birth family’s situation back in Egypt.
Where is G-d?
In Moses’ life the L-RD’s hand is unseen. But we do see in the circumstances of his life that Moses is protected from harm and provided with a family. The next forty years will slide past without comment from our text. We have no insight into Moses marriage, how he was as a dad, or the state of his spiritual health.
So far as we know, Moses had no clue what lay in store for him. Did he grow weary in the daily grind of life? Did he share the sentiments that another shepherd, David, would one day pen?
15 As for man, his days are like grass;
As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
16 When the wind has passed over it, it is no more,
And its place acknowledges it no longer.[7]
We do have a clear clue that he knows Midian is a foreign country when he names Gershom. But where is home? Egypt?
Or is there yet an echo in his heart of Joseph’s parting words generations prior? “I am about to die, but G-d will surely take care of you and bring you up from this land to the land which He promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.”
[1] Midian, the son of Abraham and Keturah, settled in the northwestern Arabian desert. Moses made the long journey across the Sinai Peninsula to get far from Pharaoh’s wrath.
[2] This is the first mention of a “cohen” (priest) in Exodus. Genesis records Abraham’s meeting with Melchizedek “a priest of G-d Most High” (14:8). Joseph marries Asenath, “the daughter of Potiphera priest of On” (Genesis 41:45), whom we assume to be a follower of the Egyptian gods. We don’t find out Jethro’s theology until Exodus 18:11 when he testifies, “Now I know that the L-RD is greater than all the gods.”
[3] This is the “reverse image” of the story in Genesis 24 where Abraham’s servant meets Rebekah at the well in Nahor. She draws water for him and his camels. But in both cases a wedding results from a “chance encounter.”
[4] Perhaps Moses’ action in defending the girls strengthens the argument that Moses was justified in striking the Egyptian who was beating the Hebrew. It certainly underlines a positive character quality in defending the weak.
[5] The father is named Reuel in Exodus 2:18 but in 3:1 and thereafter he is called Jethro. He is a Midianite (see footnote 17), not to be confused with the Reuel who was Esau’s son.
[6] Though Moses obviously has not forgotten his “Hebrew roots,” he was identified by the girls as Egyptian – the culture that shaped his life for the better part of his first four decades.
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