seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Exodus 2:18 When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?”
19 They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”
20 “And where is he?” Reuel asked his daughters. “Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat.”
21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. 22 Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom,[c] saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”
23 During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. 24 God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. 25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.
19 They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”
20 “And where is he?” Reuel asked his daughters. “Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat.”
21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. 22 Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom,[c] saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”
23 During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. 24 God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. 25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.
c. Exodus 2:22 Gershom sounds like the Hebrew for a foreigner there.
With seven daughters, I bet Reuel was thrilled to have another man to talk to.
I got this from Bible.org.
With great economy of words, Moses briefly records that this “chance encounter” led to a lengthy stay in Midian, his marriage to Zipporah, and the birth of a son, Gershom. What is significant is the naming of his son. Moses named the child Gershom because, he said, “I have become an alien in a foreign land”
If one were reading this account for the first time, without any knowledge of what was ahead, one would have a great sense of letdown here. Israel’s future seemed dim, threatened by Pharaoh’s oppressive measures, and now the command to kill every Israelite baby boy. Moses is providentially delivered and becomes the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, but this status is renounced, and when Moses sought to deliver his brother, he simply got himself into trouble. Moses fled the country, married into a Midianite family, and seemed to fade out of the picture entirely. We expect Moses’ life to end in obscurity.
To me, this final paragraph reads like the expression, “Meanwhile, back at the ranch …” The point of it is to remind us that, in spite of all appearances to the contrary, God is very much at work. Humanly speaking, it looks as though everything is working against Israel, but this paragraph reminds us that God is very much informed, involved, and intent upon fulfilling His purposes and promises with respect to Israel. On the one hand, God is aware of Israel’s affliction, and He has heard their cries for help. On the other hand, God is mindful of His covenant with Abraham, which is also with his offspring (Isaac and Jacob, and the twelve resulting tribes). No matter how bad things may appear to be, God’s purposes are being realized. This section ties together the agony of God’s people in Egypt (described in chapter 1, but overshadowed by the personal account of Moses in chapter 2) with the deliverance about to take place in the following chapters.
If one were reading this account for the first time, without any knowledge of what was ahead, one would have a great sense of letdown here. Israel’s future seemed dim, threatened by Pharaoh’s oppressive measures, and now the command to kill every Israelite baby boy. Moses is providentially delivered and becomes the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, but this status is renounced, and when Moses sought to deliver his brother, he simply got himself into trouble. Moses fled the country, married into a Midianite family, and seemed to fade out of the picture entirely. We expect Moses’ life to end in obscurity.
To me, this final paragraph reads like the expression, “Meanwhile, back at the ranch …” The point of it is to remind us that, in spite of all appearances to the contrary, God is very much at work. Humanly speaking, it looks as though everything is working against Israel, but this paragraph reminds us that God is very much informed, involved, and intent upon fulfilling His purposes and promises with respect to Israel. On the one hand, God is aware of Israel’s affliction, and He has heard their cries for help. On the other hand, God is mindful of His covenant with Abraham, which is also with his offspring (Isaac and Jacob, and the twelve resulting tribes). No matter how bad things may appear to be, God’s purposes are being realized. This section ties together the agony of God’s people in Egypt (described in chapter 1, but overshadowed by the personal account of Moses in chapter 2) with the deliverance about to take place in the following chapters.
I usually don't include the preachy stuff I find in the commentaries. This excerpt from the same commentary is close to what I was thinking after I read this chapter.
Think through the events of this chapter in Exodus, using the grid of providence. Pharaoh’s decree that every boy baby should be cast into the Nile endangered the life of Moses and all the Hebrew boy babies, but it resulted in the preservation of Moses and all boy babies, and in the preparation of Moses for his role as Israel’s deliverer. Pharaoh’s daughter, who was probably the most unwanted “finder” of the basket, turned out to be the one who could most effectively be used of God to further His purposes for Moses and for Israel. Even the slaying of the Egyptian, Moses’ flight to Midian, his “chance encounter” at the well and his marriage to Zipporah were all of a part of God’s providential workings.
Every detail of your life, every incident, every failure, is employed by God providentially to further His purposes. While this should in no way make us lax in our desire to know God’s will and to be obedient to Him, it should serve to assure us that even when we fail, He does not. Even our failures (which will have painful consequences to us) are a part of God’s providential working in our lives. Thus, Joseph could forgive his brothers and praise God for the time when they sold him into slavery, for he knew that what they intended for evil, God intended for good (Gen. 50:20).
Every detail of your life, every incident, every failure, is employed by God providentially to further His purposes. While this should in no way make us lax in our desire to know God’s will and to be obedient to Him, it should serve to assure us that even when we fail, He does not. Even our failures (which will have painful consequences to us) are a part of God’s providential working in our lives. Thus, Joseph could forgive his brothers and praise God for the time when they sold him into slavery, for he knew that what they intended for evil, God intended for good (Gen. 50:20).
