February 9 - Nº 40 Exodus 2:11-22
From the time he was six or seven years old, Moses was raised as a prince in Pharaoh’s palace. There he was given the finest education possible and trained for the highest leadership roles in the military. He enjoyed the best food, wore the most expensive clothing, and hung out with the most famous people. He was certainly an A-list celebrity. But through it all, Moses knew he was different. He was a Hebrew, not an Egyptian. No doubt, his mother had shared all she could about his heritage and faith during the first few years that she raised him—the years before Pharaoh’s daughter officially adopted him. One day when he was about forty years old, Moses took a trip to Goshen to see how the Hebrew people were being treated. When he saw an Egyptian slave master beating one of his people, he grew so angry that he killed the Egyptian. He didn’t think anyone had seen the murder take place, so he quickly hid the body in the sand. The next day Moses went out again. This time he saw two Hebrews fighting each other. He tried to intervene. “With all the cruelty you guys already face, why are you fighting each other?” he asked. The one who started the fight replied, “Who made you our ruler and judge? Are you going to kill me just like you killed the Egyptian?” Moses was frightened. He realized that his crime was not a secret. The penalty for killing an Egyptian was death. When Pharaoh found out what he had done, Moses would be executed. So, he fled for his life, distancing himself from Egypt by almost 300 miles. Moses finally came to a well in Midian and sat down to rest. Sometime later, the seven daughters of the local priest named Jethro came to draw water for their flocks. But some other shepherds tried to barge in and drive them away. Moses stood up and defended them. Then he helped the girls water their sheep. When his daughters returned home earlier than usual, Jethro wanted to know what happened. They told him about the man from Egypt who had protected them and helped them. “So where is he?” Jethro wanted to know. “Why didn’t you bring him home? Go invite him to come eat with us.” Moses went home with them that day, and he stayed for almost forty years! He eventually married one of the daughters named Zipporah, and they had two sons. Moses lived in a tent and took care of the sheep for his new family during that time. Literally overnight, the man who had been a prince, a celebrity, a statesman, and a soldier living in a palace became a shepherd herding sheep in the wilderness! It was during this time—while he was living with the priest’s family or spending time alone with the sheep out in the wilderness—that Moses really got to know God. God was training him to be the shepherd for His nation. Moses would soon lead the children of Israel through this very same wilderness.
Are you able to be content regardless of what God gives or takes away? Are you willing to stand up for what is right even if it means losing everything you’ve worked so hard to gain? If that happens, God has a “better” place for you to serve Him and a much bigger plan for your life.
