A New Home

Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to draw water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. Then some shepherds arrived and drove them away, but Moses came to their rescue and watered their flock. When they returned to their father Reuel, he asked, "Why have you come back so quickly today?"

They answered, "An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock."

"So where is he?" He asked his daughters, "Why then did you leave the man behind?" "Invite him to eat dinner."

Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. She gave birth to a son whom he named Gershom, for he said, "I have been a foreigner in a foreign land." Exodus 2:16-22

Again Moses rescues, this time nothing to do with the oppression by Egypt but also unfair treatment of a group of people by another. He is behaving true to his calling.

Probably because of his unshaven face, Moses is considered an Egyptian by the Midianites.

 Moses would have written this account. He did not go into detail around how he came to stay in Jethro's house (Reuel seems to be the family name), nor how he came to marry so quickly. Perhaps there was a time lag or perhaps Jethro's needed to marry off his daughters quickly. Zipporah seems to have been very fertile and had a son straight away. Perhaps Jethro's needed help with the flocks and here was a fresh, young candidate, and eligible bachelor who was happy to stay.

However, Moses would now begin to wonder if his past life was over and this was his future. He settles down to a nomadic life and shepherding sheep. A good practice for the heard of sheep he would have to manage in the future, a noisy, stubborn bunch.

Does our current situation reflect our future? Not necessarily. Where were we going before? What cause the change? Is the change temporary? Are we now in the backside of the desert minding sheep?

Constantly we must be mindful of The Lord and His purposes and plans. Amen!