Fear & Flight Exodus 2 v.11-25
January 19th 
Christine Bailey
 
Ice-breaker
Have you ever met up with an old friend that you haven't seen since childhood, and
a) Not been able to recognise him/her
b) Spent hours catching up on all the years that have passed since you last met?
What sort of questions would you ask them?
 
Study
Please read: Ex 2.11-25.
We continue the story of Moses, only there is an intriguing gap in our knowledge. One minute he's being taken out of a floating crib by a princess, and now he is 'grown up'. Chapter 2 v. 11
Take time to try and piece together his life since the end of chapter 1.

Q1: Who had cared for him at different stages of his life?

Q2: Where had he lived?

Q3: What would have been the predominant influence on his development: his Hebrew heritage or his royal adoption? Indeed, WHO would have been the predominant influence?
We aren't told the answers to any of these questions, but we wish we were! It's worth pondering them as we see Moses' life develop.
 
Q4: Looking at v. 11 again, where does the narrator put his/her opinion?
 
Q5: Does v. 11-12 justify violence and deceit? If this was a scene in a Hollywood movie, would you be cheering, or feeling uncomfortable?
[We have to take such accounts in the context of their historic times, and in the light of the overall cruelty of the oppressors see chapter 1 v. 13]
 
Q6: v. 13-14a paints vividly the confusion and dilemma of someone who acts to support and protect someone, but is misunderstood and held in suspicion by the very people he thinks he is championing.  So does it question the motivation of v 11-12?
Good people are often left with torn motives. Verse 14b Fear?
Possibly some sense of guilt? Overcomes Moses. It's justified by Pharaoh's response v.15aDid his royal upbringing count for nothing? Is Pharaoh seeing him just as a 'cuckoo in the nest'?

Q7: How do we/Christians respond to situations of fear? Is it a natural part of life, or are we expected to have such a confident faith that we never feel fear?
 
Share some of your fearful moments and how you coped.
Could you sense God's presence with you during the worst times?
 
Moses' reaction is to run away to the land of Midian, perfectly understandable. But we will see him develop over the course of the book, into a courageous leader.  [I think the received wisdom is that he was about 40 years old at this stage, then about 80 when he began to lead his people.]
 
In v. 15b, he sat down by a well.  This is Bible code for a romantic episode to begin.
Seven daughters of the priest of Midian, [not specified what this means] come to draw water and the gallant Moses protects them from the bullying of the shepherds who come along.  They are so taken with the way Moses treats them that they run back to their father to tell him. He, [here called Reuel, but later called Jethro], says the three pertinent things that a father of seven daughters would ask:
Where is he; why did you leave him; go and bring him here!!!
The romantic story is somewhat foreshortened, and in two verses, Moses is settled there, and married to Zipporah and they have a family.  So begins a 40 year stay in Midian.
 
Q8: Why do you think God let such a large time elapse?
 
In v. 23-25 we have a reminder of the background story of what's still happening in Egypt. And this is only the second mention of God so far in the book. The first was when Shiphrah and Puah, the two midwives, behaved honourably before God. Here, we learn that the agonised cries of the enslaved Hebrews have come to God's ears, and he remembers his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and takes notice of them.
 
Q9: At times like this, what would we want to say to God?

Q.10 How do we live with the tension between being in a good place ourselves, yet knowing that others are suffering? 

Prayer
Spend some time praying for anything that has come from the study, remember those who live in fear and find flight the only way possible for them to survive.
End by sharing the grace together
 
E. Christine Bailey.