“The next day, Moses went out and saw two Hebrew men fighting with each other. To the one in the wrong he said, ‘Why are you hitting your companion?’ He retorted, “Who appointed you ruler and judge over us? Do you intend to kill me the way you killed the Egyptian?” Moshe became frightened. ‘Clearly,’ he thought, ‘the matter has become known.’ When Pharaoh heard of it, he tried to have Moshe put to death. But Moshe fled from Pharaoh to live in the land of Midian.”-Exodus 2:13-15
In Egypt, the killing of an Egyptian whether by another Egyptian or a foreigner warranted the death penalty.
After Moses laid waste to the Egyptian he had witnessed abusing another Hebrew and found out that others knew about it as well, he knew he had to hightail it out of Egypt.
We are told he fled to the land of Midian and soon after found himself sitting by a well.
As we walk through the Bible, we will notice that many important meetings, especially between males and females, take place at desert water wells.
In those times, the well was actually one of the few places where it was okay for a woman to be seen away from her husband or father.
Once scene that has been immortalized was the meeting Yeshua had with the Samaritan woman at the well.
At the water hole Moses was sitting at, some women shepherds showed up to water their sheep but were soon accompanied by some unwelcome local roughnecks who impatiently attempted to drive the women away so they could water their own animals.
Fortunately for the women and unfortunately for these unruly punks, none of them realized that there was a Hebrew Bruce Lee standing in their midst.
And when I say “Bruce Lee”, I’m not exaggerating.
As part of his royal training, Moses would have developed devastating combat skills, the same skills he used to kill the Egyptian earlier.
So Moses in what I can only imagine was a most impressive display of swift martial arts technique shooed these local bullies away and as a result instantly found himself in the good graces of seven female admirers who decide to take him home to papa.
It’s interesting that these girls all assumed the Semitic Moses was an Egyptian.
The reason is simply because the main defining physical characteristic that separated a Hebrew from an Egyptian was the absence of a beard or not.
Hebrews always wore a beard whereas Egyptians did not.
At the time Moses was clean shaven, was probably decked out in Egyptian garb, and he fought like an Egyptian.
And this isn’t even to mention his refined speech and mannerisms that would also have betrayed his distinguished upbringing.
Now in terms of spiritual takeaways, I always sense something of strong spiritual significance is about to occur whenever I encounter the number 7.
Here we are told that it was “7 daughters of the priest of Midian” that came to the well.
This tells me that this was the beginning of a pivotal point in Moses’ life.
And indeed it was.
From this point on, Moses would forever leave his royal palace life behind and become a desert dweller.
Although we think of the wilderness experience as being the time after Moses led the people out of Egypt, the truth is long before that event, Moses would have his own solitary wilderness experience.
I am reminded of Joseph when he was sold into slavery.
He was separated from his family and everything he knew up until that time.
However, while God brought Joseph INTO Egypt to prepare him for the work He had planned for him, he brought Moses OUT OF Egypt to mold and prepare him according to His divine timetable.
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