It’s a fact: In the wrong circumstance, we have no idea what we’re capable of. Even murder!
Although it may have looked like any other day, on this particular one Moses went for a walk in an area where his Hebrew brethren were working rigorously under the hot Egyptian sun. As Moses “looked at their burdens,…he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren” (Ex 2:11). What should he do? Here he made his first mistake: “He looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one…” (v 12). Hmm, Moses. This way. That way. Isn’t there another direction to check? How about looking UP? That’s why we’re warned to do what we do “not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart” (Eph 6:6). And what did he do because he didn’t look up? The second big mistake! “He killed the Egyptian…” (Ex 2:12). Third mistake? He tried to cover it up: “…and hid him in the sand.” Did it work? The next day, Moses tried to break up a fight between two Hebrews, and one retorted, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” (v 14). Moses realized the jig was up. The news reached the palace and Moses hot-footed it out of there. How far did he run? “Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian” (v 15), about 360 miles to the east! But once he got there, we read, “he sat down by a well.” We are told that in Midian there was a priest with seven daughters. When they came to water their flocks, they had difficulty with some rude shepherds, and Moses stood up for them. When the daughters arrived home early, and the reason was given, he was invited to dinner, stayed on, moved in, and then married one of the daughters, Zipporah by name! Now there’s a turn of events for you!