Exodus 2

Exodus 2

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Birth and Youth of Moses

2 Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. ² The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. ³ When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. ⁴ His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.

⁵ The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. ⁶ When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said. ⁷ Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” ⁸ Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. ⁹ Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it. ¹⁰ When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses,^[a] “because,” she said, “I drew him out^[b] of the water.”

Moses Flees to Midian

¹¹ One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and saw their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his kinsfolk. ¹² He looked this way and that, and seeing no one he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. ¹³ When he went out the next day, he saw two Hebrews fighting; and he said to the one who was in the wrong, “Why do you strike your fellow Hebrew?” ¹⁴ He answered, “Who made you a ruler and judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” ¹⁵ When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses.
But Moses fled from Pharaoh. He settled in the land of Midian, and sat down by a well. ¹⁶ The priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to draw water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. ¹⁷ But some shepherds came and drove them away. Moses got up and came to their defense and watered their flock. ¹⁸ When they returned to their father Reuel, he said, “How is it that you have come back so soon today?” ¹⁹ They said, “An Egyptian helped us against the shepherds; he even drew water for us and watered the flock.” ²⁰ He said to his daughters, “Where is he? Why did you leave the man? Invite him to break bread.” ²¹ Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah in marriage. ²² She bore a son, and he named him Gershom; for he said, “I have been an alien^[c] residing in a foreign land.”
²³ After a long time the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned under their slavery, and cried out. Out of the slavery their cry for help rose up to God. ²⁴ God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ²⁵ God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.

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There is a transition that happens when something, an organization or a belief system or a family, gets too big to be defined by one person.  There is no one head of the Israelites anymore.  No patriarch that carries God's promises or speaks directly to Him.  This is now a people who are a part of the same family, but who have grown.  They share a common history.  They share a common suffering.  But they have no laws, no distinct culture, no identity.  They are Israelite, but also Egyptian in their sensibilities.  They are looking for purpose, but mostly only focused on their present suffering and calling out to their fathers' God for aid.

There are a lot of parallels that Moses and his people share.  They are born out of suffering and oppression.  Moses is hidden as long as possible, then given to the river with the hopes that he would be saved.  Moses is Israelite, but also strongly Egyptian and conflicted over how to live with a foot in both worlds.  His zeal takes him too far one day and he flees, seemingly destined to become a nomad with his new father-in-law's family.

Where does our identity come from?  Our family, our culture, our churches, our abilities and our experiences all shape our picture of who we are.  We can take a passive role in that process, internalizing what others have said about us both positively and negatively, or we can actively choose who we are and what our life will be about.  College is a vital time for just this reason: It is one of the few seasons in life where you can declare "This is who I am" and reinvent yourself with minimal baggage and turbulence.  

God is about to give Moses, and his people, an opportunity to reinvent who they are and what their destiny holds.