John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: April 6

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John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: April 6


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Moses in Midian

Exo_2:15-22

When Moses repaired to the land of Goshen, we may be sure that the movements of one who, according to the most authentic accounts, must have been a person of great consequence, could not fail to be regarded with solicitude at the Egyptian court; and considering the jealousy his position excited, and the fears his national ties engendered, it is more than merely probable that it was left for his doom to be decided by any marked indication he might furnish of his intentions and course of feeling. This his slaying an Egyptian, in protecting an oppressed Israelite, soon afforded. The indication thus supplied could not be mistaken by the court. It manifested a sympathy for the oppressed Hebrews and an abhorrence of their oppressors, which, in such a man, could not, but be regarded as dangerous. It was, therefore, probably far more on this account than for the mere homicide, that the king no sooner heard of this fact than he sought his life. If any weight is to be attached to the account yesterday produced from Josephus, it is open to us to infer that this circumstance, as used by the enemies of Moses, wrung from the king that consent to his death, which had hitherto been refused. Indeed, Moses so well knew what he had to expect, that he no sooner became aware that his deed had transpired, than he fled for his life, and rested not until he came to the land of Midian, which lay upon the eastern arm of the Red Sea.

His introduction to the connections he formed in that place, and to the life he led there, is strikingly illustrative of the usages among pastoral people; and reminds one of Jacob’s transaction with Rachel at the well of Haran. In this case Moses came to a well belonging to a place in the land of Midian. While he sat there to rest and refresh himself, the seven daughters of Jethro, the “priest,” or “prince of Midian,” Note: The original Hebrew word has both meanings, and it is uncertain which of them is here the correct one—perhaps both—as the offices were generally united in ancient times. It is best to regard Jethro as a sort of emir or sheikh, exercising for his people the sacrificial duties which constituted priesthood. came there to water their father’s flock. They drew the water, and filled with it the troughs to water the sheep. All this time the stranger—known by his garb to be from Egypt, and regarded as an Egyptian—sat by, without proffering his aid, as Jacob had done to Rachel. But presently, when certain shepherds came with their cattle, and drove away the women and their flock, taking to their own use the water they had drawn—the stranger, whose hatred of oppression and high-handed wrong had been already shown, even unto death—rose in his might, and with strong words, if not with blows, scared away these churlish shepherds, and helped the damsels to water their flock. We see in this, as in other instances, a trait of the character of Moses. He is not too ready with, his courtesy does not lead him to proffer, services where they are not actually needed. The sense of duty is always needed to compel him; but when thus compelled—when his aid or his services are really needed, who so zealous, who so strong, who so regardless of self as he? We see this pervading the history of Moses. We see it here. He sat quietly by, until he had a duty to perform; until his blood was quickened even to tingling by the tyranny of the strong; and then he became as another man—active, powerful, valiant, polite, laborious: whatever faculty or power God had given him—whatever gift or talent he had acquired—nay, the whole man, was instantly at the service of a duty, the moment that duty became clear. If we look closely to his career, we shall see that this was the sort of person—the very man—required for the great duties which were hereafter to devolve upon him.

But we must not quit the well. Our minds linger over the scene which took place there as one of the most picturesque and interesting of the numerous indications of Eastern manners and habits which the Pentateuch contains. The immense value of water; the labor of raising it; the disputes arising from conflicting claims to preference in watering—all are points which, at this day as of old, produce transactions precisely analogous to those which the books of Moses have recorded. We could quote many examples from eastern books. A striking one occurs in an old Arabian romance, written more than a thousand years ago, and in which the customs of the pastoral tribes are most vividly depicted. The Daji mentioned in it is the head or managing slave of the king’s eldest son; and the anecdote altogether is an apt illustration of the water-tyrannies practised in the Arabian wilds.

“One day the poor men, the widows, and the orphans met together, and were driving their camels and their flocks to drink, and were all standing by the water side. Daji came up, and stopped them all, and took possession of the water for his master’s cattle. Just then, an old woman, belonging to the tribe of Abs, came up, and accosted him in a suppliant manner, saying: ‘Be so good, Master Daji, as to let my cattle drink. They are all the property I possess, and I live by their milk. Pity my flock; have compassion upon me, grant my request, and let them drink.’ But he paid no attention to her supplication, and abused her roughly. She was greatly distressed and shrunk back. Then came another old woman, and addressed him: ‘O, Master Daji, I am a poor, weak, old woman, as you see. Time has dealt hardly with me; it has aimed its arrows at me, and its daily and nightly calamities have destroyed all my men. I have lost my children, and my husband; and since then I have been in great distress. These sheep are all that I possess; let them drink, for I live on the milk that they produce. Pity my forlorn state. I have no one to tend them, therefore grant my supplication, and of thy kindness let them drink. But in this case the brutal slave, so far from granting this humble request, smote the woman to the ground.” When the then untried young hero Antar witnessed this, he, like in this to Moses, felt his choler roused; he struck the ruffian, and engaged in a conflict with him, which ceased not until the oppressor lay dead at his feet.

It seems that Jethro’s daughters were subject to the kind of molestation from which they were in this instance delivered by Moses; for, when on their return home, their father expressed his surprise at their being so early, their answer implies that they had been this time freed from a customary hindrance: “An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough for us, and watered the flock.” It seems difficult to understand how the daughters of one who held the station of emir or priest, should have been subject to such oppression. It may be that the shepherds were Bedouins who at this season came up with their flocks to this neighborhood; and, being stronger than the ordinary inhabitants, paid little respect to their rights of water. The Mohammedan writers suppose that Jethro (whom they call Shuib) was a worshipper of the true God, living—like Abraham in Canaan and Lot in Sodom—among idolaters who hated him, and who lost no opportunity of testifying their dislike, and of doing him harm. It is difficult to say which has the greater probability; but either supposition will very well account for the readiness with which Jethro and his family eventually abandoned this settlement, and went with the Israelites into Palestine. That they there retained the habit of dwelling in tents—Jdg_4:11—when the Israelites themselves inhabited houses, shows that they were tent-dwellers in Midian; and not such as—like Laban in Haran, and Job in the land of Uz—abode in houses, while they retained the essential habits of pastoral life.

It is usually understood by us that the service thus rendered by Moses to Jethro was the cause of the hospitable treatment he received from that person. A nice perception of oriental ideas of hospitality, will teach us that it was merely the proximate cause in so far as it led the daughters to mention the fact that there was a stranger needing hospitality; but we apprehend that had no such service been rendered, his treatment would have been the same. The eastern writers, looking at the matter from their own point of view, so explain it—clothing, as usual, their ideas in the form of an addition to the narrative: “Moses,” say they, “consumed with hunger, did not touch the refreshments which were set before him; and when Shuib inquired why he rejected his hospitality, he replied: ‘I am not of those who accept a reward for any good deed that I have done;’ ‘Neither,’ replied Shuib, ‘am I of those who show hospitality only to their benefactors. My house is open to every stranger; and as such, not as the protector of my daughters, thou mayest accept my invitation.’ Moses then ate till he was satisfied.”

It was probably in consequence of the communications he then made to his entertainer—letting him see that his journey had no definite object, and that he sought nothing but a safe and obscure home—that Jethro proposed to him to remain there and take charge of his sheep, which would prevent the recurrence of such unpleasant adventures as had that day been witnessed at the well. The circumstances are very similar to those of Jacob in Haran. The eastern writers make that resemblance greater even than it appears in the sacred narrative; for he is by them supposed to have served eight or ten years for his host’s daughter, Zipporah. As he certainly espoused the maiden, the supposition is not unlikely, seeing that the “price” of a wife is always exacted in some shape or other and it does not appear that Moses had aught but his time and services to give. Jethro was but little likely to excuse to a stranger the payment which Laban exacted from his own nephew.