Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 2:21-22

21 And Moses was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter.

22 And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.

I wonder what sort of life Moses expected when he fled to Midian. I can only assume that he thought he would never return to Egypt, that he intended to start over with a new life in a new land. It makes sense, then, that he would take the daughter of the priest for his wife and settle down with a family.

However, he is still removed from this place in his heart. One would think that the birth of Moses’s son would be an event that might anchor him to this new life, but instead he used the moment to confess a lingering feeling of being “a stranger in a strange land.” Moses has been blessed with life, family, and home, but he does not belongs here. This will never be his place, and as we will see where he really belongs is with his people in Israel.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 2:18-20

18 And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, How is it that ye are come so soon to day?

19 And they said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough for us, and watered the flock.

20 And he said unto his daughters, And where is he? why is it that ye have left the man? call him, that he may eat bread.

Moses had saved the sheep of Reuel, but the daughters did not invite him back to meet their father. Perhaps they were nervous inviting a stranger to their home? Reuel soon sets the matter right, upbraiding them for their lacking manners he speaks of hospitality as a matter of common sense.

It was mentioned back in verse 16 that Reuel was a “priest of Midian,” and his name literally means “friend of God.” However, while the “el” at the end of his name might mean the God Elohim, or it could be referring to any pagan god as well. Thus we cannot tell just from his name and station whether he is a priest for the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or for some idolatrous being.

Obviously, Reuel isn’t one of the Israelites in Egypt, but that doesn’t mean that he cannot be a believer of the one, true God. King Melchizedek, to whom Abraham paid tithes, was a priest of God, even though he was clearly not part of the Abrahamic lineage. Thus we know that there were other factions who knew about the Lord. Not only this, but Reuel is the priest of Midian, and the land of Midian presumably got its name from its progenitor, Midian, who was the son of Abraham and Keturah. While Midian, Abraham’s son, may not have been part of the covenant, we can assume that he was still raised in the tradition of worshipping the Most High God, and would hopefully have continued those lessons with his descendants. Thus, while we do not explicitly know the background and beliefs of Reuel and his family, there is reason to believe that Moses was being taken into the home of distant kin who still worshipped the one, true God.