Moses the Murderer

Exodus 2:11-25 Moses Flees to Midian
11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. 12 Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, "Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?"
14 The man said, "Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid and thought, "What I did must have become known."
15 When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well. 16 Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father's flock. 17 Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.
18 When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, "Why have you returned so early today?"
19 They answered, "An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock."
20 "And where is he?" he asked his daughters. "Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat."
21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. 22 Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, "I have become an alien in a foreign land."
23 During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. 24 God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. 25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.

The 2nd half of this chapter jumps to when Moses is grown up. I would think this means he was of legal age. Keep in mind he is from royalty, but still has compassion for his people. When he sees a Hebrew slave being beaten he kills the Egyptian. I like how the NIV versions says, "glancing this way and that and seeing noone..." How many times do we do something wrong as long as nobody is watching or we think we won't get caught: running a red light late at night, cheating on taxes, putting miniature reseese cups in a Big Gulp to avoid paying for them, switching price tags on basketballs and so on. The next day a fellow Hebrew calls Moses on what he did so Moses runs.

For Moses the decision to run probably saved his life. It seems like this situation justifies times when we run from the truth. You decide for yourself in this case.

Moses changes occupations and lands and has to work with his hands. Up to this point in life Moses was really taken care of. Now he had to provide for himself. He would have been an overqualified. In verse 17 Moses probably confronted all of the shepherds even though he was outnumbered. My bible notes says Moses probably could have handled them all since he had been trained in the world's best military. Moses finds a wife and the chapter ends with God being concerned for the Hebrew people who were crying out to him.

For ME: The part where Moses does something when nobody is looking. I've always clung to the idea that integrity is what you do when nobody is looking. If you only do something good when others are watching then you are not doing it as God would have you. As of this point there does not seem to be any consequence for Moses killing a man.