EmmDev 2024-02-27 [Lent2024 Exodus Explored] Exiled Exhaling

Exiled Exhaling

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. Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father's flock. Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.  When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, "Why have you returned so early today?" They answered, "An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock." "And where is he?" he asked his daughters. "Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat." Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, "I have become an alien in a foreign land." (Exodus2:15-22)

Last week we looked at Moses' explosive exasperation.

Let's look at his CV for a moment:

• Age 0: The only survivor of Pharoah's "Hebrew Male Genocide."
• Age 1- aprox 20: Adopted as the Princess' son with the education and privileges of royalty.
• Age +-20-25: Murders an Egyptian, trashing all his privileges,has to flee.
• The next 40 years: A wandering shepherd in Midian, married with two sons.

One can imagine that the young Moses was urbane and educated. His rash murder of the Egyptian demonstrated his confidence and sense of invincibility. But it backfired. Our text verses show the extent of his sense of loss and depression. "I have become an alien in a foreign land."

Forty years is the amount of time he waited in Midian. In Biblical symbolism forty has become the number of waiting, preparation, separation, renewal and refocusing.

• The flood was for forty days
• Israel wandered the desert for forty years
• Moses spent forty days on Mount Sinai receiving the Law
• Joshua, Caleb and the spies were in the land for forty days
• Elijah walked forty days to get to Horeb to hear from God
• Jesus was tempted in the wilderness for forty days.

Sometimes one has to learn how to exhale.
            To let go. 
            To stop trying to do everything by oneself.

After forty years God called Moses at the burning bush to lead Israel out of slavery. One of the excuses is that Moses offers is that he is "slow of speech and tongue." I have often jokingly suggested that forty years of herding sheep made Moses a stutterer - "Ba-aa-ah!"

Forty years: A time of waiting. A time of unlearning impulsiveness. A time to forgive yourself for past failures. A time to learn about the beauty of the land, the simplicity of the rhythms of work, rest, marriage and parenting. Forty years to forget the gods of Egypt and have one's heart ready for the call of the one true God.

Moses may have always been slow of speech, or he may have learned it in the wilderness.

There is no doubt that, in view of the leadership task ahead of him, he needed a good deposit of quietness and simplicity.

Is there room for quiet simplicity in your life?
Have you learnt how to exhale?

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