Moses Murders A Man
Exodus 2:11-12
11 One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. 12 He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
There are so many questions this episode raises:
• Did Moses know that the Hebrews were “his people,” or is that just the
narrator telling us?
• When did Moses come to know his true identity?
• Did the other Hebrews know he was one of them?
• Why did Moses kill the Egyptian?
• From whom was he trying to hide the body?
What’s clear is that there is something about the subjugation of the Hebrews by the Egyptians that provokes something primal in Moses.
That’s good, and will be something God uses. What’s bad is that Moses then murders the Egyptian.
One of the lessons Moses will have to learn is how to channel his righteous anger into productive and not destructive acts.
It’s not wrong to be angry at the evil of the world; what’s wrong is to allow anger to drive you to act in sinful ways.
What are you righteously angry about today? What troubles you deeply? How might you turn that anger over the Lord and ask him to turn it into something productive?