Moses, Murderer and Alien

Exodus 2:11-22 (NRSV)

One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and saw their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his kinsfolk. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. When he went out the next day, he saw two Hebrews fighting; and he said to the one who was in the wrong, “Why do you strike your fellow Hebrew?” He answered, “Who made you a ruler and judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses.

But Moses fled from Pharaoh. He settled in the land of Midian, and sat down by a well. The priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to draw water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. But some shepherds came and drove them away. Moses got up and came to their defense and watered their flock. When they returned to their father Reuel, he said, “How is it that you have come back so soon today?” They said, “An Egyptian helped us against the shepherds; he even drew water for us and watered the flock.” He said to his daughters, “Where is he? Why did you leave the man? Invite him to break bread.” Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah in marriage. She bore a son, and he named him Gershom; for he said, “I have been an alien residing in a foreign land.”

As Moses is the central figure in Exodus, there is no getting around talking about him in this cavalcade of characters from Scripture.

It feels a bit daunting to write about him.  Along with David, he's perhaps the most well know person from the Hebrew Scriptures.  Since his story is so all-encompassing, I think I will spend this week looking at sections of it.

We know Moses was raised by Pharaoh's daughter as his son, yet here there is the distinct impression that somewhere along the way, someone (one of his mothers?) told him his true ancestry.  He saw an Egyptian beating one of his kinfolk - one of "his people."

And then in a flash of a moment, Moses, the leader who will rise up to save his people from their captivity, kills the Egyptian in a manner that cannot really be described as self-defense.  There is pre-meditation here.

As he is described looking "this way and that," we know he is trying carefully not to be caught.  This is a planned attack.  This isn't simply to rescue the Hebrew slave

This is cold-blooded murder born of anger.

What do we do with this?  God has chosen a motley crew it seems in the work of the saving of the world.  Moses a murderer, David an adulterer, Jacob a liar...

What does it say about us?

That with all our inadequacies - both real and imagined - there is work to be done.

That we can't count anyone out.  That the greatest sinner may have much to teach us about God's abiding love.

That crime doesn't define a person.

That perhaps our system of justice, where punishment (often brutal) is the focus rather than rehabilitation, may be missing the point.

Moses fled after his crime and landed himself in yet a third household.  Born a Hebrew slave, matured in an Egyptian palace, now Moses is in Midian, where he will stay until the time is right.  An "alien" who is taken in by a people.

Might be something to say there about how we treat our immigrant citizens as well.

God of all people, help us to remember never to count anyone out.  To see the person not the crime; the human being, not the ancestry.  To always seek justice that is tempered with your mercy so that all can know your deep abiding love for them.  Amen