Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. – Exodus 2:12

Today's Scripture Reading (November 2, 2024): Exodus 2

We often try hard to live in two worlds. Sometimes, we try hard to keep our Monday-to-Saturday and Sunday worlds in different sections of our lives. That means our dress, language, and even our mindset are often different.

Moses would have understood our effort. For almost the entirety of his life, he has existed as a man of two worlds. In one, he was important, part of the ruling family of Egypt. But there was another reality. Moses was also the son of enslaved people. His parents were less than nothing in Egypt. Those two realities continually waged a war inside of Moses.

Then, things change abruptly. Suddenly, Moses no longer had the luxury of being able to live in these two worlds. He had to choose. Unfortunately, the sinful part of the story of Moses was that he chose a path of violence. Moses chose the path that involved killing an Egyptian. Sometimes, I wonder how history might have been different if Moses had decided to do something else. What was it that God had planned for Moses? Was Moses supposed to kill the Egyptian? I admit that I am unsure I know the answer to that question.

I love what-if stories, and this tale provides us with a great one. What if Moses had not killed the Egyptian? How would history have played itself out? There are enough similarities between the story of Joseph (sold into Egypt through the hurtful act of his brothers) and Moses (lovingly hidden in Egypt by parents who had run out of choices) to think that maybe Moses could have been raised to power and could have changed the nature of Israel in the same way that Joseph had saved Israel by saving Egypt.

However, Moses's violent act took away that possibility. There was a terrible change of worldview. In one act, Moses went from being a member of the Royal family of Egypt and the only Hebrew of power to being an outcast, discarded, and unwanted. He went from having royal privileges to being wanted as a fugitive and marked for death by the people in power.

As we talk about the road, this is the moment that I think is possibly the most critical moment in the story; it is the place where we may identify more with Moses than at any other moment. It is the moment that Moses messed up, and God began the redemption process. Maybe we need to ask what happens when sin interrupts God? How can God use me when I have (fill in the blank)? Part of the problem is that we go from a place where our worldview says that if it is going to be, it is going to be me to a place where we recognize that there is nothing we can do. Our actions have made everything we have hoped for impossible. Now, nothing is left except escape and making the best of a bad situation.

Moses had already taken this road. He had traveled from a place where he was a part of a powerful family but also held a concern for the people of his heritage to a place where he was alone and defeated, and there was no one left in his life who could help him.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Exodus 3