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Later, when he was older, she brought him back to the princess and he became her son. She named him Moses (meaning “to draw out”) because she had drawn him out of the water.
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One day, many years later when Moses had grown up and become a man, he went out to visit his fellow Hebrews and saw the terrible conditions they were under. During his visit he saw an Egyptian knock a Hebrew to the ground—one of his own Hebrew brothers!
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Moses looked this way and that to be sure no one was watching, then killed the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand.
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“And who are you?” the man demanded. “I suppose you think you are our prince and judge! And do you plan to kill me as you did that Egyptian yesterday?” When Moses realized that his deed was known, he was frightened.
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And sure enough, when Pharaoh heard about it he ordered Moses arrested and executed. But Moses ran away into the land of Midian. As he was sitting there beside a well,
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But the shepherds chased the girls away. Moses then came to their aid and rescued them from the shepherds and watered their flocks.
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Moses eventually decided to accept Reuel’s invitation to live with them, and Reuel gave him one of the girls, Zipporah, as his wife.
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One day as Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, out at the edge of the desert near Horeb, the mountain of God,
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suddenly the Angel of Jehovah appeared to him as a flame of fire in a bush. When Moses saw that the bush was on fire and that it didn’t burn up,
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he went over to investigate. Then God called out to him, “Moses! Moses!” “Who is it?” Moses asked.
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I am the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” (Moses covered his face with his hands, for he was afraid to look at God.)
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“But I’m not the person for a job like that!” Moses exclaimed.
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But Moses asked, “If I go to the people of Israel and tell them that their fathers’ God has sent me, they will ask, ‘Which God are you talking about?’ What shall I tell them?”
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But Moses said, “They won’t believe me! They won’t do what I tell them to. They’ll say, ‘Jehovah never appeared to you!’”
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“Throw it down on the ground,” the Lord told him. So he threw it down—and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it!
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But Moses pleaded, “O Lord, I’m just not a good speaker. I never have been, and I’m not now, even after you have spoken to me, for I have a speech impediment.”
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But Moses said, “Lord, please! Send someone else.”
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Moses returned home and talked it over with Jethro, his father-in-law. “With your permission,” Moses said, “I will go back to Egypt and visit my relatives. I don’t even know whether they are still alive.” “Go with my blessing,” Jethro replied.
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Before Moses left Midian, Jehovah said to him, “Don’t be afraid to return to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are dead.”
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So Moses took his wife and sons and put them on a donkey, and returned to the land of Egypt, holding tightly to the “rod of God”!
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As Moses and his family were traveling along and had stopped for the night, Jehovah appeared to Moses and threatened to kill him.
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Then Zipporah his wife took a flint knife and cut off the foreskin of her young son’s penis, and threw it against Moses’ feet, remarking disgustedly, “What a blood-smeared husband you’ve turned out to be!” Then God left him alone.
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Now Jehovah said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So Aaron traveled to Mount Horeb, the mountain of God, and met Moses there, and they greeted each other warmly.
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Moses told Aaron what God had said they must do, and what they were to say, and told him about the miracles they must do before Pharaoh.
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So Moses and Aaron returned to Egypt and summoned the elders of the people of Israel to a council meeting.
