Immerse: Beginnings Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 99
2:16–3:7
E x od u s
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sure enough, Pharaoh heard what had happened, and he tried to kill
Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in the land of
Midian.
When Moses arrived in Midian, he sat down beside a well. Now the
priest of Midian had seven daughters who came as usual to draw water and
fill the water troughs for their father’s flocks. But some other shepherds
came and chased them away. So Moses jumped up and rescued the girls
from the shepherds. Then he drew water for their flocks.
When the girls returned to Reuel, their father, he asked, “Why are you
back so soon today?”
“An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds,” they answered. “And then
he drew water for us and watered our flocks.”
“Then where is he?” their father asked. “Why did you leave him there?
Invite him to come and eat with us.”
Moses accepted the invitation, and he settled there with him. In time,
Reuel gave Moses his daughter Zipporah to be his wife. Later she gave
birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, for he explained, “I have
been a foreigner in a foreign land.”
Years passed, and the king of Egypt died. But the Israelites continued to
groan under their burden of slavery. They cried out for help, and their
cry rose up to God. God heard their groaning, and he remembered his
covenant promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He looked down on the
people of Israel and knew it was time to act.
One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the
priest of Midian. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to
Sinai, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to
him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up. “This is
amazing,” Moses said to himself. “Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must
go see it.”
When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to
him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
“Here I am!” Moses replied.
“Do not come any closer,” the Lord warned. “Take off your sandals, for
you are standing on holy ground. I am the God of your f ather—the God
of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” When Moses heard
this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God.
Then the Lord told him, “I have certainly seen the oppression of my
people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh
