YEARS LATER

“One day, when Moshe was a grown man, he went out to visit his kinsmen, and he watched them struggling at forced labor…”
Exodus 2:11a

Between Exodus 2:10 and 2:11, it is estimated that forty years passed. We last see Moshe as a baby being drawn from the water and his birth mother retrieved to nurse him in 2:10, to now being a grown man in 2:11. I don’t know about you, but I often wonder what all happened in that time. But I also question at what point and how did Moshe learn his true background, as the verse reads he went out to visit his kinsmen. Was the truth always hidden from him? Was there a special bond still between his birth mother and he that kept him coming back to hear the stories? In movies we see that he was shown a Hebrew printed blanket, or that he bumped into his brother and sister who told him. Those could have been the truth, but the fact is we do not know.
Another mystery to me is found in Exodus 2:15. Please forgive me as it has been a while since I have seen The Ten Commandments, but in at least thinking upon The Prince of Egypt, I do not recall the movie showing that Pharaoh wanted to kill Moshe after learning that Moshe was guilty of killing a Hebrew. Come to think of it, I am surprised Pharaoh would be upset as he himself was working to kill the Hebrews by killing the babies. Had he killed too many already and now his labor force was low? Had Pharaoh come to a point of regret for his actions and did not want to see any more die unjustly? Or had Pharaoh learned that when speaking or acting ill against Adonai’s chosen people, Adonai retaliates?
However Moshe learned of his roots, and however Pharaoh moved into a position of wanting to kill Moshe, the next step for Moshe was to leave Egypt. Coming upon the seven daughters of the priest of Midyan, he assisted them in fighting off other shepherds that worked to drive them away. This act of kindness earned him a seat at the table of the priest, Yitro (Jethro), and eventually he was given Tzipporah as his wife. The two had their own son, Gershom, and they lived in the land for what is assumed forty years. In that time the Pharaoh who had wanted to kill Moshe had passed, but under the new Pharaoh the people of Isra’el still groaned under the weight of slavery. God heard their cry and acknowledged them. Help was on the way.

Exodus 2:11-25