3 Mar. Exodus 2:16-22

3 Mar. Moses settles in Midian

“There was a priest in Midian who had seven daughters. His daughters went to that well [where Moses had sat down] to get water to fill the water troughs for their father’s flock.”

“Some shepherds came and chased the girls away, but Moses defended the girls and watered their flock.”

“When they went back to their father Reuel [Jethro], he asked them, ‘Why have you come home early today?’ The girls answered, ‘The shepherds chased us away, but an Egyptian defended us. He got water for us and watered our flock.’”

“He asked his daughters, ‘Where is this man? Why did you leave him? Invite him to eat with us.’”

“Moses agreed to stay with Jethro, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses to be his wife. Zipporah gave birth to a son. Moses named him Gershom [meaning ‘a stranger there’], because Moses was a stranger in a land that was not his own.”

          (Genesis 2:16-22)

 


 

Arriving in Midian, Moses sat down by a well, where he rescued some shepherdesses and watered their flocks.

Their father invited Moses (who was clearly a well-educated Egyptian) to stay with them, so Moses married one of his daughters, Zipporah, and settled down for the next fifty years to raise a family in exile in Midian.

By the time Moses fled from Egypt in c.1508BC, the people of Midian occupied both the coastal strip of the Sinai Peninsula and parts of the Arabian peninsula on the opposite side of the Gulf of Aqaba.

Moses married Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro (or Reuel), a priest of Midian, and lived here for fifty years before God appeared to him in the flames of a burning bush (see Exodus 3:1-10).

After Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt in c.1447 BC, they headed across the Sinai peninsula to Midian, where they were welcomed by Moses’ father-in-law and their distant relatives, the people of Midian (see Exodus 18:1-12).

Here, God again appeared to Moses on Mt Sinai and gave the ‘Ten Commandments’ and other laws for the people to follow (see Exodus 20:1-21).

The NASA photo shows the Red Sea, the Gulf of Suez and the Sinai peninsula. Midian was situated in the Sinai peninsula (in the centre of the photo) near the Gulf of Aqaba.

You can read more about Midian @ https://www.thebiblejourney.org/biblejourney2/25-the-israelites-journey-from-egypt-to-mt-sinai/prince-moses-escapes-to-midian/

Powered by Church Edit