Exodus 2 ~ he sat down by a well.

Moses Drawn from the Water, painted by Vincent Van Gogh

Exodus 2

Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. 2 The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. 3 When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. 4 And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. 5 Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. 6 When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews' children.” 7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” 8 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child's mother. 9 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water ^{[Moses sounds like the words for draw out]}


11 One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. 12 He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?” 14 He answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” 15 When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well.

16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. 17 The shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and saved them, and watered their flock. 18 When they came home to their father Reuel, he said, “How is it that you have come home so soon today?” 19 They said, “An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and even drew water for us and watered the flock.” 20 He said to his daughters, “Then where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.” 21 And Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah. 22 She gave birth to a son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, “I have been a sojourner ^{[Gershom sounds like sojourner]} in a foreign land.”

23 During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. 24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.


You have to love Robert Duvall. He made a lot of movies, including "To Kill a Mockingbird." And a whole lot of movies which included John Wayne, where he played a lot of low down, shady characters. And after he'd done pretty well, he decided to only make movies holding a meaning for him. "Tender Mercies" is one of my favorite movies, but I went and bought the DVD for "A Family Thing".

A Family Thing (1996)
Earl Pilcher Jr., runs an equipment rental outfit in Arkansas, lives with his wife and kids and parents, and rarely takes off his gimme cap. His mother dies, leaving a letter explaining he's not her natural son, but the son of a black woman who died in childbirth. Plus, he has a half brother, Ray, in Chicago, she wants him to visit. Earl makes the trip, initially receiving a cold welcome from Ray and Ray's son, Virgil. His birth mother's sister, Aunt T., an aged and blind matriarch, takes Earl in tow and insists that the family open up to him.

Earl Pilcher, Sr.: I've never seen a damn Yankee yet that could operate more than a wheelbarrow.

Aunt T.: Nobody ever knows what it's like for somebody else. That's always the problem.

Raymond "Ray" Lee Murdock: I guess everyone is entitled to make a complete and utter fool of himself every now and then.

Aunt T.: If he looks white it's 'cause his daddy's white. I don't know how he look, I can't see him like you can, and don't need to. I don't have the blessing of being able to separate people by lookin' at 'em any more.

Aunt T. sits Earl and Ray down to tell them the dramatic tale of the night Earl was born and his mother, Willa Mae, died. According to Aunt T., Willa Mae knew she was likely to die and Earl's life was saved only by the quick action of his adoptive mother, Carrie, who brought a white doctor to the shack where Willa Mae and Ray lived to help with the delivery. Aunt T speculates that Carrie and Willa Mae agreed that Earl, who was born with white-appearing features, should be raised by Carrie and his biological father. Aunt T. gives Earl a picture of Willa Mae which he keeps near. Earl begins to accept his new family with pride, and he convinces Ray to return to their Arkansas hometown to find their mother's grave. As they share a drink on her tombstone, Earl decides to take Ray to meet his southern family and tell them the unlikely story, ending the movie by joking with Ray that when Earl's white nephew finds out he is part black, he will likely shoot the both of them.

Well, the people in Scripture always act with better sense, when they find out they are not Pharaoh's own son. Except Moses murdered one of the Hebrew oppressors.

Moses was a murderer. Unfit for God. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps God did not know...

God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.

People generally do not care for crimes of cruelty.

“Who made you a prince and a judge over us?"

Jesus went to see the Temple after His Palm Sunday, one of the Gospels record His surveillance of the Temple. Jesus spoke a millennium later of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Jesus loved to think and speak of what "was written". Jesus keeps in mind, His Father's Word.

Luke 12
But he said to him, "Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?" And he said to them, "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions."

Aunt T.: Nobody ever knows what it's like for somebody else. That's always the problem.

There is One who is Good, who knows. And sees us with compassion.

Psalm 121
I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.

3 He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The Lord is your keeper;
the Lord is your shade on your right hand.
6 The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.

7 The Lord will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
8 The Lord will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and forevermore.


This is a Psalm of Ascents. We do well to look up to the Lord. It's the Lord who keeps our lives.

Father God, keep me from the nooks and crannies of flaws You are more aware of than I am. Give us the day, in Your mercy, we always see the good You keep in Your plan for us. In the name of Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen.

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