Daily Devotion, June 15, 2020

Devotion: Read Exodus 2:11-22.

Moses had grown up in a strange situation, the son of Hebrew slaves yet reared in the surroundings of wealth and power by the daughter of Pharaoh. He dressed as an Egyptian, spoke their language, and followed their customs (the Midianite girls referred to him in verse 19 as “an Egyptian”). Yet he identified with his own people, the Hebrew slaves toiling in forced labor for the Egyptians. His own mother had nursed him, and we can only imagine how Moses’ identity with his fellow Hebrews had been ingrained and kept alive in him. That identity caused him to kill the Eqyptian who beat the Hebrew slave, but his Hebrew brothers then turned on him as an outsider.

Moses, in this short passage, identifies with and comes to the aid of persons being abused by those in power on two separate occasions -- with the Hebrew slave and with the Midianite girls. He expresses his continuing identity crisis in the naming of his new son, whose name refers to Moses’ being a foreigner or alien in a foreign land. There is a key point for us in this passage: If we step up to correct an injustice or to offer help to those victimized by our systems of power, we too will likely be made to feel excluded. We are called, not to fit in, but to do the right thing. Personal Worship Option: As you worship today, think of times when you have stood up for someone being marginalized or mistreated. Did some of the people you care about most criticize you or make you feel excluded? Pray for more opportunities to do the right thing and to be a bit of a foreigner...in the world but not of the world.