But the man replied, "Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid and thought, "This thing I have done has surely become known." But the man replied, “Who made you ruler and judge over us?”This question reflects the skepticism and resistance Moses faced from his fellow Hebrews. It highlights the lack of recognition of Moses' authority at this point in his life. The question echoes the broader theme of divine appointment and authority seen throughout the Bible, where God often chooses unlikely leaders. This phrase also foreshadows Moses' future role as a divinely appointed leader and judge over Israel, as seen in Exodus 3 when God calls Moses from the burning bush. The question also parallels the rejection of Jesus by His own people, as seen in John 1:11, where He came to His own, but they did not receive Him. Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?”
This accusation reveals that Moses' act of killing the Egyptian was not as secret as he had hoped. It underscores the theme of hidden sins being brought to light, a concept echoed in Numbers 32:23, "be sure your sin will find you out." The mention of the Egyptian connects to the broader narrative of Israel's oppression in Egypt and Moses' initial attempt to deliver his people through his own strength. This foreshadows the need for divine intervention and guidance, which becomes a central theme in Moses' life and mission. The reference to killing also prefigures the ultimate deliverance through Christ, who conquers sin and death not by taking life, but by giving His own. Then Moses was afraid and thought, “This thing I have done has surely become known.”
Moses' fear indicates his awareness of the consequences of his actions and the potential threat to his life from Pharaoh. This moment marks a turning point, leading to Moses' flight to Midian, where he spends 40 years in preparation for his future role. The phrase "this thing I have done" reflects personal accountability and the realization of the gravity of his actions. It also serves as a reminder of the importance of God's timing and methods, contrasting Moses' initial reliance on his own strength with his later dependence on God's power. This theme of fear and revelation is mirrored in the New Testament, where believers are encouraged to bring their deeds into the light (John 3:20-21) and trust in God's plan. Persons / Places / Events 1. MosesA Hebrew by birth, raised in Pharaoh's palace, who later becomes the leader of the Israelites. At this point, he is struggling with his identity and actions. 2. Hebrew ManOne of the Israelites, who questions Moses' authority and brings up Moses' previous act of killing an Egyptian. 3. EgyptThe land where the Israelites are enslaved, and where Moses was raised in Pharaoh's household. 4. The EgyptianThe man Moses killed in defense of a Hebrew slave, an act that sets off a chain of events leading to Moses' flight from Egypt. 5. Fear and RevelationMoses' realization that his actions are known, leading to fear and his eventual flight from Egypt. Teaching Points Authority and LeadershipTrue leadership is often questioned and challenged. Moses' experience reminds us that God’s calling may not always be immediately recognized by others. Consequences of ActionsOur actions, even those done in secret, can have far-reaching consequences. Moses' fear highlights the importance of integrity and accountability. Identity and CallingMoses' struggle with his identity as a Hebrew raised in an Egyptian palace reflects the tension believers may feel between worldly status and spiritual calling. Fear and FaithMoses' fear upon realizing his actions were known shows the human tendency to fear exposure. Yet, God uses even our fears to guide us into His purposes. God’s SovereigntyDespite Moses' initial failure and fear, God’s plan for him as a deliverer was not thwarted. This reassures us of God’s sovereignty over our lives. Bible Study Questions 1. How does Moses' reaction to being questioned about his authority reflect our own responses when our actions or motives are challenged? 2. In what ways can we relate to Moses' struggle with identity and calling in our own lives? 3. How do the consequences of Moses' actions in Exodus 2:14 inform our understanding of accountability and integrity in our daily lives? 4. What can we learn from Moses' fear and subsequent actions about handling fear and trusting in God's plan? 5. How does the account of Moses in Exodus 2:14 connect with the broader biblical theme of God using imperfect people to fulfill His purposes? Connections to Other Scriptures Acts 7:27-28Stephen recounts this event, highlighting Moses' initial rejection by his people, which parallels the rejection of Jesus by the Jewish leaders. Hebrews 11:24-27Discusses Moses' faith and his choice to identify with the people of God rather than enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin in Egypt. Genesis 4:9Cain's response to God, "Am I my brother's keeper?" echoes the Hebrew man's challenge to Moses, questioning authority and responsibility. People Gershom, Isaac, Israelites, Jacob, Levi, Moses, Pharaoh, Reuel, ZipporahPlaces Egypt, Midian, Nile RiverTopics Afraid, Clear, Death, Egyptian, Fear, Feared, Feareth, Hast, Intend, Intendest, Intending, Judge, Kill, Killed, Killedst, Killing, Matter, Mean, Plan, Prince, Ruler, Saying, Slain, Slay, Surely, Thinkest, ThinkingDictionary of Bible Themes Exodus 2:14 5509 rulers
8754 fear Exodus 2:10-15 5102 Moses, life of Exodus 2:11-14 5822 criticism, against believers Library The Ark among the Flags
'And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. 2. And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. 3. And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink. 4. And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him. 5. And the daughter of Pharaoh came …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy ScriptureHome as a Stewardship.
"Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages."--EXODUS II., 9. "For look, how many souls in thy house be, With just as many souls God trusteth thee!" The Christian home is a stewardship. The parents are stewards of God. A steward is a servant of a particular kind, to whom the master commits a certain portion of his interest to be prosecuted in his name and by his authority, and according to his laws and regulations. The steward must act according to the will of his …
Samuel Philips—The Christian Home The Upbringing of Jewish Children
The tenderness of the bond which united Jewish parents to their children appears even in the multiplicity and pictorialness of the expressions by which the various stages of child-life are designated in the Hebrew. Besides such general words as "ben" and "bath"--"son" and "daughter"--we find no fewer than nine different terms, each depicting a fresh stage of life. The first of these simply designates the babe as the newly--"born"--the "jeled," or, in the feminine, "jaldah"--as in Exodus 2:3, 6, 8. …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life The Secret of Its Greatness
[Illustration: (drop cap G) The Great Pyramid] God always chooses the right kind of people to do His work. Not only so, He always gives to those whom He chooses just the sort of life which will best prepare them for the work He will one day call them to do. That is why God put it into the heart of Pharaoh's daughter to bring up Moses as her own son in the Egyptian palace. The most important part of Moses' training was that his heart should be right with God, and therefore he was allowed to remain …
Mildred Duff—The Bible in its Making Motives to Holy Mourning
Let me exhort Christians to holy mourning. I now persuade to such a mourning as will prepare the soul for blessedness. Oh that our hearts were spiritual limbecs, distilling the water of holy tears! Christ's doves weep. They that escape shall be like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity' (Ezekiel 7:16). There are several divine motives to holy mourning: 1 Tears cannot be put to a better use. If you weep for outward losses, you lose your tears. It is like a shower …
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12 The Faith of Moses.
"By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months by his parents, because they saw he was a goodly child; and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to be evil entreated with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt: for he looked unto the recompense of reward. By faith he forsook …
Thomas Charles Edwards—The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the Hebrews Jesus Sets Out from Judæa for Galilee.
Subdivision B. At Jacob's Well, and at Sychar. ^D John IV. 5-42. ^d 5 So he cometh to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 and Jacob's well was there. [Commentators long made the mistake of supposing that Shechem, now called Nablous, was the town here called Sychar. Sheckem lies a mile and a half west of Jacob's well, while the real Sychar, now called 'Askar, lies scarcely half a mile north of the well. It was a small town, loosely called …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel Consolations against Impatience in Sickness.
If in thy sickness by extremity of pain thou be driven to impatience, meditate-- 1. That thy sins have deserved the pains of hell; therefore thou mayest with greater patience endure these fatherly corrections. 2. That these are the scourges of thy heavenly Father, and the rod is in his hand. If thou didst suffer with reverence, being a child, the corrections of thy earthly parents, how much rather shouldst thou now subject thyself, being the child of God, to the chastisement of thy heavenly Father, …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety Man's Misery by the Fall
Q-19: WHAT IS THE MISERY OF THAT ESTATE WHEREINTO MAN FELL? A: All mankind by their fall lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable to all the miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell for ever. 'And were by nature children of wrath.' Eph 2:2. Adam left an unhappy portion to his posterity, Sin and Misery. Having considered the first of these, original sin, we shall now advert to the misery of that state. In the first, we have seen mankind offending; …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity Genealogy According to Luke.
^C Luke III. 23-38. ^c 23 And Jesus himself [Luke has been speaking about John the Baptist, he now turns to speak of Jesus himself], when he began to teach, was about thirty years of age [the age when a Levite entered upon God's service--Num. iv. 46, 47], being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son [this may mean that Jesus was grandson of Heli, or that Joseph was counted as a son of Heli because he was his son-in-law] of Heli, 24 the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel Adoption
'As many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.' John 1:12. Having spoken of the great points of faith and justification, we come next to adoption. The qualification of the persons is, As many as received him.' Receiving is put for believing, as is clear by the last words, to them that believe in his name.' The specification of the privilege is, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.' The Greek word for power, exousia, signifies …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity Appendix xii. The Baptism of Proselytes
ONLY those who have made study of it can have any idea how large, and sometimes bewildering, is the literature on the subject of Jewish Proselytes and their Baptism. Our present remarks will be confined to the Baptism of Proselytes. 1. Generally, as regards proselytes (Gerim) we have to distinguish between the Ger ha-Shaar (proselyte of the gate) and Ger Toshabh (sojourner,' settled among Israel), and again the Ger hatstsedeq (proselyte of righteousness) and Ger habberith (proselyte of the covenant). …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah Appendix ii. Philo of Alexandria and Rabbinic Theology.
(Ad. vol. i. p. 42, note 4.) In comparing the allegorical Canons of Philo with those of Jewish traditionalism, we think first of all of the seven exegetical canons which are ascribed to Hillel. These bear chiefly the character of logical deductions, and as such were largely applied in the Halakhah. These seven canons were next expanded by R. Ishmael (in the first century) into thirteen, by the analysis of one of them (the 5th) into six, and the addition of this sound exegetical rule, that where two …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah John the Baptist's Person and Preaching.
(in the Wilderness of Judæa, and on the Banks of the Jordan, Occupying Several Months, Probably a.d. 25 or 26.) ^A Matt. III. 1-12; ^B Mark I. 1-8; ^C Luke III. 1-18. ^b 1 The beginning of the gospel [John begins his Gospel from eternity, where the Word is found coexistent with God. Matthew begins with Jesus, the humanly generated son of Abraham and David, born in the days of Herod the king. Luke begins with the birth of John the Baptist, the Messiah's herald; and Mark begins with the ministry …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel Exodus
The book of Exodus--so named in the Greek version from the march of Israel out of Egypt--opens upon a scene of oppression very different from the prosperity and triumph in which Genesis had closed. Israel is being cruelly crushed by the new dynasty which has arisen in Egypt (i.) and the story of the book is the story of her redemption. Ultimately it is Israel's God that is her redeemer, but He operates largely by human means; and the first step is the preparation of a deliverer, Moses, whose parentage, …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links Exodus 2:14 NIVExodus 2:14 NLTExodus 2:14 ESVExodus 2:14 NASBExodus 2:14 KJV
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