Exodus 2:22 Study Bible: She bore a son, and he named him Gershom, for he said, "I have lived as a foreigner in a foreign land."

◄ Exodus 2:22 ►

And she gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, "I have become a foreigner in a foreign land."

And she gave birth to a son
This phrase refers to the birth of Moses' first son with his wife Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro, the priest of Midian. The birth of a son in ancient Near Eastern cultures was significant, often seen as a continuation of the family line and a blessing from God. This event occurs during Moses' time in Midian, a period of preparation and transformation for his future role as the leader of the Israelites.

and Moses named him Gershom
The name "Gershom" is derived from the Hebrew root "ger," meaning "sojourner" or "foreigner." Naming in the biblical context often reflects personal experiences or divine revelations. Moses' choice of name for his son indicates his own sense of displacement and identity as a foreigner in Midian. This act of naming also foreshadows the Israelites' own experience of sojourning in Egypt and later in the wilderness.

saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”
This statement captures Moses' feelings of alienation and exile. Having fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian, Moses finds himself in Midian, a land and culture unfamiliar to him. This experience of being a foreigner is a recurring theme in the Bible, reflecting the broader narrative of God's people living as strangers in a world that is not their ultimate home. It also prefigures the Israelites' journey and their eventual settlement in the Promised Land. Moses' experience can be seen as a type of Christ, who also lived as a foreigner in the world, bringing salvation to those who are spiritually exiled.

Persons / Places / Events

1. Moses
A Hebrew by birth, raised in Pharaoh's palace, and later a fugitive in Midian. He is the central figure in this passage, reflecting on his status as an outsider.

2. Gershom
The son of Moses and Zipporah. His name, meaning "a stranger there," signifies Moses' feelings of alienation in Midian.

3. Zipporah
Moses' wife, the daughter of Jethro, a priest of Midian. She plays a crucial role in Moses' life during his time in exile.

4. Midian
The land where Moses fled after killing an Egyptian. It represents a place of refuge and transformation for Moses.

5. Foreigner in a Foreign Land
This phrase captures Moses' sense of displacement and identity crisis, which is a recurring theme in his life.

Teaching Points

Identity in Exile
Moses' naming of Gershom reflects his internal struggle with identity. As Christians, we may also feel like strangers in the world, reminding us that our true citizenship is in heaven.

God's Preparation
Moses' time in Midian was a period of preparation for his future leadership. Similarly, God may use our seasons of displacement to prepare us for His purposes.

Embracing God's Plan
Despite feeling like a foreigner, Moses was exactly where God wanted him. Trusting God's plan, even when it leads us to unfamiliar places, is crucial.

Family and Legacy
The naming of Gershom shows the importance of family in understanding and expressing our experiences. Our families can be a source of strength and continuity in times of change.

Faithful Living in a Foreign Land
Like Moses, we are called to live faithfully in a world that is not our ultimate home, maintaining our identity as God's people.

Bible Study Questions

1. How does Moses' experience as a foreigner in Midian relate to the Christian experience of being "in the world but not of it"?

2. In what ways can periods of feeling like a "foreigner" be used by God for personal growth and preparation?

3. How does the naming of Gershom reflect Moses' understanding of his circumstances, and what can we learn from this about naming and identity?

4. What other biblical figures experienced a sense of being a stranger or exile, and how did they respond to their circumstances?

5. How can we, as believers, support one another in times when we feel like outsiders in our own "foreign lands"?

Connections to Other Scriptures

Genesis 23:4
Abraham refers to himself as a foreigner and stranger among the Hittites, highlighting a similar theme of living in a land not his own.

Hebrews 11:13
The faith chapter mentions the patriarchs as strangers and exiles on the earth, connecting to the broader biblical theme of believers as pilgrims.

Acts 7:29
Stephen recounts Moses' flight to Midian, providing a New Testament perspective on Moses' time as a foreigner.

Sermons

Gershom	J. Orr	Exodus 2:22
Life and its Moods	H.T. Robjohns	Exodus 2:22
Moses and Christ	J. Orr	Exodus 2:1-25
Moses in Midian	D. Young	Exodus 2:15-22
The Long Exile	J. Orr	Exodus 2:15-23
A Contented Resident	J. S. Exell, M. A.	Exodus 2:16-22
A Friend of the Oppressed Commended	Wesleyan S. S. Magazine	Exodus 2:16-22
A Large Family	J. S. Exell, M. A.	Exodus 2:16-22
A New Training School	J. H. Kurtz, D. D.	Exodus 2:16-22
A Pilgrim Life the Best for Preachers	J. S. Exell, M. A.	Exodus 2:16-22
Alone with God	C. H. Mackintosh.	Exodus 2:16-22
An Extended Visit		Exodus 2:16-22
Discipline Needed After Faith	J. J. Van Oosterzee, D. D.	Exodus 2:16-22
Domestic Toil	J. S. Exell, M. A.	Exodus 2:16-22
Moses' Domestic Life in Midian	J. H. Kurtz, D. D.	Exodus 2:16-22
Moses in Midian	R. A. Hallam, D. D.	Exodus 2:16-22
Solitary Discipline	William M. Taylor, D. D.	Exodus 2:16-22
The Reward of a Kindly Action	J. S. Exell, M. A.	Exodus 2:16-22
Two Classes of Men are Typified by the Conduct of These Shepherds	J. S. Exell, M. A.	Exodus 2:16-22
Why is it that Ye have Left the Man?	J. S. Exell, M. A.	Exodus 2:16-22
Zipporah. -- Character of Zipporah	J. H. Kurtz, D. D.	Exodus 2:16-22

People

Gershom, Isaac, Israelites, Jacob, Levi, Moses, Pharaoh, Reuel, Zipporah

Places

Egypt, Midian, Nile River

Topics

Alien, Bare, Beareth, Birth, Bore, Calleth, Foreign, Foreigner, Gershom, Named, Saying, Sojourner, Strange, Stranger

Dictionary of Bible Themes

Exodus 2:22

5104 Moses, foreshadower of Christ

Exodus 2:21-22

5044 names, giving of

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 Scripture

Home 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

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