Exodus Chapter 2
The first chapter of Exodus tells us the background of the Israelites in Egypt. It had been 350 years since the time of Joseph and the new Egyptian king, the pharaoh had no appreciation for the tremendous contribution Joseph had made years earlier to save the people of Egypt from the otherwise disastrous drought.
The Israelites had prospered and multiplied. The new Egyptian king became very nervous at the population growth and the prosperous development of the Israelites into their 12 tribes. The Hebrews were forced into hard labor, and the Pharaoh ordered all male Hebrew children killed at birth. When this failed the Pharaoh ordered the male Hebrew children thrown into the Nile River to drown.
Moses' mother's cleverness saved him by putting his small cradle/ark at the river bank where it was discovered by the Pharaoh's daughter. Pharaoh's daughter adopted Moses as her son, and an alert Moses' sister talked the Pharaoh daughter into using Moses' real mother as nursemaid. Exodus 2:1-9.
Moses was raised like an Egyptian prince, trained in all ways as an Egyptian. Acts 7-22.
As he became a grown man of approximately 40 years, an eventful day changed his life. He had begun to notice the hard labor and afflictions upon which the Egyptians had burdened the Israelites. He watched an incident in which an Egyptian was beating a Hebrew man. When Moses saw no one was watching, He killed the Egyptian and hid the body in the sand. Exodus 2:12.
Moses was out the next day and noticed two Israelite men fighting between themselves. Moses attempted to break up the fight, and confronted the man who had started the fight, asking why the man would fight with his fellow Hebrew. The man responded to Moses: "Who made thee a prince and a judge over us?" asking if Moses intended to kill him like he had done to the Egyptian the day before.
Moses became worried because his act of killing the Egyptian was apparently becoming public knowledge and would surely be found out by the Pharaoh. Sure enough, Pharaoh learned of Moses' deed, and sought to put Moses to death. Moses then fled Egypt, heading for the Sinai area of Midian. Exodus 2:14-15.
In his flight from Egypt, Moses stopped by a water well. While he was there, seven daughters of a Midian priest came to the well to water their flock. However, nearby shepherds came along and tried to run off the women. Moses came to their rescue, stepped in an stopped the shepherds and helped the women water their flock.
The seven daughters returned to their father, bragging on the man from Egypt who had come to their assistance. Their father, Reuel, also known as Jethro, invited Moses into his house and fed him.
Moses ended up living with Jethro and ended up marrying one of Jethro's daughters, Zipporah. The couple had a son, Gershom, and resided the next 40 years in the Sinai area with the Midians, who were know as nomadic roamers.
Back in the days of Abraham, after Isaac's birth and the death of Abraham's wife, Sarah, Abraham had other children. One was named Midian. Both Midian and Abraham's first illegitimate son, Ishmael were sent away to the east. Gen. 25:1-6. Later, in the story of Joseph, the term Ishmaelites and Midians are used interchangeably as the desert nomadics who were passing by and bought Joseph into slavery from Joseph's brothers and later sold Joseph in Egypt. Gen. 37:25-36.
At the end of the second chapter of Exodus, we are told that while Moses resided with his wife and new son n the Midian area, over the course of time (about another 40 years) the then current king of Egypt died. The Israelites cried out to their God about the tremendous bondage of the Hebrew people in Egypt. Exodus 2:23.
"God heard their groanings, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them." Exodus 2:24-25.