AN ALIEN IN A FOREIGN LAND

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to faithhopegodlove@aol.com In Christ, Mark

"Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well. Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father's flock. Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock. When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, "Why have you returned so early today?" They answered, "An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock." "And where is he?" he asked his daughters. "Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat." Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, "I have become an alien in a foreign land." Exodus 2:15b-22

The word had gotten out. Moses had killed an Egyptian and Pharoah wanted an eye for an eye. He orders Moses to be killed and Moses is able to flee Egypt, finding refuge in Midian. As he sits down by a well, he has an encounter with seven daughters of a priest of Midian who had come to "draw water and fill the troughs to water their father's flock." While doing this, they are harassed by shepherds but we read that Moses "came to their rescue" and then even "watered the flock" for them.

The daughters return to their father and share what Moses had done. After hearing of Moses’ act of bravery, he asks, "And where is he?" he asked his daughters. "Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat." The father was obviously upset that his daughters had not expressed any gratitude for what Moses had done for them. He feels the least he could do is offer some hospitality in return for what Moses had done to protect his daughters.

So he invites Moses to join the family and he agrees. In fact, we read that Moses received far more than just a meal and a few night’s stay. For the priest gives Moses his daughter Zipporah in marriage and they in turn have a son who they name Gershom. All seemed like it was going fine for Moses but there was something wrong. We read at the end of the scripture passage that he felt like "an alien in a foreign land."

We get a sense that Moses really yearned to return to Egypt. Although he was staying in Midian, he was not a Midianite at heart. And although he had come from Egypt and the Midianite hosts believed he was an Egyptian, he wasn’t an Egyptian at heart either. For we know that Moses had a heart for his Hebrew brothers and sisters…the ones who were back in Egypt still under oppression and hardship. It had to be extremely hard for Moses to feel good about his relatively good and safe conditions when he knew of the suffering that was happening back where he had fled. And so his heart was unsettled.

Question: Have you ever felt as if you were an alien in a foreign land? Maybe you were forced into a change in your work…your relationship…your living arrangements…anything that took you into new and uncharted territory...anything that removed you from your comfort zone and moved you into a place that was unknown and made you feel unsettled…a place that left you alone and isolated…a place that left you uncertain of what the future held. Maybe you can relate to some of the feelings that Moses must have felt.

The good news is that we, like Moses will soon discover, serve a God who has a way of putting us where He wants us to be. Sometimes, this requires us to go to places where we might be an alien in a foreign land. After all, when we made the choice to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we became a new creation…what was in the past was gone and everything after our rebirth became new and blessed. We were no longer expected to be of the world, although we were in the world. In other words, we became aliens in a foreign land...disciple who now lived in a land of future eternal hope. For in Christ, we stand for principles and values that place us at war with the world and its sinfulness. And thus, we are on a quest through the Great Commission to help alienate others from their sinfulness and draw them into a righteous new existence with the Father and His Son.

So I ask again but now from a spiritual perspective as opposed to a worldly one: Are you an alien in a foreign land? In Christ, we’re supposed to be as we walk through this world seeking to make others alienated from it…drawing them into a relationship with the Savior who delivers them from death to life…from a dark world into a new land of light and hope and love…a land of eternal life through Christ Jesus.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

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