The Midian Well

The Midian Well

EXODUS CHAPTER 2 :11-25

INTRODUCTION

It’s strange some time how an obscure piece of scripture hidden away in an epic story such as this can come to the aid of a sad old sinner like me but I guess at that time, the most challenging time of my Christian walk, it helped me get back on the narrow path to Glory.

“One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his people were and watched them at hard labour. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Glancing this way and that and seeing no-one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.”

Moses had been caught out in his desperate attempt to hide a great sin. He had killed a man. Looking around to see if anyone had seen him He thought that he had got away with it so he buried the body in the sand and went about his business. How wrong he had been.

Attempt to cover up

One of the hardest things to do when we are caught up in sin is to bring it out into the open. We want to cover it up, hide it from our family and friends. Why?

That’s easy to answer.

We are so ashamed at what we have done and riddled with guilt all we want to do is hide it in the sand. We don’t want anyone to know. Just like Moses we glance this way and that hoping no-one as noticed our behaviour. We tell ourselves what the eye doesn’t see the heart does not grieve.

The truth is that when we are caught out we end up often in situations where integrity is hard to get back. Instead of truth we hide in a tangled web of deceit and a tissue of lies.

We often make excuses “The pressures of work etc, etc.” but up until that point we were caught out we were prepared to go on with it.

The World tells you that a little bit of what you fancy does you good. Sin feels good....Well for a time anyway. Then BANG your whole world comes tumbling down when the consequences of your actions become public knowledge. We know from experience the inescapable reminders of our guilt. The emotional entanglements brought about by the consequences of our own sin can be devastating that we become physically sick

Moses life was about to take a turn for the worst. The Prince of Egypt was about to have a major career change.

The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?”

The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us?” “Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought “What I have done must have become known.”

Confronting the Truth

The realisation that you have been caught out is the worst feeling in the world. It leaves you feeling absolutely sick and can make you extremely ill. Sin may feel good whilst we are engaged in it but the consequences of our actions are severe. Like Moses it can take a very long time to recover. He was about to set out on a very long and lonely road.

My sin was a common one. I had an affair. When I was found out it felt so wrong. I ended it immediately but like Moses the damage had already been done. There is nothing the Devil likes more than to split up families and I had become a victim. It was about to take me on my long and lonely road to recovery too.

The Midian well is set deep in the Sinai Desert, a dry, arid place under the watchful eye of the Mountain of God, Mount Sinai. It would have taken Moses a good while to have reached it. When you have time and space you do a lot of thinking and Moses would have been no different, I can imagine just how he felt has he journeyed towards his final resting place......Well for a while any way.

He would have been thinking about the past and weighing up his life. He would have been feeling very low and probably wandered aimlessly not knowing where he was going to end up. He would be thinking about all those people that he had hurt through his actions, enough to send any person into a time of deep depression. All his family and friends gone and only the whisper of the Enemy in his ear telling him what a waste of space and let down he was.

Those of us that have been there know that feeling all too well. Our mind becomes a battle field and we find it difficult to gain any foot holds on life. In fact we wish it had been us that had found their final resting place in that red sand of the Sinai. Like Moses though we move aimlessly deeper into the desert of despair but this is what God wants you to know (See I am doing a new thing now it springs up do you not perceive it? I am making away in the desert and streams in the waste land. Isaiah 43:19 )