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The Story of Redemption
The Lord preserved Moses from being injured by the corrupting
influences around him. The principles of truth, received in his
youth from God-fearing parents, were never forgotten by him. And
when he most needed to be shielded from the corrupting influences
attending a life at court, then the lessons of his youth bore fruit. The
fear of God was before him. And so strong was his love for his
brethren, and so great was his respect for the Hebrew faith, that he
would not conceal his parentage for the honor of being an heir of the
royal family.
When Moses was forty years old, “he went out unto his brethren,
and looked on their burdens; and he spied an Egyptian smiting an
Hebrew, one of his brethren. And he looked this way and that way,
and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and
hid him in the sand. And when he went out the second day, behold,
two men of the Hebrews strove together: and he said to him that
did the wrong, Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow? And he said,
Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to
kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and said,
Surely this thing is known. Now when Pharaoh heard this thing he
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sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and
dwelt in the land of Midian.” The Lord directed his course, and he
found a home with Jethro, a man that worshiped God. He was a
shepherd, also priest of Midian. His daughters tended his flocks.
But Jethro’s flocks were soon placed under the care of Moses, who
married Jethro’s daughter and remained in Midian forty years.
Moses was too fast in slaying the Egyptian. He supposed that
the people of Israel understood that God’s special providence had
raised him up to deliver them. But God did not design to deliver
the children of Israel by warfare, as Moses thought, but by His own
mighty power, that the glory might be ascribed to Him alone. God
overruled the act of Moses in slaying the Egyptian to bring about
His purpose. He had in His providence brought Moses into the royal
family of Egypt, where he had received a thorough education; and
yet he was not prepared for God to entrust to him the great work
He had raised him up to accomplish. Moses could not immediately
leave the king’s court and the indulgences granted him as the king’s
grandson to perform the special work of God. He must have time to
obtain an experience and be educated in the school of adversity and