The Black Family who Adopted Moses -- By: Richard Kroeger
Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 01:2 (May 1987)
Article: The Black Family who Adopted Moses
Author: Richard Kroeger
The Black Family who Adopted Moses
There are many great blacks who have influenced our spiritual heritage. We find them both in and out of the Bible. We should like to tell you the story of the priests family who took in Moses in his hour of desperation. We know that there are some problems, some different names given in the texts, but our purpose is to nourish our souls rather than to look for difficulties. Let us rather see the story with the eyes of faith. First Corinthians 10:1-11 tells us that the adventures of the children of Israel in the wilderness happened as spiritual examples for us. Certainly the family about which we are talking had much for all of us to emulate.
Moses in his younger years was not exactly an admirable character. He was apparently convinced that he was always in the right and should defend his position with aggression. He believed in solving problems by resorting to brute force. His first recorded effort to bring about a new social order ended in a murder. His attempt to be an arbitrator among his own people culminated in rejection and repudiation. The death-sentence decreed upon him by Pharoah propelled him into a wild fight in order to save his own life.”
His endurance must have been taxed to the utmost as he fled the fertile land of Egypt for the barren and inhospitable desert. Undoubtedly his military training had given him some sort of navigational skill which led him at last to a well in the land of Midian. Water was his first and most desperate need.
It is here that the family of Jethro first enters the story. The priest has seven daughters who herd the sheep, and they come to the well to water their flock. But water is a precious commodity in the desert, and soon the girls are driven away by rapacious shepherds who demand drink for their own flocks. They have reckoned without the stranger who stands beside me well and watches all that takes place.
Spurred again by his sense of social justice, Moses fought this time for women’s rights and trounced the sturdy denizens of the desert. He was one against many, but an Egyptian noble knew how to fight His temper, military training and formidable strength proved more than a match against the ruffians. Once more he had shown himself to be a man of violence.
He was capable of kindliness, however, and willingly bent his back to the task of hauling up water for the whole flock. The young women sped home to their astonished father, who inquired how they had managed to get back from the well so soon. They answered that an Egyptian had driven away the highhanded shepherds and helped them to draw water both for the household and the flock.
The father is horrified that...
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