"Who's That Guy!?"

"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 a foreigner in a foreign land.'"  Exodus 2:21-22

"Who's that guy?!"
 By Rev. William Dohle

We are spoiled in our world today!

Last night I had the chance to Skype to my family in Utah and show them the face of our new baby boy, Nicholas James.  It was quite an event, with my brother and his family, my sister and hers, and my parents all gazing at the cute baby on the screen.  Despite some lighting difficulties, all got to see the face of our new son "live" on screen.

Imagine if you couldn't do that, though.  Imagine if the ways we communicate, through the internet or over the telephone, or even through what we now call "snail mail" were all gone?  What if, after seeing someone leave,  you never saw or heard from them again until if and when they return?  And when they did return, they might look and think and even act like a foreigner, an outsider, a wanderer?

If you can wrap your head around that, if you can see yourself there, then you can possibly imagine what Moses' friends and family were all thinking upon his return.

Moses had, as you remember, disappeared.  He had run away from Egypt and escaped to live with the Midianites, another group of nomadic people living east.  Once there, Moses met and married Zipporah and, as married people do, the two of them had a son.

Moses never forgot where he was from.  He never forgot that he wasn't "from" Midian.  In fact, he names his son: "Gershom" which means, "Foreigner."

Moses never thinks he'll return though.  He hasn't seen that far ahead.  Not until God talks to him through a burning bush and he gets told to return.  Then, and only then, does Moses turn around and head back home.

Only Moses isn't returning like he left.  Movies like "Prince of Egypt" and "The Ten Commandments" fail to take this into account, but Moses is a very different guy when he returns.  Not only does he have a foreign wife and a new son to introduce everyone to, but he also has a mandate from God.  A message for Pharaoh.  Moses has been told to shake things up!

Before he leaves he has a strange encounter with God, where God is trying to kill him in the night and only by circumcising her son and touching it to Moses does Zipporah, his wife, save him.  It is a strange encounter, but one that illustrates the point.  Moses and his family are not from around here.  They don't even bear the mark of the covenant upon them.  Here comes an outsider and his family to bring deliverance to God's people.

Moses meets Aaron next and explains things to him.  You can only imagine what the two of them are thinking as they walk along the way and as they enter the tent with the elders of Israel.  Here he is, a foreigner.  An outsider.  A wanderer.  An Egyptian.  Adopted Son of the former Pharaoh.  Here he is a murderer with his outcast Midianite family here to bring God's Word.  Moses has nothing going for him.  What will they think?  What will they do?

But upon his return, after hearing of Moses and all his experiences and after hearing of God's deliverance, the elders of Israel bow down and worship.  They have accepted Moses.  Not because they recognize him or even accept him and his strange family.  But because the Word of God is with him.  They are grateful even for the familiar turned foreigner in their midst.  For the foreigner has brought good news of deliverance, and "lovely are the feet of those who bring good news."

Sometimes I think of how far removed I am from Moses and his experiences...until I look around me and realize that I live far from the land of my birth too.  I communicate with my family back home through the wonders of technology.  I am a foreigner here.  Without God and His Spirit, without His grace and mercy and his calling in my life, I would be lost.  I am here because of a call.  A call from God to serve his people in this place.  I did not hear God in a burning bush.  I heard him in my heart.  But he told me the same he told Moses.  "Go...and I will be with you."

Wherever the call of God takes you, whether it be to far away lands, as a literal foreigner there, or across the street or aisle to meet your neighbor in his own land, the promise given to Moses is the promise given to us today.  "I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."

God, you have called us to paths uncertain and ways yet untrodden.  Equip us that no matter how foreign we feel, we might step out in faith.  Amen.