Good Morning.
When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian; and he sat down by a well. (Exodus 2:15)
While there is no record of a verbal rebuke from God over the murder of the Egyptian, it would appear that, as a consequence, he was forced to flee into the wilderness. Moses was obviously a passionate man and acted on those passions from time to time. Many years later, in a fit of anger, he struck the rock when he was supposed to have spoken to it and that one lapse of judgement prevented him from going into Canaan.
When we act out of anger, it almost always leads to an unfortunate outcome. I can’t remember one time that after acting out in anger I later considered my decision to be a wise one. As for Moses, he had to exist in the wilderness which, in part at least, served to temper his passion and zeal with wisdom and discretion. It could be likened to Joseph’s story in that Joseph’s youthful immaturity had to be tempered in Potiphar’s prison.
All of us, from time to time, will find ourselves in the “wilderness” or even in “prison” so that we may learn this valuable lesson. Passion and zeal are good qualities to have; even anger is necessary occasionally as long as these emotions are tempered with wisdom and discretion. Like Paul said, “Be angry, and do not sin” (Ephesians 4:26). For Moses to learn this was critical considering that he was to lead the children of Israel through the wilderness for a number of years. For you and I it is a requirement if we are going to faithfully represent our Messiah to the world.
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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