READING: Exodus 1-3, Matthew 14:1-21
“Looking all around and seeing no one, he struck the Egyptian dead and hid him in the sand.”
Exodus 2:12
It’s funny to me how much we say we understand that God sees everything – affirming that we can hide nothing from Him – but then live otherwise. I have never heard a believer suggest that things are somehow hidden from God, but I have seen believers live in seemingly hidden sin for far too long. The same leaders who say that nothing can be hidden hold on to their sin, hoping that their choices will never come to light. Facing temptations that pound at their soul, they choose to give in.
Even as they make that choice, though, they work hard to make sure no one knows about it. They often spend more time hiding the sin than they do in the actual sin itself. Here’s the issue, however: seldom do our wrong choices remain hidden.
Moses learned that lesson the hard way. Seeing an Egyptian beating one of his fellow Hebrews, he defended the Hebrew by beating the Egyptian to death. He had been raised in Pharaoh’s house, but he had clearly identified more with his people; he could not sit still and watch this Egyptian beat a Hebrew. The one who would be their deliverer already had turned his heart to them, and his zeal on their behalf was obvious.
When Moses defended the Hebrew, though, he also looked all around to make sure nobody was looking. Then, he killed the Egyptian and “hid him in the sand” (Exo. 2:12). Moses apparently thought about the act enough to try to get away it, and he then sought to hide the evidence. Surely he was surprised the next day when he intervened in another fight, only to hear a Hebrew ask him, “Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” (Gen. 2:15). Apparently, his looking both ways and his burying the body didn’t prevent somebody from seeing what he did.
That’s a reminder for all of us: somebody’s always watching us. If it’s not other people, it’s God. We are wise to live accordingly.
ACTION STEPS:
- Forget about trying to hide anything today.
- Assume that somebody you love is watching everything you do, and make righteous choices.
PRAYER: “God, stop me in my tracks if I choose to ‘look this way and that’ to make sure no one is seeing what I’'m doing.”
TOMORROW'S READING: Exodus 4-6, Matthew 14:22-36