Chapter 5: Forty Years of Silence

Moses fled east from Egypt, across the desert, to the land of Midian, hundreds of miles from the palace where he was raised. He sat down by a well. (Exodus 2:15)

The priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to the well to draw water for their father's flock. But shepherds came and drove them away. Moses stood up, helped them, and watered their flock. (Exodus 2:16-17)

When the daughters returned home to their father Reuel, he noticed something.

REUEL“How is it that you have come home so soon today?”— Exodus 2:18

REUEL'S DAUGHTERS“An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and he even drew water for us and watered the flock.”— Exodus 2:19

REUEL“Then where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.”— Exodus 2:20

Moses was content to stay with Reuel, also known as Jethro. He married his daughter Zipporah, and she gave him a son. He named the boy Gershom, which sounds like the Hebrew word for "a stranger there," because as Moses himself said:

MOSES“I have been a stranger in a foreign land.”— Exodus 2:22

Forty years passed. The prince of Egypt tended another man's sheep in the desert.

Then the king of Egypt died. And the people of Israel, crushed under their slavery, cried out for help. And God heard them. (Exodus 2:23-24)