I don't know about you, but sometimes when I see injustice I want to be or can be very reactionary in my responses. I can move too quickly or speak too quickly and cause more harm than good.
In today's narrative, I see three types of justice occurring and as I watch them unfold, I see Moses maturing. I have never thought of this narrative this way before, but it is almost as if his maturity is being chronicled and condensed down to these three incidents.
The three types of justice I observed are...
1. Moses's response to justice. He is impulsive, reactionary, passionate, and irrational at first. He runs because his actions are wrong. It would have been better if he stayed to chase evil away.
2. Ruel's response to justice given to his daughters was welcoming, hospitable, and generous.
3. God's response to justice was He sees, He hears, and He responds to the groaning of Israel's bondage.
All three see, hear, and respond. Yet, we see that Moses needs to mature in his response. We are given three separate accounts of how Moses responds to justice.
Notice that the first situation was he encountered abuse, he was impulsive, physical, and it ended poorly. He killed a man and hide what he did.
In the second situation, Moses was verbal as he encountered two men fighting and he used questions. When he was confronted with his own poor use of just judgment by killing, Moses ran and hid. His approach was better but his poor judgment before caused consequences.
In the third situation, we are not told what Moses did except that he ran off shepherds that prevented the women shepherds from feeding their flocks water. His actions were just enough that he did not run away! Also, the women told their dad and he welcomed him in and gave him a daughter as a wife. This time Moses reaped blessings so I am going to assume his justice leaned toward the side of goodness.
Because the narrative ends with noting that God sees, hears and responds to the cry for justice as Israel groaned, we can recognize that God longs for us to respond to justice, too.
As we reflect on Moses' three incidents, we can observe that there are mature ways to respond justly. Justice should bring blessing and what we say or do should enable us to stand firm and not run.
I realize I must slow down, be rational, ask questions, and then move with action. I should chase evil away rather than run because I did evil.
