11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. 12 Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

The reference to “his own people” comes twice, so it is important. As is often said, ‘blood is thicker than water.’

Well, I seem to remember from Sunday School days the simple point being made about Moses, ‘But he didn’t look up!’

Leaders can be in the habit of looking “this way and that” but failing to truly look up. Like Moses, they maybe have a sense of destiny. They feel the call to lead, to do something. So they end up acting impulsively, on a whim, and in self-reliance. They try to do God’s work, but in their own way. They fight with worldly weapons (2 Cor.10). Prayer is an almost perfunctory item on a packed business agenda – perhaps the merest glance heavenward. They just hope God is okay with what they’re doing because they are going to do it anyway.

‘Truth will out.’ It did in Moses’ case. We may try to bury our sins, but ghost-like they emerge from the grave to haunt us. The only way we can give our misdemeanours a decent burial is through confession and repentance before God, and trusting in Jesus’ blood for forgiveness. Then we can have peaceful consciences. But even so, we can’t always evade the consequences – even of forgiven sin.

‘Moses had a splendid education (Acts 7:22), but he was lacking in faith. He fought the wrong enemy at the wrong time with the wrong weapon. When you start to look around and ask yourself “Is it safe?”…not “Is it right?” You have stopped living by faith. Sometimes God has to “set us aside” to teach us what we need to know – and to help us forget the way the world does things. Moses’ impulsive deed sent him to the back of the desert for forty years, just as his impulsive words would keep him out of the Promised Land (Num.20:9-13). An impatient spirit is a dangerous thing. Warren Wiersbe: With the Word’, p.49.

PRAYER: Lord God, as I consider the outlook, may I never lose sight of the up-look.