And Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah. She gave birth to a son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.”
During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.
Exodus 2:21-25
These are two further points to note as we come to the end of the chapter. It is surely of practical significance and relevance that it was when Moses was content to submit himself to divine providence at work in his life that God gave him his partner in life. There is a true and important precept to be learned from this. It is that happiness, in many things and in other departments of life, too, than this, comes upon us and to us only when something greater than personal happiness is allowed to become the supreme goal in life. Many Christians have never had the courage to allow God to choose for them their highest and truest happiness. The second point concerns 'the process of time' (23) or, as it might be rendered, 'the course of these many days'. The reference is to the fullness of the time from the point of view of the divine action. It does not mean that the death of Pharaoh was the signal for God to begin to work, as if He had to wait for Pharaoh's demise before He could act. But it may well be that Moses did so much harm by his ill-considered and hasty intervention (11-15) that he made it impossible for himself to go back as his people's deliverer to Egypt. We so often delay God's purposes for our lives, and set the clock back, by our foolishness and un-wisdom. There is need for prudence in the work of God, to save us from causing any unnecessary reproach. It all has to be lived down, and that often takes time!