COME AS A CHILD - LESSON 113 - IN DEFENSE OF SELF-DEFENSE

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

In the last blog we discussed the theory that Moses committed murder when he defended his fellow Hebrew and killed the Egyptian that was abusing him.  When you kill someone in self-defense, either for yourself or some other helpless victim, is it still considered to be murder?

This may seem to be getting “off track” with our original study, but I did promise that we would stop and revisit this passage and look at it again.  So many questions arise about Moses and his character.  Was this righteous anger? 

I was noticing how Moses hid the body of the Egyptian in the sand and was thinking of the passage in Genesis where Cain hid Abel’s body in the dirt of the earth and his blood cried out to God.   I hear nothing in this passage about the Egyptian’s body crying out to God.  Did God see the killing of this Egyptian different from the way he saw the killing of Abel? 

The obvious answer is that Abel was an innocent victim who was murdered in cold blood.  The blood of life calls out when the innocent are murdered.  The Egyptian was obviously guilty of horrendous sin against a Hebrew; there was nothing innocent about the Egyptian who had actually probably intended murder himself.  He was not a victim at all.  His decision to act the way he did brought him to his end.  We live and die by the choices we make.
   

How would God have been feeling about what Moses did?  Obviously, only God could tell us, and He doesn’t!  Usually when God doesn’t give us direct answers it is because He wants us to seek out the answers.  We can attempt to do that here.  You may come up with more answers than I do.  I would love to hear about them.

Other questions also arise from this scene that seems to demand answers.   If what Moses did was right, then why did he look to the right and the left to see if there were witnesses before committing the act?  What gives here?

When the ancient rabbis could not answer such questions they chose the wisest among them and asked him to study Torah, history and culture and to write down his theory of what may have happened.  These thoughts went into the Midrash.  

The key words to remember about the Midrash comments are those words “may have happened.”  There is no proof of what we read in the Midrash; it is simply full of wise opinions and the suggestions of wise old men, and the Midrash is not known as the exact inspired words of God; but it is the exact inspired words of wise godly men.   There is a huge difference between the two!  

The Midrash is said to “fill in the blanks” of the Torah.  That doesn’t necessarily mean it makes ALL of our interpretations of all of those blanks accurate.  One must read with discernment and prayerfully make their own decision about accuracy.  The Midrash is simply designed to make you think beyond your normal capacity for thinking on a subject.  Some of the stories are VERY accurate and yet, some are only the imaginations and theories of wise old men.  Some of these wise old men’s stories can be proved out (many actually) but some of them are more like fables and legends. 

The Midrash fills in a few blanks by suggesting that the man who was being harmed by the Egyptian had come to Moses seeking help and defense because the Egyptian had been coming to his house and rapeing his wife right in front of him.   He needed someone with strong authority to handle the situation since he was a slave; and he was desperately coming to Moses for help knowing that Moses was actually born a Hebrew.   This seems to be one rabbi’s version of the rest of the story.   So should we trust what the Midrash tells us?  The actual Torah scriptures leave us and the problem at hand in a very vague place, with little proof to the reader.  When this happens we simply have to keep looking at the facts that we know are sure.

The inspired scriptures state that an Egyptian was harming a Hebrew slave, and that is about all we really have to go on in the passage. 

In his book called "The Purpose Driven Life" Rick Warren called Moses a murderer.  So why would Rick Warren be qualified to give the correct answer anymore than the rabbi who wrote the story in the Midrash?  Let’s face it; he isn’t qualified.  He sure stirred up a lot of animosity against Moses though! 

Christian interpretations, just like Jewish commentators often make mistakes in interpreting passages of the scriptures.  There are a lot of unexplored questions here regarding what was legal and moral in the days of Moses living in Egypt. 

If you look at this scene from the viewpoint of our modern day laws you will find that an individual has the right to use force, including deadly force if reasonable, in self defense.  We know that Moses was actually acting in the self-defense of another, but our laws for self-defense today seem to be stating if a person is in a place he has a right to be in, is not engaged in criminal activity,  and has a reasonable belief that he is in imminent danger of death or great bodily harm, he can defend himself.   The defender must not be the one who initiated the aggression, but he has the right to defend himself once the other person does the agressing.

None of the above explanation of modern day law would apply to this situation with Moses though, because Moses was not the actual person being attacked.  The victim was either the Hebrew slave, or a member of his family.  If you believe the logic of the Midrash it was both; if you are going strictly on the basic Torah scripture;  it was only the Hebrew slave.  For the sake of accuracy, we will only look at the inspired scriptures.   

In our modern laws when it comes to a person coming to the aid of another person in danger, the third party person has the right to use force, including deadly force if reasonable, if the person to whom they are providing aid has the legal right to use force in self-defense.  This means that in a court of law today, most likely Moses would NOT be declared a murderer.  (I pause to proclaim that I am not an attorney, but from what I’ve read of the law, this would be true.)

Our times however are drastically different from the times of Moses.  Our laws bear no resemblance to the laws of the land of Egypt during the reign of the Pharaohs. 

Think back to all the reasons Moses happened to be in the palace in the first place.  It was because the highest ruler in the country had ordered the murder of innocent children in the course of an otherwise regular day!  In Egypt at that time,  whatever the Pharaoh proclaimed immediately became the law of the land.  

It would seem that there were no set laws against murder in Egypt, because the Pharaoh himself  had ordered murders right and left all day long every day, whenever he felt the whim.  It goes even beyond that though.  If you were a slave, you had no rights.  Your life really did not matter to the Egyptians.  The life of a Hebrew was considered cheap and unnecessary.  There was a cast system that judged people according to their race and nationality.  Pharaoh wanted the Egyptians gone from the land of Egypt.   It had been his plan all along to kill them off through cruel harsh slavery; but the Israelites had been too hearty a people.  They were stronger than anyone had ever imagined.  For some reason they stayed healthy under all kinds of horrific circumstances.  We know that God was looking out for them and providing for them in their dire circumstances.  He might have been hiding behind the lattice work, but He was still there with them.

Immediately following the day Moses defended the Hebrew from the Egyptian at the cost of being proclaimed a murderer, there was another confrontation; this time between two Hebrews.   Again, Moses interceded and restrained one man from hurting or killing the other, only this time, Moses did not have to kill in order to achieve his goal.  

It is obvious that Moses was convinced that self-defense was a good thing.  He practiced this belief for two days in a row.  He did not kill for the sake of killing, but only when there was no other answer in the course of self-defense.  Moses believed in justice.  Not just justice for his own kind, but justice for ALL of mankind.  Justice allows self-defense and does not label it murder. 

Someone else who walked the earth long after Moses also believed in justice for all mankind.  In Luke 4:18 it was Jesus Christ who proclaimed:  "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free."

Everything has a reason and every action has a purpose.  Moses was laying the ground work for the greatest deliverance of all times.  Moses would lay the foundation and Jesus Christ would make that building of living stones come alive!

The God who does not approve of murder strongly does approve of deliverance.   So it was that Moses, the first living example of a good citizen, carried out justice twice in two days.  The justice that Moses used did not answer to Pharaoh; it answered to God. 

If the laws of the land had been just, Moses would not have been so troubled, but they were not just.  The laws of Egypt were based on pagan ways and principles totally opposed to God's ways.  In spite of growing up in the palace, Moses had been taught God’s ways and principles by his original Mother and Father.  He obviously had stayed in touch with his Hebrew family, since we are told at the beginning of the chapter that he went out to see how his “brethren” were getting along. 

So…. Was Moses justified in using deadly force against the Egyptian on the first day? 

Some people seem bothered by the fact that Moses looked both ways before killing the man.  They seem to think this act implied guilt, but does it?  

We have already mentioned that the laws of the land were unjust. Moses could have been looking to see if any other Egyptian might possibly come to the aid of the Hebrew.  Perhaps he assumed or hoped that SOME of the other taskmasters might be merciful and fair?  This act alone would not be proof of guilt. 

Also the fact that Moses hid the body would make you think these were the actions of someone who had done wrong, otherwise, why hide anything?  I have to admit that was the part that bothered me!  I immediately thought of the guilt of Cain.  Moses, however; wasn’t like Cain.  He was defending an innocent person who needed help.  Moses was God's answer for that person on that day.  Cain plotted and planned the murder of his innocent brother out of jealousy.  Moses’ motives and Cain’s motives were diametrically opposed to each other.  They were distintly different.  One motive is pure and kind, one motive is sinful and hateful. 

Do either of the above two actions many give as proof really matter though?  Neither are able to prove whether the actions were right or wrong.  They DO speak loudly of the times and the corrupt laws that Moses was living under in Egypt.  

In that place and in those times one did not necessarily have to worry about whether what one did was right or wrong; only that it would be pleasing to Pharaoh.  Everything HAD to be politically correct.   Moses knew the answer to that question in his case.  Pharaoh wanted the Israelites dead.  He would not be happy with what Moses had done. It was probably very hard to find taskmasters so willing to kill millions without reason.  Moses had committed the ultimate politically incorrect act of his times; he had defied Pharaoh’s wishes and thwarted part of Pharaoh’s carefully plotted schemes.
 

Moses was totally correct in his thinking!  As soon as he found out what had happened; Pharaoh ordered the death of Moses. 

So what does an unjustly accused man living in a land full of unjust laws do?  He doesn’t hang around to see who might accidently grant him favor.  Moses got out of Egypt, and who could blame him?
 

Because Pharaoh said Moses was guilty of murder did not make it true.
 

Moses was only guilty of self-defense.
 

Self-defense is not a sin in the eyes of God.  

God’s laws (which were written down much later) actually hold up and condone self-defense.  Moses killing the man in self-defense was not at all the same as Cain murdering Abel.
 

If only the courts of America today could see this!  It is almost like we are again being ruled by Pharaoh in a land where a man is not allowed the freedom to defend himself.  Just like Moses, God has plans for us; but just like Moses; God is going to have to teach us more of his ways first. 

Moses may have already known that God intended for him to free his people; but he was not yet ready.  Everything must be done in accordance with God’s timing. 

There were lessons to learn in Midian that would help to change the world.  It was going to take about 40 more years to learn them.  

Another forty years for Moses; and how many will it take for us?