14 The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.”
Moses never thought what he had done would come out into the open. He had done everything he could in order to keep it a secret. He had checked to be sure no one else was around. He did the deed quietly. He hid the evidence. But, just one day later, it seems as though everyone knows that he murdered an Egyptian. And the news traveled that fast even without Twitter! My personal belief is that the Hebrew that was saved by Moses from the Egyptian told his story. He went home after the hard day and someone asked him, “How was your day?” And he couldn’t keep it a secret. He spilled the beans. The next day Moses sees some mistreatment, but this time it is between two Hebrews. When he tries to reason with the two, one of them throws Moses’ crime right in his face. He throws it in order to fend off the argument. He wants to continue abusing the other man. He wants to stay in a position of power, so he uses dirty tactics to accomplish his selfish ends. Do you ever use someone else’s faults as a weapon in order to avoid doing the right thing? Do you throw someone’s past in their face in the middle of an argument? Most people who do this, do so because they feel vulnerable. At that moment they feel like they must get the upper hand any way they can. Logic isn’t working (it rarely does in the middle of an argument), so they use dirt to blind the other person to their own faults. Lots of couples fight this way. They bring up the past again and again. Usually it is done by the person feeling unsafe or threatened at the moment. They are getting overwhelmed with emotion and need to find some way to get the other person to back away from the argument. That is when the past gets thrown. That is what happens to Moses. He is trying to help, but the one he wants to help doesn’t want help. Receiving help would require admitting wrongdoing, and he certainly doesn’t want to do that.
The Arnold Journey 