The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?”

The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?”

- from Exodus 2:13-14

Yesterday’s passage told of how Moses killed an Egyptian. Today’s shows the rest of the episode. Moses took a risk to help his people, but they rejected him.

If you pay close attention to the text, you can see a sharp barb in the Hebrew man’s response to Moses. Moses interrupted a fight between two Hebrew men, chiding one for hitting the other and appealing to their bonds as “fellow Hebrews.” When the man pushed back, he reminded Moses the murder he had committed the day before.

But the barb wasn’t just that Moses was a murderer. It was that Moses critiqued a Hebrew for hitting a Hebrew when Moses – living the life of an Egyptian – killed an Egyptian. Implicit in the pushback that Moses received was a rejection: “You’re not one of us. You’re not part of our family. We don’t want you.”

Rejection always stings. But it is a deeper thing to be rejected by someone close to you. We can shake off being ignored by kids at school much easier than being ignored by a parent or a child or a spouse.

This deep wounding would haunt Moses for the rest of his life. He almost rejected God’s call on his life because he feared rejection (see Exodus 3-4). He felt overwhelmed in his leadership when the people pushed back against him in the desert. He behaved at times in immature and unhealthy ways in order to be accepted.

But Moses walked with God even into the sting of rejection. God’s presence with Moses gave him courage to risk rejection and healing from its hurt.

Where have you experienced the pain of rejection? How has that influenced your life and service and leadership? How has God healed that hurt for you? Where do you still need healing?