Midnight Quills

So, learning a new language is not going to be easy. Especially one that’s so remarkably different to English.

I learned French in High School, and I still remember a few little bits and pieces. I can count, and introduce myself, all those kinds of basics, and can, sometimes, follow the conversation if I’m watching something occurring in French on TV, but for the most part, it’s pretty much gone now.

In part, it may seem a little early to start learning the Kazakh language – but let’s be realistic, it takes a long time to master even just the basics. There’s a few reasons behind this, though, other than just making sure that I have time to learn as much of the language as possible before actually going over there. The main other reason, though, is simply focus. Not only will learning the language and going through lessons on a regular basis help me to learn, but it will help me to keep my focus.

See, I’ve mentioned before about my own self-discipline, how I tend to be very good at coming up with ideas, even starting them – but it’s the finishing them that tends to be the problem. Well, the more I have to focus on, the more disciplined I think I’ll be.

It’s not the only project underway, I’ve also set myself the goal to finish at least the first two chapters of one novel I’m working on by the end of September. That’s twelve days to write – probably around 10,000 words – which is doable. It’s not even a thousand words a day. In fact, it’s pretty much one of these blog posts every day!

So I’m doubling my writing requirements. I can do that.

Exodus 2:

So this is where we find Moses being born, his mother hides him and then when she can’t hide him any more, she puts him in a basket and floats him out on the Nile river with his sister to watch over him. Serendipitously, the person who finds him just happens to be Pharaoh’s daughter, who of course is able to look after him with special privilege. There are advantages to being part of the power of the land – her dad makes the rules, so he also gets to make the exceptions!

She names him Moses – which I find interesting, since it’s a Hebrew name.

Moses, though, is raised under the guardianship of his own mother, who is then responsible to hand him over to the Pharaoh’s daughter when he gets older.

There’s something that stands out to me throughout the first half of this chapter, and that is the apparent lack of solidity amongst the Israelites.

For Moses’ mother to actually feel the safest option for her baby is to hide him in a basket in the Nile, I wonder, why couldn’t she trust her own people?

Which isn’t to be totally unexpected. If Pharaoh had made the law that all baby boys should be killed, think about what would happen. Even with the best community hiding programs, eventually one baby would be found, and taken from its mother – her sadness leads to jealousy and anger, and thus she turns on her family or friends – no one can be trusted any more.

That’s a rather extreme example, and maybe not what happened, but the point I’m coming to is that the Israelites were under very heavy oppression and pressure, and their relationships seem to be beginning to show cracks. Not just in that Moses’ mother chose to brave the Nile river rather than rely on her friends and family to help her hide her baby. It’s also shown in the next section, where Moses, as a grown man, stands up for one of his people. He kills an Egyptian for beating a Hebrew man, and then the next day when he approaches two Hebrews fighting, they don’t see that he saved one of their people yesterday, they just see that he killed someone.

When we come under pressure, it’s hard to stay solid, it’s very easy to see fractures start to appear, not just in groups, but as individuals as well.

But remember one thing:

So God looked at the Israelites and was concerned about them. ~ Exodus 2:25

God has concern, he does care, he does hear the groaning and the cries for help.