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Two elements in the deliverer’s preparation are stressed: his miraculous preservation (vv.1-10), and his initial failure (vv.11-25). God’s means of preparation are beautifully ironic: the very person who had decreed the destruction of the people of God would become the grandfather of their deliverer; the resources of the oppressing power would be used to raise and train the one who would break that power. How characteristic of God’s grace it is that not only is Jochebed’s (6:20) baby given back to her, but she is paid to do what she would gladly have done for nothing (v.9). The name Moses also has an Egyptian etymology that means “given birth.”
Here (vv.11-25) Moses seeks to deliver his people in his own strength without incurring any responsibility (v.12). This is not God’s way. Not only does it fail to reveal God, which is essential to any genuine salvation, it also relies solely on destruction of the human oppressor through human ability. Thus Moses' effort is a classic example of human effort to do God’s work, which the Greek text speaks of as “the flesh” (Jn 6:63; Ro 8:5, NIV “sinful nature”; 2Co 1:12, NIV “worldly”).
At least Moses could deliver some shepherdesses from their marauding cohorts (vv.16-20). Perhaps he believed this would be the extent of his future labors. Midian proper is located east of the Sinai peninsula on the western edge of the Arabian peninsula. Evidently at this time its territory also extended into Sinai (3:1).
The account of preparation closes by identifying the true source of hope for all the oppressed of earth (vv.24-25). It is not in a failed man, but in a God who hears and sees, who remembers his commitments and is moved by a caring heart (see also 3:7-9).