A Midsummer's Reflection Series

Wednesday, June 3, 2026

Meditation 3: Exodus 2:20-21 

By the Seine, Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), Paris, May-July 1887

The end of Exodus 2 presents us with an example of hospitality in response to a good deed done by someone. Moses defended Reu’el’s daughters in the land of Midian when they were driven away by shepherds as they tried to water their flock. Moses then helped them get the water for which they searched. When Reu’el found out how Moses, a stranger from a foreign land (Egypt), had helped his daughters, his response was, “where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread” (2:20). 

Moses’ future father-in-law, Reu’el, had his daughters send for Moses and welcomed Moses into his home. In response to the kind deed Moses performed, defending his daughters and helping them water their flock, Reu’el wished to show kindness in return, by extending his hospitality to Moses.

Eventually, Moses would marry one of Reu’el’s daughters, but even before that, Exodus informs us that Moses “was content to dwell with the man” (2:21). These two brief verses provide us with a wonderful lesson of showing hospitality to those who do a kind deed for us. Love is repaid with love. Do we extend kindness and hospitality to those who go the extra mile to help us when we find ourselves in need?  

Loving Father, you teach us through so many examples in Sacred Scripture how to be hospitable to others and welcome them. Help us to remember to extend hospitality to those we meet along the way who are kind and helpful. Help others to see you in how we treat them with loving kindness. 

Dr. Jeffrey Morrow, Ph.D. is a professor of theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville and the Director of the St. Paul Studies Center at the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology. He spent 15 years as a professor of theology at Seton Hall University’s Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology. In his final year in that role, Dr. Morrow worked on the Preaching as Hospitality Formation Program, writing these reflections on Scripture through a lens of hospitality. 

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