When Moses fled Egypt after killing the Egyptian taskmaster, he fled east — across the Sinai Peninsula and into the land of Midian, in what is today northwestern Saudi Arabia, east of the Gulf of Aqaba. It was a journey of several hundred miles from the Nile Delta into one of the most desolate landscapes on earth. And it was in this desolation that God prepared the man who would lead the greatest deliverance in human history.
Midian was named for Midian, the fourth son of Abraham by Keturah, his wife after Sarah's death (Genesis 25:1–2). The Midianites were therefore distant relatives of Israel — a fact that makes both the hospitality Moses received from Jethro and the later conflict between Israel and Midian (Numbers 25, 31) more theologically charged. Jethro, described as "the priest of Midian," recognized the God of Israel and offered wise administrative counsel to Moses (Exodus 18) — suggesting that some knowledge of the God of Abraham had been preserved in Midianite tradition.
Moses spent forty years in Midian — one of three forty-year periods that structured his 120-year life: forty years in Egypt as a prince, forty years in Midian as a shepherd, forty years leading Israel in the wilderness. The forty years in Midian were years of humbling, formation, and waiting. The man who had tried to take matters into his own hands by killing the Egyptian had to learn that God's deliverance would come not through human force but through divine power. The burning bush — where God appeared in fire that consumed without destroying — was the turning point: the moment God revealed His name as "I AM THAT I AM" and commissioned Moses for the Exodus.
The precise location of the biblical Midian and Mount Sinai (Horeb) has been debated for centuries. Traditional Christian and Jewish tradition places Sinai in the southern Sinai Peninsula, but a growing body of scholarship — noting that Galatians 4:25 places "Mount Sinai in Arabia" — argues for a location in northwestern Saudi Arabia, in what was ancient Midian. The geographical information in Exodus, combined with Paul's explicit statement, makes the Arabian location a serious contender that deserves careful attention.