CHAPTER 18

(1491 B.C.)

JETHRO

¹When Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel His people, and that the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt (in the Hebrew, father-in-law and brother-in-law present the same word; Reuel, Moses father-in-law was dead, and had been succeeded by Jethro, probably his son and, therefore, the brother-in-law, and not the father-in-law, of Moses);

²Then Jethro, Moses father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses wife, after he had sent her back (it is obvious from the account given in Chapter 4 that Moses sent his wife, Zipporah, along with their two sons, Eliezer and Gershom, back to her own kin folk, the Midianites, before he went to Egypt),

³And her two sons; of which the name of the one was Gershom; for he said, I have been an alien in a strange land:

⁴And the name of the other was Eliezer; for the God of my father, said he, was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh:

⁵And Jethro, Moses father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife (Moses sons and wife) unto Moses into the wilderness, where he encamped at the Mount of God (concerning the time factor of this visit by Jethro, Pink says that Exodus, Chapter 18 is a parenthesis, interrupting the chronological order of the Book, which the Holy Spirit intended to do; he went on to say that Exodus, Chapter 17 portrays Israel at Rephidim, and then, in Chapter 19, they are viewed at Sinai; so the incident recorded in Chapter 18 occurred just as Israel was about to leave Sinai and enter into the wilderness of Paran; it was in the third month after leaving Egypt that Israel reached the Mount of the Law; it was eleven months later that Jethro came to bring Moses wife and children):

⁶And he said unto Moses, I your father-in-law Jethro am come unto you, and your wife, and her two sons with her.

⁷And Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, and did obeisance, and kissed him; and they asked each other of their welfare; and they came into the tent.

⁸And Moses told his father-in-law all that the LORD had done unto Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israels sake, and all the travail that had come upon them by the way, and how the LORD delivered them.

⁹And Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which the LORD had done to Israel, whom He had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians.

¹⁰And Jethro said, Blessed be the LORD, Who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh, Who has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.

¹¹Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods: for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly He was above them (from this statement, it seems that Jethro, like most heathen, believed in a plurality of gods and, therefore, had regarded the God of Israel as merely one among many equals; now he renounces this creed, and emphatically declares his belief that Jehovah is above all other gods; however, even though he has now confessed Jehovah as greater, still, it seems that he clings to the belief that other gods existed).

¹²And Jethro, Moses father-in-law, took a Burnt Offering and Sacrifices for God: and Aaron came, and all the Elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses father-in-law before God (this Verse proclaims the fact that Moses knew and understood, as well as all the Elders of Israel, which he now relates to Jethro, that Israels might and power were all in the Blood of the Lamb).

MANS ADVICE

¹³And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to judge the people: and the people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening.

¹⁴And when Moses father-in-law saw all that he did to the people, he said, What is this thing that you do to the people? why do you sit alone, and all the people stand by you from morning unto evening? (Moses, for this particular time, succumbed to the temptation of the flesh, to rely on the weak arm of flesh. He listened to man instead of God. That problem persists with us even unto this hour.)

¹⁵And Moses said unto his father-in-law, Because the people come unto me to enquire of God (while the responsibility of Moses was immense, he was not asked to bear these people alone, for God was with him):

¹⁶When they have a matter, they come unto me; and I judge between one and another, and I do make them know the Statutes of God, and His Laws (it was God Who actually was bearing them; Moses was but the instrument; he might just as well have spoken of his rod as bearing the people; he was merely an instrument in Gods Hand, as the rod was in his).

¹⁷And Moses father-in-law said unto him, The thing that you do is not good (it is here the servants of Christ constantly fail; and the failure is all the more dangerous because it wears the appearance of humility).

¹⁸You will surely wear away, both you, and this people who is with you: for this thing is too heavy for you; you are not able to perform it yourself alone (if God has imposed the responsibility, He will surely do with the person what is necessary to sustain it).

¹⁹Hearken now unto my voice, I will give you counsel, and God shall be with you: Be the representative of the people to God, that you may bring the causes unto God (it is never the fruit of humility to depart from a Divinely-appointed post; on the contrary, the deepest humility will express itself by remaining there, which is simple dependence upon God):

²⁰And you shall teach them ordinances and laws, and shall show them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do (it is a sure evidence of being occupied with self when we shrink from Service on the ground of inability; God does not call us unto Service on the ground of our ability, but of His Own; the truth is, the advice given by Jethro was not of God).

²¹Moreover you shall provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens (the question is not of the advice offered by Jethro, whether good or bad, but rather that it came from the heart of man, and not from God; thats where the problem was; Moses was to look to the Lord for everything, which the Lord demands that we do presently; while I value the advice and counsel of my brother and sister in the Lord, it is the Holy Spirit Who guides me into all truth [Jn. 16:13-15]).

²²And let them judge the people at all seasons: and it shall be, that every great matter they shall bring unto you, but every small matter they shall judge: so shall it be easier for yourself, and they shall bear the burden with you. (Some may ask, Could not God use one such as Jethro to give advice and counsel? God can use anything; however, had He been using Jethro, He would first of all have related this to Moses.)

²³If you shall do this thing, and God command you so, then you shall be able to endure, and all this people shall also go to their place in peace.

²⁴So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father-in-law, and did all that he had said (in essence, Moses complained of the burden, and the burden was speedily removed; but with it the high honor of being allowed to carry it).

²⁵And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens (there was no fresh power introduced; it was the same Spirit, whether in one or in many; there was no more value or virtue in the flesh of many men than in the flesh of one man).

²⁶And they judged the people at all seasons: the hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.

²⁷And Moses let his father-in-law depart; and he went his way into his own land. (There was nothing in this wrong way of power gained, but a great deal in the way of dignity lost, by this movement on the part of Moses, as he listened to Jethro, instead of the Lord. There is a distinct possibility that the rebellion of Korah came out of these man-devised plans [Num., Chpt. 16].)