Exodus 18

 

¹ Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel his people, how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. ² Now Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, had taken Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her home, ³ along with her two sons. The name of the one was Gershom (for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land”), ⁴ and the name of the other, Eliezer (for he said, “The God of my father was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh”). ⁵ Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness where he was encamped at the mountain of God. ⁶ And when he sent word to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her,” ⁷ Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. And they asked each other of their welfare and went into the tent. ⁸ Then Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardship that had come upon them in the way, and how the Lord had delivered them. ⁹ And Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the Lord had done to Israel, in that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians. ¹⁰ Jethro said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. ¹¹ Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people.” ¹² And Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and sacrifices to God; and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law before God. ¹³ The next day Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening. ¹⁴ When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning till evening?” ¹⁵ And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God; ¹⁶ when they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another, and I make them know the statutes of God and his laws.” ¹⁷ Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good. ¹⁸ You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. ¹⁹ Now obey my voice; I will give you advice, and God be with you! You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God, ²⁰ and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. ²¹ Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. ²² And let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. ²³ If you do this, God will direct you, you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace.” ²⁴ So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said. ²⁵ Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people, chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. ²⁶ And they judged the people at all times. Any hard case they brought to Moses, but any small matter they decided themselves. ²⁷ Then Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went away to his own country.

Philip Ryken has shared the story of the conversion of Edward Studd.

            One man who excelled at telling the gospel truth was Edward Studd, the father of C.T. Studd, the famous missionary to Africa.  Studd was a wealthy Englishman who led a life of ease and entertainment until suddenly he was converted by the preaching of D.L. Moody.  Edward’s sons were away at school at the time; so they didn’t know anything about what had happened to their father.  They were shocked when he arrived at Eton in the middle of the term and instead of taking them to the theater, as was his custom, took them to hear Moody preach.  C.T. Studd later said:

 

Before that time, I used to think that religion was a Sunday thing, like one’s Sunday clothes, to be put away on Monday morning.  We boys were brought up to go to church regularly, but, although we had a kind of religion, it didn’t amount to much…Then all at once I had the good fortune to meet a real live…Christian.  It was my own father.  But it did make one’s hair stand on end.  Everyone in the house had a dog’s life of it until they were converted.  I was not altogether pleased with him.  He used to come into my room at night and ask if I was converted.[i]

It is a powerful thing when the head of a home comes to know the Lord.  It tends to leave a marked impact on all who are in the family.  That was certainly the case with C.T. Studd and the conversion of his father.  Even though C.T. Studd would come to be more well known than his father, the conversion of his father was a seminal moment in his life.

Something along those same lines is happening in Exodus 18.  Moses is certainly more well known than his father-in-law Jethro, but here we are privileged to witness the conversion of Jethro and his ascendancy among the people of God to a position of leadership.  The chapter may be viewed in two parts:  first, Jethro’s entry into the family of God and, second, Jethro’s role in organizing the family of God.

Becoming part of the people of God

Moses had first met Jethro, the priest of Midian, after he saved his daughters from the threatening shepherds in Exodus 2.  Moses married Zipporah and she bore him two sons.  Then God called Moses back to Egypt to deliver His people.  What we have here, then, is a reunion.  Moses is being reunited with his wife, children, and father-in-law.

¹ Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel his people, how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. ² Now Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, had taken Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her home, ³ along with her two sons. The name of the one was Gershom (for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land”), ⁴ and the name of the other, Eliezer (for he said, “The God of my father was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh”). ⁵ Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness where he was encamped at the mountain of God. ⁶ And when he sent word to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her,” ⁷ Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. And they asked each other of their welfare and went into the tent. ⁸ Then Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardship that had come upon them in the way, and how the Lord had delivered them. ⁹ And Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the Lord had done to Israel, in that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians. ¹⁰ Jethro said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. ¹¹ Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people.” ¹² And Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and sacrifices to God; and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law before God.

Moses was understandably elated to see his wife, children, and father-in-law.  Less understandable to the modern reader is the immediate affection he shows to Jethro with no record of him showing affection to his wife.  Victor Hamilton has said of this:

But what about seeing Zipporah and the boys? I am sure that if I have seen neither my father-in-law nor my wife for a long time, I know which one I am going to kiss first! But that is a Westerner speaking. Middle Eastern cultures, both past and present, operate differently.[ii]

Hamilton is right in pointing to the differing times in which Moses lived, but likely what is happening here is simply a matter of spotlight.  That is, the spotlight needs to fall on Moses and Jethro at this point in order to show Jethro’s entry into the community of God and the role he would play in their strategic organization.  The story of Israel’s salvation is more focused on key developments than on assuaging the romantic curiosity of sentimental moderns like us.

What we see, then, is Jethro’s apparent conversion.  We will use the term “conversion” here, though the details of Jethro’s theology are not as exhaustively revealed as we would like.  The Anchor Bible Dictionary points out that some have attempted “to connect [Jethro’s] priesthood with a pre-Mosaic Yahweh cult whose beliefs and rituals were transferred to Moses and Aaron (Exodus 18).  This concept maintains that the Hebrew religion has Midianite roots.”  It then goes on, rightly, I believe, to reject this view as “doubtful” on the basis of our text, noting that Jethro seems to come to a confirmed belief in Yahweh only in Exodus 18 and that Jethro’s belief in Yahweh makes him “unique, for it is clear from other sources that generally the Midianites were idolaters (cf. Num 25:17-18; 31:16).”[iii]

What does seem to be abundantly clear is that when Jethro hears the tale of God’s deliverance of his people, he realizes and accepts that Yahweh God is the supreme God over all.

Terence Fretheim, while cautioning against forcing a conversionist template onto this scene, helpfully lists the telling steps in Exodus 18 that point to Jethro and his family’s assimilation into the people of God.

1. Jethro hears what God has done for Israel (v.1).

2. Jethro with Moses’ family visits the newly delivered community.

3. They go into the tent (sanctuary).

4. Moses declares the good news to Jethro…

5. Jethro rejoices over all the good that God has brought to Israel…

6. Jethro gives public thanks (=blesses) to God…

7. Jethro publicly confesses that Yahweh is God of gods and Lord of lords.

8. Jethro presents an offering to God…[iv]

It is tempting to make this a kind of template for conversion.  Moshe Reiss, writing for the Jewish Bible Quarterly, shows how many rabbinic commentators did just that.

The suggestion that Jethro was a convert has a threefold basis: the fact that he

blessed the Lord; that he made sacrifices and a burnt offering to God; and that he then participated in a festive meal, breaking bread with Aaron and the elders before God (Ex. l 8:1 0,12). The battle with Amalek (Ex. 17:8-16) that immediately precedes Jethro’s arrival apparently leads on to Exodus 18:1, Jethro…heard everything that God had done for Moses and for Israel. This fostered the rabbinic understanding that Jethro was inspired to convert after hearing about the defeat of Amalek (TB Zevahim 116a; Pesikta de-Rav Kahana, 3). In other midrashic sources, Jethro and his family spontaneously converted before ever meeting Moses. This explains why the shepherds in Midian disliked and oppressed Jethro’s daughters (Shemot Rabbah 1:32)…

 

…R. Berechiah explains that Jethro converted and then returned to Midian in order to convert the rest of the Kenites, who later came to live in Israel (Judg. 1:16). R. Berechiah’s pro-convert stance is attested by his statement that Israel’s merit can be ascertained from the number and quality of converts, “like Jethro, Rahab and Ruth” (Kohelet Rabbah 6:5). Going even further, R. Eleazar states that God told Moses:  “1 am He that brought Jethro near, not keeping him at a distance . . . some say that the Shekhinah went with him” (Mekhilta, Yitro).[v]

The only possible problem with this is Jethro’s statement in verse 11, “Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people.”  Does this mean that Jethro believed there are still other gods but they are not as powerful as Yahweh, or does this mean that Jethro now saw that there was only one God?  In other words, did Jethro convert to monotheism, did he reject the pagan deities for whom he was a priest, or did he simply come to see that the God of Israel was the most powerful of many gods?

It is hard to say, and it is not an unimportant question, but the answer to that question still does not negate the point that what we do see in Jethro’s behavior contains all the marks of true conversion:  he is drawn to God, he learns the good news of God’s amazing saving works, he rejoices at this good news, he embraces the Lord God as supreme, and he moves on to worship God.  Conversion is more than this (in the sense that it does indeed need to include belief that God alone is God), but it is not less than this.

It raises an interesting question.  Have our lives been similarly marked by these movements of faith:  coming, hearing, accepting, rejoicing, worshiping?  When you look at Jethro, do you see your own journey?  Of course, there are a thousand different ways we move from point to point, but these points should be there:  coming, hearing, accepting, rejoicing, worshiping.

Organization within the people of God

Having entered into the family of God, Jethro noticed something about his son-in-law’s leadership style that prompted him to offer some paternal advice.

¹³ The next day Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening. ¹⁴ When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning till evening?” ¹⁵ And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God; ¹⁶ when they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another, and I make them know the statutes of God and his laws.” ¹⁷ Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good. ¹⁸ You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. ¹⁹ Now obey my voice; I will give you advice, and God be with you! You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God, ²⁰ and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. ²¹ Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. ²² And let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. ²³ If you do this, God will direct you, you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace.” ²⁴ So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said. ²⁵ Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people, chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. ²⁶ And they judged the people at all times. Any hard case they brought to Moses, but any small matter they decided themselves. ²⁷ Then Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went away to his own country.

This may seem to be a matter of mere logistics, delegation, and organization, but notice that what was at stake ultimately was the survival of the leader of Israel and the people of God and their final entry into the land of promise:  “If you do this, God will direct you, you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace.”

Jethro’s entry into the community of Israel was therefore significant both for what it meant for Jethro and his own salvation and for Moses and his own survival.  Simply put, God brought the right man at the right time.

One cannot help but be struck by the humility of Moses in hearing and heeding the advice of his father-in-law.  Moses could have brushed him off with wounded pride or he could have asked self-righteously what exactly a new convert had to teach a champion like himself.  But Moses did neither.  He honored and heard and obeyed his father-in-law.  Perhaps he was so exhausted that he knew something had to change.  Perhaps he simply knew his father to be a wise man who was not to be lightly dismissed.  Either way, Moses did something that it is hard for leaders to do:  he humbled himself and listened.

As a result, the large congregation was strategically segmented into units that could be more manageably ministered to.  In the Church, this passage is occasionally appealed to as a kind of Old Testament forerunner of the New Testament office of deacon.  Indeed, the rationale for this organization we find in Exodus 18 is similar to that of Acts 6.

¹ Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. ² And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. ³ Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. ⁴ But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” ⁵ And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. ⁶ These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them. ⁷ And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

In both cases, organization and delegation are necessary so that the leaders of the congregation will not burn out and ultimately be of no use to God’s people and so that they can focus on their primary tasks.  Furthermore, it is interesting to compare the qualifications of Israel’s division heads with the qualifications of New Testament deacons.  In our text, Jethro called for a particular kind of man to be given leadership.

²¹ Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe

Similarly, Paul writes this in 1 Timothy 3:

⁸ Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. ⁹ They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. ¹⁰ And let them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless. ¹¹ Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. ¹² Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well. ¹³ For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.

This should not surprise us, these similarities, for the character of God does not change and His love for His people does not change and the marks of a useful servant of God does not change.  In both cases we see the providential care of God for His people:  His raising up of new leaders, His granting of humility to those leaders who have already been raised, His involvement of willing servants in the care of his people, His concern about the concerns of all His people, and His provision for His people on their journey home.