Exodus 18:1-13 When Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father in law, heard of all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel his people… When Jethro "heard of all that God had done for Moses," - a hint that the news of the great events of the past few weeks had spread far and wide through the Sinaitic peninsula, - and when he learned that the Israelites were encamped at the Mount of God, within reachable distance of the Midianitish settlement (cf. Exodus 3:1), he at once resolved on paying his former friend, who had so suddenly blazed into an unexpected greatness, a personal visit. He came, accordingly, accompanied by Moses' wife and two sons. I. JETHRO'S COMING (vers. 1-7). This visit of Jethro to Moses may be considered with reference to the following particulars. He came - 1. Cordially recognising the honour which God had put on Moses (ver. 1). Moses had stood to Jethro for years in a relation of dependence. He had kept the priest's flocks (Exodus 3:1). Yet Jethro was not offended or made envious by this sudden greatness which had fallen to the lot of his old associate. The proverb was for once falsified that "a prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house" (Matthew 13:5-7), for Jethro heartily acknowledged and rejoiced in all that the Lord had done for Moses and for Israel. It might have been otherwise. He might, like the Nazarenes in their slighting of Christ, have asked - "Was not this my shepherd? Is not his wife called Zipporah? and his sons, Gershom and Eliezer, are they not with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?" But a far different spirit possessed him. In this, Jethro showed his freedom from a very common littleness of nature. 2. As an act of personal friendship. A large part of the joy of life springs from friendship. We see friendship at its best in the case of those who are thrown much into each other's society, and who cherish for each other, under the conditions which most of all reveal and test character, a cordial respect and esteem. "Friendship," says Cicero, "is nothing else than a perfect concurrence on all subjects Divine and human, accompanied by a feeling of kindness and attachment, and I am not sure that any better boon than this, with the exception of wisdom, could be conferred on man by the immortal Gods." The bond of attachment thus created between good men makes association a pleasure, and, of necessity, causes pain at parting. While separation lasts, longings do not cease to be felt for a renewal of the prized intercourse, and when, after years of severance, an opening for such renewal of intercourse is presented, the opportunity is eagerly and joyfully embraced. Such friendship may be presumed, to have existed between Jethro and Moses. The two had lived in close intimacy for the space of forty years. According to the text, Moses was Jethro's son-in-law; according to the more probable view, his brother-in-law. Jethro, with his stores of practical wisdom, his desert courtesy, and his evidently sincere piety, was a man whom Moses would early learn to respect, and with whom he would find it pleasant and profitable to associate; and the Midi-anitish priest, in turn, would never weary of the companionship of Moses, whose learning was so ripe, whose spirit was so excellent, whose early life had been spent under such different conditions from his own, and who had consequently so much to tell, which he (Jethro) would delight to hear. This intercourse had been suddenly broken up by Moses' determination to return to Egypt (Exodus 4:18); but an opportunity now presented itself of renewing it, and of this Jethro gladly availed himself. 3. Desirous of hearing more perfectly of the wonderful works of God. This, as is apparent from the sequel (ver. 8), was another motive of Jethro's visit. He had come to be more fully and exactly instructed in the wonders which God had wrought "for Moses, and for Israel, his people" (ver. 1). Something of these "mighty acts" he had heard from current report, but what he had heard only whetted his appetite to hear more. It is the mark of the good man that he earnestly desires to grow in the knowledge of God and of his ways. 4. With the intention of restoring to Moses his wife and two sons (vers. 2-6). In taking this earliest opportunity of bringing Zipporah and her two sons to Moses, Jethro acted rightly. A wife's proper place is with her husband. Sons, again, in view of the special responsibility resting on the father in connection with their proper up-bringing, should be as much as possible under direct paternal influence. The kingdom of God, doubtless, is to be more to us than father, or mother, or wife, or child; and should its interests imperatively demand separation, this must be submitted to (Matthew 8:21, 22): but relationships are not thereby dissolved, and the active discharge of the duties connected with them should be resumed at the earliest opportunity. For the sake of Moses himself, reunion was desirable. He was not a man who spurned the joys of domestic existence, but, like Peter, led about a wife (cf. Numbers 12:1; 1 Corinthians 9:5). It would contribute to his happiness to have his family beside him. Attention is anew called to the significant names of his sons (vers. 3, 4). These noteworthy names would be perpetual reminders to Moses of the lessons of his stay in Midian. The one spoke of human weakness, the other of Divine aid. If the one embalmed the memory of his heart-loneliness in a strange land, the other told of how God had been his help even there. The one recalled trials, the other mercies. While in both was embodied a memorial of the heart-discipline, of the solitary communion with God, of the lonely days and nights of prayer, watching, and spiritual meditation, which had helped so largely during the forty years of that weary but precious exile, to make him the man he was. II. JETHRO AND MOSES (vers. 7-13). The visit here described is a model of brotherly and religious intercourse. Christians would do well to study and imitate it. Observe - 1. The courtesy of their greeting (ver. 7). The two men stood on a very different moral and intellectual level, but, in their exchanges of civility, Jethro is treated as the superior, and is received by Moses with every outward demonstration of respect. As on Jethro's side there is no trace of mortification or jealousy at finding Moses, once the keeper of his sheep, in so exalted a position, so, on the side of Moses now Israel's deliverer and leader, there is an utter absence of pride and hauteur, and a painstaking desire to put Jethro - a plain wilderness priest - as fully as possible at his ease. Everything is real. The greetings of the friends are unaffectedly cordial - their behaviour towards each other studiously polite. Lesson - the duty of courtesy. Courtesy is an essential part of what has been defined as the outward grace of life. "By the grace of life is meant all that embellishes, softens, and brightens our present existence. It is that which is to human life what the shape and bloom and odour are to the plant. The flower is not simply useful. It is pleasing. There is grace about it... . . The grace of life has its simplest manifestation in our external behaviour - in our manners. There is a joy to observed and observer in graceful motion and pleasant phrase Politeness is the science and art of the outward grace of life. It enunciates that strange code of salutations and farewells - those buffers which soften approach, and with a last gentle touch make parting easy. Under the fiction of giving information as to the weather, one spirit expresses to its fellow respect and continued friendship. That spirit, in turn, under the form of confirming the afore said meteorological intelligence, reciprocates the kindly feeling. In such queer fashion is human kindliness flashed from heart to heart." (Rev. David Burns.) 2. Their affectionate interest in each other's welfare. "They asked each other of their welfare" (ver. 7). Burdened as he was, almost beyond endurance, with "the cumbrance, and burden, and strife" (Deuteronomy 10:12) of the congregation, Moses could unbend to show his kindly interest in what was taking place in the quiet tents at Midian. This is a point of greatness. The greatest man is not he who occupies so serene an elevation of spirit, or whose mind is so engrossed with the duties of an exalted station, that he cannot stoop to share in, and, as occasion offers, to testify his sympathy with, the joys and sorrows of humbler people. No deficiency of this kind is seen in Moses - or in Jesus. It is well to cultivate the habit of putting ourselves in the place of others, however remote in station from ourselves, and of trying to feel a kindly interest in all that concerns them. This will prevent us from becoming self-absorbed and egoistic. Their lives, we should remember, are of as much importance to thegn as ours are to us, and the interest we show in them will be proportionately valued. A minister once wrote in his note-book: "Don't pretend an interest in the members of your congregation, but try to feel it." "Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love" (Romans 12:10). 3. The theme of their converse. "Moses told his father-in-law (brother-in-law) all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh, etc. (ver. 8). As under a former head we had a model meeting, so here we have a model conversation. Jethro and Moses conversed on the affairs of God's kingdom. No greater subject could have occupied their thoughts. It is the subject of deepest and most central interest in history - the grandest in its essential nature, the widest in its relations, the most momentous in its issues. All other movements in time are side issues as compared with this one. In considering it man passes out of sight, and the only question is, What hath God wrought! (Numbers 23:23). We renew this conversation of Jethro and Moses every time we "speak of the glory of (God's) kingdom and talk of (his) power" (Psalm 145:11). Cf. the conversation of Christian with Prudence, Piety, and Charity in the House Beautiful: - "Now the table was furnished with fat things, and wine that was well refined; and all their talk at the table was about the Lord of the Hill; as, namely, about what he had done, and wherefore he did what he did," etc. (Pilgrim's Progress.) Converse in heaven will turn on the same themes. Note - (1) It is profit able for Christians to exchange experiences as to the manner of the Lord's dealings with them. Few but can tell something of "the travail that has come upon them by the way, and how the Lord delivered them." (2) It is a mark of grace to feel an interest in what relates to God's work, and to the progress of his kingdom at home and abroad. This will show itself in a desire to read, hear, and converse on such subjects, and in the interest discovered, and zeal shown, in the general work of the Church, in special spiritual movements, in the success of missions, in spiritual operations in our own town and neighbourhood. (3) Some are called to more active service in God's work than others. There are those that fight the battle, and there are those who tarry at home and divide the spoil (Psalm 68:12). And those who have been personally engaged in God's work - especially those who have returned from the high places of the field (missionaries, etc.) - have always much to tell which it is of interest to hear, and which will enkindle our hearts with new ardour in the cause of the Gospel. We should seek the society of such, and take the opportunity of hearing them when they are to be heard, that we may be instructed and profited. What a thrilling history, e.g., is that of Christian missions, but what an additional interest it gives to its narrations when we hear the story from the lips of the men who have actually fought the battles! (4) Christian workers cannot converse together on the plans, methods, difficulties, conflicts, and successes of their work without being mutually helped and edified. 4. Jethro's joy in the relation (vers. 9-11). We are reminded of Barnabas, who, "when he came" to Antioch, "and had seen the grace of God, was glad For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith" (Acts 11:23). The history which Moses gave to Jethro - (1) Filled Jethro with joy; (2) Strengthened his faith in God - "Now i know that the Lord is greater than all gods" (ver. 11); (3) Incited him to praise - "And Jethro said, Blessed be the Lord," etc. (ver. 10). It will be observed how distinctly in ver. 11 Jethro seizes the point in the contest between Jehovah and Pharaoh, and draws the proper inference from it. God had chosen as a field for the display of his perfections a case in which all the pride and power of man were arrayed against him in a determined effort to resist, oppose, and make void his will, and he had demonstrated his supremacy by completely annihilating that opposition, and overwhelming the Egyptians, who embodied it, in the Red Sea. The army of Egypt was in some sense the country's pride and boast, so that (though the translation in ver. 11 is apparently incorrect) it was literally true that "in the thing wherein they dealt proudly" Jehovah was "above them." God exalts himself by discomfiting his enemies in what they deem their points of special strength. "Poor perfection which one sees an end of! yet such are all those things in this world which pass for perfections. David, in his time, had seen Goliath, the strongest, overcome; Asahel, the swiftest, overtaken; Ahithophel, the wisest, befooled; Absalom, the fairest, deformed" (M. Henry on Psalm 119:96). "It is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent" (1 Corinthians 1:19). 5. The sacrificial feast (ver. 16). We have here - (1) Friendship cemented by an act of worship; (2) Religious converse culminating in devotion; (3) A feast sanctified by the enjoyment of the Divine presence - "before God;" (4) A foreshadowing of the union of Jews and Gentiles in the fellowship of the church; (5) An instance of catholicity in worship. Moses did not scruple to join in sacrifice or to sit down at the same festival board with the Midianitish Jethro. The lesson is thus enunciated by Peter: "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him" (Acts 10:34, 35). - J.O. Parallel Verses KJV: When 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; |
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