Continuing a chronological Bible study:
(Exodus 18:1) When Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses's 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; (2) Then Jethro, Moses’s father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses's wife, after he had sent her back,
Moses's father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, heard all that the Lord had done for Moses and the children of Israel, bringing them out of Egypt. He then took his daughter, Moses's wife, Zipporah, and went to meet him. It is not clear when Zipporah and Moses's sons returned to Midian to her father, but it may have been when they were on the way to Egypt from Midian, at the inn, when Zipporah took the sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son and cast it at Moses's feet (Exodus 4:25). That was the last we read of her until now. Perhaps she had been alarmed at the danger to which one of her sons had been exposed, and afraid of even worse, left Moses and returned to her father. Or perhaps Moses, foreseeing the troubles to which his wife and children were likely to be exposed had he taken them to Egypt, sent them back to his father-in-law until such time when God would deliver His people. Jethro, now finding that God had delivered them and destroyed their enemies, went to visit Moses and to bring his wife and sons back to him.
(3) And her two sons, of whom the name of one was Gershom, for he said, “I have been a stranger in a foreign land”; (4) And the name of the other was Eliezer, for he said, “The God of my father was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh”. (5) And Jethro, Moses's father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness, where he was encamped at the mountain of God.
Jethro, Moses's father-in-law, took Moses's wife, Zipporah, and his two sons with him. Gershom was Moses's firstborn son, as we read in Exodus 2:22, and his name literally meant "refugee"; he was born when Moses had fled to Midian to escape Pharaoh and was a stranger in that foreign land. Moses's second son was Eliezer, which literally meant "God of help" or "God is help"; he so named him because God was his help and delivered him from Pharaoh. Jethro came with Zipporah and her sons Gershom and Eliezer, to Moses in the wilderness where he camped at Mount Horeb.
(6) And he said to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her.” (7) And Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, bowed down, and kissed him; and they asked each other about their welfare, and they went into the tent.
Jethro obviously sent word to Moses when he was a way off that he was coming with Moses's wife and children. Moses went out to meet him, bowed out of respect to him, kissed him, and they each asked about how the other was doing, and then went inside the tent.
(8) And 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 on the way, and how the LORD had delivered them. (9) And Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which the LORD had done for Israel, whom He had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians.
Moses told Jethro about all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians in order to deliver Israel from their hands. He told him about all the hardships they had encountered in the wilderness, and how the Lord had delivered them out of each and every one. Jethro was very happy to hear of all the good things the Lord had done for Israel.
(10) And 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 who has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. (11) Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods, for in the thing in which they dealt proudly, He was above them.”
Jethro gave the glory to God for what He had done. Now Jethro knew that the Lord was greater than all the other gods. In all the ways they acted proudly, whether it was the way they enslaved the children of Israel, or the magicians who tried to mimic the Lord, or Pharaoh himself laying down the law, in all the ways they dealt proudly, the Lord was greater than the Egyptians and all their gods. It was Matthew Henry who pointed out in his Commentary on the Whole Bible, "While the Israelites were themselves murmuring, notwithstanding all God's goodness to them, here was a Midianite rejoicing." Jethro was a priest, a Midianite priest. What exactly did that mean with regard to his belief in the one true God? He was a godly man; that part seems obvious by his words and behavior. I don't believe Moses would have married the daughter of a pagan priest. Some say he was always a believer in the one true God, and this was just confirmation to him. Others believe he was at this time converted to the one true God. I believe it might be a little of both. Midian was a son of Abraham from his wife Keturah (Gen. 25:1-2). I have read that the Midianites worshiped a variety of gods, but as Abrahamic descendants, they would have had knowledge of the one true God. From scripture, we have to assume they had indeed turned away from the one true God as they were not included with God's children of Israel. Jethro, having knowledge of the one true God, and having now heard of His miraculous rescue and provision for His people, was convinced that this was the one true God, greater than all other gods he may have worshiped previously.
(12) And Jethro, Moses's 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's father-in-law before God.
I believe it may have been to confirm with a sign of his belief in the one true God, and his desire to worship and give glory to the Lord, that Jethro then gave a burnt offering and offered sacrifices to the Lord. Aaron and all the elders of Israel came to share and eat in the place of the offered sacrifices to the Lord.
(13) And it came to pass on the next day, that Moses sat to judge the people; and the people stood before Moses from morning until evening. (14) And when Moses's father-in-law saw all that he did for the people, he said, “What is this thing that you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit, and all the people stand by you from morning until 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 matter, they come to me, and I judge between one and another; and I make known the statutes of God and His laws.”
Even though his father-in-law had come for a visit, it appears that on the next day, Moses was back to work, apparently counseling the people, answering inquiries, and judging controversies between people. It appears to have been an unending task, as people were lined up before him from morning until evening. Jethro asked Moses about it, I think his point being why Moses "alone" sat and judged the people from morning until evening. Moses answered matter-of-factly that he did it because the people came to him. He realized that they saw that God worked through Moses and spoke to him, so they came to him to know the will of God; and I am sure Moses was happy to be a mediator between God and the people, happy that they trusted him to be led by God, and happy they sought their Lord's will. Additionally, when the people had a matter they could not solve, they came to Moses to judge between the parties, making known God's laws in each situation.
(17) And Moses's father-in-law said to him, “The thing that you do is not good. (18) You will surely wear away, both you, and this people that is with you; for this thing is too much for you; you are not able to perform it by yourself."
How many times do good people of integrity pile too much on themselves thinking it is their responsibility? Jethro, as the wise father-in-law, was teaching Moses to delegate! Sometimes it takes an outsider to see more clearly what is going on and what is needed. Jethro could see it was no good the way it was being done at present. Not that anything was morally wrong, but he could see how time consuming it was, and that Moses would wear himself out at that rate, and then wouldn't be any good to any of the people. The people's patience would probably wear thin having to wait in lines all day to hear what Moses had to say.
(19) “Listen now to my voice; I will give you counsel, and God will be with you: Stand before God for the people, so that you may bring the causes to God. (20) And you shall teach them ordinances and laws, and show them the way in which they must walk and the work they must do."
Jethro was a wise man and may have been given understanding and a solution to Moses's problem by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He had just confessed that the Lord was greatest of all, and had sacrificed to the Lord, and might well have received insights from the Holy Spirit, as he made it a point to tell Moses to listen to him, he would give him counsel, and God would be with him. Moses was to stand before God between God and the people as their mediator, which sounds like what he had been doing, but it would come to mean just the difficult cases would come before Moses. Moses would teach the people about God's ordinances and laws; then they would not have to bring every little thing to him. He would not just teach them legalism, but he would show them the way in which they should walk before the Lord, and the works they should do. He would teach them about their way of life as children of the Lord.
(21) “Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. (22) And let them judge the people at all seasons; and it shall be, that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they themselves shall judge. So it will be easier for you, for they will bear the burden with you. (23) If you do this thing, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all this people will also go to their place in peace.”
Additionally, Moses was to select men from all the people to be "rulers", as the scripture says, but their jobs appear to be judges; perhaps "wardens" or "overseers" or "managers" might be the preferred definitions of the word "sar". Although scripture doesn't say exactly how this was to work, I found this rather concise and sensible description of how it worked from the Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge by Canne, Browne, Blayney, Scott, and others: "Whatever matter the decarch, or ruler over ten, could not decide, went to the pentecontarch, or ruler of fifty, and thence by degrees to the hecatontarch, or ruler over a hundred, to the chiliarch, or ruler over a thousand, to Moses, and at length to God himself. Each magistrate had the care or inspection of only ten men; the decarch superintended ten private characters; the hecatontarch ten decarchs; and the chiliarch, ten hecatontarchs."
I love this description of how Moses was to select judges! They were to be men who feared God, men of truth, and unselfish men who hated covetousness, the idea being that they would do their work for God, and would never pervert justice for personal gain. Imagine if we selected judges by that criteria now! Our land wouldn't be filled with the blood of tens of millions of unborn babies, for one thing! The men Moses selected were to judge at all times, taking care of all the small matters, bringing to Moses only what was too difficult for them to judge. In this way, it would be easier on Moses, as he would have "lower court judges", so to speak, bearing some of the burden of judging the people with him. Jethro offered this good advice and plan, but was modest enough to leave the decision of whether or not to invoke it, to Moses under the direction of God. However, if he did follow this plan, Jethro added that Moses would be able to endure and continue helping the people, and the people would be able to go to their places in peace, having had their disputes handled in a much more timely manner.
(24) So Moses heeded the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said.
Knowing the nature of Moses, I am quite sure he did pray about the matter and receive confirmation from God, and did follow the advice of his father-in-law. Moses was not afraid to take the advice of an outsider or "inferior". John Wesley said it well, "Those are not so wise as they would be thought to be, who think themselves too wise to be counselled; for a wise man will hear, and will increase learning, and not slight good counsel, though given by an inferior."
(25) And 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. (26) And they judged the people at all seasons; the hard cases they brought to Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.
Moses indeed chose judges from among the people and made them heads of groups of people, and they judged the people's smaller matters at all times. Only the more difficult cases were brought to Moses.
(27) And Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went his way to his own land.
After that, Moses "let" his father-in-law leave. Perhaps he had been encouraging him to stay, as many of the commentaries I read point to a passage in Numbers believing it to be the same time as this, when Moses was doing just that. Perhaps he reluctantly allowed this wise counselor and aid to him to depart back to his own country. It does seem that Jethro now had, if not a new, definitely a renewed and enhanced knowledge of the Lord that he would now take back to his people in Midian. I am struck by this awesome example of how God often uses people to enact His will. God could have easily told Moses Himself how to set up this "judicial system". By using Jethro, someone who could have been considered Moses's inferior, Moses was helped by remaining humble and teachable. A "lesser" man could have certainly become terribly prideful by this time. God, in His mercy, was constantly teaching and refining Moses. In addition, think of all the good that could come from Jethro going back to his people to tell them of all that the Lord had done, and how he was convinced that He was the greatest of all gods. I always love watching a Godly plan come together!
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