Jethro, Moses' Father-in-Law

What you are doing is not good.

Well, it takes some nerve. For a father-in-law to address somebody as renowned. As Moses He sees a problem. And it is a problem. It's a very real problem.

But he doesn't just see the problem, he proposes a solution. Integrating families when there is a marriage can sometimes be challenging. It introduces father-in-laws, mother-in-laws, brother-and-sister-in-laws. New dynamics everywhere. But perhaps it would be even harder if upon your daughter marrying, You now became known by many not by your name, but simply as Moses' father-in-law.

Welcome to the Thursday edition of Renewing Your Mind as we conclude your preview of Derek Thomas' brand new series, Who Are They? lesser-known characters of the Bible. Don't forget to request complete access to all 12 messages, the study guide, and receive a Renewing Your Mind notebook when you donate before midnight tonight at renewingyourmind.org.

So let's call him by name, Jethro. And yes, he is the father-in-law of Moses. And he came to Moses with some helpful wisdom. Here's Dr. Thomas to tell his story.

Uh Well this study We'll look at Jethro. This is Moses his father-in-law. And I'm going to pick it up in Exodus 18. The story begins. Uh right at the very beginning of chapter 18, but I'm going to start reading.

From verse 18.

So Exodus 18 and verse 18. And this is Jethro speaking. 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.

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.

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. 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. 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'll be easier for you. and they will bear the burden with you. 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.

So Moses listened to the voice of his father in law, and did all that he had said.

Well, it sounds like the beginnings of Presbyterianism, but I'll come to that in a moment.

Now Um Jethro is described as uh the priest of Midian. He has other names, just like Paul and Saul and Peter and Cephas and so on. Um so he's called Ruel earlier on in chapter two. uh of uh Exodus. He's typically called Moses' Father-in-law.

It would be fairly annoying, I think, don't you think? that every time you're introduced to somebody, oh, this is Moses' father-in-law.

So my daughter keeps bumping into people. Uh she lives in Scotland. And she keeps bumping into people that that know me. And people will say, oh, this is Derek Thomas's daughter. Rather than say this is Ellen Lockington, this is Derek Thomas's.

Daughter. Yeah. And she finds it very annoying and uh it happens fairly frequently.

Now Moses has been raised of course in Egypt. Uh Stephen. Tells us in that sermon in Acts 7 that he preached just before he was stoned to death. That he was 40 years old when he fled to Midian. after killing the Egyptian.

Now if you look at a map, you've got Egypt, you've got part of the Red Sea on this side, and you've got like a triangle section of land, and then there's another part of the Red Sea on the right-hand side, and Midian is to the right of that. All to say, I love maps, and at some point you should consult a map. to look at where Midian is. And it's a long, long way from Egypt. Uh by foot.

So when he fled Egypt, he didn't just cross the border. He went as far as you could possibly get.

Now, roughly speaking, we are forty years later. Uh here in uh Exodus 18.

So Moses is uh eighty. Um He saw the burning bush and led his return to Egypt to lead God's people out of bondage, the Red Sea, the wilderness, the promised land, all of that. That's 40 years after he had fled from Egypt. And um In Exodus 18, the in Exodus 18, the Exodus. has happened.

And um You know, the ten plagues, the final destruction of the Egyptians in the Red Sea and Moses has returned to Jethro and he's now with his wife Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro.

Now the first thing I want us to see here is The salvation of Jethro. He's a priest of Midian. Uh It begins in the Sinai Peninsula, stretches toward what is today Saudi Arabia. Um Jethro's not a believer. Deity.

In verse 2 of chapter 18, Now, Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, had taken Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her home. And some commentators, rabbinic commentators, interpret this as a divorce. Um How, and I think that's incorrect, how Moses came to marry Zipporah, we don't know. We can learn that Moses from the names of his two sons. Uh tells a story.

He had two sons, Gersham and Eliezer. Gersham means. Uh a stranger there. He's in a strange land. And he's not talking about Egypt, he's actually talking about Midian.

Because he was raised from his early, earliest conscious memories would be Egypt. And he would have worn Egyptian clothes and spoken Egyptian and eaten Egyptian food and so on. A very, very, very different culture to Midian and certainly very different from his Jewish heritage.

So his first son he calls a stranger there. And the second son is called Eleazar. God is my helper. God is my helper. And that basically sums up Moses' life for 80 years.

I'm living in a strange land, but God has helped me. God has Provided God has protected me. What had God done? How would that story? Go.

They were slaves. Uh in a foreign land? God delivered them. By the Aid of a Saviour? A leader?

Into the wilderness? And then into the promised. Plant.

Well, isn't that your testimony? Uh it's a we're in a different context, but We were strangers. In a foreign land? God sent a Saviour, a deliverer. brought us through the wilderness and Into the promised.

Land.

so that we are heirs of God, and and join tears with Jesus Christ. This is redemption. In the time of Moses. This is the story of redemption in the time of Moses. You remember that in the Transfiguration Moses and Elijah appear on the mountain?

with Jesus. And you remember, perhaps in Luke's Gospel, we read that they talked to him about. His Exodus. That's the Greek word, exodus. That And it's a reference, of course, to the cross.

That the cross would be the means of delivering God's people out of bondage. and darkness. Moses no doubt remembered. Um how he himself had delivered the people through the Red Sea, the parting of the Red Sea and and into the wilderness and eventually to see by by prophetic Site. The deliverance of God's people into the promised land, though Moses himself, of course, would not be there.

Now In eighteen seven. Chapter eighteen and verse seven Moses went out to meet his father-in-law. and bowed down and kissed him, and they asked each other and their of their welfare and went into the tent. And Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake and all the hardship that had come upon them in the way and how the Lord had delivered them.

So so the Exodus has happened. He's telling Jethro the story. How long was it? How long did the ten plagues last? Commentators sort of differ.

Are we talking a couple of weeks or are we talking a couple of months? Probably the latter. Um there would would have been um A million, maybe two million. people, including wives and and and children, the the provision of manna uh in the wilderness. And now eventually Moses manages to make it all the way across to um Midian.

Yeah. He would have talked to his father-in-law about the burning bush and the significance of it and God giving to Moses his name, I am that I am, and and later shortened in Exodus 6 to I am Yahweh. I am that I am. And what had Moses done seeing all of the acts of sovereign, grace, powerful, effective hand of God. And that's that's our story.

And you can sense here how Moses is used in the New Testament. Uh as a type of Christ. He anticipates Christ. in the way that he delivers his people. By this time, in chapter 18 and verses 10 and 11, 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.

Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods. Because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with The people. And this is a testimony that somehow or other Jethro has become a believer. He was a priest of Midian. He was a representative of tribal deities.

But now he is a worshipper of God. He's a worshiper of Yahweh. He's a worshiper of Moses' God. He has seen God deliver. He's seen one of the mighty acts of God.

He's heard about it, the testimony about it, and he's become a true. Believe her. And in verse nine, we read, 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. He he has joy.

And he rejoices, and so on.

So the salvation of. of Jethro, this this priest of Midian.

Now secondly, I want us to see the contribution that Jethro makes, the contribution that Jethro makes. And that's from verse thirteen to the end of the chapter.

Now Ruling over two million people. I've just retired from a church where there are 3,000. Members, that's a lot of people. And uh There were a lot of Issues. Uh fortunately I I had uh uh a a a fellow minister who was a councillor.

My view of counselling is stop it and don't come back. Um I I cannot imagine speaking to somebody about the same thing for 18 or 20 sessions. That goes beyond my abilities. Um But imagine the problems, the difficulties. Um With two million people.

Say say A million and a quarter adults. But let that's Put a number up there. That's all. That's a lot. of work.

And uh at this point, Moses is doing All the work. You can imagine the squabbles. They have nothing. All they have is what they could bring with them, and that was very little. Um Dispute over.

Over property. Of a goods. Marriage difficulties. Accusations of Unfaithfulness. Um They don't have houses to live in.

They're living in freshly made, but probably scanty tents. Fruit Remember they complained about the manor. They wish they were back in Egypt. These are difficult times, and Moses is doing all of the ruling and governing. And so in verse 13, the next day Moses sat to judge the people, and people stood around Moses from morning till evening.

You can uh Imagine it in your head. Lines and lines of Of people and they're and they're coming to Moses and um. After one session of counselling I need to lie down with a ice pack on my head. If you get involved in the emotional affairs of other people. And Jethro, his father-in-law, is shocked to see what he sees.

He has wisdom. Um And he tells Moses in verse 14. When Moses, his 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 until evening.

And then in verse 17, what you are doing is not. Good.

Well, it takes some nerve. For a father-in-law? Uh to address uh somebody as renowned Uh as as Moses Um He sees a problem, and it is a problem. It's a very real problem. But he doesn't just see the problem.

He proposes a solution. And the solution is divide and conquer.

Sometimes the problem can be micromanaging. And there's no evidence in the text that Moses was a micromanager.

Sometimes the problem is Distrust in the competence of Others. That you can do it better than someone else.

Sometimes the issue is pride. Strife in the workplace. Delayed justice. can be viewed as Denied. Justice.

So Some of these people are at the end of the line, and they may not get to Moses for months. And so the problem, whatever the problem is, is getting worse and worse and worse. Yeah. And Jethro's concern is that Moses will Wear himself. Out.

That he'll wear himself out. That he'll um That he'll experience A situation in which he can no longer think straight. His body is going to give way. His mind is going to give way. His affections are going to uh give way.

I th I think today we would call it burnout. that he's going to experience burnout. I've never experienced burnout, but um I have lots of friends. who've experienced Bernard Tensions, difficulties. Emotional stress in the church giving advice, people seeing things differently, people leaving the church.

And so on and so forth, and you're just mentally and physically exhausted and incapacitated.

So what is Jethro's?

Solution. And Philip Reichen. calls it Presbyterianism.

Now Jethro knew. that Israel's future lay in making sure that Moses wasn't going to suffer from Bernard. He understood that. He understood and saw the importance of the role that Moses will have in the life of the people of God. It's a very similar Problem, though on a much smaller scale, in Acts chapter seven, when they propose.

What look like proto deacons, seven men are chosen for the distribution of. um of food and and other things to widows. uh and uh the gentile uh believers uh are at odds with the Jewish uh believers and there's accusation of favoritism and and and so on and so forth. And so the solution that was proposed is to appoint seven men to do this. And so These th these uh these this this advice that Jethro is giving to his son-in-law is to appoint able men from all the people, men who fear God.

And who are trustworthy, and hate a bribe? And place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, hundreds, fifties. And Tense.

So there's a There's a chain of command. Goes up the ladder. And if there's something that's really, really, really important, I mean really important, and it's going to affect hundreds of thousands of people. Then Moses, you need to do that. But there are trivial things.

You don't need to be involved in that. uh day-to-day stuff. Um And so um Boyle's law is that if uncontrolled, work always flows. to the most competent until it submerges.

Well, I think Jethro understood that. He tells us Son-in-law, look. You should teach. You should preach. You should explain the law.

You should explain God's Commandments you should Um perhaps have a a sermon. maybe several sermons in different parts of the location. How would you speak to a million and a half, two million people? And perhaps they were gathered into into groups of a few thousand and m and Moses would move from one to the other. That's where his competence lay.

There was no one else who could do that the way that Moses could do that. But he needs to appoint able Men. And um I'm semi-joking, but it does sound a little bit like... like the appointment of elders in the New Testament. They had to have certain qualifications.

They had to have a relationship with God, they had to fear God, to walk with God. to revere him, to put him first, they have to be serious minded. And what he proposes is representative government from all the people.

Some over ten, some over fifty, some over a hundred.

Some over a thousand. And and and delegate it. Jethro is aware that leadership. Can be a burden. A heavy burden.

And uh Moses liked what he heard. And he had. The Grace to receive what his father-in-law I told him. I'm sure that meant well for his marriage. I'm very sure.

Um Always receive with grace the advice. Of Concerned. And wise. Father-in-law. I think that's That's good marital.

Advice.

Well, that's Jethro in Exodus 18. That was Ligoneer Teaching Fellow Derek Thomas from his series, Who Are They? This is Renewing Your Mind, the daily discipleship podcast of Ligonier Ministries. Mm-hmm. There are numerous people who, though lesser known in the Bible, played important roles in God's acts of redemption.

And in this brand new series, doctor Thomas describes the historical context, redemptive significance, and practical lessons that we can learn from some of these lesser known characters of the Bible. This is a unique series, and I do encourage you to consider this series for your own personal study. or perhaps for your small group in the new year. You can gain lifetime digital access to this series and its study guide. Plus, we'll send you a Renewing Your Mind notebook.

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In the Christian life, each of us, to one degree or another, will experience suffering and trials. But how should we respond when that suffering becomes comprehensive and chronic? and how can we care for those in the midst of such a situation? Join me tomorrow for a conversation with a special guest to talk about her new book, Limping Heavenwood. That'll be Friday.

Pia on Renewing Your Mind.