From the very beginning, the community that God was forming was going to be much more inclusive than anyone could have imagined.
After witnessing the Lord split a body of water in two, turn a bitter stream sweet, and even cause a fresh spring to flow from a boulder, the sudden shift to the pragmatic in Exodus 18 feels almost like a banal interruption. This narrative is different from the ones that precede it in almost every way, devoid of any earth-shattering miracles and garnering little attention outside a sequential study of the book as a whole, such as this. Indeed, in many ways, Chapter 18 feels largely out of place, which might not be that far off.
Chapter 18 disrupts the natural flow by having Israel already encamped near the foot of “the mountain of God” by the time the narrative gets underway (Exod. 18:5). What’s more, when Moses explains his role, as he sees it, to his father-in-law, it’s understood that God has already given him the law, or at least part of it (Exod. 18:16).
All of which to say that, for a brief moment, the biblical narrative ceases its chronological ordering and goes off track, begging the question of why. Why stop being chronological? Why is Chapter 18 put here? What’s the point? Moses seems to be telling us something crucial about what it means to be “the church in the wilderness” (Acts 7:37). Here, he gives us a glimpse at how the Lord not only saves a people but also organizes them around his Word.
1. The House That God Built, and Is Building
As Exodus 18 opens, we’re greeted with the arrival of an unexpected guest, one whom we haven’t heard from since Chapter 2. Jethro’s arrival means Moses is reunited not only with his father-in-law but also with his wife and sons (Exod. 18:2). The details of this reunion were likely just as fresh as the day it transpired, filling Moses’s mind with all the emotions of seeing his family for the first time in years.
I am inclined to say that laying his eyes on His sons, Gershom and Eliezer, reminded Moses of precisely what God had done for him (vs. 3-4). Even though he had been a stranger in a strange land, the Lord was with him every step of the way. He was his help at all times. In other words, Moses’s sons bookend his own life story, one which God had been authoring the whole time.
2. Witnessing to What’s Been Done
This emotional reunion soon turned evangelistic, though (Exod. 18:5–7). Despite Moses and Jethro having much to catch up on, Moses was eager to relay a very specific message to his father-in-law — namely, “all that the Lord had done” (Exod. 18:8). News of Israel’s exodus had spread throughout the surrounding regions, Jethro’s homestead in Midian included. Rumors had circulated about plagues crushing the might of Pharaoh, of seas splitting in half, and of former slaves being led by a personal God, prompting Jethro to pay his son-in-law a visit, perhaps to see if those rumors had any merit to them.
As the priest of Midian (Exod. 18:1), we can infer that he was a figure of some rank and authority in his hometown. And yet, here he comes to hear about what Israel’s God had done for them — an especially surprising revelation once you recall how Midian grew to be a thorn in Israel’s side, leading them into idolatry and eventually oppressing them for nearly a decade (Judg. 6:1ff).
3. Grace for Outsiders
It’s noteworthy that there’s no mention of any of the wonders he and Aaron did in Pharaoh’s court, nor of his fortitude in the face of his own people’s reluctance, nor of anything that would’ve drawn any attention to himself. Moses’s message zeroes in on what the Lord did — that’s all that mattered. And it is precisely this message that precipitates the most unexpected response from Moses’s father-in-law:
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. 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”(Exod. 18:9–11).
As Jethro acknowledges the supremacy and might of Yahweh above all other gods, we ought to see this for what it is: a Gentile priest rejoicing and professing belief in the covenant-making God. And lest you think this is just an emotional outburst, he doubles down on his confession with a formal offering in the presence of Israel’s elders (Exod. 18:12). This pagan priest is thereby shedding his paganism and embracing the God of Israel, the one true God, who is “greater than all gods” (Exod. 18:11; cf. Ps. 95:3, 97:9; 135:5).
In a truly profound way, this is one of the earliest indications we get that the congregation of Israel didn’t exist for itself. They weren’t supposed to isolate themselves in an echo-chamber of monotheistic piety. Rather, they carried with them the divine promise that in them and through them “all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). From the very beginning, the community that God was forming was going to be much more inclusive than anyone could have imagined.
This is one of the earliest indications we get that the congregation of Israel didn’t exist for itself. They weren’t supposed to isolate themselves in an echo-chamber of monotheistic piety.
The power and pathos of this scene emerge when we remember that we are all converts, just like Jethro. We’ve all been “grafted in” to the “spiritual Israel” as the “true sons of Abraham” (Rom. 11:17–18; Gal. 3:29). Although we were all alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to all the covenants of promise, we’ve been brought near by the blood of the Lamb, who is Christ himself (Eph. 2:12–13). God is, therefore, fashioning us into “one body through the cross.” He is making us into “fellow citizens and members of the household of God” (Eph. 2:16, 19). And the tremors of that good news are felt all the way back in the foothills of Sinai.
4. The Unbearable Burden of Ministry
But then the scene shifts, with Moses waking up to business as usual (Exod. 18:13). As the leader of the people of God, and the one who received God’s laws on the mountain, Moses understood his role was to govern the people by hearing from them and interpreting God’s words for them. This proved to be an arduous task, as is emphasized by the repeated phrase “morning till evening” (Exod. 18:13–14). As Moses sat down to undertake this enormous responsibility, Jethro noticed he did so alone (Exod. 18:14). He was shouldering the burden of shepherding God’s people all by himself, prompting his father-in-law to want to know why. “What is this that you are doing for the people?” he inquires.
Instead of answering that question, Moses just proceeds to further explain what it was that he was doing. “Because the people come to me to inquire of God,” he rationalizes, “and that’s just how we’ve always done it since God has given us his law” (cf. Exod. 18:15–16). Moses’s sense of responsibility is honorable. He understands his momentous task to serve as God’s mouthpiece, the channel by which and through which God’s words are made known to God’s people (cf. Exod. 4:15–16). And yet, Jethro perceived that what he was doing was neither good nor sustainable (Exod. 18:17–18).
One man attempting to settle disputes and function as the voice of God for two million people is a short road to burnout. This was a burden that was too big for Moses to bear on his own shoulders. Rather than being a comment on Moses’s ability or supposed lack thereof, this is a fitting commentary on the weightiness of his God-given assignment.
Jethro recognized the significance of Moses’s mantle, perhaps more so than even Moses did, at least in this moment (Exod. 18:19–23). Even though the priesthood hadn’t officially been established yet, his son-in-law was essentially acting as Israel’s go-between. He was their representative before the Lord, the one who’d been charged to admonish them in all of God’s words so that they would know how God intended them to live. But in that moment, Moses was getting entangled in the minutiae of daily disputes. The importance of hearing and interpreting the Word was getting lost in all the petty squabbles of a growing congregation.
To alleviate his burden, Jethro suggests a series of deputized and able-bodied men to help govern the people (Exod. 18:21–22). In so doing, Moses’s load would be lightened, the community would be preserved from the pitfalls of leadership burnout, and, most importantly, the ministry of the Word would flourish. And to his credit, Moses does exactly that (Exod. 18:24–27). Jethro soon departs the Israelite campsite, ending his involvement in the biblical narrative and leaving behind a community compellingly centered on the words of God.
Unfurled throughout this narrative is the way in which God forms and preserves his people by situating his words at the core of who and what they are. Leave it to the Lord to have a Gentile priest from Midian to help Moses see that representing the people and making known the Word were paramount.
5. Preserving the Ministry of the Word
The early church faced a crisis eerily similar to the one that plagued Israel in the foothills of Sinai. As the word of the gospel and the hope of the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth spread like wildfire, changing lives and liberating sinners from the clutches of sin and death, the apostles soon became overwhelmed by the burgeoning congregation that soon fell under their care. The church’s numbers were increasing so rapidly that a cavalcade of practical matters soon became overlooked or incorrectly prioritized, to the detriment of the rest of the body (Acts 6:1).
The Twelve, led by Peter, summoned everyone together to institute a better method to meet everyone’s needs without neglecting what was of chief importance — namely, “prayer and the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4). Their solution was to identify and appoint “men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom” (Acts 6:2–6) — a.k.a. able men, who fear God and are trustworthy (Exod. 18:21; cf. Deut. 1:15; Acts 15:23; 2 Tim. 2:2) — who could lighten the apostles’ load, thereby preserving the growing Christian community and helping the ministry of the Word to flourish. The rest of the congregation gladly agreed to this plan, and the church thrived as a result (Acts 6:7).
Even in the earliest days, God had in mind what the community of faith was going to look like: a congregation centered around his words and sharing the responsibility for telling all that he had done.
6. The Word Is What Matters
The Word is what matters. This is what carries on when everything else gives way. While there are many traditions in the life of the church that can be held with open palms, God’s Word isn’t one of them. He has ordained his church to be an organism that keeps the Word absolutely central, not one that pushes it to the margins for the sake of the pragmatic (Eph. 4:11–12). The community that God has been forming since the days of Israel’s sojourn in the wilderness has always been bigger than anyone could ever imagine, and it has always been held together by one thing. Not the brilliance of its leaders, the charisma of its preachers, nor the efficiency of its programs, but always, and only, and forever, by the Word — the Living Word of God, which is made known to God’s people, and which goes out to the nations.
What changed Jethro is still what changes us. It’s not some manual of spiritual wisdom or moral code. It’s the Word about what God has done, and the marvel is that that Word has a face, and fingers, and hair, and a forehead that bleeds.
This is what Jethro came to hear, it’s what Moses was called to make known, it’s what the apostles refused to surrender, and it’s what the church gathers around every Lord’s day. God’s Word holds God’s people together, both now and forever. And while Jethro rejoiced when he heard what God had done at the Red Sea, the church rejoices at something greater since we have heard what God has done at the cross, where the true and better Exodus transpired, where our slavery to sin was ended, and where we were freed.
What changed Jethro is still what changes us. It’s not some manual of spiritual wisdom or moral code. It’s the Word about what God has done, and the marvel is that that Word has a face, and fingers, and hair, and a forehead that bleeds. That Word has come to where you are to bring you to himself (John 1:14). We may be the “church in the wilderness,” but we’re not lost. We have a Word who brightens our every step (Prov. 3:5–6), and so long as that is what we gather around and revel in, declaring all that God has done, we will endure.
