Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 18:21-23

21 Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and 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 unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge: so shall it be easier for thyself, and they shall bear the burden with thee.

23 If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so, then thou shalt be able to endure, and all this people shall also go to their place in peace.

Jethro had already established that Moses should remain as a teacher and a prophet to the people, but now, instead of Moses hearing every single issue that came up among the people, he should delegate that responsibility to other leaders. Jethro even describes a tiered delegation, so that there would be multiple levels of judges and high judges and higher judges, meaning that this system could scale indefinitely. Up at the very top of the hierarchy would be Moses, still available to handle the greatest judgments, while all the others would be handled by the lower tiers.

A key element to this, however, would be that the judges would have to be absolutely upstanding and righteous individuals. They had to be trusted to make right judgments more than wrong, and be personally incorruptible.

One has to wonder whether the idea of tiered delegation was entirely new to Moses. He had been raised in mighty Egypt, had the Pharaoh not maintained power through some system of chiefs or captains? We know that a Pharaoh many generations ago had delegated management of the grain to Joseph, so it couldn’t have been entirely without precedent. Perhaps the hierarchical delegation had been seen before, but wasn’t so formally defined before this point. Or perhaps it had already existed in exactly the same form that Jethro described, but Moses hadn’t considered that it might apply to spiritual leadership as well as to matters of state.

And surely there is a difference between spiritual leadership and matters of state, and Jethro shows that he appreciates this distinction when gives all due humility in verse 23. He has given this advice as an option for Moses going forward, but he then defers to the almighty when he says, “if thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so.” Ultimately, the Lord would have the final say on how His people were to be governed. If Jethro’s advice appeared wise, but God said no, then of course it should not be enacted. Apparently, though, God agreed with Jethro’s counsel. Indeed, this conversation between Jethro and Moses was probably all according to divine design. Many times the wisdom of the Lord is communicated to us through different people.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 18:18-20

18 Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee: for this thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone.

19 Hearken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee: Be thou for the people to God-ward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto God:

20 And thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt shew them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do.

Jethro begins his advice in familiar territory. Moses had already been called to be God’s representative to the people, and also the people’s representative to God, and Jethro states that this should continue. Jethro further reaffirms Moses’s responsibility to lay down the laws and the lessons that the Lord provides. He is to teach the people generally of God’s commandments, of the correct conduct that they must perform, of their purpose from on High.

But up until now Jethro has not spoken to how the message from God, conveyed through Moses, would actually be disseminated through the people, nor how the trials of the people would be condensed upward to God through Moses. All that has been established so far is that the immaterial, unseen God will have His word made perceptible and perceivable through the conduct of Moses. Moses would turn spirit and truth into speech and writing, and only once that mortalizing process had occurred could it be distributed to all the people.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 18:13-17

13 And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to judge the people: and the people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening.

14 And when Moses’ father in law saw all that he did to the people, he said, What is this thing that thou doest to the people? why sittest thou thyself alone, and all the people stand by thee from morning unto even?

15 And Moses said unto his father in law, Because the people come unto me to inquire of God:

16 When they have a matter, they come unto me; and I judge between one and another, and I do make them know the statutes of God, and his laws.

17 And Moses’ father in law said unto him, The thing that thou doest is not good.

Moses had played host to Jethro when he first arrived, but on the next day he had to get back to his work as Israel’s judge. This was quite fortuitous, as it allowed Jethro to observe Moses’s process, and in the following verses we will see the key improvement that he had to offer.

Moses stood between all the disputes and difficulties of the people, delivering God’s judgment for them all. This is a key function that any large populace needs to have filled. Isolated individuals become a unified people in part by having

  1. A shared vision.
  2. Reliable rules that they all adhere to.
  3. Their smaller issues resolved before they can escalate into egregious affronts.

Moses was meeting all of those needs by sitting in judgment. Put more abstractly, a society needs a locus of control, just as an individual does, and without one it will dissolve into anarchy. But since the society is not a single person, that locus of control must be external instead of internal.

Of course, among a people that may have numbered over two million, the number of disputes that Moses heard must have been immense. As we will see tomorrow, this is exactly the problem that Jethro saw in Moses’s approach. Judging two million people was already too great of a burden, and the population was only going to increase, and Moses’s approach would not be able to scale upwards indefinitely. It would become literally impossible for one man to judge these people in this way. Something had to change.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 18:10-12

10 And Jethro said, Blessed be the Lord, who hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh, who hath 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 wherein they dealt proudly he was above them.

12 And Jethro, Moses’ 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’ father in law before God.

When we first were introduced Jethro we were told he was a priest in Midian, and I had wondered whether he was priest of the Lord. Today’s verses suggest that this was, indeed, the case. He praises God, making exclamations such as “blessed be the Lord,” and “now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods.”

Another reason to assume that Jethro was a priest of the Lord is the priestly function he then serves in verse 12, making sacrifices that were apparently acceptable before the Lord. It is interesting to note the foreshadowing of this verse. Jethro performs the ritual offering with Aaron present, and of course Aaron and his sons will soon be called to function in the same office. I see in these verses a sort of passing of the torch. Jethro had maintained the faith in Midian while Israel was held captive, and now that they were free he came to show them the rituals and formalities of worshipping God.

Jethro and his flock in Midian must have had a story of their own, but they would fade, while the Israelite story would continue for thousands of years. This reminds me of John the Baptist diminishing so that his cousin Jesus might increase. Jethro and John seem to have been righteous men that magnified their callings and fulfilled their purposes, yet they were willing to make way for the chosen ones that came to take the center stage.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 18:7-9

7 And Moses went out to meet his father in law, and did obeisance, and kissed him; and they asked each other of their welfare; and they came into the tent.

8 And Moses told his father in law all that the Lord had done unto Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, and all the travail that had come upon them by the way, and how the Lord delivered them.

9 And Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which the Lord had done to Israel, whom he had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians.

We never heard what the Moses’s relationship with Jethro was like when he lived in the land of Midian, but from today’s verses it seems clear that Moses held great respect for his father-in-law. Moses met Jethro with utmost decorum and hospitality, and gave a full report of everything that had transpired since they had seen each other last.

It is interesting to hear of Jethro’s joyful reaction to all that Moses relates, given that we have just gone through some depressing chapters, with the Israelites losing the faith and reviling their deliverer time after time. We are even told in verse 8 that Moses specifically mentioned “all the travail that had come upon them by the way.” Yet in spite of all that trouble, it would seem that Jethro was able to see past all the travail to the greater, more optimistic picture. He was able to see with clear eyes the good that had happened, and was continuing to happen, and he rejoiced in the Lord.

We do not know exactly what Moses’s emotional state was in this moment, but the thought occurs to me that Jethro’s visit might have been just the encouragement Moses needed at this time. Jethro might have been an oasis of hope for Moses in the wilderness.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 18:1-6

1 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;

2 Then Jethro, Moses’ father in law, took Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her back,

3 And her two sons; of which the name of the one was Gershom; for he said, I have been an alien in a strange land:

4 And the name of the other was Eliezer; for the God of my father, said he, was mine help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh:

5 And Jethro, Moses’ father in law, came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the wilderness, where he encamped at the mount of God:

6 And he said unto Moses, I thy father in law Jethro am come unto thee, and thy wife, and her two sons with her.

Back in Exodus 4, when Moses had left the land of Midian to return to Egypt, we were told that Moses had taken his wife, Zipporah, and sons with him. It was during this sojourn that Moses had been reproved for having not yet circumcised his sons, and Zipporah had done the deed for him.

Today we learn from verse 2 that Moses apparently sent his wife and children back to Midian, though, and they had resided there with Zipporah’s father while Moses finished his work in Egypt. We are never given an explanation as to why Moses had sent them back. Perhaps they were in danger from Pharaoh after the curses Moses brought against Egypt. Perhaps Moses’s calling required his constant attention, and they would receive more care in Jethro’s home.

In any case, it may very well have been an extended absence of multiple years, but at last the family was all together again. At the end of this chapter we will hear that Jethro did not stay with the Israelite people in the wilderness, though. He came simply to return Moses’s family to him, observed the good that had been done to the Israelite people, offered some counsel to Moses, and then took his leave and went back to his own land. Being a priest, he must have had a work and a flock of his own to attend to, and he only lingered long enough to show Moses the ropes for leading the sheep in this region.