The last two weeks I’ve preached about two people, Barnabas and Phoebe, who both had an influence of the early ministry of Paul, who ministered with Paul, and who seems to have been influential in the success of the early church’s ministry as well. We saw the importance of encouraging others, especially when they seem to be in vulnerable places in their walk with the Lord. We also saw how having courage through God’s call on our lives can give us strength when we face challenges and difficulties in obeying the Lord’s direction.
This week I want to draw your attention to another “behind the scenes” person of great influence, this time in Moses’s life. It wasn’t Aaron, Miriam, the midwives, or Pharaoh’s daughter, though these people were certainly influential to Moses and gave him support in many needed ways. I want to preach about Jethro, because this is what Scripture tells us about his influence on Moses, that, “Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said.”
If Moses, servant of God and great patriarch of faith, did everything his father-in-law said, then looking at Jethro’s life and what made him so influential to Moses is a worthy lesson.
There’s two parts to understanding why Jethro was influential to Moses. The first part is understanding the relationship that Jethro had with Moses, and the second part is understanding what kind of wisdom Jethro had that Moses found so helpful.
Let’s look at the first time we meet Jethro, which you can find in Exodus 2:15-21, “When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well. 16 Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17 Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock. 18 When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?” 19 They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.” 20 “And where is he?” Reuel asked his daughters. “Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat.” 21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage.” (NIV)
This man, named Reuel in this passage, becomes the father-in-law of Moses. Moses had a fair number of father figures in his life at various points: he had his biological father, a man from the tribe of Levi, who we never have a name for; and he had Pharaoh, who even though he would have been old enough to be Moses’s grandfather, he would seems to have acted as a father figure; and he had his father-in-law, Jethro, or Reuel. Of the three father figures, Jethro is the one we see most, the one who actually acts as a father for Moses.
It may be a little confusing that at first he goes by Reuel, and then later by Jethro, but this has a simple explanation. Reuel seems to be his actual name, and Jethro seems to be more of a title of honor or position.
This goes along with the next thing we know about Jethro, that he was a priest of Midian. There’s debate about this, not about him being a priest, but about who he served as a priest. Was he a priest of God, or some foreign idol? The question is hard to answer, but we do have some clues that help us put together a picture of who Jethro served.
The first clue is in his given name, Reuel. Reuel means “friend of GOD." Not gods, but God, One. Maybe he served only one foreign god, but that doesn’t seem likely, especially since the “El” ending on his name, the part that refers to God, is commonly used throughout the rest of the Old Testament to refer to the One True God. It’s more likely that his name reflects his relationship with the One True God, especially given what else we know about him.
In Exodus 18:9-12, we get this picture of Jethro, “Jethro was delighted to hear about all the good things the Lord had done for Israel in rescuing them from the hand of the Egyptians. 10 He said, “Praise be to the Lord, who rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh, and who rescued the people from the hand of the Egyptians. 11 Now I know that the Lord is greater than all other gods, for He did this to those who had treated Israel arrogantly.” 12 Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and other sacrifices to God, and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat a meal with Moses’ father-in-law in the presence of God.” (NIV)
Even if by some chance Jethro was a priest of a foreign idol God, we have this scene here where Jethro recognizes the ways that the Lord had rescued the Hebrew people from the Egyptians. He proclaims in front of Moses, “Now I know that the Lord is greater than all other gods,”. Even if he had served an idol, he at least has this aha moment where he recognizes that the Lord is the greatest God there is and goes on to bring a burnt offering and other sacrifices to God.
There’s also this phrase at the beginning of that passage, “Jethro was delighted to hear”, which is a passage that presents a language barrier for us. In the Hebrew, this more accurately would be, Jethro was overjoyed and became as a Jew.” If you sort of read between the lines, what that means is that Jethro went through the process of becoming Hebrew, adopted into the family of God, through the covenant of circumcision. He saw what God had done, recognized God was the greatest, and desired to be brought into the family of God. So he truly does become a friend of God in every way. I feel confident in saying that by the time Jethro exits the story, he was a priest of the One True God.
We know one more thing about the kind of man Jethro was, and that was his relationship with Moses. As we have seen, Jethro was Moses’s father-in-law, and of all the father figures that Moses had, Jethro was the one that most acted as a father to Moses. Exodus 18:7 says this, “Then Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, and he bowed down and kissed him; and they asked each other about their welfare, and went into the tent.” (NASB)
Moses and Jethro had great affection for one another. Even though at this point, they had been separated for a time as Moses had left his family in Midian to return to Egypt to do as God had called him to do, when they are brought together again, it is a cause for celebration and great joy. Before Jethro got to the business of worshiping God and recognizing what the Spirit was doing in the lives of His people, Jethro and Moses had a little chat, maybe over coffee or some other warm beverage, and caught up with one another.
Perhaps their seemingly close relationship was due in part to the fact that Moses had stayed in Midian, son-in-law to Jethro, for about 40 years, as we are told that Moses was 40 when he fled to Midian and 80 when he returned to Egypt from Midian. So for 40 years he was living in the same area, as part of the same family, with Jethro. Moses was a shepherd for Jethro, so one can imagine that there may have been many late night, fireside chats as they led their flocks. Jethro had been around, maybe not immediately present, but definitely near, for the birth of his grandchildren by Moses and Zipporah. Jethro clearly got to participate in the formation and pouring into the lives of his grandchildren which you can read about some in Exodus 4. He took this man, a murderer and foreigner, and welcomed into his own family and became a father to him when he had been cast out of his other families because of the effects of sin and evil.
This is the kind of man Jethro was. This is what we know of his character, his life, and his ministry. But like Barnabas and Phoebe, Jethro also poured out his gift which helped to form another person. What we see, is that Jethro was also a man of great wisdom. What I want to really emphasize in looking at Jethro’s wisdom is that we should do so through the lens of Psalm 111:10a, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;” (NIV) The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Jethro’s wisdom is no different, and it’s clear from the fact that Moses listened to Jethro’s wisdom and did as Jethro told him, that Moses recognized that Jethro’s wisdom came from the Lord.
Look at Exodus 4:18, which happens just after Moses’s experience with the Lord at the Burning Bush, when the Lord called Moses to return to Egypt and lead the people out of slavery. “Then Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Let me return to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive. Jethro said, “Go, and I wish you well.” (NIV)
Both here, and after God had delivered the Israelites out of Egypt, Jethro recognizes what God was clearly doing. It was perhaps easier for him to see what God had done with the plagues and the parting of the Red Sea, but no one was with Moses at the Burning Bush. Moses was the only witness to those things, not thousands of people, one. When Moses told Jethro why he had to go back to Egypt, he makes no mention of the burning bush or God speaking to him, but still Jethro had the wisdom to recognize the MOVEMENT of God. Jethro was able to discern that the Lord was up to something in Moses’s life, and rather than remind Moses of all the reasons why he shouldn’t go to Egypt, he released Moses to go and do what God had told him to do.
Exodus 18:9-12 which I already read has Jethro recognizing the movement of God, and then going on to take a rightful place before God in HUMILITY by worshiping the Lord through sacrifice and as I mentioned before, by becoming as a Hebrew through the act of circumcision. When he came to realize Who it was that had saved Moses’s people, he also came to realize that the only proper response he could have toward such an awesome God is to worship Him and devote Jethro’s own life to the Lord.
Micah 6:9 tells us that to fear the Lord is wisdom, and in Jethro’s response to the Lord’s mighty power, Jethro showed wisdom in his humble place before God.
Jethro not only released Moses on his path to faithfully obey the Lord’s call by releasing him to return to Egypt; Jethro not only recognized that God is worthy of worship and humility; but we also have this amazing scene in Exodus 18:17-18, but the context begins in verse 14, “When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, “What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge, while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?” 15 Moses answered him, “Because the people come to me to seek God’s will. 16 Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God’s decrees and instructions.” 17 Moses’ father-in-law replied, “What you are doing is not good. 18 You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone.” (NIV)
Even though Jethro was not called by God to lead the Hebrew people in the same capacity as Moses, Jethro still had incredible insight and wisdom given to him by the Lord to impart to Moses to guide Moses to minister effectively. And Jethro was right. Had the burden of being the only person for thousands of people to bring their disputes to continued, Moses would have burnt out, and then he wouldn’t have been any good to God’s people. Jethro’s wisdom directed Moses to delegate and share the load with other leaders Moses could entrust with the work of leading the people.
Because of the affection Jethro had for Moses, and because of his relationship with Moses, Moses listened. Moses understood the truth of Proverbs 3:7, “Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil.” (NIV) Moses saw that Jethro had a wisdom that he did not, and because Moses feared the Lord, he took the wisdom Jethro gave and it helped him become a more effective leader.
Finally, we see Jethro’s wisdom displayed in this verse from Exodus 18:20, where Jethro encourages Moses and all the newly appointed lay-leaders of Israel, “Teach them His decrees and instructions, and show them the way they are to live and how they are to behave.” (NIV)
Jethro had the divine wisdom to know that even with Moses and the law-leaders guiding the people, that the people also needed to be taught what was right and wrong in the Lord’s eyes so they could live in God’s wisdom without always needing to come to Moses. The people needed to know that God is their source of wisdom, not Moses, not Jethro, not anyone else, but God.
One of Jethro’s gifts was wisdom. That was a God-given spiritual gift, which means that Jethro was expected to use the gift of wisdom to build up and encourage the family of God. He did that, and his wisdom benefited Moses greatly. Without his wisdom, Moses may not have felt so free to faithfully obey God, and he may not have become the effective leader that we still study and learn from today.
Questions to form your quiet times this week:
1. Is there someone in your life who has modeled Jethro’s wisdom? How can you thank them this week to continue sharing God’s wisdom?
2. What can you take from Jethro to improve your influence on others in your circle?
3. Read James 1:5. What should you do if you lack wisdom? Is there some situation in your life right now that you need wisdom for? What does Proverbs 22:17 say about hearing the wise words of others?