Exodus 18.
IT seems as though Jethro, Moses’ wife’s father, had not heard at first of all that God had done for Moses, and for the people of Israel, but now he hears, and brings Zipporah and the two boys, Gershom and Eliezer to Moses. Yes, it is what God has done, and not what we have done, that makes us happy.
In the third and fourth verses we learn how the boys got their names; Gershom (“a stranger there”) reminded Moses of his being a stranger in a foreign land, tending sheep for Jethro across the desert; while Eliezer (“my God is an help”) made him think of the One who had helped him, and delivered him out of the hands of Pharaoh who would have certainly killed Moses. How wonderful to have God for our helper, and we can have Him in every trouble, if we trust Him. So I ask you, “Do you trust Him? Have you believed in Jesus?
You and I would like to have listened to Moses telling his wife’s father the story of the eighth verse. “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.” It was wonderful, indeed, but God has given us more than that to tell about; He “spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all,” to die on the cross for our sins, and now the same Jesus is waiting to come and claim for Himself every one that truly loves Him. Some people don’t like to hear about God, but Jethro was glad when he heard the whole story of His love and care for the people of Israel, and he praised God, and offered sacrifices to Him.
I think Moses made a mistake in listening to Jethro’s advice. He said (ver. 17), “The thing that thou doest is not good. Thou wilt surely wear away, for the thing is too heavy for thee: thou art not able to perform it thyself alone. Hearken now unto my voice, and 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 . . . 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. . . . And they shall bear the burden with thee. . . Then thou shalt be able to endure.”
God had given to Moses the care of His people, and He would enable Moses to listen to all their complaints, and judge rightly between them. The twenty-fourth verse tells us that Moses listened to what Jethro said, and did it all. It would have been better if he had asked God about it.
From this, Moses must have begun to think that Jethro was right, and that his burden was too heavy for him, for Moses said to God later in Numbers 11,
“Wherefore have I not found favor in Thy sight, that Thou layest the burden of all this people upon me? . . . I am, not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me.”
Our unsaved friends do not understand that if God gives us work to do, He will give us the strength to do it for Him, and we should be slow to, take advice from those who do not know Him, or have not accepted Christ as their Saviour, even though their advice may seem wise.
Moses did not have to bear the burden of God’s people alone. God was there,
ready to listen to him, and give him the needed wisdom in any time of difficulty. But God took him at his word, and told him to gather seventy men of the elders of Israel, and bring them to the tabernacle of the congregation that they may stand there with him. God said,
“I will come down and talk with thee there: and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone.”
The spirit, then, being divided among the seventy, gave no more ability for caring for the people than God had at first bestowed upon Moses.
How good it is for us who belong to the Lord Jesus, that God is always ready to listen. He tells us to bring all our cares to Him, and He surely helps those who are His children.
Jethro, went home again; he seems not to have wished to go with the people of Israel to the promised land.
ML 02/26/1922