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GOD REVEALS HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS TO ALL THE NATIONSEXODUS 18:1-12INTRODUCTION Is it just me, or does it seem to you that we are living in the midst of very ominous times, that we are being faced with threats that are far beyond our ability to prevent or prepare for? In the last 10 months we have witnessed natural disasters of catastrophic proportions on a worldwide scale. Last December was the tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed over 160,000 people and left millions of already destitute people homeless. Then more recently, in the U.S. the devastation of Hurricane Katrina which has left hundreds of thousands of people homeless and essentially wiped out one of the great cities of the U.S. Now this past weekend a devastating earthquake struck in northern Pakistan, which has killed tens of thousands of people and left 2-3 million very poor people homeless in the mountains as winter approaches. All this while hurricane Stan dumped feet of water on Guatemala and the rest of Central America killing thousands and again leaving hundreds of thousands of people already living on the margin without home or job. Every day on the news we are being warned of the probability of an outbreak of a mutated form of the bird flu that will become a pandemic across the globe with the potential of killing tens of millions of people. This inevitable pandemic that public health figures fear will make all the natural disasters of the previous twenty years together appear as nothing. In addition to these natural disasters we are confronted with daily reports of terrorist bombings around the world. Britain, Egypt, Indonesia, India, Spain, Russia and Pakistan along with the hot spots of Afghanistan and Iraq have all experienced terrorist attacks this year. Civilization across the globe seems to be threatened by this “jihad” and the civil liberty reducing measures that governments must take to combat such nefarious enemies. We are faced with fuel costs 50% higher than they were a year ago. Again, we are being warned almost daily that we are going to go bankrupt this winter heating our homes and driving to work. When you add to these global threats the daily troubles of raising children, getting along with friends and co-workers, overcoming debilitating chronic illness and injury, caring for aging and frail parents, figuring out what you want to do when you grow up, it is no wonder that people are looking for some sort of magical religion that promises immediate deliverance from such menacing dangers. Yet I would argue that it is only the unfolding of the story of God as he works out his plan to save his people from their sins that can give us any real hope or joy or confidence to live in this world that is full of such danger. It is only in the pages of this book that we discover that God is not merely directing the affairs of this world according to his hidden, universal plan but that his plan for the universe includes his plans to do good to individual people. If you are here this morning with a troubled and anxious heart either in response to global trouble or to personal trouble, I believe you will find great help as we consider the story of one old man who lived a long time ago in a country a long way from here. I would ask you to listen as I tell you the story of Jethro, the pagan priest from the people of Midian who was also the father-in-law of Moses and as you listen to hear the promise of God to direct the course of the world and of your life to his appointed end. It is in this simple, seemingly unimportant encounter between Moses and his father-in-law that God's plan to do good to all of his people from all the nations of the world can be clearly seen. MAIN POINT NARRATIVE BLOCK ONE (vv. 1-4) Hobab hurried to his father’s tent barely able to restrain the excitement he felt. He found his father, Jethro, seated under the tamarisk tree outside his tent. “Father you must come quickly. Traders have just arrived from the south and are telling us strange and amazing stories about Egypt and their Hebrew slaves.” Jethro’s old, crinkled eyes lit up and he rose as quickly as his aged frame would permit. He gave orders to several of his servants to prepare a meal for these traders and then walked with Hobab to the edge of their camp to greet the Ishmaelite traders who had just arrived. He invited them to come and rest in the shade of the trees at the center of the camp while other servants cared for their animals. After his guests had finished eating he asked the men to share in detail the wild story they had begun to tell when they first arrived. Over a year ago, the traders had been in Egypt for some weeks trading to obtain products from Egypt to bring to the nomadic herders of Midian and Amalek to trade. While they were there they kept hearing reports of two Hebrew slaves petitioning Pharaoh to let the Hebrew people go out of their slavery into the desert to worship their God. Apparently they had performed a number of miraculous signs to prove their point but that the Egyptian magicians had copied them. However, during the time the traders were in Egypt there was an outbreak of biting flies. They had never witnessed such a thing before and the rumors circulating among the people were that the flies had come by the command of the two Hebrew slaves. The traders shuddered and squirmed as they remembered the teeming flies and the misery they inflicted. However, the flies disappeared just as quickly as they had appeared, again according to the rumor mill, by the prayers of the slaves to their God. It was shortly after that they left Egypt by the highway along the Sea. Jethro stopped them and asked if they had heard the names of the Hebrew slaves who were petitioning Pharaoh. One of the traders said he had heard that their names were Moses and Aaron but he wasn’t sure. There were so many rumors flying around and the Egyptians were so on edge that it was hard to sort out fact from fiction. At the mention of Moses a murmuring passed through the members of Jethro’s camp. Many looked to see how Jethro would respond at the mention of his son-in-law. Jethro calmly asked them to go on. One night about a month ago, as they were camped along the northern coast of the Red Sea they witnessed the strangest sight. Across the Red Sea, on the south shore and somewhat east from their camp there appeared to be a large fire burning in the desert. Then a powerful wind began to blow so that the waters of the Red Sea became a foaming cauldron. It was terrifying through the night and into the next day as the wind roared but not as frightening as what they saw the next day. Encamped on the ridge that overlooked the sea they could see a path, as it were, through the Red Sea with people streaming off from the southern shore and passing through the sea on dry land to the northern shore. The water rose as two walls on either side of the people. On the far shore was a pillar of cloud that shown brightly. As the final groups of people gained the northern shore the pillar moved across the Sea to the gathered people on the northern shore and then the traders watched as the entire army of Egypt poured into the path through the sea. Once all the chariots of Pharaoh were in the valley they saw a man with a shepherd’s staff point it at the sea and the walls of water collapsed upon Pharaoh’s army, destroying them all. The trader’s spoke with awe-filled voices as they recounted watching the bodies of the drowned Egyptian warriors wash up on shore and heard the shouts of jubilation from the mob of people on the northern shore. In panic they quickly packed their animals and set out into the desert away from the scene of the massacre. Upon questioning by Jethro they admitted that though they didn’t know for sure they assumed that the people who passed through the sea were the Hebrew slaves of Egypt. Over the next several weeks the camp of Jethro heard many more reports of incredible events having transpired in Egypt. Many of the stories, like the one the traders told them, were so incredible that it was hard to imagine they were based in fact. However, common to all the rumors was the name of Moses and the escape of the Hebrew slaves from Egypt. One evening, as Jethro sat by the fire, his son Hobab came and joined him. “So he actually did it,” Hobab said to his father. “Yes, it appears that our former Egyptian noble, sheepherder and son-in-law actually brought the Hebrew people out of their slavery. Who would have believed that the husband of your sister Zipporah is actually the Savior of all those slaves? And if the stories be true he also is responsible for destroying Egypt single handed.” Jethro stared into the fire as he remembered his first meeting with the former Egyptian noble who was really nothing more than an escaped slave. He appeared to be a resourceful man as he had rescued his seven daughters and the flocks under their care from marauding nomads. Jethro was happy to have him join their camp and help him manage his large flocks. He was happy when his daughter Zipporah and Moses were wed and then gave to him his first grandchild. However, Jethro remembered the trouble first beginning when Moses insisted on naming his first child Gershom, which means, “I am a sojourner living in a foreign land.” He still bristled as he thought of Moses’ ingratitude and arrogance, naming his son in a way that proclaimed to all that he was dissatisfied with Jethro’s hospitality and did not consider himself to be part of their tribe. Then when he wanted to perform that barbaric surgery on the boy when he was eight days old... Jethro muttered under his breath as he thought of it. Thankfully, Zipporah put her foot down and would not permit her deranged husband to circumcise his young son. How often Moses had offended him and his people by his refusal to participate in their worship ceremonies. How often Jethro and others had tried to convince him to give up his superstitious claim that there was only one God who was the creator of all things and whom all men must worship. But it was all in vain. He persisted in his prayers to this Yahweh and claimed that he had promised his forefathers that he was going to make these slaves into a great nation and was going to give them the land of the Canaanites for their own. It would have been funny if it wasn’t for the fact that his daughter was married to him and his grandsons were his sons. Then came the fateful day when Moses came to him and told him that he was taking his wife, Jethro’s daughter, and his sons, Jethro’s grandsons, back to Egypt to visit his people, the Hebrew slaves of Egypt. He tried to talk him out of going but he would not be dissuaded. He knew that Moses’ return wasn’t just for a visit. Something had happened while Moses was in the desert that last time, of that Jethro was sure. He had come back from that trip a changed man. He was inflexible and determined to return to Egypt as if his life depended upon it. So Jethro said good-bye to his daughter Zipporah and his dear grandsons, Gershom and Eliezer. He was sure that he would never see them again as they went off on a donkey with a few supplies to Egypt, the land of Hebrew slavery. He knew then that Moses was on a fool’s errand. But now, all his angry and scornful criticisms seemed out of place, as it was obvious that something significant had happened through this very insignificant man. The next day, as Jethro walked along the edge of camp he noticed a line of camels and donkeys on the horizon approaching. He sat under a tree and waited with several of his chief herdsmen for the caravan to reach him. The animals came to a halt. Two young men sprang from their beasts calling out “Grandfather! Grandfather!” as they raced towards Jethro pulling off their head coverings as they ran. Gershom and Eliezer grasped their aged grandfather in warm embraces as they laughed at his surprise and shock. “God delivered us from Pharaoh and from his army and dad, Moses, sent us and mom to come greet you on his behalf. He can’t leave the people because he is the leader of Israel.” At the mention of their mother Jethro looked up to see his daughter Zipporah standing, smiling at the sight of her two boys with her father. “But how…”, stammered Jethro. “Grandfather, haven’t you heard about all that God did to rescue us from the hand of the Egyptians? Yahweh, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the God of Moses has delivered us and we are free and on our way to meet with God at Mt. Sinai.” Suddenly, it became all too clear to Jethro how wrong he had been about Moses and about the God whom he served. He knew that he had to go to Moses, to this savior of Israel and to see this great work of God for himself. APPLICATION Most people expect that when God is present and at work it will be really obvious. It would seem that when the God who made stars and eyes is present that amazing things would be happening. A guy who is a fugitive from the law because of committing murder, who is married to your daughter and spends his time shepherding your sheep for 40 years does not look like God at work, no matter what he might say. How could Jethro be expected to believe that Moses, his son-in-law is God’s agent of salvation for the 2 million Hebrews trapped as slaves in the most powerful nation on earth? Yet, this is exactly what was going on during those forty years that Moses lived with Jethro. God’s savior was living right under his nose and he didn’t even know it. This is just the way that God’s saving work has always gone forward. Who would have thought that a hundred year old man and his ninety year old childless wife would have a son that would become the father of twins, one of whom would have 12 sons who would become the 2 million Hebrews enslaved in Egypt? Who would have thought that a harp playing, teenage shepherd boy was God’s chosen agent to save Israel from all her enemies, starting with a giant named Goliath? Who would have thought that a carpenter of uncertain parentage who grew up in a poor family in the backwater community of Nazareth and who was killed by the civil and religious authorities after a very short public ministry would be the Savior of the world and the judge of all men? God’s saving work appears unimpressive most of the time. God’s work to save his people is usually not headline grabbing, like tsunamis and terrorist bombings. Paul says as much when he describes the work of preaching the gospel in 1 Corinthians. He says, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing…” The idea that believing that the death of Jesus Christ on a cross will gain you forgiveness of sins and eternal life with God does not appear to be a very strong and powerful message. It seems weak compared to the calls of other religions to do great acts of piety or charity or morality in order to be saved. It appears feeble when compared to the massive problems and threats facing the world. However, God is saving people through the foolishness of what is preached just like he saved Israel out from its slavery through the foolishness of a shepherd with a staff commanding the most powerful man on earth to “let my people go.” This weak message, the message of the cross is God’s power for the salvation of everyone who believes. There is no stronger force on earth than this message of Christ, crucified for the sins of the world. If you do not view this message as the most powerful force on earth then you are deluded, just like Jethro was concerning Moses. NARRATIVE BLOCK TWO (vv. 5-8) Jethro hastily made arrangements for he and his son Hobab and a small company of his servants to accompany Zipporah, Gershom and Eliezer as they returned to Moses and the people of Israel who had arrived at Mt. Sinai. He sent messengers on ahead to inform Moses that he was coming along with Moses' wife and her sons. Jethro did not speak much on the weeklong journey to the wilderness of Sinai. He was overcome with the knowledge that perhaps his long held beliefs about the relationship between the gods and human beings were not true. He had faithfully led his people in the worship of the gods of Midian, who were the gods his ancestors had served for generations. When Moses came to live with him he did not object to adding his God, Yahweh, to the gods whom he worshipped. He didn't want to offend any deity and so he was happy to add belief in Yahweh to his belief in the gods of his fathers. However, and this is what had made his relationship with Moses so strained, he could not accept Moses' claim that Yahweh was the only God and all other gods were false gods. He could not accept that his fathers had spent their lives in vain, worshipping gods who did not exist. He could not accept that the gods to whom he offered sacrifices and prayers and who, in response, gave all the good gifts of Midian, healthy flocks, beautiful children, success against their enemies, were not gods at all but merely the figment of his and his fathers’ imaginations. Yet, if the stories he had heard were true then he would have to consider the possibility that he had spent his 80 years of life in meaningless prayers and sacrifice. Jethro's pensive thoughts were interrupted by the shouts of his servants who were out in front of the tiny caravan. They were sitting on their camels at the top of a ridge and yelling back to the rest of the group to hurry. As Jethro trotted up the slope of the ridge he could see the top of Mt. Sinai rising in the distance and then, as he came to the crest he gasped as he looked out on the plain before the mountain to see that it was covered, as far as he could see with the tents and flocks of the nation of Israel. A cloud of dust hung over the valley from the multitudes of Israelites going about the business of setting up tents and getting water from the numerous springs throughout the valley and moving the livestock to the edges of the camp. Cooking fires were being lit as the Israelites prepared to boil manna for lunch. Jethro tried to grasp the enormity of what this gathering of people represented. He knew, without a doubt that these people had been the slaves of Egypt, the most powerful nation on earth and yet here they were, living in the desert of Sinai, hundreds of miles from Egypt, a free people. How did this happen? As Jethro's group approached the edge of the camp they could see a group of men awaiting their arrival. As soon as Jethro dismounted, Moses came and knelt before him with bowed head in respectful greeting and then stood and the two men hugged and kissed each other on the cheeks. Moses then gave orders to have the animals and the servants of Jethro cared for while Moses and Jethro followed by Zipporah and her two sons entered into Moses' tent. After they were seated and had been refreshed by water and cakes of a strange substance that tasted like coriander seed mixed with honey, Jethro asked Moses to tell him everything that had happened since he had last seen him walking out of camp with his daughter and two grandsons and a donkey. So Moses, the Savior of Israel began to recount to the pagan priest of Midian, his father-in-law everything the Lord had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for Israel's sake and about all the hardships they had met along the way and how Yahweh had saved them. He began with recounting his encounter with the Lord in this very desert while herding the sheep of Jethro. He reported how the Lord told him that he had heard the cry of Israel in their misery and had remembered his promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and so he determined that now was the time for him to fulfill those promises. He chose Moses to be the one who would go to Pharaoh and who would lead the people of Israel out of the land of slavery. He recounted how the Lord told him that he was to command Pharaoh to let Israel go but that the Lord had said that he was going to harden Pharaoh's heart so that he would not let Israel go so that the Lord could perform his mighty miracles against Egypt. The Lord told Pharaoh through Moses, "I have raised you up for this very purpose that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." He recounted Pharaoh's belligerence and his deception time after time, just as the Lord had told Moses. And so the Lord in accordance with his word to Moses sent a series of increasingly destructive plagues upon all Egypt while protecting the land of Goshen, where Israel lived. He turned the water to blood, he filled the land of Egypt with frogs and then with gnats and then with flies. Then he sent a plague on the livestock that wiped out all the livestock of the Egyptians while the livestock of the Israelites was safe. He sent festering boils on all living things, man and beast and then hail fell from the sky and destroyed crops and tress and killed all who dared to venture outside. Then he sent locusts that consumed every green plant remaining in Egypt so that the whole land was denuded and looked, not like the fertile land of Egypt but like a desert. Following the locusts God sent three days of darkness over the land of Egypt but light upon the land of Goshen. Then, Moses' voice grew low as he described how on that last night the people of Israel, by the command of God killed and ate a year old lamb in every home and took the blood of the lamb and spread it over their doorways. In the still of that night God's angel of death went throughout the land of Egypt and killed the firstborn son in every home that was not covered with the blood from the lamb. There was great wailing and grieving throughout the land of Egypt and the Egyptians begged the Hebrews to leave their land and gave them their gold and precious jewels so that Israel plundered the whole land of Egypt as they went out from Egypt and headed for the desert. There were tears in Moses' eyes and a quiver in his voice as he recalled the sight of captive Israel marching out of Egypt, singing with joy and burdened with the wealth of Egypt. But then his voice hardened as he recounted God's leading them to the edge of the Red Sea and then of Pharaoh and his army racing towards them in the desert and of the people screaming in terror and panic as they reproached Moses for bringing them out of Egypt to be killed by Pharaoh in the desert. Moses voice raised as he repeated the words that the Lord told him to speak at that time: "Stand still and you will see the salvation of God. These Egyptians who are pursuing you, you will never see again." Then, as Moses held out his hand over the Red Sea, God sent a powerful wind and made a path through the sea, just as the Ishmaelite traders had described to Jethro. When Moses finished recounting the crossing of the Red Sea, he went on to tell how the Lord had made the bitter waters of Marah drinkable when Moses threw a stick into them and thus saved Israel from dying of thirst. He told how, when all their food supplies had run out, God had provided millions of quail in the desert of Sin and rained down bread from heaven. Now, each morning God provided bread, called manna, that he scattered across the desert floor for each day's need. Then again, as they came to Rephidim they ran out of water and so God provided water out of a rock when Moses struck it with his staff at God's command. Finally, Moses told how God had enabled Israel to defeat the fierce Amalekites who had come out to attack them when they approached the border of their land. The tent was silent as Moses finished proclaiming the great deeds of Yahweh saving his people from Egypt and from all their troubles. APPLICATION We see in Moses' recounting of the great work of God to save his captive people to the pagan priest of Midian the prototypical fulfillment of God's ultimate purpose in choosing and saving Israel. God's aim, as he repeatedly told Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is to bless all the nations of the world through the "seed" of Abraham, that his name might be joyously proclaimed through the whole earth. God is at work in this world of danger and misery rescuing his captive people from all the nations of the world through the proclamation of the mighty works of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ. This scene is actually quite shocking in view of who the Midianites are in relation to Israel. Several decades after this scene, it is an alliance of the Midianites and the Moabites who hire the prophet Balaam to come and curse Israel. Then when that fails it is the Midianites who seduce Israelite men into worshipping their false gods by offering the men of Israel their women. Later, it is the Midianites in alliance with the Amalekites who conquer and subject Israel during the time of Gideon. In other words, we have in this little story a picture of God's work throughout history and especially through the ministry of Jesus Christ and his church. Jesus, like Moses, destroyed all the enemies of God's people who hold us captive. He destroyed our great enemies, sin, death, Satan and hell by his mighty miracles, his death and his Exodus from the grave in the resurrection. He offers salvation to God's enemies by the proclamation of all the mighty works he performed on behalf of all who will trust him. So we, who by nature are the enemies of God have also had the gospel preached to us. As we experience the deliverance that Christ has won by his mighty works we join in the proclamation of those mighty works to our children and our neighbors and to the nations so that other enemies might join us in rejoicing in God's great deliverance, like Jethro. NARRATIVE BLOCK THREE (vv. 9-12) As Moses completed his proclamation of the great works of God in rescuing Israel, Jethro's face beamed with joy and he jumped to his feet and clapped his hands and declared, "Praise be to Yahweh who rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh and who rescued the people from the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that Yahweh is greater than all gods, for he did this to those who had treated Israel arrogantly. I know now that there is no god but Yahweh and he alone is worthy of worship and obedience. He alone will I now worship and all my family." Then Moses arose and sent messengers to gather all the elders of Israel to the altar he had built at the foot of Mt. Sinai. Jethro ordered his servants to purchase a year old lamb from among the Israelites and he went with Moses to the altar and gave the lamb to Moses to offer as a whole burnt offering of thanksgiving and also offered gold and silver to be used in the worship of God. Then he and Moses and the other elders of Israel joined together in a feast of worship in the presence of God before the altar. So the pagan priest of Midian, upon his confession of faith in Yahweh, joined with the people of God in the worship of God. APPLICATION What an awesome picture we have here of the conversion of one of God's enemies. Here is pictured that turning from sin and idolatry to trust in the only true and living God that is the fruit of the preaching of the gospel. Here is pictured the joy of salvation that is the mark of every true child of God. Here we see Jethro turn from the gods of his forefathers, the gods he has worshipped and served his entire life to embrace the only true God who has revealed himself in these powerful acts of deliverance for his people. Jethro believes what he hears. He did not personally witness these events. His faith is in the word preached to him by Moses. So it is with us. We did not personally witness the life, death and resurrection of Christ. We believe the eyewitness accounts that have been passed down to us in the written word of God. His faith in Yahweh as the only true God produces joy, the joy of salvation. Thus it is with all those who trust the word of the gospel of Christ. Joy floods our hearts as we realize that Christ's work has set us free from sin and death and hell. But then notice that Jethro's conversion automatically leads him to join with the people of God in the worship of God. Here also we see the inevitable joining of the individual Christian into the church. When a person is truly turned from sin to Christ then he or she delights to join with God's people in the fellowship of worship. We gather together with those who love Christ because we love Christ. We are not together because we share the same culture and the same lifestyle and the same politics but because we share the same Savior. As the existence of the tribes of Israel gathered before Mt. Sinai bore witness to the mighty work of God to deliver them out of Egypt, so it is the existence of the church, made up of people from all the nations of the world that is the primary witness to the mighty work of God to deliver his people from sin and death through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The participation of Jethro in the worship of God with the people of God upon his confession of faith in the only true God stands as a witness to the message of the gospel of Christ. Notice where this story is placed in the story of God's bringing his people out of Egypt to Mt. Sinai . In the next chapter God is going to give to Israel the law and he is going to tell them that he will only accept them as his people if they perfectly obey his whole law all the time. Yet here, just days before this law is given we see a pagan priest from among a people who are the enemies of God participate in the worship of God without obeying any law. How can this be? Here is just one of the numerous indicators throughout the OT that salvation is not by works of the law but by grace through faith in the Savior of God's people. Here is the gospel being preached to the OT people of God. So Jethro is not only a picture of non-Jewish people being accepted into the people of God by grace through faith but a witness to proud Israel that salvation for all men is always by the grace of God through faith in the Savior of God's people, who is Jesus. So the promise holds for us today that if we will believe what we have heard and confess our faith in Jesus Christ and joyfully join with the people of God in the worship of God, then we can be certain that whatever trouble comes upon this world or into our lives that we are safe because we are a part of the people of God on the way to the promised land. Here we see the central work of God in the universe, gathering his people out of all the nations of the world into one worshipping community and so, whatever may happen to us in this world we can be confident, if we belong to the church of Jesus Christ , that we are safe and secure and cannot be harmed. © Copyright
2005 John Swanson.
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