(Exodus) Exodus 18:1-12

Now, when we come to chapter 18, we come to a rather unusual experience, and it's the last experience, by the way. We have here Moses turning to worldly wisdom rather than to revelation. God has been leading him by revelation directly, and now Moses is turning and he's going to listen to his father-in-law.

His father-in-law is going to come visit him, and Moses is going to listen to him, which of course he should not. Now, this is all quite interesting here and rather important too. To begin with, Moses has come into the land of Midian now with the children of Israel.

They're going by Mount Sinai, and now the father-in-law of Moses brings his wife to him. Now, apparently when they went down to Egypt, and we saw that experience where she called him a bloody husband, that apparently he sent her back either then or shortly after that, and she was apparently not down there for the exodus that took place out of the land of Egypt. And now that they're out of the land and she'd been sent back to her father, why, Jethro the father-in-law brings her to Moses.

And while he's there, why, Jethro has a nice little visit with Moses. And by the way, I must call your attention to this again because there'll be some people listening today that were not listening before. The name of Moses' wife was Zipporah, and it means sparrow or it means birdie, a young bird.

In other words, this is the first instance of a wife named Lady Bird, and that's exactly what Moses' wife's name was, Lady Bird. Now, I want us to notice this, and we'll begin reading at verse 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, then Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he'd sent her back, and her two sons, of which the name of the one was Gershom, for he said, I've been an alien in a strange land. 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.

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. And he said unto Moses, I thy father-in-law Jethro am come unto thee and thy wife and her two sons with her. 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. 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. And Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which the Lord had done to Israel whom he delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians.

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. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, for in the thing wherein thou dealt proudly he was above them. And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices to God.

And Aaron came and all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law before God. Now, the thing that interests me here, and I wonder if you noticed it as we read this extended section, is that the father-in-law of Moses brought his wife to him, and apparently there was a marvelous relationship between Moses and his father-in-law. In fact, they seemed to be buddies, as we would use the term.

They seemed to be very close together. Moses tells him all that God has done for him, how God had led the children of Israel out of Egypt, and Jethro is interested in it. In fact, he shows a great interest in it.

And he enters into this in a very marvelous way. He is interested in Moses and reveals that. And you notice that when Moses went out to meet them, his father-in-law and his wife, why, we're told here that Moses kissed his father-in-law.

Wasn't nothing about kissing his wife or the two sons. Somebody says, well, Moses wrote this. Yes, that's right.

And I wonder again, now we've talked about Moses' family life before, and I'm not going into it again other than just call your attention to this, that it confirms the thing that we said, that the family relationship was probably not as it should have been. But because of the way God has led the children of Israel, and I think that probably Moses' father-in-law was rather skeptical when Moses announced he was going back to deliver the children of Israel out of bondage. I'm sure that he told the neighbors, I don't know what's come over my son-in-law.

He's got some pretty big notions. He thinks God's called him to deliver the children of Israel out of Egypt. And I just don't believe that the God he serves can do that.

Well, God did do it. And apparently this has brought now Jethro to a saving knowledge of God. And this is very important to see.

And we see he offers a burnt offering here.