Exodus 18

Jethro visits Moses (vs. 1-6)—Moses had sent his wife, Zipporah, and two sons (Gershom and Eliezer) back to Midian to visit with her father, Jethro. (v. 2), who is called Reuel in Exodus 2:18. That’s probably his proper name, which Jethro was his official title. He was a priest of Midian, which would indicate his worship of their gods. The fact that Moses lived 40 years with him doesn’t seem to have affected the Hebrew’s faith in Jehovah. In this chapter, Jethro comes for a visit, bringing Moses’ wife and two sons with him (v. 6).

Jethro and Moses converse (vs. 7-12)—Moses goes out to meet his family (v. 7), and there is a joyful reunion, thought, interestingly, Zipporah and the children aren’t mentioned. Again, that can be accounted for by the strict patriarchal society of the day; women and children weren’t mentioned unless there was some overriding importance in doing so. Moses tells Jethro all that the Lord had done in Egypt (v. 8), and Jethro rejoiced to hear it (v. 9). Verse 11 records an interesting statement of the priest: “’Now I know that the LORD is greater than all the gods; for in the very thing in which they behaved proudly, He was above them.’" Notice: “greater than all the gods.” Jethro apparently wasn’t prepared to admit that Jehovah was the only god, which is not too surprising, since he had been a priest of foreign gods all his life. But it was a significant admission that the Hebrew god was the greatest. Whether Moses’ father-in-law was ever converted to monotheism is unknown. He was willing to offer sacrifices to Jehovah, however (v. 12).

Jethro’s judicial advice (vs. 13-27)—Moses was handling all judicial matters by himself. Anybody that had a complaint came directly to him. Well, with the huge multitude of Israelites in the wilderness, this was a near impossible situation, and Jethro recognized it and gave Moses some advice: “Select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. And let them judge the people at all times. Then it will be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they themselves shall judge. So it will be easier for you, for they will bear the burden with you” (vs. 21-22). This multi-tiered judicial system, with Moses acting as the “Supreme Court,” was wise for a large body of people, and Moses recognized it. It took a tremendous load off of him. Moses allowed the lower “rulers” to judge “the people at all times; the hard cases they brought to Moses, but they judged every small case themselves” (v. 26). Jethro soon after left and went back home (v. 27).