Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 1.djvu/326

294 of all the enemies of Christ and his kingdom. Whoever make war with the Lamb, the Lamb will overcome them.

CHAP. XVIII. This chapter is concerning Moses himself, and the affairs of his own family. I. Jethro his father-in-law brings to him his wife and children, v. 1..6. II. Moses entertains his father-in-law with great respect, (v. 7.) with good discourse, (v. 8..11.) with a sacrifice and a feast, v. 12. III. Jethro advises him about the management of his business, as a judge in Israel, to take inferior judges in to his assistance: (v. 13..23.) Moses, after some time, takes his counsel, (v. 24..26.) and so they part, v. 27.

HEN 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 had brought Israel out of Egypt, 2. Then Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her back, 3. And her two sons, of which the name of the one was Gershom; for he said, I have been an alien in a strange land: 4. 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. 5. 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: 6. And he said unto Moses, I thy father-in-law Jethro, am come unto thee, and thy wife, and her two sons with her.

This incident may very well be allowed to have happened, as it is placed here, before the giving of the law, and not, as some place it, in connexion with what is recorded, Numb. 10. 11, 29, &c. Sacrifices were offered before; in these mentioned here, (v. 12.) it is observable that Jethro is said to take them, not Aaron. And as to Jethro's advising Moses to constitute judges under him, though it is intimated, (v. 13.) that the occasion of his giving that advice was on the morrow, yet it does not follow but that Moses's settling of that affair might be some time after, when the law was given, as it is placed, Deut. 1. 9. It is plain that Jethro himself would not have him make this alteration in the government, till he had received instructions from God about it, (v. 23.) which he did not, till some time after. Jethro comes,

I. To congratulate the happiness of Israel, and particularly the honour of Moses his son-in-law; and now Jethro thinks himself well paid for all the kindness he had showed to Moses in his distress, and his daughter better-matched than he could have expected. Jethro could not but hear what all the country rang of, the glorious appearances of God for his people Israel; (v. 1.) and he comes to inquire, and inform himself more fully thereof, (see Ps. 111. 2.) and to rejoice with them, as one that had a true respect both for them and for their God. Though he, as a Midianite, was not to share with them in the promised land, yet he shared with them in the joy of their deliverance. We may thus make the comforts of others our own, by taking pleasure, as God does, in the prosperity of the righteous.

II. To bring Moses's wife and children to him. It seems, he had sent them back, probably from the inn where his wife's aversion to the circumcision of her son had like to have cost him his life; (ch. 4. 25.) he sent them home to his father-in-law, fearing lest they should prove a further hinderance; he foresaw what discouragements he was likely to meet with in the court of Pharaoh, and therefore would not take any with him in his own family. He was of that tribe that said to his father, I have not known him, when service was to be done for God, Deut 33. 9. Thus Christ's disciples, when they were to go upon an expedition, not much unlike that of Moses, were to forsake wife and children, Matth. 19. 29. But though there might be a reason for the separation that was between Moses and his wife for a time, yet they must come together again, as soon as ever they could with any convenience. It is the law of the relation, Ye husbands, dwell with your wives, 1 Pet. 3. 7. Jethro, we may suppose, was glad of his daughter's company, and fond of her children, yet he would not keep her from her husband, nor them from their father, v. 5, 6. Moses must have his family with him, that, while he ruled the church of God, he might set a good example of prudence in family government, 1 Tim. 3. 5. Moses had now a great deal both of honour and care put upon him, and it was fit that his wife should be with him, to share with him in both.

Notice is taken of the significant names of his two sons. 1. The eldest was called Gershom, (v. 3.) a stranger; Moses designing thereby, not only a memorial of his own condition, but a memorandum to his son of his condition also; for we are all strangers upon earth, as all our fathers were. Moses had a great uncle almost of the same name, Gershon, a stranger; for though he was born in Canaan, (Gen. 46. 11.) yet even there the patriarchs confessed themselves strangers. 2. The other he called Eliezer, (v. 4.) My God a help, as we translate it; it looks back to his deliverance frem Pharaoh, when he made his escape, after the slaying of the Egyptian; but, if this was (as some think) the son that was circumcised in the inn as he was going, I would rather translate it, so as to look forward, which the original. will bear, The Lord is mine help, and will deliver me from the sword of Pharaoh, which he had reason to expect would be drawn against him, when he was going to fetch Israel out of bondage. Note, When we are undertaking; any difficult service for God in our generation, it is good for us to encourage ourselves in God as our Help: he that has delivered, does, and will.

7. 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. 8. And Moses told his father-in-law all that the 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 delivered them. 9. And Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which the had done to Israel, whom he had delivered out of the hand ofthe Egyptians. 10. And Jethro said, Blessed be the, 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. 11. Now I know that the is greater than all gods: for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above them. 12. And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took a burnt-offering and sacrifices for God: and Aaron