Jethro's departure.
I. JETHRO DEPARTS AFTER A MOST SATISFACTORY VISIT. That visit was made not perhaps without some anxiety and doubt as to the results, but still under the clear dictation of duty. Therefore, it would have been satisfactory even if less successful. Moses might, conceivably, have looked on Zipporah coldly and. received her reluctantly; but there would have remained to Jethro the priceless satisfaction that he had done the right thing. But Jethro, we have seen, had more even than the satisfaction of a good conscience; he had been successful, and successful beyond all that he could have anticipated when he set out. To a man of Jethro's disposition, that would indeed be a joyous visit, which had proved so useful to Moses, to Zipporah, to their children, to Israel, and may we not add, towards the glorifying of Jethro himself? Keep ever in the path that is clearly right, and you have Jethro's experience to encourage you in the expectation that it may also be the path of noble and joyous opportunities.
II. JETHRO DEPARTS, AND MOSES IS MADE TO FEEL, MORE THAN EVER, THAT JEHOVAH REMAINS. Very helpful are human counsel and sympathy, and especially when they come from old friends. There are no friends like old friends, and Jethro was a very old friend t o Moses. But Jethro's abilities and opportunities as adviser extended only a little way. Like Moses we may all have our Jethros whom we may love, cherish and venerate; for God distributes such men everywhere about the world to be, as it were, fellow-workers with trim in giving stability and illumination to the perplexed. But we cannot keep them; we may lose them at any moment; and while it is great wisdom to listen to them, it would be great folly to put them in the place of God. Though Jethro was very decided in the counsels he gave, he knew equally when to stop. We may look at him as coming in here to teach us that what we can expect from the most competent and loving of human friends is but a trifle compared with the great total of our needs. We are allowed to have but small expectations from the brother sinner, the brother mortal, the brother who is liable to ignorance and error, just as much as we are ourselves. When Jethro went away, Moses would feel himself all the more shut up to Jehovah. When the earthly is dumb, misleading, estranged, or dead, then the heavenly will speak in clear and loving accents to all who have ears to hear.
III. Jethro departs into his own land, for HE HAD DOUBTLESS PRESSING CLAIMS UPON HIM THERE. He was just the kind of man to make his presence, as long as he lived, a kind of necessity to his neighbours, he had come on a matter of urgency, not for his own pleasure or ease; and we may imagine he went back as soon as he conveniently could to finish such affairs at home as had been left unfinished. Note, however, that in going back to his own land, and away from Moses, he did not therefore retire from the service of God and the reach of God's blessings. Jethro and Moses seemed to be going different ways; but they only differed in external circumstances. Moses does not seem even to have asked Jethro to stay with him; whereas we know that he pressed and urged Hobab. Perhaps he felt that he had no sufficient reason for asking Jethro, or that it would be of no use.—Y.
Exodus
Exodus 18 - exodus-18 - worlddic.com