Jethro and Moses (Exodus)

Appleton Gospel Church

Jethro and Moses (Exodus): Whether you have an official leadership role or title, everyone can influence someone for good. When Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, visited the Israelites, he realized Moses would be crushed without some serious help. He advised Moses to invite others to share the leadership burden with him. God’s people needed good and godly leaders to help them live lives that bring glory and honor to him. Recorded on Dec 8, 2024, on Exodus 18 by Pastor David Parks. This message is part of our Exodus series called Journey to Freedom. Exodus is a story of liberation — of God working to rescue and redeem a people for himself, freeing them from slavery and leading them to the land he promised to the family of Abraham and Sarah. Exodus is also a picture of the gospel and the Christian life. In Christ, we, too, are freed from captivity to sin and death and led through the wilderness of life by God’s Word and Presence as we make our way to the Promised Land of the world to come. Join us as we make this journey to find true and lasting freedom. Sermon Transcript So, we’re working through the book of Exodus in a sermon series called Journey to Freedom. Exodus is a story of liberation, of God rescuing and redeeming a people for himself. After freeing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, Yahweh God led them through the desert wilderness by his word given through the prophet Moses and by his own holy Presence in the form of a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. But, we’ve seen that things didn’t get much easier for the Israelites on the other side of the famous parting of the Red Sea. The Israelites struggled and grumbled through a series of desert tests before being viciously attacked by the Amalekites at Rephidim. It was tough, and the people didn’t display a very impressive amount of faith in the God who had just rescued them from Egypt. But Yahweh proved faithful and good and provided what they needed despite their grumbling and quarreling. Today, we have one more stop to make, one more chapter in our story, before we get to the fireworks of Mount Sinai, the giving of the Law, and the establishment of the covenant between Yahweh and Israel. When Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, meets them, he offers a suggestion that would help Moses lead the people well and not be crushed by the burden. This chapter offers many leadership lessons. Now, whether you have an official leadership role or not, everyone can influence others for good. And this is what good leadership is all about. We need these lessons. So, if you have your Bible/app, please open it to Exodus 18:1. We’ll read through this and unpack it as we go. Exodus 18:1–7 (NIV), “1 Now Jethro, the priest of Midian and father-in-law of Moses, heard of everything God had done for Moses and for his people Israel, and how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. 2 After Moses had sent away his wife Zipporah, his father-in-law Jethro received her 3 and her two sons. One son was named Gershom, for Moses said, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land”; 4 and the other was named Eliezer, for he said, “My father’s God was my helper; he saved me from the sword of Pharaoh.” 5 Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, together with Moses’ sons and wife, came to him in the wilderness, where he was camped near the mountain of God. 6 Jethro had sent word to him, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons.” 7 So Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. They greeted each other and then went into the tent.” Moses doesn’t record when, but at some point between leaving Midian with his family and his time in Egypt during the Ten Plagues, he sent his wife Zipporah and their sons back to live in Midian with her father, Jethro. He doesn’t say why, and some have speculated that they were having trouble in their marriage. But it doesn’t say that. And once the Israelites reached Mount Sinai,