Exodus 18

JETHRO’S VISIT TO MOSES, Exodus 18:1-27.

It is interesting to note that the hostile conflict with Amalek is immediately followed in this record by the friendly visit of Jethro, the Midianite. “Of all the characters that come across us in this stage of their history, he is the purest type of the Arabian chief. In the sight of his numerous flocks feeding round the well in Midian, in his courtesy to the stranger who became at once his slave and his son-in-law, we seem to be carried back to the days of Jacob and Laban. And now the old chief, attracted from far by the tidings of his kinsman’s fame, finds him out in the heart of the mountains of Sinai, encamped by the mount of God.… He listens, and with his own priestly sanctity acknowledges the greatness of his kinsman’s God; he officiates (if one may so say) like a second Melchizedek, the high priest of the desert.… He is the first friend, the first counsellor, the first guide, that they have met since they cut themselves off from the wisdom of Egypt, and they hang upon his lips like children.” Stanley. This narrative stands, therefore, in its contrast with the battle with Amalek as a typical portraiture of those other non-Israelitish peoples who, unlike the hostile Amalekites, were ready to recognise in the God of Israel a personality and power above all other gods. Thus in the history of God’s chosen people, and in the development of his kingdom, while some are fast and bitter to fight against his truth, others recognise in it the wisdom and power of the Most High. On the chronological order of this event see note on Exodus 18:5.