“Moses’s father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, heard about everything that God had done for Moses and for God’s people Israel when the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt. Now Jethro, Moses’s father-in-law, had taken Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her back, along with her two sons, one of whom was named Gershom (because Moses had said, ‘I have been a resident alien in a foreign land’) and the other Eliezer (because he had said, ‘The God of my father was my helper and rescued me from Pharaoh’s sword’). Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, along with Moses’ wife and sons, came to him in the wilderness where he was camped at the mountain of God. He sent word to Moses, ‘I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons.’ So Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, bowed down, and then kissed him. They asked each other how they had been and went into the tent. Moses recounted to his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for israel’s sake, all the hardships that confronted them on the way, and how the Lord rescued them.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

This next part of the story of Israel’s journey to the Promised Land is one of those that feels like it doesn’t really have any point. It’s just story. Yet as we have seen time and again, God often hides deep truth in the context of ‘just stories.’ Some of the truth through chapter 18 is obvious and gets preached a lot. Other parts are more subtle and will require us to sit with the text a little longer. The first part of the chapter takes us through a lot of this second kind. Let’s start here with Moses’ getting some time with his family. Let’s talk about why it mattered for him and why it matters for us.

Moses had been through a lot over the past few weeks. Like, a lot. He had been on the road with Israel in the wilderness for nearly three months at this point. Before that was the few weeks or possibly even few months of the plagues and confronting Pharaoh. We don’t often think about just what a burden all that must have been for him. We far too easily put Moses in the category of “super Bible character” and forget that He was just a regular guy. He didn’t really want this job in the first place. He became a very reluctant leader of a nation. And, almost as soon as he got started, nearly all of the things he was worried about happening began to happen. Pharaoh told him where to take his request to let the people go. The people weren’t interested in his leading them. The Egyptians feared and hated him. It was an incredibly lonely, difficult road. Needless to say, it had been a long year.

To make matters even worse, as we learn here, he had apparently sent his wife and kids back home before all the trouble began. We know they had accompanied him back to Egypt in the beginning, but sometime after things started getting hairy, he had sent them back home, likely for their own safety. So, in addition to bearing all these heavy burdens, he had to do it all by himself. He didn’t have his wife and kids to offer their love and support and strength the way that only a family can.

At long last, when the Israelites were encamped at “the mountain of God,” Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought them back to Moses for a family reunion. Imagine the encouragement this had to have been to Moses. Now, we don’t know what his marriage was like, but we have to think there was at least some love between the pair after as much as 40 years of marriage. And while his kids were likely grown and perhaps even with families of their own at this point (unless Moses and Zipporah had waited a long, long time to have kids), I can say as a father that seeing his boys was a most welcome diversion from the burdens of leadership he had been carrying. In addition to that, there seems to have been some genuine affection between Moses and Jethro. Given the fact that there is a chance the two were fairly close in age (marrying a daughter off to a much older man was not at all unheard of in that culture), Moses and Jethro may have been good friends. All told, this was likely an enormous relief to Moses.

Now, from a details standpoint, there are a couple of different things worth noticing. For starters, the news of what God had done in Egypt had spread. This was exactly what His plan was from the beginning. Word was spreading across the region that Israel’s God was powerful and that His people were not to be trifled with. Now, apparently Amalek hadn’t gotten that memo, but they learned quickly as we saw last week.

A second detail is that the text notes at the beginning that the Israelites were camping at the mountain of God when Jethro arrived. That’s where we find them arriving in chapter 19. How were they already there if they hadn’t yet arrived? Remember that in ancient documents like this, they treated chronology as less important than theme. The beginning of chapter 19 has them arriving at Mount Sinai for the sake of introducing a brand-new section of the story. The events of chapter 18 took place after they arrived there, but the theme of these events serves as a transition from their journeying to the giving of the Law. What will happen in the rest of this chapter sets in place the system by which the Law God will give the people through Moses in the next section can be administered effectively.

Well, if this was good family time for Moses, what does this all mean for us? Is there anything here for us beyond some good details that help to fill out the story? Where here do we find something to learn or be challenged by or corrected by or to train us in righteousness? How does this reveal more of God’s character to us? Here are a couple of thoughts.

Family matters. A lot. Moses had an enormous journey ahead of him. He was not going to be able to do it on his own. He needed some people who were going to support him even when no one else would. Even his own brother and sister would eventually turn on him. Having his wife and kids with him to give him the encouragement and support he needed was going to be a very big deal. If God has called you on the journey that is marriage and family life, don’t neglect that. Do what it takes to invest in those relationships in order to keep them healthy and strong. Part of that means investing in them; part of that means investing in yourself. Make those investments. They will pay enormous dividends as you go through life. There will be times when your husband or your wife is the only one standing with you. When those moments arrive, you want to be sure they are willing to stand.

A second thought is this: God knows what we need. He not only knows what we need, He knows right when we need it. As we are going to see over the next few days, Moses’ reunion with his wife and kids came with the extra gift of his father-in-law, Jethro. Jethro offered Moses some wisdom and counsel that made what would turn out to be the next 40 years something he was able to endure. Jethro’s counsel would keep him from burning himself completely out and becoming a casualty of overwork. God knew Moses needed this and needed it at this point in his journey. So, He provided it.

God’s willingness and ability to provide what we need hasn’t changed. If we will trust in Him, He will make sure we have what we need, when we need it. Sometimes this will come at times and in ways that are surprising. It will occasionally arrive in packages that require us to be humble if we are going to be able to receive it. There is a lot of variety here, but His provision is consistent. We can trust in Him.

Family matters and God will provide. Those don’t necessarily seem like great or profound truths, but perhaps they are ones you needed to be reminded of today. This is why sitting with all the Scriptures matters so much. Sometimes just what we need comes in places that otherwise don’t seem to matter very much.