Reunited and It Feels So Good - Exodus 18:1-12

18:1-6 - The Israelites had just experienced their first victory in battle, which for a group that had gone through so much together already, this must have been scary but also empowering for them. It’s always nice to know that you can protect yourself and that God Himself is on your side when it comes up. At this point, Jethro brings Zipporah back to Moses with their two sons. There has been so much going on in the last year that it’s easy to remember that Zipporah and the boys had gone home back to Jethro before Moses even made it to Egypt in the first place. So much has happened during their time apart, that I would imagine that Moses was probably a different guy than when Zipporah left, so it would have been interesting to see their initial interactions and how they integrated back into family life together. There’s always a transition time when a family is reunited, I’ve seen this many times in the military, and it’s usually painful and difficult for all involved, so it just would have been interesting to see how they did it and how Moses was different at this point.

Interestingly, Jethro brings them back and he’s described as “the priest of Midian” which Joseph Smith re-translated to the “high priest of Midian.” TB insisted that Jethro was just the religious leader of the area but that he absolutely had NO affiliation with Israel, meaning that he would have been the equivalent of the magicians back in Egypt. However, the IM notes, “Joseph Smith changed Exodus 18:1 to read ‘the high priest of Midian,” confirming what is recorded in Doctrine and Covenants 84:6-7, that Jethro held the Melchizedek Priesthood. D&C 84:6-7 says, “And the sons of Moses, according to the Holy Priesthood which he received under the hand of his father-in-law, Jethro, And Jethro received it under the hand of Caleb.”

I had read a book by Cleon Skousen called “The First Two Thousand Years” back in the day and it said basically the same thing, that there were these pockets of true believers with priesthood authority throughout the world because of all the times that God had restored the gospel and then the subsequent apostasies, but there would remain a few groups of people who remained faithful for some time. Another example he gave was the wisemen who came to visit the baby Jesus when He was born. Skousen noted that they would have had to know the significance of the birth or Christ, and they would have had to know what sign to look for, and they would have recognized the sign and the significance and known what to do. All this points to a group of people who were seemingly unrelated to the Hebrews, yet knew the Hebrew God quite well and wielded His authority. This would explain why Jethro was the High Priest in the area and held the Melchizedek Priesthood. Interestingly too that the D&C says that he got it from Caleb. I’m not sure who Caleb is, but it just shows that God has been working throughout human history to establish His gospel.

18:7-12 - Moses’ reaction to seeing Zipporah and his boys isn’t detailed, but man is he happy to see his father-in-law because he, “went out to meet (him)… and did obeisance, and kissed him; and they asked each other of their welfare; and they came into the tent.” We know that Zipporah was feisty, and I’m sure Moses was happy to see her and the boys, but he probably still felt responsible for them, and he was. But with Jethro, I wonder if it was more of a situation where Moses saw Jethro as a man with a huge burden to care for a large group of people, which Moses was currently being crushed by a similar burden. I wonder if Moses related to Jethro in that responsibility and was grateful to have someone around who understood just how heavy a load Moses was carrying.

Just in case we needed more proof that Jethro knew the Hebrew God, when Moses told Jethro everything that happened with Israel in Egypt, “Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which the Lord had done to Israel, whom he had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians.” He praised God, recognizing “Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods; for in the thing where in they dealt with proudly he was above them.” Israel’s God clearly was more powerful than any of the other gods out there and I don’t think we should take this statement to mean anything negative about Jethro or his faith because all people, maybe even Moses, at this point believed in many gods, it was just that the Hebrew God was the most powerful. Jethro “took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God,” so he knew what to do, he knew the ordinances. Jethro clearly was a part of the gospel, and the fact that he performed sacrifices to God, and Moses let him, demonstrates that.