Moses Heeds Jethro’s Counsel

Leading Israel out of Egyptian slavery was no easy feat because it required repeated appearances before an arrogant king, convincing the Israelites to heed direction, and dealing with all manner of difficulties along the way (Ex. 5–17). By God’s grace, however, Moses was able to accomplish this. In light of such great success despite so many obstacles, we might expect that Moses would have become haughty, or at least that he would have been tempted to be proud and to think that he had nothing to learn from anybody else. Yet this was not the case. As Numbers 12:3 tells us, Moses was very meek, more so than anyone else on the earth in his day.

We see evidence for this in today’s passage. Having received advice from Jethro regarding the establishment of several judges in Israel (Ex. 18:13–23), Moses heeded the wisdom of his father-in-law and appointed others to assist him in settling the legal disputes of the nation. Other men adjudicated most of the cases, leaving Moses to decide only the most difficult issues (Ex. 18:24–27). Though Jethro was an important man in his own clan and country, being a priest in Midian (3:1), he did not hold the exalted status of a prophet and, essentially, king over an entire nation like Moses. Nevertheless, Moses recognized true wisdom when he heard it and did not consider himself above implementing Jethro’s sage advice. John Chrysostom, an important preacher from the early church, comments, “Nothing was ever more humble than [Moses], who, being leader of so great a people . . . and having wrought so many wonders both in Egypt and by the Red Sea, and in the wilderness, and received such high testimony, yet felt exactly as if he had been an ordinary person.”

The willingness of Moses to hear and follow good counsel from one with less authority provides leaders today with a good example to follow, especially leaders in the church. Surely Moses is one of the greatest leaders in the history of God’s people, and if even he did not think it unbecoming to recognize wisdom from those “beneath him,” as it were, in rank, then authorities today would be foolish not to heed wisdom from those whom they lead. John Calvin comments, “This yielding, then, of Moses to his authority, lays down a rule for all the greatest and most excellent Doctors, that they should not refuse to receive the admonitions of those whom they admit to teach rightly, although they are not of such high dignity.”