Reunited And It Feels So Glood
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Introduction
Introduction
EX.
1 Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel his people, how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. 2 Now Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, had taken Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her home, 3 along with her two sons. The name of the one was Gershom (for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land”), 4 and the name of the other, Eliezer (for he said, “The God of my father was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh”). 5 Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness where he was encamped at the mountain of God. 6 And when he sent word to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her,” 7 Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. And they asked each other of their welfare and went into the tent. 8 Then Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardship that had come upon them in the way, and how the Lord had delivered them. 9 And Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the Lord had done to Israel, in that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians. 10 Jethro said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. 11 Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people.” 12 And Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and sacrifices to God; and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law before God. 13 The next day Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening. 14 When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning till evening?” 15 And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God; 16 when they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another, and I make them know the statutes of God and his laws.” 17 Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good. 18 You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. 19 Now obey my voice; I will give you advice, and God be with you! You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God, 20 and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. 21 Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. 22 And let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. 23 If you do this, God will direct you, you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace.” 24 So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said. 25 Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people, chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. 26 And they judged the people at all times. Any hard case they brought to Moses, but any small matter they decided themselves. 27 Then Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went away to his own country.
My childhood and teen years were in the 70’s and 80’s. What that means, apart from my being old, is that as I am working on sermons and trying to figure out what my sermon title is going to be, old R&B and Hip-hop lyrics start popping up in my head. That is exactly what happened to me yesterday as I worked on this sermon and didn’t have a title. Some of you will recognize that this title comes from the 1970’s song by Peaches & Herb, “Reunited And It Feels So Good.” They, of course were singing about their relationship; about their breakup that made them feel lonesome and sad; about the realization that they needed each other. So they got back together. In the chorus of the song they sing,
Reunited, and it feels so good
Reunited 'cause we understood
There's one perfect fit
And, sugar, this one is it
We both are so excited 'cause we're reunited, hey, hey
Why did this song come to mind as I was studying our text for today? Because reunion is at the heart of . This chapter is actually a bridge chapter in the book of Exodus. The people are at the mountain of God, Mount Sinai. There’s no hint of external threat. They’ve been delivered from the Egyptians and from the Amelekites. The Lord has provided food and drink for them in the wilderness. And so, the first twelve verses serve as an epilogue, a concluding word on the deliverance theme of the first 17 chapters of the book. Moses is reunited with his wife and children, and the Lord is declared to be great because of his power to deliver.
The second half of the chapter serves as the prologue, the first word on the major theme in the next section of the book, the law. The Lord promised Moses when he was at the burning bush in ch. 3,
12 He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
They’ve been delivered and are now at the mountain. The question for this new nation of people is, “Now that we’ve been reunited to the Lord, how shall we live?” What does the good life, the life of justice, righteousness and peace look like now that we’re free to worship the Lord?
Reunited and it feels so good! Surprisingly, the central figure in this important chapter isn’t Moses. It’s Moses’s father-in-law, Jethro, the priest Midian; a non-Israelite. What we find in vv. 1-12 is that the Lord has made himself known to Jethro through Israel’s deliverance. Then, incredibly in vv. 13-27, the Lord makes himself further known to Israel through Jethro’s wisdom. This non-Israelite is able to impart godly wisdom to Moses about what good leadership looks like as the people transition into life as a nation.
So, we’ll take the two sections of this chapter under two parts for our message: Reunited in Praise and Reunited in Peace
Reunited in Praise
Reunited in Praise
Verse 1 tells us that Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for his people Israel. We haven’t seen or heard from Jethro since chapter 4:18. After Moses’ encounter with the Lord at the burning bush it says.
18 Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Please let me go back to my brothers in Egypt to see whether they are still alive.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”
Then we’re told in that Moses took his wife and his sons and went back to the land of Egypt. Now there’s a reunion that results in praise.
There are two aspects to this reunion in vv.1-12 verses that I want to point out. The first, and most obvious, is Moses being reunited with his wife and children. Listen, the Bible is so full of amazing wonders and signs and miracles that we can often overlook the humanness of this book. Moses has missed his wife and children, and even his father-in-law. This is a joyful reunion. In v. 6 Jethro sent word to Moses, “I your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her sons with her.” Moses doesn’t sit back and wait. He goes out to meet Jethro. He greets him with honor, bowing down and kissing his father-in-law. Then they get caught up with each other on how things are going.
when, after Moses’ encounter with God at the burning bush
Now when and why did Moses send Zipporah and their sons back home to Midian? They had clearly left with him. Did he send them back before the plagues in Egypt to protect them? Did he send them back after Israel was delivered so they could tell Jethro about what happened? I don’t know. The Bible doesn’t tell us. Any answer would be speculation.
Here’s what I do know. The writer takes the family reunion as an opportunity to emphasize God’s delivering power. Did you notice that in vv. 3-4? We heard Gershom’s name before, in . It says, Zipporah
22 She gave birth to a son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.”
Gershom’s name comes from the Hebrew word that means sojourner or foreigner. His name is repeated here for emphasis. Gershom was born in Midian and his name will be a reminder for Moses of his immigrant status. Was he a sojourner in Midian? Or was he a sojourner in Egypt? Neither place was his true home. He was going to be a stranger and an alien until he got to the promised land. Then, for the first time, we get the name of his other son, Eliezer. Eliezer literally means, “My God is helper.” This is his name because Moses wants to testify that “the God of my father was my help and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh.”
As one writer rightly put it,
These verses are much more than simply a family reunion in the desert…Rather, they form a concrete reminder to the readers of where Moses and the Israelites have been. (Peter Enns)
You see, this whole deal is gearing up for praise. Here’s the deal y’all. If you’ve experienced God’s deliverance, you’ll remind yourself of it in concrete ways. If you know that the Lord has brought you out, it won’t be a ho-hum deal to you. If you know that you’re not perfect. In other words, if you know that you’re a sinner. And you know that your imperfection is not OK with God. But you also know that God has provided a way out through Jesus Christ so that his frown can be turned into a smile, that won’t be a ho-hum deal for you.
Why is the name of this church Grace Mosaic? Why does the name of each church in our network start with the word “grace”? Because we need a concrete reminder that we stand daily in need of the grace of God. And that it’s available to us in and through Jesus Christ.
The first point of the family reunion here is a concrete reminder of where they were when they cried out to God for help. And where they are now after God stepped in with his strong hand and outstretched arm. It’s a reminder that God isn’t deaf. He hears our cries and our pleas for rescue.
The second aspect of the reunion is utterly amazing. Let me tell you what we’re being given here. It’s another picture of God’s commitment to knit humanity back together in Jesus Christ. Here’s what I mean. Do you remember what God promised to Abraham back in ? It’s the first mention of the promised land. But the point of the promise is in 12:3 when the Lord says to Abraham, in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. All the families of the earth who are divided by nationality and ethnicity will be reunited through a descendant of Abraham. And it’s starting with Abraham’s own family. We get a glimpse of that here in Jethro coming to Moses.
You see, Moses is a descendant of Abraham through his wife Sarah. Sarah gives birth to Isaac. Isaac is the Jacab, whose name is changed to Israel. And Moses is in that line.
But after Sarah died, it says in that Abraham married another woman, whose name was Keturah. One of Keturah’s sons was Midian. So, Jethro, the priest of Midian, is also a descendant of Abraham. So, Moses’ marriage to Zipporah is a reunion of two parts of Abraham’s family. The Israelite and the non-Israelite part.
Here’s the point y’all. The reunion is all so that God would get the glory and praise that’s due his name. Do you hear what Jethro says in vv. 10:11?
EX
10 Jethro said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. 11 Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people.”
Over and over again in Exodus we find out that the events that take place are happening so that people will know that the Lord is God. When Moses goes to Pharaoh in ch. 5 and says, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, let my people go,” what does Pharaoh say?
2 But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.”
God says he’s going to send the plagues on Pharaoh himself in 9:14, “so that you may know that there’s none like me in all the earth.” In , in the song of Moses, when the peoples of the other nations heard of God’s delivering Israel, they trembled in fear. The Amelekites, when they hear of Israel’s deliverance, they respond with violence. But now, in the epilogue to the first part of Exodus, which is focused on deliverance, we hear from the mouth of Jethro what the response of the nations should be. “Blessed be the Lord who has delivered you! Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods!”
This has always been God’s plan; to reunite the peoples of this world from every tribe and tongue, every race, every nation, every ethnicity, under his lordship. In , Matthew quotes from and says that these words were fulfilled in Jesus:
“Here is my Servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight, I will put my Spirit upon him and he will proclaim justice to the nations…A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, until he leads justice to victory. In his name the nations will put their hope.”
The reunion of the nations that leads to praise and glorifying God isn’t a tangent to his plan, it’s at the heart of it!
Reunited in Peace
Reunited in Peace
And even though the transition from praise in vv. 10-12 might seem disconnected from the administrative tone of vv. 13-27, these verses carry the same theme of reunion forward. Jethro is still at the center; a non-Israelite voice speaking godly wisdom. The question at the heard of the second half of this chapter is what kind of witness to the nations is Israel going to be? Next week we’ll get to ch. 19 and hear the Lord say to the people in , “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself...you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” How will the nation that has been delivered from slavery, and been reunited to God, demonstrate to the world that God is just and good?
Now, I’m not a handyman by any stretch of the imagination. But I do like the challenge of putting things together. You know, you order some furniture and it comes with instructions and tools for how to assemble it. And I typically like the challenge of doing it by myself. Every once in while we’ll order something that’s got to be assembled. But it’s heavy and the instructions say something like, “two people required.” I usually read that and think something like this, “I’m strong. I do CrossFit. I don’t need no help. I can do this by myself.” Then, I get about a third of the way through and as I’m trying to leverage one part on my back and contort my body to tighten a screw on another part, as sweat is dripping off of my forehead, I finally confess, “I need some help. I can’t do this by myself!”
That’s what’s happening in the second half of this passage. Moses, it says in v. 13, sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening. In chapter 17 Moses stood on the hill from morning till evening while the Israelites fought with the Amelekites in the valley. Now, he’s standing all day to judge the people. Do you hear what’s going on? They are to be a people who follow God’s word; who follow God’s law; but who also need to know how that law applies to their daily lives and relationships with each other. This is because they are supposed to be a people who know how to live in peace. This is part of their witness to the world that their God is Lord. Jethro himself knows this. He says to Moses in v. 23
23 If you do this, God will direct you, you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace.”
Moses has been the ordained leader, functioning as prophet, priest and king over the people. And he is trying here to be the sole arbiter or judge of what is good and right and just. The burden is too heavy. It’s too much for him to bear. He thinks that he has to do all the heavy lifting because he’s called by God to lead the people. Jethro sees this and asks Moses in v. 14, “What are you doing? Why do you sit alone and all the people stand around you all day?” Moses answers him in vv. 15-16. “Because the people come to me to inquire of God. They need to know how to settle their disputes and I let them know what God’s statutes and laws are.” You hear? There’s no one else who can do what I’m doing for this people.
Man does that resonate. I told you about my tendency when putting furniture together, but how much do we find this attitude in leaders? “I know how things need to be done.” “There’s no one who can do this job like I can.” “If I let other people do it, they’ll just mess it up, and I’ll be blamed for it.” In other words, “This job can’t be trusted to anyone but me.”
Can I tell you something? This attitude can thrive at the executive level of a company. It can thrive at the mid-level management level of an organization. It can thrive with leaders on a sports team. It can thrive with parents who can’t tolerate the imperfect way their children clean the kitchen or vacuum the floors. And, yes, it can thrive among pastors who take on too much as if they’re Jesus. And this kind of leadership always results in dysfunctional organizations, teams, families and churches.
For every leader who has this tendency, Jethro’s words to Moses in v. 17 is for us, “What you are doing is not good. You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you You are not able to do it alone.” Did you catch that? Moses’ taking on too much of the leadership burden wasn’t just going to wear himself out. It was going to wear the people out!
Jethro says, here’s what you’ve got to do. You’ll still represent the people before God. You’ll still bring their cases before God. You’ll still warn them about God’s statutes and laws and how to apply them. But your other function is to look for able men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and give them oversight of various groups; thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.
From a biblical perspective, the point is this. The Spirit of God for wisdom and judgment among God’s people doesn’t rest with Moses alone. Moses is to utilize discernment in selecting the men who help judge the more minor matters. When Jethro tells him to look for able men in v. 21, the word for look implies a visionary perception. Their qualifications are similar to the qualifications we find for elders in . It’s all about their character. They fear God. They can’t be bought. They’re trustworthy. In other words, they’re more focused on serving others than they are on promoting their own agenda.
Remember, the big picture. This is about a transition. We’re being primed for the next section of the book, the giving of the law. The ten commandments are coming in chapter 20. They’re not just a ragtag group of freed slaves now. They’re a nation; a nation that has to be structured so that they can demonstrate the way of peace for the world to see. There are practical applications for the way people who have been reunited to God live.
Listen y’all. If anybody could lead God’s people by himself it’s Jesus. If anybody could bear the load of being God’s mouthpiece by himself, because nobody could do it better, it’s Jesus. If anybody should have concern about giving his authority to other people because they’ll just mess it up, it’s Jesus!
But what do we find Jesus doing?
13 And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. 14 And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach 15 and have authority to cast out demons.
MARK3.
What does Jesus pray for his disciples in ?
9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.
JN17
Then he says again in
22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
We have in Jesus an expansion of what we find Moses doing in . Jesus says to the Father, “All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.” Then he says, “The glory that you have given I have given to them.”
In Jesus we are reunited to God not just for praise, but for peace. Do you hear the words. Jesus says he has shared his glory with us. For what purpose? That we may be one even as he and the Father are one. Why is that important? He says so that the world may know that the Father sent him. Just like the Israel of the old covenant, those who are reunited to God are reunited to pursue peace as a testimony to the greatness of our God!
I know that we’ve got a song in the bulletin for communion, but as we come to this table as the mosaic that we are, recreated as a people under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, we should come singing, “Reunited and it feels so good! Reunited cause we understood! There’s one perfect fit, and beloved Jesus is it! We’re all so excited cause we’re reunited, hey, hey!