Exodus 18:19-20 Statutes and Laws!

19Now listen to me; I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their causes to Him. 20Teach them the statutes and laws, and show them the way to live and the work they must do.

“The Christian pastor is in some respects comparable to Moses, for he is set apart as a leader in the band of brethren; and as such his business is not only to teach the people but to plead for them with God.” (Spurgeon)

If the people knew the statues and laws they could settle most of their disputes between themselves.

When people don’t abide by statues and laws we have lawlessness.

When elected officials don’t follow statues and laws we have a breakdown in society.

I look forward to the 2nd advent.

Do you?

Blessings, David 

Exodus 18:13-18 You cannot handle it alone!

13The next day Moses took his seat to judge the people, and they stood around him from morning until evening. 14When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he asked, “What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone as judge, with all the people standing around you from morning till evening?”

15“Because the people come to me to inquire of God,” Moses replied. 16“Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me to judge between one man and another, and I make known to them the statutes and laws of God.”

17But Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good. 18Surely you and these people with you will wear yourselves out, because the task is too heavy for you. You cannot handle it alone.

“Sat… stood are technical terms of Semitic law, denoting ‘judge’ and ‘litigant’ respectively.” (Cole)

“Men called by God to lead are always in danger of attempting to encompass more than they are able.” (Morgan)

Moses was trying to do too much on his own!

“What you are doing is not good.” Jethro recognized Moses would wear himself out!

“You cannot handle it alone.”

When I was serving as a volunteer chaplain at the ASVH if it were not for the good men and women of the chaplain corps I would have worn myself out. We divided up the building in sections and performed visitations to everyone that was willing to see us. This ministry was too big for one person to handle.

“You cannot handle it alone.”

Are you serving in a ministry and wearing yourself out? If so, pray about expanding it!

Blessings, David 

Exodus 18:7-12 The Lord is greater than all other gods!

7So Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. They greeted each other and went into the tent. 8Then 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 they had encountered along the way, and how the LORD had delivered them.

9And Jethro rejoiced over all the good things the LORD had done for Israel, whom He had rescued from the hand of the Egyptians. 10Jethro declared, “Blessed be the LORD, who has delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh, and who has delivered the people from the hand of the Egyptians. 11Now I know that the LORD is greater than all other gods, for He did this when they treated Israel with arrogance.”

12Then Moses’ father-in-law Jethro 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 in the presence of God.

“The whole scene is typical of eastern courtesy. Both men are now great chiefs in their own right and behave accordingly.” (Cole)

Re-read Jethro’s declaration,

Jethro declared, “Blessed be the LORD, who has delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh, and who has delivered the people from the hand of the Egyptians. 11Now I know that the LORD is greater than all other gods, for He did this when they treated Israel with arrogance.”

If Jethro was the priest of Midian, how could he have made the statements above that I underlined?

In reality he’s no different than us, for at times we doubt, we sin, we are led astray by the world! Consider Cole’s commentary,

“This may not be true monotheism (the belief that there is only one god), but it certainly leads to monolatry (the worship of one god to the exclusion of others) as a logical sequence.” (Cole)

Do you believe, that the LORD is greater than all other gods?

Blessings, David 

Exodus 18:1-6 Your wife and her two sons.

1Now Moses’ father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, heard about all that God had done for Moses and His people Israel, and how the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt.

2After Moses had sent back his wife Zipporah, his father-in-law Jethro had received her 3along with her two sons. One son was named Gershom, for Moses had said, “I have been a foreigner in a foreign land.” 4The other son was named Eliezer, because Moses had said, “The God of my father was my helper and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh.”

5Moses’ father-in-law Jethro, along with Moses’ wife and sons, came to him in the desert, where he was encamped at the mountain of God. 6He sent word to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons.”

Jethro was the priest of Midian, likely a descendant of Abraham and a priest of the One true God.

Genesis 25: 1Now Abraham had taken another wife, named Keturah, 2and she bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.

2After Moses had sent back his wife Zipporah, his father-in-law Jethro had received her 3along with her two sons.

Even though I read this it didn’t stick in my mind, Moses most likely sent them back prior or during the plagues.

“This is the first, and only, mention of Moses’ second son, whose very name suggests a rekindling of faith in Moses’ heart, compared with the despair shown in the name ‘Gershom’.” (Cole)

“came to him in the desert, where he was encamped at the mountain of God. “ 

“I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons.”

It is suggested that this coming to Moses is not in chronological order.

We learn from these verses that Moses sends his “wife and her two sons” back to his father-in-law most likely to protect them during the plagues and later his father-in-law returns them to Moses.

I wonder what Jethro thought when he actually saw 2 million Israelites being led by Moses through the wilderness? Would he have said OMG?

Blessings, David 

Exodus 17:15-16 Yahweh-Nissi and War against Amalek!

15And Moses built an altar and named it The LORD Is My Banner.

The LORD Is My Banner. Yahweh-Nissi

“The Israelites fought under the direction of God, Jehovah-Nissi. It was under the Lord’s banner and with His aid they fought, and in His name and strength they conquered.”

“The naming of the altar Jehovah-Nissi is a reminder to believers of every era that we can only be victorious as we honor the name of the Lord and rally to Him as our Banner.”

https://www.gotquestions.org/Jehovah-Nissi.html

16“Indeed,” he said, “a hand was lifted up toward the throne of the LORD. The LORD will war against Amalek from generation to generation.”

Numbers 24:20 Then Balaam saw Amalek and lifted up an oracle, saying:

“Amalek was first among the nations, but his end shall be destruction.”

1 Samuel 15:1-7 Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he set himself against him on the way while he was coming up from Egypt. 3‘Now go (Saul) and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’”

8He captured Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. 9But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were not willing to destroy them utterly; but everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.

Saul looses his kingdom because he sinned and didn’t follow Samuel’s instructions from the Lord to utterly kill all the Amalekites!

When we fail to follow the Lord’s instructions He will raise up another to accomplish His will.

1 Chronicles 4: 42And five hundred of these Simeonites led by Pelatiah, Neariah, Rephaiah, and Uzziel, the sons of Ishi, went to the hill country of Seir 43and struck down the remnant of the Amalekites who had escaped. And they have lived there to this day.

Esther 3:1 After these events, King Xerxes honored Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite....

Do you follow the Lords instructions?

Blessings, David 

Exodus 17:13-14 Practical use of means and blotted out!

13So Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his army with the sword.

Moses had to pray but Joshua and the Israelites had to fight to defeat Amalek’s army, they were the “practical use of means”.

“Prayer is a downright mockery if it does not lead us into the practical use of means likely to promote the ends for which we pray.” (Spurgeon)

Let this be a lesson for us, you need to pray but you also need to apply the “practical use of means”.

14Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write this on a scroll as a reminder and recite it to Joshua, because I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.”

The Lord wanted a written record for man of this event so it wouldn’t be forgotten. And look at His promise, “I will utterly blot out”! 

The Lord used this term many times in the Bible, and you don’t want to be on the receiving end of this promise!

“I will blot out”.... you, their name, remembrance, man! 

But there is a mention of another“blot out” which is a good promise, I will blot out (forgive) their (your) sin.

Do you want your sins blotted out (forgiven)? Then accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior!

Blessings, David 

Exodus 17:10-12 Arms lifted high in prayer!

10Joshua did as Moses had instructed him and fought against the Amalekites, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

11As long as Moses held up his hands, Israel prevailed; but when he lowered them, Amalek prevailed. 12When Moses’ hands grew heavy, they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. Then Aaron and Hur held his hands up, one on each side, so that his hands remained steady until the sun went down.

“Josephus (Antiquities III, 54 [ii.4]) preserves a Jewish tradition that Hur was the husband of Moses’ sister, Miriam.” (Kaiser)

“Both in the Septuagint and Greek Testament he is called Jesus: the name signifies Saviour; and he is allowed to have been a very expressive type of our blessed Lord. He fought with and conquered the enemies of his people, brought them into the promised land, and divided it to them by lot. The parallel between him and the Saviour of the world is too evident to require pointing out.” (Clarke)

During the battle Moses had to assume this posture and pray, he had to pray as if the lives of the Israelites depended on it!

Moses set an example for us, when we are in a battle. 

Ephesians 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world’s darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

There will be times when everything seems against us, we forget the battle is in the spiritual world! We need to lift our arms up high like Moses and pray like our lives or the lives of others depend on it.

Do you go into battle with your arms lifted high in prayer?

Blessings, David