Anyone who has tried to handle everything alone, without asking for help, knows how exhaustion builds until it becomes overwhelming. It was exactly this point of saturation that an attentive father-in-law noticed in Moses, and his intervention changed the way God’s people would be governed.
Jethro was priest of Midian, a region east of the Red Sea, also called Reuel (Exodus 2:18). When Moses fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian, it was Jethro who took him into his home and gave him his daughter Zipporah in marriage (Exodus 2:15-21).
For decades, Moses tended his father-in-law’s flocks in the desert of Midian, a time of quiet learning before the call at the burning bush, which happened precisely while he was shepherding “Jethro’s flock” (Exodus 3:1).
After the exodus from Egypt, Jethro heard about everything the Lord had done and went to meet his son-in-law in the wilderness, bringing Zipporah and the couple’s two sons (Exodus 18:1-6). Hearing the full account, he rejoiced and declared, “Now I know that the LORD is greater than all other gods, for he did this to those who had treated Israel arrogantly” (Exodus 18:11).
The next day, Jethro watched Moses sitting from morning till evening, judging every dispute of the people alone. With the frankness of someone who cares enough to speak up, he said that this method was not good and that Moses could not sustain it alone (Exodus 18:13-18).
Then came the advice that would organize Israel: choose capable men who feared God to share the responsibility as leaders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens (Exodus 18:21). Moses listened, accepted, and put the system in place (Exodus 18:24).
God did not despise the wisdom of a foreign priest in structuring the government of his people. This still says something today: leading well does not always mean carrying everything alone, and listening to good advice, even from someone outside the circle, may be exactly what is needed to avoid collapse.
