Exodus 18 – Three Major Cuts
This week was a real wrestling match between me and the text. Part of me wanted to cut the sermon into two parts, but I felt that it was necessary to keep it together for the sake of keeping the “hinge” effect of chapter 18 in place and keeping the story of Jethro united, even if it meant a slightly longer sermon than normal.
But because of this, I had to make some major chops to the material I wanted to present. Here they are:
Chop #1: The Lexical Links with Chapter 17
I spent some time in the sermon discussing the relationship between the Amalekites and Midianites, which ties chapters 17b and 18 together. The contrast between these chapters isn’t just with the relationship between these nations, though. There are lexical links, or shared vocabulary, between the chapters. One commentator, Peter Enns, points to a few of these (Enns, Exodus, 367):
– 17:8 has Amalek “coming” and fighting, 18:5-7 has Jethro “coming” with peace.
– 17:9 has Joshua “choosing men” to go out and fight. 18:25 has Moses “choosing men” to be leaders over his administration.
– 17:9 Moses says he’ll fight “tomorrow,” 18:13 takes place on “the next day,” or more literally, “tomorrow.”
– 17:12 shows Moses “sitting” when he got weary, 18:13 has Moses “sitting” to judge the people.
– The battle of chapter 17 takes place all day long, from morning until evening. Moses sits and judges all day long in chapter 18.
– Moses needs help keeping his hands up in chapter 17 so they will have success in the battle. Guess what? Chapter 18, Moses needs help there too. Jethro is about to tell him in verse 18 that “the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone.”
So we see a very clear relationship that ties these two chapters together. I felt like I established that relationship strong enough already, so to add some of these lexical explanations wouldn’t be necessary to strengthen the link.
Chop #2: The Ten Words
Very soon we will begin to work through the 10 Commandments (Exodus 20). In Exodus 34:28, they are referred to as the “10 Commandments” for the first time. Except… they aren’t!
The Hebrew text literally reads, “And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Words.” This is also how Deuteronomy refers to them (4:13, 10:4). The Hebrew word used for “words” here is davar.
How does this relate to Exodus 18? As I mentioned, Exodus 18 acts as a hinge in the narrative. It connects backwards with chapter 17, as we’ve already seen, and it also prepares the reader for the giving of the Law in chapter 20, which Jethro so kindly helped Moses to administrate to the people.
But there’s also something in the text that is obscured by our English translations. The Hebrew word davar is used exactly 10x in chapter 18 (18:11, 14, 16-18, 22 [2x], 23, 26 [2x])! Actually, that’s a bit of a fudged number, because davar occurs 10x in the singular and once in the plural (18:19). It is variously translated. For instance, Jethro asks Moses, “What is this thing (davar) that you are doing?” (18:14), and Moses says, “When they have a dispute (davar), they come to me” (18:16). It’s all the same word in Hebrew.
Does it mean something? I’m not sure, but it sure is interesting that it is used 10x (singularly) in a chapter that sets up the 10 “words” (commandments). Because I felt like I might be pressing the text a bit too much to bring something like this out in a sermon, it hit the Cutting Room Floor.
Chop #3: More Jethro
So I went a little crazy in the middle of the sermon with the Jethro-Amalekite-Midianite-Reuel-Abraham connections. I realize that this stuff is fun for me, but not many others. I do think it’s important that we consider some of these connections, because they demonstrate the depth and intricacies of biblical theology and story.
As crazy as it got, I actually reigned in the conversation quite a bit.
In particular, I was really intrigued in my study of the Reuel connection with Amalek. To remind you, here is the visual I put up on the screen:
I sought to demonstrate that Amalek and Midian are “weird distant cousins” (actually more like third uncle/nephew a couple times removed…). But what really intrigued me was that Esau has a second kid (with a second wife) named Reuel, which “happens” to be another name for Jethro (Ex 2:18). Jethro is a priest of Midian, and in Numbers 10:29 Jethro gets the title “Hobab son of Reuel the Midianite” (see my CRF for Exodus 3a for an in-depth discussion on the possible relationship between the names Jethro/Hobab/Reuel – three different names for the same guy, or something more?).
So assuming that Reuel and Jethro are the same person (which is an assumption that not all make), we establish that Jethro is a Midianite, but his name (Reuel) sounds like an Esau-ish name, which is linked with Amalek. We want to be careful not to over-read this, since it’s certainly possible that someone could be named Reuel without being related to the line of Esau. Yet with the difficulties that surround the name of Jethro/Hobab/Reuel, it increases the possibility that Reuel could’ve been a clan name for Jethro used in certain parts of the Bible, which would’ve also linked him with Amalek as well.
What’s all that mean?
It simply fortifies further the ties between chapters 18 and 17 of Exodus, if these connections are indeed real.
Another facet of this discussion that I cut out of the sermon was the several times in Scripture that Jethro’s people and the Amalekites are contrasted, either explicitly or implicitly. Jethro is also called a Kenite (Jdgs 1:16), which may be a smaller tribe or clan of the Midianites. 1 Samuel 15:6, which is the classic passage that follows up on the Amalekite attack in Exodus 17, reads, “Then Saul said to the Kenites, “Go, depart; go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.” (ESV). Saul is instructed by God to totally annihilate the Amalekites, and the Kenites are there in the city of Amalek as he enters. The Kenites are spared, basically because of Exodus 18 (see also Num 24:20-22 for another contrast of the Kenites/Amalekites).
Why are the Kenites there in Amalekite territory? It may simply be because that’s where they’re located, in shared territory. Or, does this give more credibility to the possibility that there is a legitimate connection between Jethro/Reuel and Esau’s Reuel? They’re there because they are partly Amalekite.
Again, I’m not sure there’s something real here. But the connections are intriguing and possible, and the biblical text post-Exodus certainly follows up on the juxtaposed contrast of Amalek and Midian.
Can you see now why this was cut?!
These last two cuts were mainly made because they were tenuous and overly complicated. Even if I were certain the connections were real, I likely would’ve considered chopping them anyway, because it would’ve taken too much time to explain it and the payoff might not have been worth that time and effort.
So here they are for your consideration, for better or worse.
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