Daily Devotions
Exodus
"Sing, O heavens! Be joyful, O earth! And break out in singing, O mountains! For the LORD has comforted His people, and will have mercy on His afflicted." Isaiah 49:13
Text: Exodus 18 : 9-10
A FANTASTIC RESPONSE
As Jethro listened to Moses recount all that the Lord God had done for Israel, his heart was filled with a great sense of joy! It wasn’t just because Moses was his son-in-law that he made him feel happy. His sense of exultation may well be explained in the following text.
“Then Jethro rejoiced for all the good which the LORD
had done for Israel, whom He had delivered out of the hand
of the Egyptians. And 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 who has delivered
the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.'”
EXODUS 18:9-10
1. “For all the good which the LORD had done for Israel”
How could there be anything but rejoicing, when one assesses and evaluates just how much good God had done for Israel? Jethro may not have been an Israelite, but he was a man who had seen many years and had become wise in his old age! There was no denying that Israel had been greatly blessed by the Lord!
2. “Blessed be the LORD who has delivered you…”
The deliverance that God had effected for the children of Israel was so major an event that Jethro could not help but make mention of it in three different ways!
a) “Out of the hand of the Egyptians”
Egypt was a great power in those days! Nobody gets out of the hand of the Egyptians easily! But Israel got out without a scratch!
b) “Out of the hand of Pharaoh”
Pharaoh was not known to be kind or gentle with his slaves. He was a despot who listened only to himself! Who had ever succeeded in getting out of his hand? Some had tried but none had succeeded! Yet, this time round, the children of Israel had obviously gotten the upper hand!
c) “From under the hand of the Egyptians
As Jethro thought through the deliverance that God had accomplished, once again, his thoughts went back to the bondage that Israel had been under all these many years! They were indeed “under the hand of the Egyptians”! But they had been well and truly delivered!
“THEN JETHRO REJOICED…”
Is there any other more fitting response than this?