Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, received Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her away, and her two sons. The name of one son was Gershom, for Moses said, “I have lived as a foreigner in a foreign land”. The name of the other was Eliezer, for he said, “My father’s God was my help and delivered me from Pharaoh’s sword.” Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came with Moses’ sons and his wife to Moses into the wilderness where he was encamped, at the Mountain of God. He said to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, have come to you with your wife, and her two sons with her.”
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Exodus 18:2-6 sits inside this longer paragraph.
Now Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel his people, how Yahweh had brought Israel out of Egypt. Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, received Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her away, and her two sons. The name of one son was Gershom, for Moses said, “I have lived as a foreigner in a foreign land”. The name of the other was Eliezer, for he said, “My father’s God was my help and delivered me from Pharaoh’s sword.” Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came with Moses’ sons and his wife to Moses into the wilderness where he was encamped, at the Mountain of God. He said to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, have come to you with your wife, and her two sons with her.”
Parallel Translations
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Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, received Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her away,
and her two sons. The name of one son was Gershom, for Moses said, “I have lived as a foreigner in a foreign land”.
The name of the other was Eliezer, for he said, “My father’s God was my help and delivered me from Pharaoh’s sword.”
Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came with Moses’ sons and his wife to Moses into the wilderness where he was encamped, at the Mountain of God.
He said to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, have come to you with your wife, and her two sons with her.”
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Then Jethro, Moses’ father in law, took Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her back,
And her two sons; of which the name of the one was Gershom; for he said, I have been an alien in a strange land:
And the name of the other was Eliezer; for the God of my father, said he, was mine help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh:
And Jethro, Moses’ father in law, came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the wilderness, where he encamped at the mount of God:
And he said unto Moses, I thy father in law Jethro am come unto thee, and thy wife, and her two sons with her.
Show all 3 translations
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And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her away,
and her two sons; of whom the name of the one was Gershom; for he said: 'I have been a stranger in a strange land';
and the name of the other was Eliezer: 'for the God of my father was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh.'
And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the wilderness where he was encamped, at the mount of God;
and he said unto Moses: 'I thy father-in-law Jethro am coming unto thee, and thy wife, and her two sons with her.'
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Cross-references (26)
- Exodus 2:22 (v3) She bore a son, and he named him Gershom, for he said, “I have lived as a foreigner in a foreign land.”
- Exodus 3:1 (v5) Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the back of the wilderness, and…
- Acts 7:29 (v3) Moses fled at this saying, and became a stranger in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.
- Exodus 2:21 (v2) Moses was content to dwell with the man. He gave Moses Zipporah, his daughter.
- Acts 12:11 (v4) When Peter had come to himself, he said, “Now I truly know that the Lord has sent out his angel and delivered me out of the hand of Herod,…
Show all 26 cross-references
- 2 Corinthians 1:8-10 (v4) For we don’t desire to have you uninformed, brothers, concerning our affliction which happened to us in Asia, that we were weighed down…
- 2 Timothy 4:17 (v4) But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, that through me the message might be fully proclaimed, and that all the Gentiles might hear.…
- Hebrews 13:6 (v4) So that with good courage we say, “The Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me?”
- Exodus 2:15 (v4) Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and lived in the land of Midian, and…
- Exodus 3:12 (v5) He said, “Certainly I will be with you. This will be the token to you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt,…
- Exodus 4:20 (v3) Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. Moses took God’s rod in his hand.
- 1 Chronicles 23:15 (v4) The sons of Moses: Gershom and Eliezer.
- Psalms 18:1 (v4) I love you, Yahweh, my strength.
- Psalms 34:4 (v4) I sought Yahweh, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears.
- Psalms 39:12 (v3) “Hear my prayer, Yahweh, and give ear to my cry. Don’t be silent at my tears. For I am a stranger with you, a foreigner, as all my fathers…
- Psalms 46:1 (v4) God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
- Isaiah 50:7-9 (v4) For the Lord Yahweh will help me. Therefore I have not been confounded. Therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I won’t…
- Daniel 6:22 (v4) My God has sent his angel, and has shut the lions’ mouths, and they have not hurt me; because as before him innocence was found in me; and…
- Hebrews 11:13 (v3) These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and embraced them from afar, and having confessed that they…
- Exodus 4:25-26 (v2) Then Zipporah took a flint, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet; and she said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of…
- Exodus 19:11 (v5) and be ready for the third day; for on the third day Yahweh will come down in the sight of all the people on Mount Sinai.
- Exodus 19:20 (v5) Yahweh came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. Yahweh called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.
- Exodus 24:16-17 (v5) Yahweh’s glory settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. The seventh day he called to Moses out of the middle of the…
- 1 Kings 19:8 (v5) He arose, and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, God’s Mountain.
- Psalms 18:48 (v4) He rescues me from my enemies. Yes, you lift me up above those who rise up against me. You deliver me from the violent man.
- 1 Peter 2:11 (v3) Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (17 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv2, 5, 6 It may seem that he sent her back for…
It may seem that he sent her back for a time to her father for her impatience, lest she should be a let to his vocation, which was so dangerous, Exod. 4:25.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv2–6 Exo 18:2 Then Jethro, Moses’ father in law, took…
Exo 18:2 Then Jethro, Moses’ father in law, took Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her back,
Ver. 2. After he had sent her back.] Because she was troublesome with her peevishness, and a hindrance to the good work in hand. {Exo 4:25-26} Sulla felix fuisset ni uxorem duxisset; Adrianus ni imperitasset; Moses, both.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv2, 5, 6 From the way to Egypt, upon the occasion mentioned…
From the way to Egypt, upon the occasion mentioned Exo 4:24,25, and because he found by experience that she was likely to hinder him from, or discourage him in, the discharge of his great and dangerous office, and to give an ill example to the Israelites.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv2–6 Then Jethro, Moses's father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses's wife,.... When…
Then Jethro, Moses's father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses's wife,.... When he had heard of the above things, he determined to pay Moses a visit, and congratulate him on that account; and he took his daughter, the wife of Moses, along with him, to deliver her to her husband, to share with him in his cares and troubles; as to partake with him of his honours and dignity, so to bear part with him in his burdens, so far as she was capable of:
after he had sent her back: upon his call and mission to Egypt, he took his wife and children with him; but upon an affair which occurred in the inn by the way, he sent them back again to his father-in-law, where they had remained ever since, see Exo 4:24. Jarchi says this was done at meeting with Aaron his brother, Exo 4:27, and relates a conversation between them upon it. As that Aaron should say to him, who are these? to which he replied, this is my wife, I married her in Midian, and these are my sons: he further said to him, and where art thou carrying them? he replied, to Egypt; says he, by reason of those who are before there, we are in straits, and thou wilt add unto them; upon which he said to his wife, go back to thy father's house, and she took her sons and went thither. Kimchi (f) observes, that some render the words "after her gifts"; whose sense, according to Aben Ezra, is, after she had sent gifts to her husband; but others more probably interpret it of gifts sent by him to her to engage his father-in-law to let her come to him, as well as to prevail upon her to come; perhaps it may be better rendered, "after her messenger"; that is, either after the messenger sent to her by Moses, to acquaint her and her father of what had been done for him, or after the messenger she sent to him, to let him know that she intended shortly to be with him; though perhaps, after all, nearer to our version and others, it may be rendered, "after her dismissions" (g); the dismission or sending away of her and her sons, as before related; for this is by no means to be interpreted of a divorce of her; after which she was brought again to her husband; for there is no reason to believe that ever anything of that kind had passed, as some have thought (h): the plain case seems to be this, that Moses finding his family would be exposed to danger, or would be too great an incumbrance upon him in the discharge of his great work he had to do in Egypt, sent them back to his father-in-law until a fit opportunity should offer of their coming to him, as now did.
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(f) Sepher Shorash. rad. "post dona vel donationes ejus"; so some in Vatablus and Drusius. (g) "post dimissiones ejus", Pagninus, Montanus, Drusius. (h) Vid. Selden. Uxor. Hebr. p. 629.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv3–4 The name of one was Gershom - A stranger,…
The name of one was Gershom - A stranger, designing thereby not only a memorial of his own condition, but a memorandum to this son of his, for we are all strangers upon earth.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 5, 6 Verse 2. After he had sent her back] Why…
Verse 2. After he had sent her back] Why Zipporah and her two sons returned to Midian, is not certainly known. From the transaction recorded Ex 4:20; Ex 4:24, it seems as if she had been alarmed at the danger to which the life of one of her sons had been exposed, and fearing worse evils, left her husband and returned to her father. It is however possible that Moses, foreseeing the troubles to which his wife and children were likely to be exposed had he taken them down to Egypt, sent them back to his father-in-law till it should please God to deliver his people.
Jethro, now finding that God had delivered them, and totally discomfited the Egyptians, their enemies, thought it proper to bring Zipporah and her sons to Moses, while he was in the vicinity of Horeb.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv3–4 Exo 18:3. The name of one was Gershom —…
Exo 18:3. The name of one was Gershom — A stranger, designing thereby not only a memorial of his own condition, but a memorandum to his son of his, for we are all strangers upon earth.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv5–6 The wilderness - i. e., according to the view…
The wilderness - i. e., according to the view which seems on the whole most probable, the plain near the northern summit of Horeb, the mountain of God. The valley which opens upon Er Rahah on the left of Horeh is called “Wady Shueib” by the Arabs, i. e. the vale of Hobab.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv2, 5, 6 Back, with her consent, when he was going to…
Back, with her consent, when he was going to the court of Pharao. (Menochius) --- Since he had the vision of God, St. Epiphanius says, he lived in continence with her. (Hœr. 78.)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On v6 and thy wife, and her two sons--See Exo 4:20.
and thy wife, and her two sons--See Exo 4:20.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv2–6 2. After he had sent her back — See…
2. After he had sent her back — See notes on Exo_4:24-26. The discrepancies which some interpreters find between this account and Moses’s return into Egypt narrated in Exo_4:18-26, are creations of their own fancy. Our historian has not given us all the details. The statement of Exo_4:20, that Moses took his wife and sons, and “returned to the land of Egypt,” is seen from the immediate context to mean that he started with them to return, and that they accompanied him until the incident which occurred by the way (Exo_18:24-26) served as an occasion for her returning with her sons to her father’s house. This simple and natural supposition solves all the difficulties, and is itself suggested by the record here given. The work and exposures of Moses in Egypt made it expedient that his wife and children return and abide in Midian until he should return home from Egypt at the head of his people. Another reasonable hypothesis is, that Moses took his wife and sons to Egypt, and that after the opposition to his mission became formidable, he secretly sent them back from Egypt to the home of Jethro.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv2–6 2–4. In all probability an addition of the compiler,…
2–4. In all probability an addition of the compiler, made for the purpose of harmonizing the statement in v. 5 that Moses’ sons (in the plural) and his wife were with Jethro, with Exo_2:15 (J) which mentions the birth of Gershom only, and Exo_4:25 (J) which implies that Moses had no other son, and with Exo_4:20 a, 24–26 (also J), where it is stated that Moses took Zipporah back with him to Egypt. The compiler removes the first of these difficulties by supplying the name of Moses’ younger son, and the second by the statement that Moses had ‘sent’ Zipporah ‘away,’ i.e. had sent her back to Midian at some time after the incident Exo_4:24-26.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv2–5 (2)After he had sent her back.—Heb., after her dismissal.…
(2)After he had sent her back.—Heb., after her dismissal. The fact had not been previously stated, but is in harmony with the general narrative, which has been absolutely silent concerning Zipporah since Exo_4:26. Moses had sent Zipporah back to her own relations, either in anger, on account of the scene described in Exo_4:24-26, or simply that he might not be encumbered with wife and children during the dangers and troubles which he anticipated in Egypt. Jethro assumed that, as the main troubles were now over, he would be glad to have his wife and children restored to him.
(2) He does not simply judge—i.e., decide the particular question brought before him; but he takes the opportunity to educate and instruct the people in delivering his judgments—he “makes them know the statutes of God and His laws”—he expounds principles and teaches morality. Both reasons were clearly of great weight, and constituted strong arguments in favour of his practice.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv2–6 After he had sent her back. Literally "after her…
After he had sent her back. Literally "after her dismissal." It is curious that the fact of the dismissal had not been previously mentioned, yet is here assumed as known. Some commentators (as Knobel) find, in what is said of Zipporah, the trace of two distinct writers who give two contradictory narratives; but the difficulties and obscurities of the history are sufficiently intelligible, if we hear in mind
1. That Moses was addressing immediately those who knew the facts; and
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2. That he was studious of brevity.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v3 Exo 18:3 - - Exo 18:4.
Exodus
GERSHOM AND ELIEZER
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Exo 18:3 - - Exo 18:4.
In old times parents often used to give expression to their hopes or their emotions in the names of their children. Very clearly that was the case in Moses’ naming of his two sons, who seem to have been the whole of his family. The significance of each name is appended to it in the text. The explanation of the first is, ‘For he said, I have been an alien in a strange land’; and that of the second, ‘For the God of my fathers, said he, was mine help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh.’ These two names give us a pathetic glimpse of the feelings with which Moses began his exile, and of the better thoughts into which these gradually cleared. The first child’s name expresses his father’s discontent, and suggests the bitter contrast between Sinai and Egypt; the court and the sheepfold; the gloomy, verdureless, gaunt peaks of Sinai, blazing in the fierce sunshine, and the cool, luscious vegetation of Goshen, the land for cattle. The exile felt himself all out of joint with his surroundings, and so he called the little child that came to him ‘Gershom,’ which, according to one explanation, means ‘banishment,’ and, according to another {a kind of punning etymology}, means ‘a stranger here’; in the other case expressing the same sense of homelessness and want of harmony with his surroundings. But as the years went on, Moses began to acclimatise himself, and to become more reconciled to his position and to see things more as they really were. So, when the second child is born, all his murmuring has been hushed, and he looks beyond circumstances, and lays his hand upon God. ‘And the name of the second was Eliezer, for, he said, the God of my fathers was my help.’
Now, there are the two main streams of thought that filled these forty years; and it was worth while to put Moses into the desert for all that time, and to break off the purposes and hopes of his life sharp and short, and to condemn him to comparative idleness, or work that was all unfitted to bring out his special powers, for that huge scantling out of his life, one-third of the whole of it, in order that there might be burnt into him, not either of these two thoughts separately, but the two of them in their blessed conjunction; ‘I am a stranger here’; ‘God is my Help.’ And so these are the thoughts which, in like juxtaposition, ought to be ours; and in higher fashion with regard to the former of them than was experienced by Moses. Let me say a word or two about each of these two things. Let us think of the strangers, and of the divine helper that is with the strangers.
I. ‘A stranger here.’
Now, that is true, in the deepest sense, about all men; for the one thing that makes the difference between the man and the beast is that the beast is perfectly at home in his surroundings, and gets all that he needs out of them, and finds in them a field for all that he can do, and is fully developed to the very highest point of his capacity by what people nowadays call the ‘environment’ in which he is put. But the very opposite is the case in regard to us men. ‘Foxes have holes,’ and they are quite comfortable there; ‘and the birds of the air have roosting-places,’ and tuck their heads under their wings and go to sleep without a care and without a consciousness. ‘But the Son of man,’ the ideal Humanity as well as the realised ideal in the person of Jesus Christ, ‘hath not where to lay His head.’ No; because He is so ‘much better than they.’ Their immunity from care is not a prerogative-it is an inferiority. We are plunged into the midst of a scene of things which obviously does not match our capacities. There is a great deal more in every man than can ever find a field of expression, of work, or of satisfaction in anything beneath the stars. And no man that understands, even superficially, his own character, his own requirements, can fail to feel in his sane and quiet moments, when the rush of temptation and the illusions of this fleeting life have lost their grip upon him: ‘This is not the place that can bring out all that is in me, or that can yield me all that I desire.’ Our capacities transcend the present, and the experiences of the present are all unintelligible, unless the true end of every human life is not here at all, but in another region, for which these experiences are fitting us.
But, then, the temptations of life, the strong appeals of flesh and sense, the duties which in their proper place are lofty and elevating and refining, and put out of their place, are contemptible and degrading, all come in to make it hard for any of us to keep clearly before us what our consciousness tells us when it is strongly appealed to, that we are strangers and sojourners here and that this is not ‘our rest, because it is polluted.’ Therefore it comes to be the great glory and blessedness of the Christian Revelation that it obviously shifts the centre for us, and makes that future, and not this present, the aim for which, and in the pursuit of which, we are to live. So, Christian people, in a far higher sense than Moses, who only felt himself ‘a stranger there,’ because he did not like Midian as well as Egypt, have to say, ‘We are strangers here’; and the very aim, in one aspect, of our Christian discipline of ourselves is that we shall keep vivid, in the face of all the temptations to forget it, this consciousness of being away from our true home.
One means of doing that is to think rather oftener than the most of us do, about our true home. You have heard, I dare say, of half-reclaimed gipsies, who for a while have been coaxed out of the free life of the woods and the moors, and have gone into settled homes. After a while there has come over them a rush of feeling, a remembrance of how blessed it used to be out in the open and away from the squalor and filth where men ‘sit and hear each other groan’ and they have flung off ‘as if they were fetters’ the trappings of ‘civilisation,’ and gone back to liberty. That is what we ought to do-not going back from the higher to the lower, but smitten with what the Germans call the heimweh, the home-sickness, that makes us feel that we must get clearer sight of that land to which we truly belong.
Do you think about it, do you feel that where Jesus Christ is, is your home? I have no doubt that most of you have, or have had, dear ones here on earth about whom you could say that, ‘Where my husband, my wife is; where my beloved is, or my children are, that is my home, wherever my abode may be.’ Are you, Christian people, saying the same thing about heaven and Jesus Christ? Do you feel that you are strangers here, not only because you, reflecting upon your character and capacities and on human life, see that all these require another life for their explanation and development, but because your hearts are knit to Him, and ‘where your treasure is there your heart is also’; and where your heart is there you are? We go home when we come into communion with Jesus Christ. Do you ever, in the course of the rush of your daily work, think about the calm city beyond the sea, and about its King, and that you belong to it? ‘Our citizenship is in heaven’ and here we are strangers.
II. Now let me say a word about the other child’s name.
‘God is Helper.’ We do not know what interval of time elapsed between the birth of these two children. There are some indications that the second of them was in years very much the junior. Perhaps the transition from the mood represented in the one name to that represented in the other, was a long and slow process. But be that as it may, note the connection between these two names. You can never say ‘We are strangers here’ without feeling a little prick of pain, unless you say too ‘God is my Helper.’ There is a beautiful variation of the former word which will occur to many of you, I have no doubt, in one of the old psalms: ‘I am a stranger with Thee, and a sojourner, as were all my fathers.’ There is the secret that takes away all the mourning, all the possible discomfort and pain, out of the thought: ‘Here we have no continuing city,’ and makes it all blessed. It does not matter whether we are in a foreign land or no, if we have that Companion with us. His presence will make blessedness in Midian, or in Thebes. It does not matter whether it is Goshen or the wilderness, if the Lord is by our side. So sweetness is breathed into the thought, and bitterness is sucked out of it, when the name of the second child is braided into the name of the first; and we can contemplate quietly all else of tragic and limiting and sad that is involved in the thought that we are sojourners and pilgrims, when we say ‘Yes! we are; but the Lord is my Helper.’
Then, on the other hand, we shall never say and feel ‘the Lord is my Helper,’ as we ought to do, until we have got deep in our hearts, and settled in our consciousness, the other conviction that we are strangers here. It is only when we realise that there is no other permanence for us that we put out our hands and grasp at the Eternal, in order not to be swept away upon the dark waves of the rushing stream of Time. It is only when all other props are stricken from us that we rest our whole weight upon that one strong central pillar, which can never be moved. Learn that God helps, for that makes it possible to say ‘I am a stranger,’ and not to weep. Learn that you are strangers, for that stimulates to take God for out help. Just as when the floods are out, men are driven to the highest ground to save their lives; so when the billows of the waters of time are seen to be rolling over all creatural things, we take our flight to the Rock of Ages. Put the two together, and they fit one another and strengthen us.
This second conviction was the illuminating light upon a perplexed and problematic past. Moses, when he fled from Egypt, thought that his life’s work was rent in twain. He had believed that his brethren would have seen that it was God’s purpose to use him as the deliverer. For the sake of being such, he had surrendered the court and its delights. But on his young ambition and innocent enthusiasm there came this douche of cold water, which lasted for forty years, and sent him away into the wilderness, to be a shepherd under an Arab sheikh, with nothing to look forward to. At first he said, ‘This is not what I was meant for; I am out of my element here.’ But before the forty years were over he said, ‘The God of my father was my help, and He delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh.’ What had looked a disaster turned out to be a deliverance, a manifestation of divine help, and not a hindrance. He had got far enough away from that past to look at it sanely, that is to say gratefully. So we, when we get far enough away from our sorrows, can look back at them, sometimes even here on earth, and say, ‘The mercy of the Lord compassed me about.’ Here is the key that unlocks all the perplexities of providence, ‘The Lord was my Helper.’
And that conviction will steady and uphold a man in a present, however dark. It was no small exercise of his faith and patience that the great lawgiver should for so many years have such unworthy work to do as he had in Midian. But even then he gathered into his heart this confidence, and brought summer about him into the mid-winter of his life, and light into the midst of darkness; ‘for he said’-even then, when there was no work for him to do that seemed much to need a divine help-’the Lord is my Helper.’
And so, however dark may be our present moment, and however obscure or repulsive our own tasks, let us fall back upon that old word, ‘Thou hast been my Help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.’
When Moses named his boy, his gratitude was allied with faith in favours to come; and when he said ‘was,’ he meant also ‘will be.’ And he was right. He dreamt very little of what was coming, but this confidence that was expressed in his second child’s name was warranted by that great future that lay before him, though he did not know it. When the pinch came his confidence faltered. It was easy to say ‘The Lord is my Helper,’ when there was nothing very special for which God’s help was needed, and nothing harder to do than to look after a few sheep in the wilderness. But when God said to him, ‘Go and stand before Pharaoh,’ Moses for the moment forgot all about God’s being his helper, and was full of all manner of cowardly excuses, which, like the excuses of a great many more of us for not doing our plain duty, took the shape of a very engaging modesty and diffidence as to his capacities. But God said to him, ‘Surely I will be with thee.’ He gave him back ‘Eliezer’ in a little different form. ‘You used to say that I was your helper. What has become of your faith now? Has it all evaporated when the trial comes? Surely I will be with thee.’ If we will set ourselves to our tasks, not doubting God’s help, we shall have occasion in the event to be sure that God did help us.
So, brethren, let us cherish these two thoughts, and never keep them apart, and God will be, as our good old hymn has it-
‘Our help while troubles last,
And our eternal home.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v4 i.e. God is help.
Eliezer
i.e. God is help.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v5 where he was camped
where he was camped
This can be stated in active form. AT: "where he camped with the Israelites" (See: Active or Passive and Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
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translationWords
Jethro
son
desert
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.