Hearing And Responding

[0:00] Well, Heavenly Father, as we open Your Word, please glorify Your name as we hear Your Word and as we consider what You are teaching us through Your Spirit. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

[0:19] Well, thank you, David, for reading Exodus 18, and thank you for leading us in the music. At times there are events in the world that divide people.

[0:37] For instance, are you a friend of Ukraine or are you a friend of Russia? Do you place the Ukraine flag and show your support?

[0:48] Are you a friend of Israel or Palestine? These events divide people. Are you a friend of Christians or not?

[1:04] Just recently, on Christmas Eve, a coordinated attack in Nigeria, where just estimated just less than 300 Christians were killed by Muslim extremists.

[1:17] These events are heard, and how do we respond? What do we hear, and how do we respond? All of these are serious matters and are by no means the only things going on in the world.

[1:32] There are both disasters and atrocities happening in many places to many people. And so where's the line? What should we give our ear to? What should we respond to?

[1:43] People will be hearing of different things depending on their connections, their relationships. Is it right to prioritize any one of these over the other?

[1:58] Certainly not right to just disregard them. But what should we pay heed to? What will God hold us to account for?

[2:08] What events will God hold us to account of whether we did or didn't respond and how we responded? Will God hold us to account for how we respond to each one of these things?

[2:19] I think this passage, I wrestled a lot with this passage and what it's about. I don't think it's simply about the advice of a father-in-law, but I think it's about how we hear and how we respond to God and to what God has done.

[2:41] And so there are these events that divide people, and what will God hold us to account for as to whether we respond or not to these events. You see, the Bible has a lot to say about humanity.

[2:52] The Bible has got a lot to say about people, peoples and nations. And it's got a lot to say about how we ought to treat one another. But more than anything else, there is one main story from cover to cover in the Bible, one central and main story that God has chosen to deliver to man through His Word and through His prophets.

[3:17] And it is a central event that each and every person is called to hear and respond to. It's an event that is relevant to the entire world. The Bible prioritizes one event that the entire world, every man, woman and child, and creation itself is changed by.

[3:41] And one of the reasons I wanted to teach through the book of Exodus is because this is the account of the defining event in Israel's history. It is the defining revelation of who Yahweh is and what He does.

[3:54] It's the defining picture of revelation and salvation in the Old Testament. As such, the Exodus is the defining foreshadow of what God was ultimately going to do through Messiah.

[4:11] And so from Egypt to the Promised Land, we get a glimpse and a foreshadow of what Jesus is doing. This is the defining event in Israel's history.

[4:23] Yet it's a foreshadow of what God was going to do through Messiah. And so if there's any event that Israel was called to hear and respond to, it was the Exodus, God's great deliverance.

[4:37] And the law that He delivers tells them how they should live as God's delivered people. And so this is why in the giving of the law, we see that word, Shema.

[4:50] Hear, O Israel. You must hear and respond to this event. You must hear and respond to the law. And not only for Israel, but Israel was called to do this for the sake of the rest of the world, that they would be a light to the nations, and that through Israel, the whole world would then have an opportunity to hear and respond to God.

[5:18] And so God's purpose in the Exodus was never just for Israel, but it was for the whole world. And if that was just a foreshadow, then how much more should the world hear and respond to all that God did through Christ?

[5:32] God's purpose in His Son coming into the world and going to the cross was never meant just for those disciples who followed Him back then, but it was meant for the whole world.

[5:44] This event, central to God's entire redemptive purposes, is meant for the whole world to hear and respond to. This is the defining event, and God intends it for the whole world to hear and respond to.

[5:58] If there's one event that we must pay heed to, one event that we must hear and respond, one event that we must pass on, it is the event of Israel's Messiah, Christ, who came, who lived for righteousness, who died for our sins, who rose on the third day and ascended to the throne in heaven as our high priest and our king, as Lord above all.

[6:21] He's the only mediator between man and God, and He is the judge of the living and the dead. And so this is what the Exodus is foreshadowing. This is the defining event of God's revelation and salvation.

[6:33] This is the event that the whole world is called to hear and respond to. So the question is, have you heard? Have you heard of God's deliverance? At the start of this chapter, we hear that Jethro hears about God's deliverance.

[6:50] Have you heard about God's deliverance? Have you heard that He is greater than all gods? How do you respond to that? How do you shema?

[7:02] And so if you have been delivered, how well do you hear? How well do you obey His word? Do you live as though you have been delivered? Remember, in Egypt, the rescue was not just to free the people, but to deliver them so that they could worship Yahweh, the one true God, so that they could serve God rather than serve Pharaoh, so that God would take them into the promised land to be His people forever.

[7:28] And as Genesis 12 says, that through Abraham's offspring, all the families of the earth would be blessed. But up to this point in Exodus, since the crossing of the sea until now, Israel has been mostly grumbling and struggling to know what it is to be the delivered people.

[7:50] They're still acting like slaves in Egypt, and they're struggling, struggling to live as those who have been redeemed and delivered. And do we do that at times?

[8:02] Do we truly live as those who have been delivered, as those who serve the God who is greater than all gods? I don't know about you, but there is this struggle, that we allow the sin that we've been delivered from to affect how we serve God and how we treat others.

[8:20] I don't know if you struggle with that, but I do. Yet one of the striking things in this account, in this chapter, is that the one person who hears and responds in the right way is actually an outsider.

[8:34] He's not even an Israelite. He's a pagan priest. You see, sometimes it takes an outsider to see the bigger picture. Is that not true? Sometimes we're so busy bringing our disputes that we forget the joy of deliverance.

[8:48] We lose sight of the God that's greater than all gods, and we forget that we've been rescued to serve and worship alongside one another, not to fight one another.

[8:59] Sometimes we're too busy talking and reacting when we should be hearing and responding. Now, something that I was really wrestling with in this passage was how it fits in the story of Exodus.

[9:12] You might think that we could just skip over this story from 17 to 19 and it would be fine. Why is this here? And many treatments of this chapter go down the route of leadership lessons, Jethro's advice on leadership.

[9:27] But for many reasons, that cannot be all that's intended with this chapter. One of the confusing things is that most commentators say that this chapter is probably out of chronological order.

[9:40] It probably didn't happen at this point. This particular part likely didn't happen at this particular point. But when this book was put together, it was placed here for a reason.

[9:52] Now, why is that reason? Surely it's not just to teach leadership lessons. And so as I go through the chapter, I'll try and show why I think the big point is actually around how we hear and how we respond and why that's important at this point.

[10:07] You see, chapter 18 presents a helpful example with Jethro and through three roles that Jethro had. We see these three roles in verse 1.

[10:19] See, if you look at verse 1, Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law. And so we see that Jethro is a priest, he's a foreigner, and he's a father-in-law.

[10:36] These three roles play an important part in why this story is placed here. I think the whole hearing and responding is shown by these three roles. Because he hears as a foreigner.

[10:48] He hears about God's deliverance as a foreigner, an outsider. Yet he responds in the middle section as a priest. The way he responds is only the way that a priest would know how to respond.

[11:03] And then in the last section, he teaches as a father-in-law. And so we'll go through this with three sections, with those three roles in mind.

[11:14] And so the three sections are verses 1 to 9, we'll be looking at our journey towards God. Our journey towards God. Verses 10 to 12, we'll be looking at our response to God.

[11:28] And verses 13 to the end, we'll be looking at how we hear God. And so firstly, our journey towards God. Word is beginning to spread about all that God has done.

[11:41] Foreigners are beginning to hear about all that God has done. And the event that took place right before chapter 18, which we finished that before Christmas, the event that happens just before this is this vicious, horrendous surprise attack by the Amalekites.

[12:00] And so just before this account, we hear about another group of foreigners who hear and respond in a terrible way. So then we have Jethro, another foreigner, another people turning up and responding in a very different way.

[12:19] The placement of this chapter is creating a juxtaposition between two foreign people and how they respond to God's deliverance. Back in Exodus 15, in the song, it spoke about the nations hearing how God delivered Israel out of Egypt.

[12:37] But now Israel are beginning to experience the fact that even though people hear about it, not everybody will be thrilled about it. And so even to this very day, even sadly to this very day, we see people treating Israel terribly just like the Amalekites.

[12:55] We see such a horrendous rise and perpetual continuation of anti-Semitism from this all the way through history.

[13:07] The way that people have treated Israel in response to all that God has done with them. But in the Bible, it's no mystery why there's such anti-Semitism in the world.

[13:17] Because how people treat Israel shows what they think about Israel's God. It reveals a darkness and evil in people who treat Israel that way.

[13:31] Again, if Exodus is a foreshadow of what Jesus is doing, then we would expect to see the same thing happen to the disciples of Jesus. And this is right. We see this.

[13:41] We see a hatred from foreigners towards Israel. And likewise, we see a kind of anti-Christian response and hatred towards those who are foreign, towards Christians, from those who are foreign to Christ.

[14:00] We see the same kind of thing happening to Christians, like that coordinated attack on Christmas Eve. Terrible. Terrible. But it reveals how people respond to God.

[14:11] So Jethro. Jethro's response as a foreigner in chapter 18 is juxtaposed with the Amalekites in chapter 17. Some will show themselves to be enemies of God by the way they treat people.

[14:26] Particularly the way they treat Israel and the way they treat those who follow Israel's Messiah. They will make themselves enemies of God. And then others will show themselves to be friends of God by the way they treat Israel and the way they treat God's people.

[14:44] In the end, however, it's about you and I, how we respond to hearing about God's deliverance. And so have you heard?

[14:55] Have you heard? Have you heard about what God did to save people? Or is this God foreign to you? Because I think probably most of us in this room can say at one point in time, God was foreign to us.

[15:08] We were like Jethro, outsiders. And so the movement in this first section is from being a foreigner, hearing about what God did, and moving towards Him in the way that we should.

[15:22] Chapter 17 showed what it looks like to respond with violence and hatred and make yourself an enemy of God. But this chapter shows what it looks like to hear and to move towards God in the way that we should.

[15:34] And this is what God intended with Israel, that through Israel, through what He did for them, the whole world would come to know Him and move towards Him to worship Him and find life in His name.

[15:46] That's how we're supposed to respond. So earlier I mentioned this word Shema, and this word comes up in this passage that Jethro heard all that God did.

[16:00] And that hearing leads to movement and to action. And this will be an important word for the very next chapters when Israel receives the law. And so this is a signal in this chapter, this is a signal as to how to respond.

[16:15] Shema. Interestingly, we have these details of Moses' two boys and what their names mean. Again, I don't think this is randomly put here.

[16:26] Back in Exodus 2, when Moses first fled Egypt, he ended up in Midian. And he found himself in Jethro's living room. And he ended up marrying Jethro's daughter.

[16:37] And they had two sons. And we heard the meaning of the oldest son's name, Gershom. But it's only now that we hear the name of the youngest son.

[16:49] Do you not feel sorry for younger brothers? I'm a younger brother. It's like 16 chapters before we even hear his name. But again, I think it's for a reason. At this point, we hear the meaning, the name and the meaning of the youngest son, Eliezer.

[17:06] And why? Why do we hear that? Well, I think this is why. When we think about hearing and responding, and we think about our journey, this section is our journey towards God.

[17:17] Well, way back then, Moses had a journey towards God before Jethro had a journey towards God. And we see Moses' journey towards God and the names of his children.

[17:29] And so Gershom's name highlights the fact that Moses himself was like a foreigner when he first went to Midian. He was the outsider. He was the foreigner. He's an asylum seeker in Midian.

[17:41] And he marries the daughter of a Midianite priest. And they have a kid, and he names the kid Gershom, which means, I have become a guest in a foreign land, a temporary resident, a sojourner in a foreign place.

[17:57] So he's a foreigner. And this is about how foreigners hear and respond and move towards God. And then secondly, they have a second son, and they name him Eliezer, which means, the God of my father was my help and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh.

[18:15] Now, don't you think that's interesting? When we hear so much about the name of God, yet way back then when Moses had his second son, to him, God was simply the God of my father.

[18:29] See, he had to have a movement towards God. And so, why I think these names are being explained is because back then, when Moses first met Jethro, Moses was the foreigner.

[18:41] Gershom. And even Moses himself didn't really know who God was. He only really heard about him through his father. This is my father's God.

[18:53] He doesn't even know his name when he names his second son, which is shown in Eliezer. And so, these two names illustrate the movement of Moses towards God.

[19:05] And they illustrate the movement of Israel towards God. And they illustrate the movement of Jethro towards God. From a foreigner, when God is foreign to you, and you move towards him, and one day you will know his name, and he will be your God.

[19:22] So, anyway, I know that's a lot of detail. Another big question I had throughout this chapter was, I don't know if you noticed, but the term father-in-law is repeated over and over.

[19:33] It's one of the most repeated phrases in this chapter. More so than calling him Jethro, or calling him the priest of Midian, he's known as the father-in-law.

[19:45] Why repeat this term father-in-law so much? I don't really know. I've not got to the bottom of it, but here's one of the reasons why I think it might be highlighted, is because there's a contrast between Moses' real father and Moses' father-in-law.

[20:03] You see, Moses' real father knew who God was. He was the God of the Hebrews, the God of Israel, the God of the forefathers. And Moses heard about God through his father.

[20:13] But now, Moses' father-in-law hears about God through his son-in-law. And so, his children show that once upon a time, God was foreign to Moses, and he only really heard about the God of his father.

[20:29] But now, Moses knows God's name, and has taken him for his own God. Jethro, however, is now in the position that Moses once was. Jethro is foreign to the one true God, and the true God is foreign to him.

[20:43] And he only really hears about this God. And so, I think the names of Moses' children, and the reference to Jethro as father-in-law, has got something to do with the journey that Moses takes, and then the journey that Jethro takes towards the God of Moses' father, the God of the Hebrews, the God of Israel, Yahweh, the one true God that is greater than all gods.

[21:07] And so, this is something to do if you're ever reading the Bible. Look at the physical movement in the Bible. Look at the physical movement of people in the geography, and see how that matches the spiritual movement of the characters in the story.

[21:22] Jethro's moving towards a foreign God, one that he only heard about, and he's about to meet this God, and take him as his own God. Now, think about this for a moment.

[21:32] Jethro and his daughter, Zipporah, and his two grandkids, take a journey through the wilderness, through the desert, to go and meet Moses and the nation. I wonder what it would have been like.

[21:44] I wonder what they would have expected on their journey. I wonder if Jethro said to his daughter and grandkids, yeah, we'll probably hear them before we see them. Think about this.

[21:55] They've been rescued powerfully out of Egypt by a God who made the great Pharaoh look like nothing. So Jethro's saying to his family, oh, I tell you what, you'll probably hear them singing and dancing and praising God before you even see them.

[22:12] Just wait. We'll hear them coming over the hill. They'll be singing and dancing. But what noise are the people actually making? From morning till evening, they're just disputing, bringing their disputes.

[22:26] They're complaining. They're arguing. Ever since Israel has crossed the Red Sea, they've struggled to listen. They've struggled to shema. This word shema is used at different points up to this point in reference to Israel failing to listen to God.

[22:42] They're trying to learn how to listen to God. They've struggled to respond appropriately with trust and gratitude and with praise and worship. And yet Jethro, a foreigner, an outsider, has a better response than the very people who were rescued.

[22:58] Because sometimes we lose sight of the bigger picture. Sometimes we get so caught up in our differences that we forget to treat each other like someone who's been rescued by God. Isn't that just a struggle that we have, that we forget to treat one another like someone who's been rescued by God?

[23:18] The person that you're talking to, rescued by God. How should you treat such a person? We get caught up in our disputes that we forget that we should be praising God more than we should be disagreeing with one another.

[23:33] We see how such a distraction all of these disputes are, preventing us from getting to the business of praising and worshiping God. And so to finish this section, we see Moses.

[23:47] He's about the only person who seems excited to talk about all that God has done. He runs out to meet his father-in-law, a foreigner, who is equally excited to hear.

[23:58] And I'm glad that Moses was the first person that Jethro met, because he might have turned back if he met anyone else. Is this not a challenge? I know it's a struggle for myself, because it makes me think about how I talk about God.

[24:13] It makes me think about how I talk about Jesus, how I talk about the church, how I talk about this life, how I talk about God's deliverance. Do I talk in a way that would just put somebody off?

[24:27] They're like, oh, that's what life is like with Jesus? No thanks. It's a challenge, isn't it? I'm glad that Jethro met Moses, because if he'd met anyone else, he might have just turned back around and thought, oh, I must have been mistaken about this deliverance that God has made.

[24:45] You see, are we going to help the people that hear about God? Are we going to help them get there by what we say, or are we going to put them off?

[24:57] Again, I think one of the reasons Moses' son's names are mentioned is because, you think about Moses, right? We need to remember our own journey towards God if we're going to help someone else in their journey.

[25:11] Is that not true? We need to remember our own journey towards God in order to help someone in their journey. And so, let's look at the middle section, our response to God.

[25:22] This is verses 10 to 12. Having reunited with God and been glad to hear of all that God has done, Jethro's response is one that Israel should learn.

[25:33] Now, it's at a good point in the story. Israel are a new nation, and so, they need to learn these things. Jethro, what does he do?

[25:44] In these verses, this is what we see. He blesses God, he confesses God, he worships God, and he breaks bread before God. Now, if this moment is out of chronological order, then why is it helpful to put it here rather than when it actually happened?

[26:02] Well, I think it teaches Israel how they must respond when they are this close to the mountain, the holy mountain. Now, in the next couple of chapters, they're going to approach the holy mountain of God, and the intensity of God's presence is going to increase.

[26:18] Their responsibility and their response is going to increase because they're going to give, they're going to be given the law, and they're going to hear God's voice. They're going to meet God.

[26:29] And so, significantly, for the very first time that we hear about a priest in Israel, it's in the next chapter. It's the first time we hear about a priest in Israel.

[26:41] It's the next chapter. But yet, in this chapter, there is a priest doing priestly things in showing the people how to respond. Because the people need a priest to show them how to respond to God.

[26:59] And so, Jethro is the priest leading this response. He's a foreign priest, yet he's shown the people how to respond to God.

[27:11] It's almost like out of everyone there, Jethro, as the only priest, is the only person who knows how to respond appropriately. Jethro's like, right folks, this is what we need to do.

[27:24] You don't know this, but I'm a priest. This is how we respond to God. We bless God. We confess God. We worship God. We break bread before Him.

[27:37] Firstly, Jethro blesses God, which I think is a helpful reminder to us. We are often asking God to bless other people, but I think it will do us more good to first bless God for all that He's already done for us.

[27:50] Jethro blesses Yahweh, and he blesses Yahweh not for himself, but for delivering this people. He blesses God for what he did for other people, not for himself.

[28:01] He blesses God because He's a good God. He blesses God because He is a just God. He knows that Egypt dealt with Israel arrogantly. And he'll know that the Amalekites dealt arrogantly with Israel because they didn't account for the fact that Israel's God is greater than all gods.

[28:21] And so, he blesses God as a good God, as a just God, as a righteous God, as a God who deals kindly with His people, a God who is faithful to His promises, a God who saves, who rescues, and a God who deals justly with evil.

[28:41] Secondly, Jethro confesses God. Verse 11, Now I know. You see how Jethro moves from having heard about God, and he says, Now I know.

[28:52] Now I know that Yahweh is greater than all gods. Now, I want you to think to yourself, is that something you recognize from our series in Exodus?

[29:05] Because throughout the plagues, this was a repeated phrase of God's purpose. Throughout the plagues in Exodus, God repeatedly says, This is my purpose, that you would know that I am Yahweh, that the whole world would know that He is greater than all gods.

[29:25] And so, Jethro comes to this point where he says, Now I know that Yahweh is greater than all gods. The Egyptians would know, the Israelites would know, the whole world would know that He is the God above all gods.

[29:39] So Jethro is an example of what Israel must remember. Throughout their history, they must remember this. Don't go off to all these other foreign gods. Don't go off to these idols because you have learned and you know that Yahweh is the only true God.

[29:52] He's greater than all the gods. And this is an example of what God intends. This wasn't just for Israel, but it was for foreigners too.

[30:03] It's for the whole world to hear and know that God is greater than all gods. And then thirdly, Jethro brings a burnt offering and sacrifices to God because he's a priest.

[30:16] He knows how to respond to a God. And so, if there's any God worthy of offerings and sacrifices, it's the God who is greater than all gods. This will be what Aaron and the priests of Israel will go on to do.

[30:33] A sacrifice will be made. It's interesting, you see this in the fourth thing when he has a meal, he breaks bread before God.

[30:46] It says in verse 12, Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law before God.

[31:02] That's very significant because who's Aaron? He's going to be the high priest. Aaron's going to be the one that leads this priestly response for Israel along with the elders.

[31:12] And so, it's significant that Aaron and the elders go with the only priest in town to see how to respond to God. And they go, and for the first time perhaps, Jethro tastes the manna, the bread from heaven, and he's welcome at the table as one who now blesses and confesses and worships God.

[31:34] He's welcome at the table because he now knows who God is and he worships Him. This is what we will do in a bit later on today.

[31:48] We have once been foreign to this, foreign to God, foreign to this bread. We didn't know Him. At one point, we heard. We moved towards Him. We joined the people.

[31:59] We confessed a name that is greater than all other names and we share the bread together before God. And so, finally, as we briefly look at the last section, it should be noted that in order to hear well and respond well, we need to remember what God did.

[32:15] We need to remember our journey towards Him. We need to remember His grace to welcome us and having the grace to welcome others as well at the table. And so, thirdly, from verse 13 to the end, how we hear God.

[32:31] I'm not going to be able to deal with all the details in this, but I think this is about how we hear God. How do the people hear God if there's only one man telling them what God says?

[32:42] There's too many people. Too many people. And Jethro notices this. This last section describes the daily struggle it was for these people to live together. They were a new nation, a free people, struggling to leave their slavery behind.

[32:56] Some sort of order and structure is needed. And it's a common thing, isn't it? You'll know this if you've ever known someone who's been in prison and they come out of prison, they just struggle with routine and structure because they don't have that order and structure that they once had in prison.

[33:15] And so, Israel have came out of slavery and they don't yet have structure or order and they're struggling to live together. So, they need this. We have a whole nation trying to live together.

[33:27] There's a lot of friction, a lot of different personalities, a lot of different opinions. And so, they all go to Moses, but it's a bit like going to the A&E. If you've ever been to the A&E recently, you know how long a wait it is.

[33:40] And so, these people are there morning till evening waiting on their turn to get their dispute solved by Moses to hear what God's saying. They go to inquire of God. That's a good thing.

[33:52] But what would it be like if you go to inquire of God and you need to sit and wait for hours? And so, they're sitting about waiting and Moses can't do it all on his own. Now, interestingly, it says in verse 13 that Moses sat to judge the people.

[34:10] So, he's like Judge Judy or Judge Rinder. Case after case, morning till evening. If only the people knew the law themselves. So, this section is about how we hear God.

[34:23] Moses isn't simply the chief of the tribe and that's why they're going to him. He's not the one that's got the keys to wisdom and that's how they go to him. he isn't judging with his own ideas or opinions.

[34:38] He's trying to govern the people and judge them according to what God says. Now, he might have some wisdom of his own. There might be a dose of common sense that he needs to remind the people about.

[34:50] To be honest, a lot of what God commands isn't hard to get your head around. But we struggle to do it. Moses isn't giving them his own ideas. He's giving them godly counsel.

[35:01] He's judging according to what God says. And so, the question is whether or not they will hear him. Will they listen or not? Will they shema? Again, this is placed just before they receive the Ten Commandments and the law.

[35:14] And placing it here shows that it is important to hear God. It's important to listen to God and to act on his word. It's important to shema.

[35:27] And so, interestingly, at this moment from morning till evening, they are bringing disputes. But what the nation will eventually learn is morning and evening, and you can correct me if this is wrong, but morning and evening, shema is the prayer that they say.

[35:44] Morning and evening. It's a morning prayer, an evening prayer. Israel say this. When you lie down, when you rise, when you walk by the way, when you sit down, shema.

[35:57] And so, this is the response we should have. We shouldn't think about when we wake up in the morning what disputes need to be solved. First, let us hear. Let us shema.

[36:10] Now, how can they hear if they can't get a hearing? So, Jethro instructs Moses on how to better do that. It's too much for one man. It teaches us that God's Word, God's Word, isn't just for one man to communicate.

[36:25] This account teaches Israel and us of the importance of having multiple godly men and leaders to instruct us. This shows the importance of having multiple elders to bring the Word of God to bear on the lives of people.

[36:44] Whether that's in services, whether that's in homes, whether that's as we go about the way, it's important. Israel will learn that these words of God would be a responsibility of every single family to teach their children.

[37:02] And so, the Word of God is not just for one man to share. The Word of God is not just for one person to communicate. And so, this is also an account of the legitimacy of Israel's leaders.

[37:16] But it's not about seeing the main guy. We can't think that this account is simply about Jethro or about Moses. It's about God.

[37:27] It's about hearing the Word of God. It's not about getting a hearing with Moses. It's about hearing the Word of God. Because He is our great shepherd. God is our leader. And it is His Word that we should listen to.

[37:39] That doesn't mean that we shouldn't trust or listen to the person delivering God's Word. It wasn't for the people to appoint the leaders. It was Moses who took able men, godly men, men who fear God and are trustworthy and hate a bribe.

[37:53] And so, if there are such people in your lives that are able and fear God and trustworthy and hate a bribe, then we ought to trust them and listen to them. It won't do us any favors by distrusting such people.

[38:07] Such people who carry the weight of God's Word to give to the people. They don't have their own interests at heart. They don't carry about the burden of our souls.

[38:19] They don't need to, but they do. They don't need to work hard to bring God's Word to bear, but they do work hard. And so, how do we listen to God's Word? Now, equally, Jethro says, you must represent the people before God.

[38:33] And so, Jethro's saying to him, you must take the people to God in prayer. You get a hearing with God on behalf of the people. And again, that is what we should look for in leaders.

[38:47] And that's what we should do for one another. We should take our cares to God. Take all our anxieties to God because He cares for us. Now, know that if you have troubles, that it is good and right for your leaders to take them to God on your behalf.

[39:08] And it's good and right for one another to take them to God on our behalf. But again, think about Moses, and it's not that we are like Moses. First and foremost, who is like Moses?

[39:21] Who is Moses pointing towards? He is pointing towards Jesus, the one mediator between man and God. And who is presently interceding for us before God but Jesus.

[39:35] So be encouraged. Now, I'm just wrapping this up now. Really, what this points towards is how we hear God's Word and how we respond. It's important because Israel are about to hear God and they're about to receive the law.

[39:48] How we hear and how we respond. Because Moses sitting to judge the people is a foreshadow of Jesus who is the judge of the living and the dead.

[39:59] And so there is a day when the whole world will be judged according to how we heard and responded to the gospel. Hearing about God's salvation through Jesus, hearing about the cross and all that Jesus did.

[40:12] First, the Word goes out so that the whole world have an opportunity to hear and respond and then move toward God and eventually know Him and worship Him. And so we hear His Word.

[40:24] We learn to live as God's delivered people. and then the day will come when Jesus will sit down to judge us according to how we responded. Now, this is good news.

[40:35] Sounds scary and it should be but this is good news. And I'll tell you why it's good news. Because when it comes to people like the Amalekites, when it comes to people like Hamas, when it comes to people like the jihadists that slaughtered these Christians who were mostly women and children, when it comes to these people, they will be judged for their response to God.

[40:59] But for those who are in Christ, for those who have the movement towards Him and finally know that He is God and that He is greater than all other gods, Paul says, there is therefore now no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus.

[41:14] We have the opportunity to respond as we should and with deliverance in mind and all that He has done for us, we should respond with great gladness and rejoicing, gratitude and praise and worship in His name forevermore.

[41:31] Amen.