Sunday Sermonette: Getting organized

We ' ve had a bit of lawgiving so far -- the Passover commemoration and keeping the sabbath, in particular. The lawgiving is about to get going big time, but before God starts rolling out the edicts, we interrupt the story for a blast from the past, offering some avuncular advice. This story seems a bit of an awkward grafting, as did the previous episode featuring Zipporah, and one wonders if this might be imported from a separate story that was really about the Midianites. Anyway, it seems anodyne but it raises some interesting questions. Here goes.Now Jethro, the priest of Midian and father-in-law of Moses, heard of everything God had done for Moses and for his people Israel, and how theLord had brought Israel out of Egypt.2 After Moses had sent away his wife Zipporah, his father-in-law Jethro received her3 and her two sons. One son was named Gershom,[a] for Moses said, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land”;4 and the other was named Eliezer,[b] for he said, “My father’s God was my helper; he saved me from the sword of Pharaoh.”5 Jethro, Moses ’ father-in-law, together with Moses’ sons and wife, came to him in the wilderness, where he was camped near the mountain of God.6 Jethro had sent word to him, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons.”Now, we might well ask how Jethro knew where to find them in the wilderness. Maybe he called Mo on his satellite phone? Actually, we already know t...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs