Jethro was delighted to hear about all the good things the Lord had done for Israel in rescuing them from the hand of the Egyptians. The word delighted — yichad, to rejoice together — is the response of someone who hears genuinely good news and receives it as genuinely good. Jethro the Midianite priest rejoices over the God of Israel's acts for Israel. This is the response Abraham's covenant was designed to produce: through you all families of the earth will be blessed (Genesis 12:3). Jethro, a family member by marriage rather than by birth, is being blessed through Moses and through Moses' God. His delight is the first gentile response of joy to the Exodus testimony, foreshadowing the rejoicing Luke 15:10 describes in heaven over every act of divine rescue.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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