The family and I watched Prince of Egypt last week, which is Dreamworks’ retelling of the Exodus story. It’s a great one, and features one of the greatest depictions of the Red Sea crossing ever put to film. If you haven’t seen it, sit down with your kids/grandkids and watch it one evening.
While the movie does not limit itself to the material written by Moses (the Exodus account’s version of Moses’ early life is very sparse), it does stay relatively faithful to the details that are found in the second book of the Bible. I could quibble with some things, but overall it’s solid, which is better than can be said for many big-budget retellings of Bible events.
One thing that the movie changed was the fact that Moses, after fleeing Egypt, ended up in the house of Jethro, described in the Bible as “the priest of Midian,” who lived near Mt. Sinai. It was in these days that he encountered the burning bush and received his commission to return to Egypt. Most of that is how it is depicted in Moses’ inspired account, but with two changes. In the movie, not very much time passes; maybe six years or so. In reality, forty years passed between the time Moses left Egypt and the time he returned. The movie condenses the timeline and, as a result, makes one other change to compensate: In the movie, Moses finds Jethro. In reality, Moses found Reuel, the priest of Midian , whose daughter he married (Exodus 2:16-21). In the forty years he was there, Rueul was replaced as priest by Jethro (Exodus 3:1).
But wait! Jethro, not Reuel is called Moses “father-in-law” in Exodus 3:1, but it was Reuel who gave one of his daughters to Moses. So what’s up with that?
There are two possibilities:
First possibility: Reuel is Jethro by another name. Contextually it works: The man who gave Moses one of his daughters would be Moses’ father-in-law. That is Reuel in Exodus 2 and Jethro in Exodus 3. Ergo, they’re the same man.
Second possibility: Jethro is Reuel’s brother or even son, since the Bible calls someone a “father” even if they are technically a grandfather, etc. The title was less about where the man fits in the family tree and more about the position of authority he holds over the family. At the same time, the word translated as “father-in-law” in Exodus 3:1 is a pretty open-ended word to describe any relation you have “by marriage.” In other words, your brother-in-law, son-in-law, and father-in-law, and even your husband are all different people, but the word to describe them is the same in the Hebrew language.
So which is he? Is Jethro the same man as Reuel or is some relation to the former priest of Midian?
¯\_ (ツ)_/¯
Another question people often ask about Jethro concerns his Midianite heritage. He is a priest of Midian, so does that mean he is a pagan? After all, when we read about Midianites in later books, such as Numbers and Judges, they are enemies of God’s people and worshipers of false gods. Jehovah orders them wiped out because they led the people into paganism at Baal Peor (Numbers 25, 31). So what kind of a man is Jethro if that’s the company he keeps?
Well, actually, that’s not the company he keeps. The Midianites were a nomadic people, with no central government. Jethro was not a pagan, but was a worshiper of Jehovah. In fact, while his name means “eminent,” the name Reuel (which is either his other name or the name of his family) means “friend of God.” When Moses reunited with Jethro after the exodus was done, the priest of Midian offered worship to Jehovah for the good He did for His people in Egypt (Exodus 18). Jethro lived in the patriarchal age, at a time when God dealt directly with the heads of households. The fact that he was a priest of Midian does not mean he was a priest of a false religion, but rather that he was a priest of God of Midianite descent (in fact, related to Abraham through Keturah). It would not be until the nation of Israel was formally founded at Sinai that God would set them aside to be His people, separate from all other nations. Jethro, in that sense, was no different from someone like Melchizedek, who was a priest of Salem (Genesis 14).
So there you have it, seven hundred words about Jethro, whether you wanted it or not.
Enjoy the rest of your day.
~ Matthew