God Is Working With Nonbelievers - Exodus 17-20

Exodus 18:1-9 (ESV)

Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel his people, how the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt. Now Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, had taken Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her home, along with her two sons. The name of the one was Gershom (for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land”), and the name of the other, Eliezer (for he said, “The God of my father was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh”). Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness where he was encamped at the mountain of God. And when he sent word to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her,” Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. And they asked each other of their welfare and went into the tent. Then Moses told his father-in-law all that the LORD had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardship that had come upon them in the way, and how the LORD had delivered them. And Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the LORD had done to Israel, in that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians.

When Moses was found out about his killing of an Egyptian, he ran away to the land of Midian.  He came to the home of Jethro, who happened to be a priest of Midian.  This meant he was an unbeliever.   Jethro gave Moises his daughter, Zipporah, and he had two sons with her.  It was Jethro’s sheep Moses was tending when he saw the burning bush. It is at that bush where God called Moses to go back to Egypt and do the miracles in front of Pharaoh, demanding that he let God’s people go.  

This all happened while Jethro cared for Moses’ wife and Moses’ two boys, Jethro’s grandsons.   Moses life can be divided up into three sections:

• 40 years in Egypt, in Pharaoh’s court

• 40 years in the wilderness tending Jethro’s sheep.

• 40 years leading the people of God in that same wilderness

We don’t know exactly how long the miracles in Egypt took place.  But it would have been relativity short timespan. However, Moses’ and his family were separated as a result.  

Here are some things we can learn:

1. God sometimes ask us to serve Him at the cost of our family.  That is completely foreign to our mindset. 
2. God sometimes uses non-believers to support the work that believers do.  That is completely foreign to our mindset. 

God used Jethro to accomplish a task for Moses. In the above passage we read of their being reunited.  However, God is about to bring Jethro to faith in Him, based upon the work that Moses did in Egypt.  God is about to bring Jethro to the place to give great wisdom to Moses about his leadership.   So, the last take away is this:

    3. God brings non-believers into our lives, just so He can eventually bring them to faith.  

Never doubt how God uses the non-believing world to accomplish the tasks He has designed for the believer.