Withness 3: Who's Your Jethro? You Need a Butt-Kicker

Read Exodus 4:18 and Exodus 18.

There are times where you just want to stay in bed. The covers feel good, you are nice and cozy. Sure, there may be things that need to be done that day. Important things even. But is just so much easier, so much more comfortable to stay right where you are.

Of course, there are other times and places besides the morning "get out of bed" drill that we can feel that way. There are times in our lives when it is just easier to keep on the way we are. In those moments, we need someone to be our Jethro. Sweet says of him, "Jethro kicked Moses' butt out of the tent and into the mission God had given him."

When Jethro sends Moses back to Egypt, most translations translate Jethro's words as "Go in peace." However, Sweet argues that the more literal translation of the Hebrew is "go to peace." Sweet distinguishes between "going in peace" (resting in wholeness, as in death) and "going to peace" (making the best use of whatever life remains). How would you explain the difference between "going to peace" and "going in peace"?

Dante said, "In His will is our peace". Looking at the stories from Exodus about Jethro, how does Jethro help Moses fulfill God's will? What peace comes from this?

Jethro was not himself an Israelite, yet he fulfills an important role in Moses' answer of God's call. One of the reasons I went to Duke for seminary rather than a clearly Baptist school was because I wanted to be exposed to other forms of Christianity so that I could better understand why I thought and practiced the way I did. Do you think that God can use other faiths and cultures to help our understanding of our own faith? Why or why not?

Sweet writes, " If life matters, you have to give your life to mattering." Share your responses to this statement.

What have been some of the spiritual turning points of your life? Who were the people who were part of that experience? Can you see any of them as a Jethro?

The important thing I see about Jethro is that he is not a taskmaster. Some "butt-kickers" take an attitude of driving people against their will. God's whole purpose was to deliver Moses and Israel from taskmasters. Moses didn't need a taskmaster to force him down the path. He needed a Jethro to help him see the way God was opening to him.