March 20, 2026 - Exodus 18 & Psalm 64

We read Exodus 18 and Psalm 64, then we are filled with a trio of encouragements for the day: to share with others the powerful work of God in your life, to lead with wisdom and wise counsel, and to take refuge in Christ, who sees and knows all. 

For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compassbiblesv.org. Keep reading. Keep growing. God’s Word is a lamp to your feet, and a light to your path. 

Transcript

Welcome And Reading Plan Setup

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan, where we are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength with God's word lighting the way. I'm Josiah Smith, joined by Tyler Sanborn. Today is Friday, March 20th, 2026. Listen intently to God's written word. Exodus 18. 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 Gersham, for he said, I have been a sojourner in a foreign land. And in the name of the other, Eliasar, 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 and 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, and that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians. Jethro said, Blessed be the Lord who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh, and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people. And Jethro, Moses' father in law, brought a burnt offering and sacrifices to God, and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses his father in law before God. The next day Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening. When Moses' father in law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone and all the people stand around you from morning till evening? And Moses said to his father-in-law, Because the people come to me to inquire of God. When they have a dispute, they come to me, and I decide between one person and another, and I make them know the statutes of God and his laws. Moses' father-in-law said to him, What you are doing is not good. You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. Now obey my voice, I will give you advice, and God be with you. You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God, and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens, and let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves, so it will be easier for you, and they will bear their burden with you. If you do this, God will direct you, and you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace. So Moses listened to the voice of his father in law, and did all that he had said. Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens, and they judged the people at all times. Any hard cases they brought to Moses, but any small matter they decided themselves. Then Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went away to his own country.

Tell The Story Of God’s Work

SPEAKER_00 3:48

Psalm sixty-four. Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint. Preserve my life from dread of the enemy, hide me from the secret plots of the wicked, from the throng of evildoers, who wet their tongues like swords, who aim bitter words like arrows, shooting from ambush at the blameless, shooting at him suddenly and without fear. They hold fast to their evil purpose, they talk of laying snares secretly, thinking, who can see them? They search out injustice, saying, We have accomplished a diligent search, for the inward mind and heart of a man are deep, but God shoots his arrows at them, they are wounded suddenly, they are brought to ruin, with their own tongues turned against them, all who see them will wag their heads. Then all mankind fears. They tell what God has brought about and ponder what he has done. Let the righteous one rejoice in the Lord and take refuge in him. Let all the upright in heart exult.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

Exodus eighteen is a great encouragement, as we've talked about often on this podcast, to recount the wonderful work of God in your life personally. This is exactly what Moses does to his father-in-law in verse eight. It says, 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 so Moses is basically just saying, Can I tell you? Can I tell you what the Lord has done? You're not going to believe this, but this happened.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

It was amazing.

SPEAKER_01 5:28

He's excited. And what does that do for Jethro? Well, beginning in verse 9, Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the Lord had done to Israel. Even in verse 10, Jethro said, Blessed be the Lord who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people. So I want I want us to just take away a principle from Exodus 18 here and this encounter with Moses and Jethro. I just want you to believe that recounting the work of God in your life can actually lead others to praise God themselves. And we see that happen in a variety of different places. And of course, this is paralleled with what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 5, to let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. But this is what Moses is doing. Hey, Jethro, can I tell you? Can I just tell you what the Lord has done? How great and magnificent the things that he has done are? And Jethro's response is he's amazed, and he responds by saying, Now I know that the Lord is greater than all God. So it seems like even Moses recounting the wonderful works of God to his father-in-law actually leads his father-in-law to worship and praise of God.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

And surely in this explanation of the wonderful works of God, I'm sure Moses here is speaking to the the suffering that that God had delivered his people from, the the oppression in Egypt, the the mistreatment uh and and the difficulty that count that comes along with with hard work and suffering, and the layers and layers of of hardship that Pharaoh laid on the people of Israel and making them go and get their own straw and the stubbornness of Pharaoh's heart. And I mean, there might even even been some connection. Like, man, like I'm maybe I'm not much different than Pharaoh. Maybe maybe I'm a I'm a kind of guy that is is introspecting as you're even telling me these things about this Pharaoh and your God. Um, and to your point, Pastor Josiah, there's there's this moment of like I think transformation. There's a moment where Jethro is seeing, like, this God has done all this. Yeah, surely this this God is above all other. Surely your God is the one true God.

Delegation And Shared Ministry Burdens

SPEAKER_01 7:49

I think we just mean we need to be better at making it a practice, making it a habit of saying, Can I tell you what the Lord has done? Let me just share with you what the Lord has done in in my life. Of course, in salvation, I think that's that's ultimate. But then even from there, look at how the Lord has provided, look at how the Lord has just worked and moved and healed and whatever. Uh you need to really think about in your friendships, in your relationships with your family, with your coworkers, uh, just having that kind of on the tip of your tongue. Can I tell you? Can I tell you what the Lord has done? And having a sense of expectation that the Lord can use that kind of recounting to lead others to uh an understanding of who God is and worship of God. We see that's what happens with Jethro. Blessed be the Lord who has delivered you. He is said to rejoice for all the good that the Lord has done to Israel. So you could, by just telling others in your life the wonderful works of God in your life, uh, could be the means that God chooses to use to have their eyes opened to the beauty of the gospel, to the reality of who God is. And so that's something that I think we need to just be better at. That's something I want to grow in. I want to just say often, can I just tell you what the Lord has done? Can I tell you what He has provided? And that's something that even early on in the life of this church, uh, we have a note that Tyler and I uh created a while ago that has different prayer requests that we were praying for for this church. And we've seen a lot, uh, most of those prayer requests in real time and be answered. And so that's something that I want to grow in. I want to just tell people, can I just tell you what the Lord has done in this church? Can I tell you how he has provided? Can I tell you uh about all the different ways that he has led us to the place that we are at as Compass Bible Church South Valley and just his magnificent work along the way? And uh, I hope that that kind of framework of can I just tell you is something that we grow in and are actually pursuing uh on a daily basis. Now, the other part of this chapter that's interesting is Moses kind of sitting all day and all night. We went back and looked at actually how many people uh were exiting Egypt and in Egypt or uh Exodus chapter 12, and it said that there were 600,000 men and their wives and their children also, so just a lot of people. So if you if you think that every man has a wife, which you know may or may not be true, but if every man has a wife and they all have at least one kid, we're easily over a million people that are a part of Israel that that made this this flight out of Egypt. And so it says, out of that herd of a million people, they were coming to Moses morning tonight, asking for help, asking for him to to judge their disputes, to help teach them about the statutes and the laws and the commands of God. And so Jethro sees this, Jethro's father-in-law, that just is now seeing the goodness of God and rejoicing and praising and worshiping him. And he goes, Moses, this ain't good. This is not good. You need help. You can't do this on your own. And then uh in a very wise way, actually encourages Moses to set up a kind of a structure of qualified men to help with the load of caring for the people of God. And so we see Moses do that. He obeys the voice of his father-in-law, and he he he gets by with a little help from his friends in uh this uh this chapter here in Exodus 18. So uh it's an interesting story, and even just seeing Jethro kind of being a part of it uh and being influential in how the nation of Israel and the people of God as a whole are being cared for, uh, that being uh you know the advice from Jethro, who's not really even a part of all this, um, something that the Lord does. But it's just a good reminder that in the in the the work of ministry, if we're gonna broaden the application of this, in the work of ministry, whether you're formally on staff at a church or you're just um the people that Paul talks about in Ephesians 4 that are equipped for the for the work of ministry by the church leaders, uh, you got to remember that you can't do it all by yourself. And that can be a temptation for for some people, for all of us really, to put uh more on our shoulders than maybe we should. And I think ultimately it's a it can be a lack of trust in God that He can provide and will provide. And so we need to be intentional about surrounding ourselves with other people that can engage in the work of ministry with us, and we see that kind of as an example here in Exodus 18.

God Sees All And Will Judge

SPEAKER_00 12:31

Yeah, that's a great encouragement and a great reminder for me too. Um sometimes I can be persuaded to think like it's all on me. Um, it's just whatever thoughts or whatever uh advice or or um insights or just my the time that I have each day to give. Uh we are we are stronger. We are um as a as a church body capable to um to ask for help, to, to delegate, to assign different tasks to different people. And uh to, I mean, we we look at the the structure of Compass Bible Church. The South Valley, we we have smaller groupings, we have small groups, we have life groups, we have friend groups. There's there's different ways that you can seek counsel and different ways that you can um help resolve conflict, resolve questions that you have uh in your own life, and we we can look to people that are around us that God has placed in our lives uh for that help. And uh when we think about just the things that we're so thankful for, that the blessings that we have and the ways that we can tell of God's uh goodness, oftentimes um those are connected with suffering. Those these moments of excitement and God's faithfulness are are on the the heels um the on the heels of suffering. And in our psalm today, uh we see David once again, he's asking God, hear me out, hear me out, God, preserve me from uh my enemies, preserve my life from the dread of the enemy. And we have a a common plea from David where there is an injustice being uh carried out against him, uh, and he's waiting for God, he's calling for God to bring uh justice. And in verse seven, when he uh describes how God acts, it's it's swift, it's immediate and effective, verse seven. But God shoots his arrow at these these evildoers, these people that are wishing to do harm against David, and they're they're wounded suddenly. Um God doesn't miss when he's going to uh enact justice, it's swift and it's it's immediate in in his timing. They're brought to ruin by their own tongues turned against them, and uh, all who see them, all that all the people that see God exercising this justice will wag their heads. And um we we look to people that in our own lives we can look left and right, and at times we can see a lot of suffering around us. We can see people that are that are being uh harmed by words, being harmed sometimes physically. Um, and we're like, God, where is when are you gonna work? When when when are you going to step in and take care of this? And and unfortunately, we just don't have the timeline. God doesn't tell us when he's going to um to be working in these ways that we would want here on earth on this side, but we do know for a fact that that one day every every sin will be um will be judged, every sin will be taken care of. And the righteous, for those who are in Christ, we have this hope and this this joy that can come from knowing that God no one gets away from their own sin. There's there's none that get away with wrongdoing. Um, and we rejoice that we have a savior that has taken care of our wrongs, our sin against God. We have a a refuge in Christ who has um taken the punishment of our sin because um because of the the great love that God has for us. So we have a reason to exalt, we have a reason to be thankful and praise God that our suffering, the the sin in this world will not go unpunished, but it our suffering is not in vain. We are we are being refined day by day.

Closing And Next Steps

SPEAKER_01 16:12

Yeah, there's kind of a truth here in Psalm 64 that nothing is hidden from the eyes of the Lord. So starting in verse five, it says they hold fast to their evil evil purpose. They talk of laying snares secretly, thinking, who can see them? They search out injustice, saying, We have accomplished a diligent search, for the inward mind and heart of a man are deep, but God shoots his arrows at them. So the idea is that even though the the secrets of a man's heart from our perspective may be hidden deep within, we may never see them, we never we may never expose them. God sees all, God knows all. And that's such an encouragement. And I believe why even in verse 10, David ends by saying, Let the righteous one rejoice in the Lord and take refuge in him. We can't see all, we can't know all, we can't anticipate all. That's something that we can struggle with. I should have seen it, I should have known, I should have anticipated, but God does, he sees all, and justice will be enacted. And that's why he says, Let all the upright in heart exalt. And that word exult can can have this connotation of to put in its proper place. And so I think even here in Psalm 64, within the context, it's the idea of putting God in his proper place as the one who will enact justice, ultimately and finally, the one who can see the uh inward mind and heart of a man that are deep and hidden from our perspective. Put God in his proper place as the one who can see, the one who can actually do something about it, the one that will provide final and ultimate justice that that we wait for and long for with the return of Christ and the inauguration of the kingdom of God and and ultimately uh just the new heavens and the new earth, earth, and the eternal state of being with God forever, that we look forward to, where there will be no more sin, no more sorrow, and sin and death will be dealt with finally and fully. And so Psalm 64 is just a great reminder put God in his proper place. Don't put yourself in the place of trying to see all, know all, anticipate all, and deal with all. God is the one that can do that. Even though the inward mind and heart of a man are deep, God's uh God's reach. That's the whole idea is that what does an archer do? They they they hit a target from afar. And so even though things can be far uh from God, they are never out of reach from him. He always is on target, he always knows, he always works in his perfect timing according to his perfect sovereign will. And so as a re as a result, our our response is to rejoice. Let the righteous one rejoice in the Lord and take refuge in him. Let all the upright in heart exult, but to put God in his proper place as the one who sees, the one who knows, the one that will act, the one that will defend, and ultimately the one that fully and finally will defeat a sin and death. So hopefully that's an encouragement today in Psalm 64 and Exodus 18 to just recount the wonderful deeds of God, uh, to rely on God's people to help with the work of ministry and to be reminded that God is the one who knows all, sees all, and ultimately will deal with sin fully and finally upon the return of Christ in the new heavens and the new earth. Well, thank you so much for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast. For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compass Bible SV.org. Keep reading, keep growing. God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.