In the extended family, which the Scripture deals with, in-laws have an important role. Jethro welcomes the fugitive Moses and gives him his daughter as a wife. It supports him in the mission entrusted to him by God.
by Rosanna Virgili
Who knows why there are so many speeches, clichés, references, even jokes that have mothers-in-law as their theme and instead we almost never talk about in-laws, the "fathers" acquired through marriage. It is undeniable that, traditionally, mothers-in-law show a greater aptitude for giving advice, for spontaneously offering to look after their grandchildren, for having, in short, a certain naturalness in being part of their children's family, but it is also evident that, although with less resonance , in-laws are also essential for the care of sons-in-law, daughters-in-law and grandchildren. It is not right, therefore, to neglect talking about them, about their daily, generous and often silent commitment. In fact, the Word of God, Scripture, does not fail to do this.
There are several in-laws mentioned in it, but one, Moses' father-in-law, finds a very important space in the book of Exodus. The first painting portrays him when he was still only Sipporà's father, before she became Moses' wife.
These are the antecedents: we see his daughter together with her six sisters queuing at the source of a well: «to draw water [...] to make her father's flock drink. But some shepherds arrived and chased them away. Then Moses stood up to defend the girls and made their livestock drink" (Ex 2, 16-17). Thus Moses - who had fled Egypt after committing a murder - met Sipporah, the woman who would later become the mother of his children. But the father's role was providential; in fact when the daughters "returned to their father Reuèl, he said to them: How come you returned so quickly today? They answered, A man, an Egyptian, delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds; he himself drew water for us and made the flock drink. He said to his daughters: Where is he? Why did you leave that man there? Call him to eat our food! So Moses agreed to live with that man, who gave him his daughter Sipporah as a wife. She bore him a son and he named him Gershom, because he said: I live as a stranger in a strange land! (Ex 2, 18-22). If it is true, therefore, that Moses was generous with the daughters of the shepherd Jethro, priest of Midian, who were nothing more than strangers to him, it is equally true that Jethro was very grateful to him and Moses' reward for his noble gesture it was truly a hundredfold! Not only did the fugitive Moses, pursued by Pharaoh's guards who were looking for him to kill him, find in the goodness of his father-in-law a lodging, a shelter, a free refuge, but he had the gift of a daughter, who gave him descendants who - in the culture of the time – it was the most precious thing a man could have.
The father-in-law was also a source of economic security for Moses. In his tents Moses found a good job, with which he and his family lived peacefully and for a long time; and it was precisely while he was still "grazing the flock of his father-in-law Jethro" that "the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the middle of a bush. He looked and behold: the bush was burning with fire, but that bush was not consumed" (Ex 3, 1-2). From that bush God spoke to Moses and called him to go to Egypt to free his people from slavery. And here is again the decisive intervention of the father-in-law: «Moses left, returned to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him: Let me go, please; I want to go back to my brothers who are in Egypt, to see if they are still alive! Jethro answered Moses: Go in peace! (Ex 4, 18). He would have had the authority to keep him with him and selfishly to keep him close in his old age; instead the father-in-law showed himself to be totally open to his son-in-law's request and aware of the greatness of the vocation that God had given him. To the point that we must think that Jethro made a providential contribution in Moses' role as liberator to redeem the Jews from oppression; Israel's greatest prophet could not have done anything without his father-in-law taking up his cause.
But his father-in-law Jethro's work did not end the day he let his son-in-law go to do what God had asked of him. He did not stop being close to Moses even after he had sent away his wife Sipporah: «Jethro, priest of Midian, father-in-law of Moses, learned how much God had done for Moses and for Israel, his people, that is, how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. Then Jethro took with him Sipporah, Moses' wife, whom he had previously sent away, with her two sons [...] and came to Moses in the desert, where he was encamped, near the mountain of God. He made Moses say: I am I, Jethro, your father-in-law, who come to you with your wife and her two sons! Moses went to meet his father-in-law, prostrated himself before him and kissed him" (Ex 18, 1-7). While Moses carried out the arduous and lofty task of the exodus, his father-in-law supported his family and took care of his children! Without rancor, one day, he accompanied all of them to Moses, not to reproach him, but to share with him the joy of the first success of his mission and to give praise to God for it: «Jethro said: Blessed is the Lord, who has delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of Pharaoh; he delivered this people from the hand of Egypt! Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods" (Ex 18, 10-11).