DIVINE SYSTEM IN EXODUS (1)
[p. 147] DIVINE SYSTEM IN EXODUS (1)
Exodus 2: 1 - 14; Exodus 3: 1 - 10; Exodus 4: 27 - 31
JT I have in mind on this occasion the system which appears in the early chapters of Exodus, intended to be used by the Spirit to lead the saints out of the world. The world is a system represented in Egypt. God has come in system-wise as seen in that book; it is typical of the truth of the gospel. We shall hope to cover roughly chapters 2 to 15 particularly, but inclusive of later chapters as to what occurred at Sinai and Horeb.
It was thought that we should first see the character of the persons employed in this divine system. In developing the thought we shall see the place it now has and that the divine family is involved, also how worship appears. The last verse read says, “And the people believed. And when they heard that Jehovah had visited the children of Israel, and that he had seen their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped”. This is a feature that may be seen running through as well as the brotherly or love feature. Inasmuch as the divine way is to add to this system — the church system — each one who accepts it in faith, it can be readily seen that love is required in each of us, and to be cultivated, so that the system is characterised by it. The woman of Samaria is a good example of how persons who believe through the testimony are added to the faith system and become in themselves gatherers of others. At a time of great weakness among the brethren in regard to gatherings, God may look upon our afflictions in different countries and give deliverance and give additions, gather others besides those that are gathered.
AEH In Peter’s remarks in connection with adding other qualities or graces, he ends up by saying,
“in brotherly love love”, 2 Peter 1: 7. Does he have in mind that this constitutes the last fusion point as we come into the system on our side?
JT That is a good suggestion. It is Peter’s last recorded, written contribution to the testimony of God, and he shows in it that the last should be the best. As we come into the closing moments, it should not be a fag end, a worn out or tired condition, but an increase of liberty, of adding to what is there. So that “an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ”, 2 Peter 1: 11. Peter shows that he certainly is contributing to it in the way he refers to the transfiguration; and particularly the way in which he brings in the truth of the Son of God, which he never did bring into his ministry formally until then. Speaking in connection with the excellent glory of the Voice which was to be heard he says, “This voice we heard uttered from heaven, being with him on the holy mountain” (2 Peter 1: 18). And added to that we have his allusion to the leading minister of this dispensation, Paul, in 2 Peter 3: 15. How thoroughly Peter introduced whatever was best!
AEH In the end of the first epistle Peter refers to Silvanus, who had been associated with Paul as a “faithful brother”, suggesting the linking of Moses and Aaron together. It is before the allusion to Paul that Silvanus is called “the faithful brother”: “By Silvanus, the faithful brother, as I suppose, I have written to you briefly; exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God in which ye stand”.
JT The beautiful link between Paul and Peter stressed in that final epistle should, I think, have a voice to us. That is how brethren should be linked, especially those who are ministering.
Ques Where did Peter get the word “beloved” that he uses in 2 Peter 3: 15? He speaks about “our beloved brother Paul”; and in speaking about the Son of God the same word is used: “my beloved Son”, Matthew 3: 17. Where do we get this word that we use about one another?
JT It is a word the early ministers made much use of, not in any formal or perfunctory way. We use it much now in our letters to the brethren, but the question is how much fervour enters into our use of it to one another, and how much sense have we that we are beloved? David stands for quality in the types in the Scriptures, and his name means “beloved”. It is introduced not simply as a name but as expressive of the person. David is expressed by the word “beloved” and he was anointed in that connection; so that quality expressed in “beloved” is a fixed matter in the divine system.
JRH In this matter of the affections, is this account of Moses in regard to his birth and being taken out of the water calculated to touch and engage our affections?
JT Yes. It is said of his mother, “And she saw him that he was fair, and hid him three months”, Exodus 2: 2. His father joined in that according to other scriptures. Moses was “fair” and was hidden in that connection. Then we are told, “And the daughter of Pharaoh went down to bathe in the river; and her maids went along by the river’s side. And she saw the ark in the midst of the sedge, and sent her handmaid and fetched it. And she opened it, and saw the child, and behold, the boy wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children”. It seems clear that she was affected. She was in the enemy’s camp outwardly but evidently moved in it; in principle she was taken out of it by this sight; evidently she was touched.
HGH Do we see love in activity in the inauguration of this system? The passage says, “And a [p. 150] man of the house of Levi went and took a daughter of Levi”.
JT It is very apropos that we should get such facts stated in view of marital relations and all that develops out of them. We shall perhaps notice this again in chapter 6, how that it involves “wholly a right seed”, Jeremiah 2: 21. Peter contemplates this in the fact that we are “born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the living and abiding word of God”, 1 Peter 1: 23. I think that thought will open up to us in the way it is worked out in “Aaron and Moses” and in “Moses and Aaron” — the outstanding products of this union — and in Phinehas, the last of the genealogy in the priestly line in chapter 6, who obtained the priesthood for ever according to Numbers 25: 13. All that will enter into what we have in mind. The fact that the daughter of Pharaoh is affected is noticeable. Although outwardly she did not join in with the people of God she is evidently touched, and impressed too. We should, as those under reproach, impress those of distinction in this world so that they might be loosened, perhaps released, out of the camp of the enemy. The child touched her clearly, so that she saved him.
AAT Should we pray for the authorities in connection with matters affecting the brethren, that they might be touched?
JT It is a young man’s time in testimony, and a young woman’s time, too, especially in certain other countries. It is a question of what is presented to those in authority, where there are any touchable. Evidently this princess was such. The facts related link with the previous chapter where the male children were sought out to be destroyed. But Pharaoh’s daughter did not join in with this destruction, nor did the midwives of chapter 1; they feared God and God took account of that, giving them fixity in building [p. 151] houses for them. The world is being invaded in this way and ultimately Egypt is “spoiled” as Israel goes out.
HGH Would the movements of Pharaoh’s daughter be God moving sovereignly in relation to this system?
JT Yes.
AEH “The boy wept”; is that a feature of manhood? Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus.
JT Yes, weeping is a feature of manhood. The Lord, as you say, wept. It is a feature of manhood, not simply of childhood. Any babe might weep, but here it expressed the situation in which the child was found. That is what meets the eye of Pharaoh’s daughter.
LES Do you think Isaiah would have this seed in mind in chapter 59: 19 - 21? “When the adversary shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of Jehovah will lift up a banner against him. And the redeemer will come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith Jehovah. And as for me, this is my covenant with them, saith Jehovah: My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith Jehovah, from henceforth and for ever”.
JT That is good, the use of the word ‘seed’ runs through; “wholly a right” one, which is found in Jeremiah 2: 21. I think it is in mind here. The idea enters into the Psalms. It comes out in Genesis, running through in Abraham, and we find it in Psalm 22: 30, “A seed shall serve him”. Again in Psalm 24: 6, “This is the generation of them that seek unto him, that seek thy face, O Jacob”. It is the generation that is affected by where God is, that is, those with whom God is identified. In Psalm 24 we have the generation of them that seek God’s [p. 152] face in Jacob; but then the king himself adds increase and dignity and glory; the “king of glory” appears at the end of the psalm joining in with those that seek God’s face in His people.
ASB Does Hebrews 11: 23 help? “By faith Moses, being born, was hid three months by his parents, because they saw the child beautiful; and they did not fear the injunction of the king”. It was the potential divine system over against what the king represented.
JT Just so. These parents had an eye for the beautiful. Their names are not given here, but they are given in chapter 6; that is where the dignity of the people comes out. In chapter 5 they are under great reproach but chapter 6 opens up the greatness that attaches to the people. The generation that is outlined in that chapter culminates in Moses and Aaron; they are the ones to keep our eyes on.
HB Does chapter 2 suggest that there should be the maternal element among us, so that we should seek to protect the young brothers in having to do with the authorities?
JT Yes; so that chapter 1 should be kept in mind although we did not read it. There it is a question of Jacob; there is far more about Jacob in the Psalms than about Abraham because it is a question of experience and of what the people go through in sufferings. “And these are the names of the sons of Israel who had come into Egypt; with Jacob had they come, each with his household: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin; Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher”, chapter 1: 1 - 4. They are linked up in certain groups but they are all the tribes. “And all the souls that had come out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls; and Joseph was in Egypt”. That is the general preface to the book, and our minds are attracted to these persons. Ultimately they come into captivity [p. 153] and sufferings, but the first chapter is to bring out how they were increasing: “And the children of Israel were fruitful, and swarmed and multiplied, and became exceeding strong; and the land was full of them”. So that God as King is preparing His way in this. Then the devil’s attempt appears in the new king that did not know Joseph; he is an instrument of the devil; “And there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more numerous and stronger than we”. That is the thing to notice, this increase is of God. So he counsels: “Come on, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it come to pass that, if war occur, they take side with our enemies and fight against us, and go up out of the land”. The devil is planning through Pharaoh, but God is also planning; it is God against the devil working in Pharaoh. So we find dissent over the work the enemy has to do: “And the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives — of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other was Puah”, their names pointing to distinction in this profession. They are incorporated into this system on the principle that whatever is of God is incorporated; it implies that these persons are useful in the system for the preservation of what is of God. It is the generation of God over against the devil’s effort to destroy, and so these two persons run through the remaining part of the chapter. “And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses”. The system is taking form for the preservation of what the devil would try to damage and destroy. I believe his effort now is to damage the younger brothers who are diverted from their homes and local meetings and fellowship. The enemy’s attempt is to damage them morally; and hence the spirit of the midwives is needed.
HB “Let us deal wisely”, Pharaoh says. Is this counsel what the Lord calls Hades’ gates?
JT Yes, and over against that are the gates of Zion, where wisdom is.
SMcC Would that greatly expand our outlook in regard to present afflictions in isolated circumstances in different localities, that they all stand related to this system operating in view of our deliverance from this world?
JT Yes. Moses’ name is not mentioned at first, nor his father’s or mother’s; but the names of these two women are mentioned because they are preserving life. It is official service incorporated into this new system.
SJH Does the system start with the homes here? The Lord has raised this issue with us that the seed may be right. “A man of the house of Levi went and took a daughter of Levi”; so the system is brought into play.
JT Yes; that is very noticeable. And these two women are mentioned by name as of the official class, noted by the king but incorporated and used by God for the preservation of what the devil wants to destroy. The first chapter should be kept clearly in mind as to trained persons. Abraham had trained servants in his house; they were labourers. These women are trained persons, not anybodies, neighbours, or the like. They may have had others under them, but they are clearly professional. We find in the captivity in Jeremiah 29: 2 that “the smiths, had departed from Jerusalem”; the trained and skilled workmen were captivated. The devil does that, but they belong to the Lord. In the divine system we should look for skilled persons, persons who can do the needed work rightly in the fear of God.
AAT What kind of work is in [p. 155] mind?
JT Any divine work we take on should be done well; “to each one his work”, it says in Mark 13: 34. That is the principle with the Lord. We are to know what to do and how to do it. It is characteristic of Mark that he says of the Lord, “He does all things well”.
WL These women seem to have a universal setting, not peculiar to any tribe.
JT Their importance lies in their skill and fidelity.
JRH As a result of their services the people multiply and become very strong. They evidently were used to maintain the strength of the people.
JT That runs through chapter 1. “Then Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, but every daughter ye shall save alive”. He thought he was very wise in that, but the devil is always amiss; what he would save alive here, God is taking on. Five women have taken on a service.
SMcC Phoebe “has been a helper of many”, Romans 16: 2. She does things well. It was something like that.
JT Yes, that is important, to do things well. As already said, it is said of the Lord that “He does all things well”. If we are allotted anything to do, let it be done well.
LES Timothy and Titus teach much as to elder-hood and care generally.
JT Those epistles, 1 Timothy and Titus, have skilled workmanship in mind, that is, in the care of the saints.
AAT A sister can entertain the saints with skill.
JT Yes, that is what is said about Phoebe; she knew how to do things and did them well, in a dignified way.
LK Chapter 1:5 says, “And all the souls that had come...” — soul enters into it.
JT Peter uses the word “soul” eight times in his two epistles. That is what is needed, persons who have affection, not soulless but soulful, who can yearn, who have bowels of compassions.
Ques Is it not interesting to note that “the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt had said to them, but saved the male children alive”?
JT Moses himself, when grown, was not afraid of the king’s commandment: “By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he persevered, as seeing him who is invisible”, Hebrews 11: 27. We may have to face a command which implies disregard of the will of God, but in such a case we must not be afraid to disobey. Of course we have to fear God all the time, like the midwives. We must brace ourselves not to cower before man’s commandment; if God’s will is involved we can do no other than what is right, stand for what is right.
AEH Sometimes being obedient in regard of the king’s commandment is incompatible with that. There is a difference between obedience and subjection to the powers that be.
JT Yes. Moses is not afraid of the king’s command but is facing all the consequences whatever they may be.
RH What is involved in the midwives’ answer to Pharaoh?
JT They had a good deal to say about the vigorous qualities of the Hebrew women, which spiritually ought to mark all of us.
ASB That they “saved the male children alive” is an excellent feature.
JRH In regard of the king’s commandment, do you not think there is a continual call for spiritual discernment and intelligence as to what we should do and what we should not do? I do not see why you cannot do this, they say; and you often hear the same remark made by those amongst us.
JT “But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt had said to them, but saved the male children alive”. We want to be sure any advice we give in the presence of emergency does not endanger the young brothers, because if they are in a false position their spiritual life is in danger. Many have been damaged because they have taken wrong advice. The mothers are said to have vigour, the male children are saved alive. If they are placed in a false position through advice or through any selfish considerations, the environment will damage them and spiritual life may ebb out.
FKC The attack against the male children is one of the devil’s efforts against what would assert the fights of God. The family side is there for the protection of those who would care for God’s interests and stand militantly for them.
JT Yes; you get that throughout. Take Rebecca: she said, “On me be thy curse, my son!”, Genesis 27: 13. She stood in the breach. That is the principle here in verse 17; these women are fit for the testimony and the service of God and for use in the divine system.
FKC Is the attack made on the male children when the Lord Himself was born a similar action?
JT That is where you get the wail of Rachel. Her sepulchre has a place in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament it is her weeping, her right feelings about her children.
AAT The midwives get not only approval, but houses.
JT You can see how worthy they are of occupying houses of which God was the Architect. These women are honoured in that they come into houses built by God. What kind of architecture would enter into these houses? Would they not condemn the houses of Egypt? It says Noah “condemned the world” (Hebrews 11: 7); he did that by building the [p. 158] ark. What are we aiming at in our houses? We do not know whether Noah had blue prints, or what kind of men he would employ; but for the pattern God gave him specifications, verbal specifications of the ark. The passage referred to says that “Noah, oracularly warned concerning things not yet seen, moved with fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his house”. If I go in for Egyptian patterns it is certain my house will damage my family. If I go in for God’s architecture, what He would indicate in living features in the houses of the saints, I am not endangering the family. Noah prepared the ark for the saving of his house, not simply the preserving, but the saving of it. The house has something to do with the saving of the family. So these women would have houses to which they could at any time invite the young brothers, the boys they had saved, and entertain them. There would be nothing to damage them.
ASB There would be no radios in those houses.
JRH The household is the way of approach either to the assembly or to the world.
JT Quite so. If it is an Egyptian model it leads in the direction of Egypt; but God Himself built the midwives’ houses.
LK Perhaps the authorities are not rightly affected because there is lack of this weeping that was seen in Moses, a right representation of the testimony.
JT It is not put here for nothing. That is what met the eye of Pharaoh’s daughter when the cover was removed from the ark. The babe was weeping. There was of course good cause for weeping at that time. What was in the heart of his mother that she put him there? There could be no doubt that faith in her was assured of the salvation of the child. “And when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of reeds, and plastered it with resin [p. 159] and with pitch, and put the child in it, and laid it in the sedge on the bank of the river... And the daughter of Pharaoh went down to bathe in the river; and her maids went along by the river’s side. And she saw the ark in the midst of the sedge, and sent her handmaid and fetched it. And she opened it”. What was in her mind? What was she going to find? What treasure was there? She would open it herself, and she “saw the child, and behold, the boy wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children”. Her mind and affections were brought into action, and actually she is linking on with what Moses’ mother did in providing that ark. It is the same word as ‘ark’ in Genesis 6; it is connected with Noah’s ark. It is a question of the salvation of what is in it. How does this happen? It is a question of a woman’s affections, not only in putting the babe there, but in finding him.
AP Pharaoh’s daughter was apparently more affected by the weeping child than by Pharaoh’s command.
AEH In Luke 10 where the seventy are chosen, wolves are mentioned; but over against them there is the thought of lambs, and representatively they are the sons of peace.
JT The missionaries, the seventy, were, as sons of peace, to enquire for a son of peace and go in there.
AEH I was wondering if Pharaoh’s daughter would suggest a son of peace?
JT Yes, I think so; there is something there of God.
RH Nehemiah’s sorrowful face affected the king.
JT Yes. He was really endangering himself by the sorrowful face in the presence of the monarch, but we must not forget it says, “the queen also sitting by him” (Nehemiah 2: 6); that is the feminine side [p. 160] coming in, giving lustre and softness and compassion to the position. He acquiesces in what Nehemiah sought. The queen was sitting by, where she should be.
FM The Lord grew “in favour with God and men”; up to a certain point it was “with men”. The world has received Christianity nominally, but when it comes to making a definite stand for what is right and holy then the whole thing comes to an end as far as the world is concerned.
SMcC It is remarkable how the feminine side comes in in all these matters: Pharaoh’s daughter here, the queen in Nehemiah, Pilate’s wife in Matthew and in Daniel the queen mother.
JT Quite so; a woman is generally essential to the governmental position. It begins in Genesis 1: 26, 27: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion... male and female created he them”. That runs through. The queen represents dominion; it is a question of sisterhood, womanhood, in the system, rising to a queenly thought. That is what is in God’s mind, a king and a queen.
AP Esther stood by Mordecai in suffering times.
JT That is where you get the truth worked out in womanhood amongst the gentiles.
LES Abram is referred to as a Hebrew. The word Hebrew enters into this chapter a great deal.
JT It is a term of reproach. When Abram came from Ur he was called “the Hebrew”.
LES “One who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew”, Genesis 14: 13.
JT He does not belong there, he is a stranger; but he is equipped. He is not throwing down his hands or letting them hang down; he is ready for what comes, as we say. He has three hundred and eighteen trained servants in his house; they know what to do, they are [p. 161] fighters.
SMcC Speaking of the feminine side again, it says in Daniel 5: “Then was king Belshazzar greatly troubled, and his countenance was changed in him, and his nobles were confounded. — The queen, by reason of the words of the king and his nobles, came into the banquet-house. The queen spoke and said, O king, live for ever! let not thy thoughts trouble thee, neither let thy countenance be changed. There is a man in thy kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of thy father, light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods was found in him; and the king Nebuchadnezzar thy father, [even] the king thy father, made him master of the scribes, magicians, Chaldeans, [and] astrologers” (verses 9 - 11). Is that not wonderful as bearing on our circumstances today?
JT It is. I think the queen mother has the position in hand. Belshazzar’s queen was not worthy; it is the other queen. It was what God had. She was out of date but she was a real queen; “There is a man in thy kingdom”, she says. She knew. She is one in whom womanhood comes in in the times of the gentiles: it works out in relation to Israel too. Vashti was a gentile queen and Esther became a gentile queen, the queen of a gentile monarch.
SMcC In present day circumstances as we have to do with the authorities there may seem to be a certain amount of hardness, but we can rely on the system you have alluded to, the elements operating on our behalf.
JT Yes. “There is a man in thy kingdom”, and there is a man’s handwriting on the wall; the suggestion comes up as a kingly thought in the testimony, and the queen mother is womanhood in the testimony standing in relation to the man. She fills out the position.
LES Lydia’s house would stand in relation to the work of God in Philippi. She was marked by the [p. 162] fear of God and the recognition of all that was coming into evidence in Paul’s ministry.
JT That is the way it would stand at Philippi. Lydia had her household baptized and the jailer had his, so the protective, Noah idea runs into that.
WR Pharaoh’s daughter brought Moses up to be her son but he broke away from that influence.
JT That shows how the thing may wear out. We see how Christendom is petering out, though persons are used often to protect what is of God in the systems. With Moses the real thought had been there in sonship at the beginning, and in time God took him on. He had a good deal to unlearn, as every Christian has today as taken out of system; though he may have been a real son before. There are many real sons there.
JRH Will you say something about verses 11 to 14, as to the way Moses moved?
JT They show that the work of God had taken effect in him — notwithstanding his violent action against the Egyptian. The influence of Pharaoh’s court did not overcome God’s work. In His inscrutable government God sometimes allows His children to be in positions that are in themselves damaging, but they prove the superiority of His work; in result it overcomes, answering to His rights. At forty years of age according to Acts 7: 23, Moses “refused to be called son of Pharaoh’s daughter”, Hebrews 11: 24. The development of the work of God in him progressed in Midian; in our times that would imply sonship. It is said, “He sat by the well”; that is where he, in principle, developed sonship. “God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts”, Galatians 4: 6. We must have the Spirit for sonship, that is what is involved. As our young brothers are found in defiling circumstances today, instruction in the truth of sonship, involving holiness, is most urgent for them.
[p. 163] Ques Do we confess to the authorities that we are not part of Christendom in that sense?
JT Moses had to do that. It says that Pharaoh’s daughter gave him his name, “she called his name Moses”. He never lost that name, he was drawn out under these circumstances; she is a saviour you might say, she helps up to a point. And then it says, “It came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out to his brethren”. It is really a mark of growth; he has in his heart that formation, his brethren — not the brethren — but his own. He is going out of the system that he has been in.
WR He never grew up as an Egyptian at all.
JT No; but here he is giving up whatever Egyptian links he had. The idea of sonship attaches to him in principle and he is coming under another influence. To go on with the passage, it says, “he sat by the well”; we should notice it is said, “the well”, as if there is only one. It is a question of the Spirit. We must recognize the Spirit for our brethren in the systems, we should make it clear that the only hope for them is to recognize the Spirit of God. Then “the priest of Midian had seven daughters”. We are not to overlook these seven daughters; they all apply to elements in the formation of a vessel for God’s system. It is the father-in-law that is leading in all this, which is a safe position. “And he said to his daughters, And where is he? why then have ye left the man behind? Call him, that he may eat bread”. They ought not to have left that question to their father; if they had been governed by ordinary and right feelings they would have known, they would have been very interested; but they are not. “And Moses consented to remain with the man; and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter”. He is out of Egypt now, not seeking [p. 164] for worldly glory as a prince of Egypt, and he consented to dwell with the man.
JRH It is the spirit of the well.
JT Yes, a quiet, simple, humble man; once an Egyptian prince, he is now consenting to dwell with this man, obviously against his natural feelings. “And he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter”. The whole position is indicative of manliness in a man who might have been otherwise just an out-and-out worldling. It is a question of how the young men are going to be affected as the idea of the Spirit of God grows in them. Jethro here must be viewed as having some authority from God; he was a provision from God as much as Pharaoh’s daughter was. He must be looked at in this way as a provision of God in these circumstances.
Rem The position is changing from the feminine to the masculine.
JT Seven daughters would show that there was plenty of femininity there, but not active, not dominating. It is the father that is active, that is a mercy. Jethro is a provision of God for this young brother, it saves him.
AEH Often in forming the links that lead to marriage and the establishing of households there is merely physical attraction and infatuation. The suggestion here is that the brother should have features of the Spirit, as indicated in the well, dominating in him and then there would not be so much in evidence on the physical side to attract the wrong kind of sisterly element. God has provided this setting for Moses and he is taken out of all the glamour of Egypt and is consenting to what Jethro suggested, and goes through it humbly as according to the will of God.
LES So the fruit would correspond to the position of the testimony itself.
JT Something comes out of it for the testimony.