EXODUS 18
In chapter 18 we have a dispensational setting, but in addition, that which also has a moral bearing. Jethro’s unexpected testimony rendered to Moses and calculated to strengthen his leadership on moral lines with Israel shows that all that he had been through as a sojourner in a foreign land had resulted in fruit for God, which was now to be available in relation to the great trust God had confided to him. So that earlier history with a servant of the Lord, of however little account it may appear at the time, plays its part in accrediting him later in the mission God has entrusted to him. Paul’s own time in Arabia, alluded to in Galatians, supports this, as indeed too the history of many of the Old Testament servants of Jehovah.
Then this great thought of rule diffused among Israel is all preparatory to the working out of the truth of the assembly in the wilderness, spiritual respect for authority being brought down to chiefs of tens, so that all might be handled in detail according to divine rule, and none might suffer through there being so many matters calling for discernment, rule, and judgment.