And Moses said to Hobab, the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses' father-in-law, We are journeying to the place of which Jehovah said, I will give it unto you come with us, and we will do thee good; for Jehovah has spoken good concerning Israel.
Israel is ready to leave Sinai. Before the camp moves, Moses invites a relative from Midian to travel with them and share what God has promised. The offer raises two questions. How far does God's goodness reach toward an outsider? And why did Moses want a human guide when God's cloud was leading?
The names in this verse overlap. Moses' wife's family goes by more than one name in these books, and one reference work sorts them out:
He seems to be called Reuel in Exodus 2:18, and Hobab in Numbers 10:29, where "Raguel" is "Reuel" in the Hebrew. This passage says that Raguel the Midianite was the father of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses (see also Judges 4:11). So in Exodus 2:18 "father" may mean "grandfather." Hobab may have been the personal name, and Jethro an official name.
Commentators differ. Some take Hobab as the father-in-law himself. Others take him as Moses' brother-in-law and see family ties behind the invitation:
Verse 29 speaks of Moses asking Hobab, son of Reuel to come with Israel. Hobab was the brother of Moses' wife Zipporah. No doubt it was simply because of this relationship that Moses requested him to come.
God arranged everything in the camp for one nation. Yet the offer here reaches a man outside it:
Everything was perfectly arranged for the blessing and safety of Israel. Yet underneath it ran a grace that would let the stranger in and welcome him to a share in the blessing of the Lord's people.
Israel could invite a man who came near. But Israel had no call to go out into all the world, and that marks off Israel's calling from the Christian's:
One service belongs to Christianity and had no place at all in Judaism. It is the blessed mission of the gospel of God. Israel had no call to evangelise. A Jew (as such) was never told to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. The most he could say was "God has spoken good concerning Israel… and it shall be that what goodness the Lord shall do to us, the same we will do to you."
God's cloud already led the camp. Asking Hobab to be their "eyes" exposes something most of us know in ourselves:
We all know, to our sorrow and loss, the tendency of the heart to lean upon something that our eyes can see. We do not like to stand in complete dependence on God for every step of the journey. We find it hard to lean upon an unseen arm. A Hobab that we can see inspires us with more confidence than the living God whom we cannot see.
One writer refuses to explain the problem away. He also warns how easily good names cover it up:
There really is a contradiction here. But the fault is not in Scripture. It is in man, who so easily forgets that his resource is God. It is easy to see what is at work in Moses' natural tie to the Midianite chief. It is easy, too, to cover it with fine-sounding names. "Hobab" means "lover," and he is the son of Reuel, "the friend of God." How often human piety and friendship come in as arguments with us in the wrong place!
Hobab never does the job Moses asked of him. What follows instead is the ark leaving its place at the centre of the tribes:
Hobab will not go before the people and find the place to encamp. The ark itself will leave its normal place among the tribes and go before them "in the three days' journey" to search out a resting place for them! The movement of the cloud confirms that they are to move, showing the divine presence. This is God's gracious answer to the persevering prayer of Moses, even though he showed a lack of confidence in God by asking for Hobab's help.
One writer reads the later record carefully:
Scripture does not say whether Hobab accepted this. Still, Hobab never appears again in all the wilderness history. His children appear in Judges 4:11, but not as part of Israel.
Another writer follows the family into the next generation:
Moses asked Jethro's son Hobab to be eyes for the children of Israel and to lead them to their camping places in the wilderness (Numbers 10:29-32). Hobab refused. Even so, his sons, like Caleb, followed faithfully in the steps of the people of God (Judges 4:11; 1 Samuel 15:6). Like Rahab, these children of a stranger among the nations went up out of Jericho, the city of palm trees, to cast in their lot with Israel.
- Promise — the invitation rests on something already spoken: God has promised good to Israel, so the good Moses offers is not his own to give or withhold.
- Reach — that promised good is deliberately extended to a stranger; grace admits and welcomes the outsider to a share in what belongs to God's people.
- Limit — Israel could only say "come with us." Going out into all the world with good news is a service that belongs to Christianity, not to Judaism.
- Slip — asking a man to be "eyes" while the cloud stood over the camp exposes the heart's preference for help it can see over an arm it cannot.
- Answer — God did not scold; the ark went ahead to find them a resting place, so that His people are led by One better than any human guide.
And he said to him, I will not go; but to mine own land, and to my kindred will I go.
Moses had just invited his relative Hobab to travel with Israel and share in all the good God had promised the nation. Hobab refuses, which raises two questions: why did Moses want him along, and what did God do once he said no?
The man who says no is Moses' own brother-in-law.
Verse 29 speaks of Moses asking Hobab, son of Reuel, to come with Israel. Hobab was the brother of Moses' wife Zipporah. No doubt it was simply because of this relationship that Moses requested him to come. Before God gave the law, Jethro (known also as Reuel) had come to Moses and advised him to delegate authority to others in Israel, then had returned to his own land (Ex. 18:17-27). We do not know when Hobab had come. He told Moses that he would not go with Israel, but would return to his own land (v.30).
The names in this family are tangled. One writer sorts them out:
He seems to be called Reuel in Exodus 2:18, and Hobab in Numbers 10:29, where the name Raguel is Reuel in the Hebrew. This passage says that Raguel the Midianite was the father of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses (see also Judges 4:11). So in Exodus 2:18 'father' may mean 'grandfather.' Hobab may have been the personal name, and Jethro an official name.
The offer Hobab turns down is an offer of grace. The arrangement that guarded Israel still left a way in for an outsider.
In all the perfect arrangement for the blessing and safety of Israel, a current of grace ran underneath. It would let the stranger in and welcome him to share in the blessing of Jehovah's people… Such a gracious invitation fit the ways of God with His people. It will surely be made good in the millennial days to come.
Why ask a man for help when God Himself was leading? One writer traces the request to something in every heart:
We might feel disposed to ask, What could Moses possibly want with Hobab's eyes? Was not Jehovah enough? Did not He know the wilderness? Would He let them go astray? What of the cloud and the silver trumpet? Were they not better than Hobab's eyes?… We all know, to our sorrow and loss, the tendency of the heart to lean on something our eyes can see. We find it hard to lean on an unseen arm. A Hobab that we can see gives us more confidence than the living God whom we cannot see.
Another writer puts the weight of the failure on Moses himself:
The incident between Moses and Hobab is significant. This is the first failure on record, and it is Moses who fails… It gives a perfect picture of the human heart, and so it marks the perfection of this record. Jehovah had offered Himself as the leader of His people. He was to be eyes for them. Moses was the human leader of Israel's host. He knew Jehovah and His promise. Yet he turned to a poor Midianite and expected guidance and directions from him! … Every failure begins with leaning on the arm of flesh and leaving out the Lord.
Hobab says no, and God Himself takes the guide's place:
Here was divine guidance. It was surely enough to make them independent of their own eyes, of Hobab's eyes, and the eyes of any other mortal… Jehovah does not find a resting place in the bosom of His redeemed people. Instead He becomes their travelling Guide, and goes before them to seek out a resting place for them. What touching grace is here! and what faithfulness!
The same pull is in us, and one writer names where wisdom is really found:
There is always the natural tendency in us to rely on flesh and blood rather than on our God. Whatever the circumstances we find ourselves in, God would have us rely on Him, whether for our individual pathway or in the affairs of His assembly. The saints at Corinth needed to learn that the wisdom of this world is foolishness, and that Christ Jesus "became to us wisdom from God." He is the true ark of God who has the discernment to mark out the way for us through the wilderness.
The record does not say whether Hobab ever changed his mind. One writer follows his family line instead:
Moses asked Jethro's son Hobab to be eyes for the children of Israel, and to lead them as they camped in the wilderness. Hobab refused. Even so, his sons followed faithfully in the steps of the people of God, as Caleb did. Like Rahab, these children of a stranger from among the nations came up out of Jericho, the city of palm trees, and threw in their lot with Israel.
- Invitation — Grace reached past Israel's border to welcome a stranger into the blessing of God's people.
- Refusal — Hobab chose his own land and his own relatives over the journey to the promised land.
- Failure — The first failure on record is Moses': he asked a man to be eyes for a people God was leading.
- Grace — God went before Israel Himself to find their resting place, a better guide than any man's eyes.
- Afterward — Hobab went home, but his descendants later threw in their lot with the people he had turned down.
And he said, Leave me not, I pray thee, because thou knowest where we are to encamp in the wilderness, and thou wilt be to us for eyes.
Israel is about to set out from Sinai, and Moses asks his relative Hobab, a Midianite who knows the desert, to stay on as a guide. The request sounds practical, even kind, but it raises a hard question: why does the leader who already has the cloud and the ark want a man to be Israel's eyes?
Hobab's value was local knowledge. He knew the country Israel would cross, so Moses pressed him to stay and offered him a share in Israel's blessings.
Moses still urged him, because Hobab knew something of the country they would pass through, and he could be "eyes" for Israel. Besides, Moses promised him, they would treat him well, as the Lord treated Israel. It seems strange that Moses would want the eyes of a mere man to lead them. God had given them the pillar of cloud and of fire. Could they not trust Him to lead them perfectly without any other help? The account does not say whether Hobab agreed. Still, Hobab is not mentioned again in all the wilderness history. His children are mentioned in Judges 4:11, but not as part of Israel.
Critics have long used this verse as evidence that the book contradicts itself. One writer agrees there is a contradiction — but not the one they think.
Critics have pointed this out as one of the marks of imperfection in this book and call it a contradiction. It is a contradiction, but not in the way unbelief takes it. It gives a perfect picture of what the human heart is, and so it is a mark of the perfection of this record. Jehovah had offered Himself as the leader of His people. He was to be eyes for them. And Moses, the human leader of Israel, who knew Jehovah and His promise, turns to a poor Midianite and expects guidance and directions from him!
The instinct behind the request is not ancient or foreign. It is the ordinary pull of the human heart toward help that has a face.
We all know, to our sorrow and loss, how the heart leans on something our eyes can see. We do not like to stand in complete dependence on God for every step of the journey. We find it hard to lean on an arm we cannot see. A Hobab that we can see inspires us with more confidence than the living God whom we cannot see. We move on with comfort and satisfaction when we have the support and help of some poor failing human. But we hesitate, stumble, and lose heart when we are called to move on with nothing but faith in God.
The same craving repeats in Israel's story. It showed itself at Sinai when they wanted gods they could handle, and again when they wanted a captain of their own choosing.
In all our hearts is the tendency to seek someone we can rest upon, and to find a person who can lead us and guide us; i.e., a person who will take us off the ground of simple faith in God. Moses even says presently to Hobab, "Thou mayest be to us instead of eyes" (Num. 10:31). He was not free of the danger.
One writer sets this beside an earlier moment in Moses' life.
Not by Jehovah's command but by the counsel of Jethro, his father-in-law, he appointed judges under him. Under Jethro's influence he left the place of confidence in God and handed his own work to others. An even graver form of this same self appears in Numbers 10:31. He had put others in his own place; now he puts man in God's place. He invites Hobab to stay, "for you will serve as eyes for us." Why would Israel need Hobab's eyes, if Jehovah is there? This is preferring human wisdom to God's leading.
God did not answer with words. He answered with a movement.
We never see Hobab in this place at all. Instead, God gives His own comment on what Moses asked: the ark of the covenant moved out of its place in the middle of the camp and went in front of them, a three days' journey, to search out a resting place for them. So the Lord clears Himself of the reproach that the unbelief of His people had cast on Him. He is the real Leader, the only Leader, and He is all-sufficient. He is the Shepherd of Israel. His eyes are never tired, His heart is never at fault, and He "will neither slumber nor sleep."
Moses wanted a man to find Israel's camping grounds. God took that job Himself.
In place of their finding a resting-place for Him, He would find a resting place for them. What a thought! The mighty God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, going through the wilderness to look out for a good camping ground! And this for a people who were ready to grumble and rebel against Him at every turn in their path!
- The request — Moses asked a relative who knew the desert to be Israel's eyes, though God had already given the cloud and fire to lead them.
- The reason — the heart trusts help it can see; an unseen arm feels harder to lean on than a visible companion.
- The pattern — having already given his own work to others, Moses now puts a man where God belongs.
- The answer — God does not argue; the ark moves to the front and searches out the resting place Himself.
- The result — Hobab never appears again in the wilderness story. The Leader whose eyes never tire went the whole way with Israel.
And it shall be, if thou come with us, that whatever good Jehovah doeth unto us, so will we do to thee.
Israel is leaving Sinai, and Moses asks his relative Hobab again to come along — this time with a promise: a share in whatever good God gives Israel. That raises two questions: how far does God's goodness reach beyond His own people, and why did Moses want a human guide at all?
Everything in the chapter is arranged for Israel's blessing and safety. But something runs underneath that order, and it is not for Israel alone.
In all the perfect arrangement for the blessing and safety of Israel, there was an undercurrent of grace. That grace would admit and welcome the stranger to a share in the blessing of the Lord's people. … Such a gracious invitation was quite in keeping with the ways of God towards His people, and it will surely be made good in the days of the coming kingdom.
Moses offers a share to a man already beside him. God never sent Israel out to look for others. One writer marks this as the limit of what Israel was ever asked to do.
One special service marks Christianity out. It had no place at all in Judaism. That service is the blessed mission of the gospel of God. Israel had no call to evangelise. A Jew, as such, was never told to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. The most he could say was, "The LORD has promised good to Israel … and whatever good the LORD will do to us, the same will we do to you."
Moses made this promise while asking for help. He wanted Hobab to serve as eyes for the camp. Why would a people led by God need that?
We know something of our own hearts, and their tendency to lean on the creature rather than on the living God. If we did not, we might well marvel at this. We might want to ask, what could Moses possibly want with Hobab's eyes? Was not the Lord enough? Did He not know the wilderness? … We find it hard to lean on an unseen arm. A Hobab that we can see inspires us with more confidence than the living God whom we cannot see.
What comes next in the chapter reads as a reply. The ark, whose place was in the middle of the camp, moves to the front.
So we never see Hobab in this place at all. Instead, God gives His own comment on Moses' request. The ark moves out of its place in the middle of the camp and takes its place at their head: "And the ark of the covenant of the LORD went before them three days' journey, to seek out a resting place for them." In this way the Lord clears Himself of the reproach which the unbelief of His people has cast on Him. He is the actual, only and all-sufficient Leader. He is the Shepherd of Israel, whose eyes are never weary, whose heart is never at fault, who never slumbers nor sleeps.
One reversal in that move is worth noticing. They did not find the resting place; He did.
What rich, what precious grace! Instead of them finding a resting place for Him, He would find a resting place for them. What a thought! The mighty God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, goes through the wilderness to look out for a suitable camping ground. And the people He does it for were ready, at every turn in their path, to grumble and rebel against Him.
Hobab had already said no. Commentators differ on how the story ends. Some conclude the offer was left hanging: "Scripture does not say whether Hobab accepted this. Still, Hobab is not mentioned again in all the wilderness history" (Leslie M. Grant). Others trace the offer forward into his family line.
Despite his refusal, his sons, like Caleb, faithfully followed in the steps of the people of God. Like Rahab, these children of a stranger among the nations went up out of Jericho, the city of palm trees. They came to cast in their lot with Israel. In clinging permanently to Judah, they resembled Ruth.
- Goodness spoken. The offer rests on a word already given: the LORD has promised good to Israel. Moses promises nothing he has not first received.
- Goodness shared. What God gives His people sets the measure of what they offer an outsider. It is the same goodness, not a smaller share.
- Goodness limited. Israel could invite a man who came near, but God never sent Israel out to the world. That mission belongs to the gospel.
- Goodness misjudged. Wanting Hobab's eyes shows the heart's pull toward a helper it can see, over an unseen God who has never once failed it.
- Goodness vindicated. God did not rebuke Moses. Instead the ark moved to the front and went ahead to find the resting place they could not find for themselves.