NOTES for Exo 18:1-27
Today's passage tells of Moses meeting his father-in-law Jethro in the wilderness. It is no surprise that when they meet, Moses tells him about everything that happened in Egypt and on the way to Sinai (vv. 5-8). What is more unusual is Jethro's reaction: he in fact acknowledges the God of Moses as the true God (vv. 9-12). Still, there is a logic to such an acknowledgment. After all, in the Bible Jethro is called a "prophet" (v. 1; Ex. 2:16, 3:1). Not a "priest," as we read in the Synodal translation, but precisely a "prophet," because the Hebrew word used here, "kohen," denotes a priest only when it refers to the Levitical priesthood that appeared later and existed only among the Jews. Before the Levitical priesthood appeared, this word denoted precisely a prophet, as did words related to it in other Semitic languages.
Which god Jethro served is something we can only guess, because practically nothing is known about the religion of the Midianite tribe, or about the tribe itself. But something else is known: prophets of all times and peoples were distinguished by having direct contact with higher powers and often communicating directly with the gods they served. From there, everything depended only on Jethro's readiness to hear the God of Moses and accept Him.
For mystical experience in itself is neutral. The person who undergoes it differs from other people only in that he possesses certain special psychic abilities that others do not possess, or possess to a lesser degree. How he uses these abilities depends on the person himself. They can be used for self-assertion, or they can be used for serving God. One can listen to the voices of numerous spirits, or one can listen to the voice of God. And of course it depends only on the person himself whether he listens to the witness of someone who has experienced a meeting with the One, or leaves that witness unnoticed. In the second case, no mystical abilities will help him: he will never come to know the one true God. In the first case, he will know Him, and his special mystical giftedness will help him know Him even more deeply and communicate with Him more intensely.
Like any gift, the prophetic gift can either bring a person closer to God or move him farther from Him. Here everything depends on the person's own choice.