Jethro's Advice 18 Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel his people, how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. 2 Now Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, had taken Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her home, 3 along with her two sons. The name of the one was Gershom (for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land”), 4 and the name of the other, Eliezer (for he said, “The God of my father was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh”). 5 Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness where he was encamped at the mountain of God. 6 And when he sent word to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her,” 7 Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. And they asked each other of their welfare and went into the tent. 8 Then Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, all the hardship that had come upon them in the way, and how the Lord had delivered them. 9 And Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the Lord had done to Israel, in that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians. 10 Jethro said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. 11 Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people.” 12 And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and sacrifices to God; and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law before God. 13 The next day Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening. 14 When Moses' father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning till evening?” 15 And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God; 16 when they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another, and I make them know the statutes of God and his laws.” 17 Moses' father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good. 18 You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. 19 Now obey my voice; I will give you advice, and God be with you! You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God, 20 and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. 21 Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. 22 And let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. 23 If you do this, God will direct you, you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace.” 24 So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said. 25 Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people, chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. 26 And they judged the people at all times. Any hard case they brought to Moses, but any small matter they decided themselves. 27 Then Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went away to his own country. While I don't think anyone has ever asked me the question, this is the exact passage that Liberty University uses as its model for student leadership and discipleship. It is because of this passage here that I really got involved in student ministries, being an accountability partner, and small-group discipleship. It is that time in my life that radically altered my perception of Christianity and discipleship. However, those are applications to be made from this passage and not the direct teaching of this passage as this passage speaks directly to those in authority--whether that be government authority, or as an employer, or even in some spiritual authority as I was saying with my position in Student Leadership at Liberty University where I was responsible for watching over the physical and spiritual health of a small group of guys on my hall.
At this time, Moses was acting as both prophet and priest. As prophet, he spoke to the people for God, and as priest, he spoke to God for the people. Remember that at this time there was no Law yet, so the people came to Moses to fulfill another more obscure role that we really won't see fleshed out until the time of the conquest called a judge (while in some ways this is like a modern-day judge, it's really not the same). In the role of judge, Moses was to make sure that God's justice would be done in each and every situation and to hold court, hear cases and render just decisions, but what makes him different than a modern-day judge is that he wasn't looking at precedent, but was going directly to God for answers and God would give Him the wisdom to make the right choice or would speak directly to Moses to tell him what to tell that people. This role was so important that this position of judge over the people would be referred to as Moses' seat. While the king would later be charged with rendering such decisions, it is not David or even Solomon (the man who was given wisdom because he asked for it) who would be known for this position, but Moses who would be the one who would hold court all day long ever day to the point where the people were wearing him out, and his father-in-law, Jethro, was concerned for his mental health and stability. Moses needed a friend (in this case a "father figure") to come to him and tell him that he would be no good to anyone if he didn't take care of himself, and what he needed to do in this case to take care of himself was to learn to delegate authority and become a manager of the managers--he didn't need to micro-manage and try and do everything himself. He needed to realize that God had gifted others in the community, in this case gifts of discernment and wisdom on how to apply justice, and that there should be a system of "lower courts" that would hear the small cases that didn't need Moses' attention and Moses then only needed to worry about the biggest cases which he needed to speak directly to God about. As you can probably guess by the way that I described it, this is also the passage on which the model of the court system in the United States of America was framed around, but since not all of us are judges and we're usually not trying cases, let's talk some more practical applications for each and every one of you. Jethro's advice is so good and so clear, that I want to quote it again first before I dig into it again 17 Moses' father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good. 18 You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. 19 Now obey my voice; I will give you advice, and God be with you! You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God, 20 and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. 21 Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. 22 And let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. 23 If you do this, God will direct you, you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace.” This is one of the first places that we see qualifications for being a leader of God's people, and the list of qualifications looks a lot like the qualifications for a deacon and an elder given by the writers of the New Testament epistles later on (specifically Paul). It not only important to choose someone with giftedness, but someone who is trustworthy, honest, and has integrity--integrity was the word that I really learned a lot about during my time in Student Leadership. Another way to talk about integrity is "authenticity"--the person is the same person in every situation no matter who they are around. They are not one person when in front of their "church friends" and another person when hanging out with their "work friends." They realize their identity is something that goes with them wherever they go and is something that cannot change on a whim--if it can change on a whim, then it's not your identity because that's what the word "identity" means--a characteristic that will not change. Jethro said the purpose of this advice was not only to take care of Moses, but so that Moses could take care of the most important things for the people, and we see the apostles in the book of Acts follow a similar model when they establish the role of deacons for the church to take care of all the things that don't need the attention of the apostles (See Acts 6:1-7 and see the characteristics used to choose the deacons and see if they don't come directly from this "Jethro Principle." Also see I Timothy 3:8-13 and Titus 1:5-16. Again see if you can't see the Jethro Principle at play here in the qualifications for an elder/bishop/overseer/pastor (many English words coming from the same word in Greek). The church (God's people) can't function properly when they put all of the responsibility on a single man--we often do this with our pastors, and like Moses in this passage, they get burnt out. Pastors are usually terrible at learning to delegate, and often need people gifted with the gift of administration to come alongside them and be a "safety valve" for them to keep things from getting to them and funnel things to the right people who are responsible to take care of it in the church, because if the pastor hears about it, he thinks he needs to take care of it, and that keeps him for doing the things that God has really called him to do (again, see Acts 6 where the apostles commissioned deacons to help with issues that were important but could and should be entrusted to others). Please do your church and pastor a favor and don't run to your pastor with every little issue. Set up some system according to the Jethro Principle within your local community so that little issues get taken care of at the lower levels and only the big issues get taken care of by the elders, as their primary responsibility is to provide spiritual leadership, not to handle disputes or get involved in politics. They are to devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word according to Acts 6--everything else should fall to others such as deacons and other members of the church according to the model given to us in Scripture. Don't expect your pastor to come and visit you in the hospital or conduct a funeral for your great-aunt who never set foot inside your church, or to preside over every wedding--especially for your third cousin twice removed who lives five states away. All these burdens that we put on pastors wear them out and keep them from doing what they are called to do--lead the people through prayer and teaching and preaching the Word of God. Most of us are guilty of this, and most of us have pastors that have trouble getting involved in the minutia and feeling responsible for all of it, which doesn't help. Can you be a Jethro in your pastor's life and say to him, "What you are doing is not good." How will you exercise the Jethrol Principle in your life? Will you learn to delegate responsibility to those who are trustworthy? Will you be the person who is trustworthy that others can delegate responsibility to? Remember that God gave the entire Body of Christ to each other to help each other out so that none of us do it alone. We are one Body with many parts, each with different gifts. Let's remember to recognize the gifts of others and look for people with the right qualifications to help bear the burden of ministry and follow the principle that while not directly in the Bible seems to come out of this passage that "many hands make light work." Who can help easy your heavy burden today? How can you help ease someone else's heavy burden?
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Daniel WestfallI will mostly use this space for recording my "journal" from my daily devotions as I hope to encourage others to read the Bible along with me and to leave a legacy for others. Archives
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