Exodus 18
Exodus 18
My natural bent is to say yes when someone asks for a favor. This can often lead to burnout, tasks not getting done, or not getting done well.
In this chapter, we see Moses as the priest having a difficult time keeping up with judging all of the people. It is not that Moses wasn’t doing a good job, not that he wasn’t supposed to be doing it, or even that he wasn’t qualified; he just couldn’t do it all on his own. This is where his father-in-law, Jethro, comes in.
Jethro was also a priest of his own land and the people of Midian. Jethro recognizes that although Moses is doing a great job, he is unable to care for as many people as he has under his leadership. Jethro gives Moses the helpful advice of delegating some of his leadership to others. Moses responds humbly to Jethro out of respect for him and arranges for other leaders to oversee groups of people.
In the unhealth of the church, we can sometimes see all the leadership and responsibilities falling solely on staff members or even the pastor. This makes for leadership burnout and people not feeling cared for. When leaders are able to delegate care for others across the church, more people can be cared for in a more efficient way. This is why God gives us the church, a body of people, to work together in unity. Just like the people that Moses appointed had the capacity to care for a thousand, a hundred, fifty, or only ten, we have varying degrees of capacity for leadership. For some of us, it starts with just one person. One person that we are leading or discipling toward Christ. One person that we are pouring into, teaching the Gospel to, and caring for.
This method not only benefited Moses, but it benefited the able leaders that he appointed to grow as leaders, and it benefited the entire congregation by allowing them to settle more disputes quicker with the help of more available leaders.
Moses couldn’t do it all, and neither can we. God gives us a community of believers to celebrate with, mourn with, and help bear one another’s burdens. The only man to walk the earth that could bear all the burdens of the world was Jesus Christ.
Jesus carried every sin: past, present, and future, for every person and died with it all, sanctifying us back to the Father in holiness. He defeated sin and death by rising from the grave and allowing us to be justified through our faith in Him. Even though Jesus can do all of this and more, He still chose to use His disciples to further His mission of bringing His kingdom to earth. Jesus spoke in John 16:7, saying, “‘Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you.’”
Jesus left because He knew that by empowering us through the Holy Spirit, we as believers could spread the Gospel to more places. He qualifies us to do His work through the Holy Spirit and commands us to go.
God chose Moses to be the priest, but He also chose people such as Jethro to speak into Moses’s life and allowed Moses to be humble enough to heed his advice. When we delegate our tasks, the redemptive story of Christ delivering us from our bondage to sin, can be shared more effectively.
