Whilst the Israelites were camped
close to the mountain of the Lord, Moses alone handled all the
conflicts of the people. He alone heard their cases and presented
them before God to hear His answer and verdict. Can you imagine the
burden that was on Moses? He alone had to handle all the disputes
of two million people! That must have been grueling and extremely
tiresome. I wonder if Moses ever had time to do anything else
except listen to disputes all day long. The Bible says that the
people were lined up in front of him from morning till evening.
Luckily Jethro, Moses'
father-in-law, saw this desperate situation:
"This is not good! You're wearing
yourself out - and the people too. This job is too heavy a burden
for you to handle all by yourself." Exodus 18:17, 18
Moses was quickly on his way to a
nervous breakdown. No one would be able to bear a burden like that.
Jethro was wise, and I believe inspired by God, to tell Moses to
delegate his workload. He told Moses to appoint capable, honest men
in charge of groups of one thousand, one hundred, fifty and ten to
handle the disputes of the people and only to approach Moses with
the important/ difficult cases. Moses' time could then be freed to
focus on more important, strategic issues and to seek God's face
concerning the future of Israel.
Moses listened to his father-in-law
and did exactly what he suggested. It is lovely to me that he did.
He didn't consider himself too important to receive advice. No, he
followed the advice and I personally think it saved him from
getting totally worn out.
Sometimes we must be open to advice
as well. We must never be too proud and think that we know it all,
because we don't. We need other people's input; it might just save
us a lot of heart ache. Plus don't be too attached to your position
of authority that you don't want to share your workload with anyone
else. God doesn't expect any of us to carry a weight above what we
can bear. Our human bodies are frail and sooner or later will show
the signs of overload. God cannot use us to the optimum if we are
burnt out.
He wants to use us for certain
responsibilities and if you don't share it, not only will you burn
out; you will deny other people the opportunity to be part of a
team for God. Don't be selfish, because at the end of the day not
only you will suffer, but the work of God will suffer too. No,
listen to sound biblical advice and share your burden with others,
in order for you to be able to focus on God and all He has in store
for you.
Dear Father, please forgive us if
we think we are too important to receive advice/to delegate our
work to others. We want to be free to worship You and have time to
walk on the path You have prepared for us. Thank you Lord. Amen