THE IMPORTANCE OF DELEGATION

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

The next day Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening. When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, "What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge, while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?"

Moses answered him, "Because the people come to me to seek God's will. Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God's decrees and laws."

Moses' father-in-law replied, "What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone. Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people's representative before God and bring their disputes to Him. Teach them the decrees and laws, and show them the way to live and the duties they are to perform. But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied."

Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said. He chose capable men from all Israel and made them leaders of the people, officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. They served as judges for the people at all times. The difficult cases they brought to Moses, but the simple ones they decided themselves.

Then Moses sent his father-in-law on his way, and Jethro returned to his own country.

Exodus 18:13-27

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

The number of Israelites and their possessions who were traveling on the exodus to Canaan was vast in number. The scriptures tell us that there were about six hundred thousand men besides women and children as well as large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds (Exodus 12:37b-38). To get an idea of just how large this group was, the population number was as large as the total population of the states of Alaska or North Dakota.

Now, imagine you’re Moses, leading this group and trying to keep everyone satisfied. We’ve already seen signs that at least a significant portion of the group lack sincere faith in the God who miraculously delivered them from Egypt. In fact, you’ll remember that those grumblers actually entertained the thought that they were better off when they were under the oppression of slavery in Egypt than being free and under the care of their God. You’ll remember that they even went as far as questioning Moses’ leadership. Indeed, they seemed to be a constant thorn in Moses’ side, driving him to frustration on more than one occasion.

In today’s passage from the closing verses of Exodus, chapter 18, we see where there were also disagreements emerging between the Israelite people, disagreements that required someone to serve as a judge to make decisions and settle issues. We read where Moses was the sole person receiving cases at the time.

Can you imagine being the only one who was resolving all disputes among over 600,000 people?

Truly, it was not a very well conceived plan, too much for one person to handle, especially since Moses had other responsibilities as well. He was only human and there was only so much a single person could do. Burnout was a real possibility, for sure.

It was into this situation that we see Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, coming to the rescue with sound guidance. Older and much wiser than Moses, he advises his son-in-law and Israel’s leader to "be the people's representative before God and bring their disputes to Him.” In other words, allow God to be the true Judge because that was the only way to ensure that the right verdicts were issued every single time.

Jethro also exhorted Moses to “teach them the decrees and laws, and show them the way to live and the duties they are to perform” for if the people were properly educated in the Lord’s Word, understanding what He expected, the number of disputes would naturally reduce for there was no debating what God wanted His people to do and how He wished for them to behave.

And then, there was a call to delegation from Jethro as he encouraged Moses to “select capable men from all the people”, men would “fear God”, be “trustworthy”, and “hate dishonest gain”. Once selected, these men could “serve as judges for the people at all times”, appointed “as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.” They would handle “the simple cases” only, bringing only the difficult ones to Moses.

What was the end goal of this act of delegation?

We see the answer in the scriptures for if Moses would do as Jethro recommended and if “God so commands” it, then it would make his “load lighter” because it would be shared with the other judges. This would allow Moses “to stand the strain” and allow the Israelite people seeking justice to “go home satisfied."

In this passage, Jethro sees his son-in-law Moses going down a path that would set himself up for failure and so he quickly does two things.

First, he tells Moses that his concern is valid. The people need to be heard and represented before God. They also needed instructed on the decrees and laws on the way they should live to fulfill their duties.

Secondly, Jethro lets Moses know he can’t succeed in dispatching proper justice by working alone. There just were too many Israelites and he couldn’t possibly handle settling every single disagreement. There were plenty of qualified men who could be enlisted to assist in the matter and all Moses needed to do was delegate authority, dividing the people into manageable divisions and then appointing a judge for each. Doing this didn’t mean that Moses had to surrender the unique responsibility for Israel that God had placed on him. He would still be needed to handle the difficult cases, cases where he could commune with God to deliver the right rulings. Delegation just freed up time for him to lead properly without being completely overwhelmed.

Today’s message should speak to all of us because I think it’s a human tendency to want to do everything ourselves, either unwilling or afraid to share the strain of our responsibilities with others.

Maybe you’re a homemaker who has to do every single chore around the house so it is done just right and find yourself driven to the point of exhaustion every day.

Or maybe you’re employed and can’t seem to find enough hours in a day to complete all your assignments and/or initiatives so you consistently work countless hours of overtime at the expense of your family life and your own physical and mental well being.

In both of these cases and countless others like them, our tasks can become a greater priority than the only One who can help inject a reasonable approach to them, advising and guiding us to get things done right but not at the expense of doing ourselves harm. Unfortunately, by not turning to the Lord, we end up neglecting our spiritual life at the expense of worldly satisfaction or success.

In our scripture passage for today, I think we can thank God for sending Jethro to provide sound and wise guidance to Moses so he would be able to deal with the stresses and strains of his immense responsibility. We should also thank God for speaking to us as well through this Word. For we all need to be reminded about the importance of delegation.

Go back to the prior present day examples and let’s incorporate the matter of sharing responsibilities.

In the case of the homemaker, chores could be distributed to other family members. All you need to do is check to make sure the work is getting done.

On a recent trip to Pennsylvania to visit my youngest daughter and her family, which includes three teenage grandchildren, she shared a system she developed where the kids are helping with the household work. Each of the three have an assigned number and that number is placed on a weekly schedule under a block of chores that need to be done and they are to complete their tasks as assigned. Each week, they rotate to another group of chores from what they did the previous week. It’s effective in that the work gets done but not just by my daughter. It also teaches the grandchildren about responsibility and accountability.

As for the case of the employed worker, they could recognize that they’re overloaded and seek to share portions of their assignment or initiative with other co-workers. By each completing their respective parts of a job task, they can gain collective success. As they often say, teamwork is dream work.

By utilizing the power of delegation, the job still gets done without completely consuming one person’s time and with some space freed up, the person who delegated will have more time on their hands to give attention to their own physical and spiritual well being. In regard to the latter, this could be as simple as an hour for dedicated prayer and Bible study.

Indeed, I think we can clearly see there are many benefits that can be gained when we choose to delegate.

Well, as we return to our verses for today, we read where Moses listened to Jethro and "did everything he said." He "chose capable men from all Israel” and “made them leaders of the people, officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens”. These men then “served as judges for the people at all times”, deciding the simple cases while leaving the difficult ones for Moses to handle.

A situation that was sure to go bad was averted because Moses listed to wise counsel from his father-in-law.

As we apply this message to our lives today, we need to take a serious look at the way we are managing our time every day. Maybe you are feeling stressed to the max every day as you try to burn the proverbial candle from both ends. Maybe someone has expressed a concern to you about burnout as they look at your life from the outside in, seeing things that might be in your blind spot.

In regard to the latter, I have been there and unfortunately on more than one occasion. I am a very driven person and my wife, a modern day “Jethro”, has had to get in my ear, reminding me that I’m just one person and can break under the strain of my responsibilities. Her words were needed because I need to be told that I am not a superhero but rather a human being with limitations. And so, I made some needed changes to the way I worked so to free up more time for my family, myself, and my Lord. When I did, I realized that like Moses, I could still find success and accomplishment by humbly delegating and accepting my limits.

How about you today? Where do you stand on this important matter of delegation?

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.