Moses & Jethro

Exodus 18:17-23

Moses' father-in-law said, "This is no way to go about it. You'll burn out, and the people right along with you. This is way too much for you—you can't do this alone. Now listen to me. Let me tell you how to do this so that God will be in this with you. Be there for the people before God, but let the matters of concern be presented to God. Your job is to teach them the rules and instructions, to show them how to live, what to do. And then you need to keep a sharp eye out for competent men—men who fear God, men of integrity, men who are incorruptible—and appoint them as leaders over groups organized by the thousand, by the hundred, by fifty, and by ten. They'll be responsible for the everyday work of judging among the people. They'll bring the hard cases to you, but in the routine cases they'll be the judges. They will share your load and that will make it easier for you. If you handle the work this way, you'll have the strength to carry out whatever God commands you, and the people in their settings will flourish also."

So it has been quite awhile since I have blogged... The biggest reason for that is God has been teaching me some things that are just for me. Not that I can't share, but most of them are things that take a lot more thinking and never really have words to express via a blog. I have continued my readings in the Message bible. I got to the part of Exodus where the Manna and Quail hits the "fan" err, well, desert? To quickly recap: Moses was born a Hebrew, in the time where Hebrews were slaves to Eqypt. While the Hebrews literally were greater in number, they were down-trodden, and emotionally out of any sort of fight. Funny how if the enemy can keep us emotionally and spiritually in the dumps, he has us in-effective huh? That's a story for a different time; The order comes from Pharaoh to kill all baby boys. Moses' mom put him in a basket in the Nile river, which as God would have it, led Moses right to the daughter of Pharaoh, the very enemy that caused Moses' mom to put him in the river in the fist place. He grows in favor as a prince in Egypt. Somewhere in there he discovers that he is Hebrew. He kills an Egyptian, has to flee Egypt, and has the first ever proverbial (in this case ACTUAL) "Burning Bush experience." God tells him to get his sandals back to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go. Moses is like "uh hello, they will kill me..." God's response: "I'll make you like a god to them, and Aaron will be your prophet." After numerous attempts, God unleashes the 10 plagues. Finally, after the death of his son, the Pharaoh decides it's actually a good idea to follow God's command... Bing, Bang, Boom, Moses and the Hebrews are out in the wilderness on their way back to their ancestral lands of Canaan. That sets up the long scripture we see up there. Jethro meets up with Moses and his posse in the desert and see's how Moses is leading and is not too happy. What struck me about this verse, and believe me it struck me like a ton of bricks (thanks God ;) ), is that first verse. It says "Moses' father-in-law said, "This is no way to go about it. You'll burn out, and the people right along with you. This is way too much for you—you can't do this alone." Now if you are struck by this, it is because it seems kind of weird. Here's why. Our culture, in The U.S., is all about selfishness, and a sinful state I'll call "Loaneritis." ITIS is a suffix that those who practice medicine use to describe something that is inflamed. Here in the U.S. if we aren't looking out for "Numero Uno" people look at us funny. Why talk about Loaneritis? Because Moses, unintentionally I believe, got so used to doing things on his own, that he actually made it a habit. Some of you may be like, "So what? God gave him the plan, he's God's mouthpiece." Right, but you are forgetting one crucial scripture (in the NIV) "The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." (Genesis 2:18). God made that statement early on in Creation, prior to sin's corruption, so in essence, this thought was describing IDEAL man-kind. Prior to Sin's corruption, that's how God wanted it. Selah Since Sin came into the world, man has done everything he can to extradite, ex-filtrate, ex-communicate, and otherwise obfusticate himself from the rest of humanity. To the point where now we have major issues, in the form of lawsuits, angry arguments, fights, divorce, abortions, and even extreme hermitism because we believe in a thing called "Privacy." I have news for you. In God's pre-Sin creation, the perfect world, everything was so obviously transparent that Adam and Eve didn't need clothes. They didn't need to be ashamed of what they did, they didn't need to hide, nothing was evil, nothing was ever, "Excuse me God, I need some privacy!" Where Loaneritis rears it's head in the Church is with the key leaders. Leaders, I am talking to you now, DO NOT LET THE ENEMY GIVE YOU THE NOTION THAT YOU CAN DO IT ALL ON YOUR OWN! You can't. Yes it's true, and I have even said it, "Where God guides, God provides," but I cannot find one instance, where ONE PERSON did everything God told them to do without partners. Before you blow up my blog with Comments about "what about Jesus," let me remind you that Jesus was GOD'S partner to restore humanity. Even He, the perfect son and incarnation of God, needed 12 followers to fulfill his objectives. Don't let loaneritis happen to you! Get partnered up with the right people... Selah.