Exodus 18:17 And Moses’ father in law said unto him, The thing that thou doest is not good
There comes a time in everyone’s life where you look around the room and realize, “I am the adult in the room.” Maybe you have been accustomed to being next in line, the son, the daughter, the grandson, the granddaughter, and all of a sudden you realize that those above you are diminishing, those below you are increasing, and it is time for you to stand up and be counted. It is time for you to make decisions, time for you to lead, time for you to serve. Everyone who has ever done anything came to that point in their life.
In the summer of 1940 Winston Churchill was addressing the French. He hoped to be allies with them, but on June 18, 1940 Paris surrendered. Churchill and his general, Hastings Ismay, were driving back to the airfield in France and Churchill looked very glum indeed. Ismay was trying to cheer him up and said, “Well, things will get better,” to which Churchill replied, “You and I will be dead in three month’s time.” Six days later Churchill delivered his rousing “Finest Hour” speech with which he roused the British people and the English government to fight World War II and eventually they prevailed. There was a moment where he realized, “I am the adult in the room.” It is a very lonely place to be without an ally, without help, without apparent hope.
That is, it seems, where Moses felt himself to be. He looked around the room and realized, “I am the adult in the room.” His father-in-law came to visit him and saw how Moses was snowed under with the administration of the people of Israel, bringing them out of Egypt, dealing with their needs, dealing with their complaints. In verse 17 he says to Moses, “The thing that thou doest is not good.” He saw Moses sitting alone from morning until evening by himself. His father-in-law said, “You are going to wear away. It is too heavy for you. You are trying to do all of this alone.” Alone is the key word.
It is not good to be alone. You will affect other people and other people will affect you. Moses was without his wife. Jethro had brought his wife and two boys back to him. I don’t know how long Moses had been separated from his wife, but apparently in the heady days of bringing Israel out of Egypt, he was alone. Sometimes we are alone in a crowd. There are people all around us, but we are alone because we are the only one who can bear the responsibility that we have.
Moses was without help. It is interesting that one of his sons was named Eliezer which has the idea of “God is our help.” Verse 4 says, “The God of my father… was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh.” In Genesis it says it is not good that man should dwell alone. God made a helper suitable for Adam. We need other people. Moses had no other people. In verses 14 and 18 the Bible makes it very clear that all of this responsibility, pressure, and weariness was on Moses alone. This is the point of the story where he not only realizes his responsibility, but he realizes the importance of delegation. He realizes the importance of the team and of not going it alone.
How do you form a durable team? Maybe you are a parent, a child, a student, a pastor, a tradesman. Who knows what you are, but maybe you realize that you cannot do it alone. How do you form a durable team?
First, you need one to guide you. That is something Moses had from the get-go. Moses says in verse 16, “When they have a matter, they come unto me; and I judge between one and another, and I do make them know the statutes of God, and his laws.” So, Moses was humanly responsible, yet he was not making stuff up. He looked at the law of God, saw what God’s ethic was on the matter, and responded accordingly.
So, you are not an inventor. You have building blocks, God’s statues. If you have any authority, it is important to remember who the author is. The author of authority is God. He is the one who is the authority. So, the best leader is simply an ambassador. Back in Exodus 4 God says, “I will be with thy mouth, and with his [Aaron’s] mouth…and he shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God.” The bottom line is that Moses was just an ambassador. If you have an authority, God, for the content of your life, you don’t have to be a genius, you just have to be an ambassador for what God has spoken. So, you need one to guide you.
Second, you need one to advise you. Ronald Reagan said something like, “It’s amazing how much can be accomplished when we don’t care who gets the credit.” In this case, it happened to be someone who was not overtly in authority over Moses but someone who gave him advice. All of us need that. No matter how high you may get in the pecking order, you need someone who can give advice.
This person needs to be honorable. Verse 7 says, “And Moses went out to meet his father in law, and did obeisance.” In other words, he honored his father-in-law. There is nothing worse than asking advice of someone who doesn’t have a lick of sense. Back in college I had a roommate whom I asked every morning if my clothes matched. I found out later he was colorblind. That is kind of pointless. You need someone who is honorable to advise you.
This person needs to be informed and to inform. Verse 18:8 says, “And Moses told his father in law all that the LORD had done…” Moses brought him up to speed and “Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which the LORD had done to Israel.” So, you need someone who will be informed and who can then inform you.
This person also needs to acknowledge God. Jethro says in verse 11, “Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods.” This was based on what God had done. So, you don’t need someone who is going to flatter you nor do you need a pessimist. You need someone who acknowledges God. That is why it is often wise to ask advice from those who are older. A parent has been a child, but a child has not yet been the parent. Moses needed advice.
Finally, you need someone who will join you. In verses 21-23, Moses chose out of all the people “able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness” and he placed these men over the people to rule them. These were men who could help Moses help the people of Israel. They were to be able, god-fearing, honest, and single minded, not in it for the money. If you look at Acts 6, I Timothy 3, and Titus, you find these are qualifications for those of leadership in the church.
I remember learning the Effective Speaker Principles years ago. The first one is that an effective speaker is one whose character, knowledge, and judgment command respect. So, do they have character? If they don’t have character, it doesn’t matter how able they are, they cannot be someone who can join and help. Do they have knowledge? There may be someone with great character but no ability. Then you are somewhat limited. You need character, knowledge, and judgment. Here is a guy who can shoot the eye off a gnat at a hundred paces but doesn’t have a lick of sense to know when to pull the trigger. He may have character and knowledge, but he also needs judgment to know how to use what he has.
So, what we need is someone to guide, someone to advise, and someone to join. The person who joins us is someone who can help us go where God would have us to go. Do you need one of these? Do you need to be one of these? It is not good to be alone, but if we will look, we can find someone to guide, that is God, someone to advise, and someone to join us in the journey God would have for us.