EXODUS 18 - HUMBLE LEADERSHIP
Exodus 18
In this Chapter, Moses has an encounter with his father-in-law, Jethro, that teaches him a valuable lesson about how to lead God’s people. The Bible is primarily a book about redemption, not leadership. However, since God generally leads His people through others, and since God desires that the leaders of His people be capable and qualified, the Bible does give us both principles of good leadership, as well as specific qualities that leaders should embody. In this Chapter, we see some of both.
Jethro had heard of all that God had done amongst Moses & the people of Israel to set them free from slavery in Egypt. He wanted to come and rejoice with Moses for all that God had done, and he also wanted to bring the wife and children of Moses back to him. After spending some time together, Jethro acknowledged the greatness of God in Vs. 11, especially about how He had dealt with the arrogance of the Egyptians. God is opposed to the prideful; James 4:6 & 1 Peter 5:5. Then, in Vs. 12 Jethro made an offering to the Lord and shared a meal with Moses, Aaron and the elders of Israel.
The next day, Jethro observed Moses at work serving as a judge to resolve the disputes of the people. He noticed that Moses was doing this all by himself, with no help from anyone else, and he asked Moses why he was doing this all alone. The answer that Moses gives him is very enlightening as to how Moses saw his role as a leader of God’s people, for Moses said in Vs. 15-16 “Because the people come to me to inquire of God; when they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another, and I make them know the statutes of God and His laws.” The number of “I’s” and “me’s” in that response show us that Moses had a problem. He mistakenly saw leadership of the people as all about himself, and mistakenly saw his own role as too important to be shared with anyone else. So, Jethro gives him some fatherly advice, and in Vs. 17 tells him that what he is doing is not good, and that he is not able to do it alone. Jethro goes on in Vs. 19-23 to suggest that while Moses can continue to have primary responsibility for certain duties, like representing the people before God, and communicating to them the ways of God, he should appoint other leaders to handle most of the judging of disputes between the people.
Jethro had the wisdom and experience of many years of leadership himself, for the beginning of the Chapter reminds us that he was the priest of Midian, and we know from Exodus Chapters 2 & 3 that he had been serving in that capacity 40 years earlier when Moses 1st met him. So, praise God that Vs. 24 tells us that Moses listened to what Jethro said, and then went on to implement his recommendation. Moses had the good sense to listen to those older and more experienced than him, and both he and the people benefited from it. No doubt this sharing of the leadership tasks gave Moses more time to spend with his wife and children, and no doubt that the people were able to have their disputes resolved much quicker.
In the example of how Moses receives this advice from Jethro, we see that good leaders listen to others, and that good leaders delegate and share the responsibilities of leadership, because they know that they are sheep themselves and cannot possibly know it all, or get it all right, on their own. For this reason, we see Paul in several places in the New Testament refer to a plurality of elders in the leadership of the local church.
Good leaders have faith that God can and will work through others in the church, because they know that the same Holy Spirit that lives and works in them also lives and works in others. With a plurality of leaders in the church, much more can be accomplished for God’s Kingdom than if one leader tries to do it all as Moses was initially doing. Ronald Reagan is known for having said that a good leader can accomplish much if he doesn’t care who gets the credit. James 4:6 & 1 Peter 5:5 also tell us that God gives grace to the humble, and a leader of God’s people certainly needs all the grace he can get. So, a good leader will seek humility in their own lives, so that they may be full of the grace that is needed to lead God’s people.
There is only one leader who is fully capable of leading on His own, and who needs no advice from anyone, and that is our Lord & Savior, Jesus Christ. Yet, when it came to His darkest hour, even He had the humility to submit to the advice of His Father, when He declared, “not My will, but your will be done” and went to the cross to save all of us.