Delegating for God's purpose

Exodus 18:13-18 (NLT)
13 The next day, Moses took his seat to hear the people’s disputes against each other. They waited before him from morning till evening. 14 When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he asked, “What are you really accomplishing here? Why are you trying to do all this alone while everyone stands around you from morning till evening?” 15 Moses replied, “Because the people come to me to get a ruling from God. 16 When a dispute arises, they come to me, and I am the one who settles the case between the quarreling parties. I inform the people of God’s decrees and give them his instructions.” 17 “This is not good!” Moses’ father-in-law exclaimed. 18 “You’re going to wear yourself out—and the people, too. This job is too heavy a burden for you to handle all by yourself.

Moses was given the task of leading the people out of Egypt. Now he has found himself in the position of being the lawgiver and judge. Moses acquainted people with God’s laws and when there were disputes among the people Moses gave rule to what was just and fair. And if the people were as quarrelsome among themselves as they were with God then there is no doubt there were many cases brought before Moses to settle. Jethro, a priest, and the father-in-law of Moses saw the problem Moses was facing and it was a difficult burden. Later in the chapter Jethro explains how Moses needs to delegate his work to others he can depend upon.



Loren McCune of Newnan Georgia said to help her Sunday school class of nine-year-olds understand the difficulty of Moses' job of settling disputes as leader of the Israelites, she asked the children to role-play. Zackery was given Moses' part while the others worked in pairs to come up with problems for him to tackle. The first duo, Jessica and DaNae, approached their leader and said, "We have no food." Moses thought for a minute and nervously answered, "Go kill some animals." The next pair were the Terrence children. The problem? "Someone's been killing our animals."

Moses did not have an easy job as leader. Many people sought his advice each day, from morning until evening, distracting Moses from the real task of leading the people to the Promised Land. Often we take too much upon ourselves and get distracted from our purpose in life. We need to learn we cannot do everything alone and that we have to place trust in others to help us accomplish our goal. We often call it delegating; it is entrusting others to perform what needs to be done while we watch over more important tasks. If you are one who feels they must do everything, ask God who in your life you can trust to help you. Ask how you might delegate tasks that help reach people for God’s purpose.