"The thing you are doing is
not right!"
Jethro, the priest of Midian
told his son-in-law Moses,
earthly liberator of his
people, the Israelites,
a task he accomplished only
in partnership with God
and with his brother Aaron,
appearing before Pharaoh
again and again
declaring that Pharaoh must
let the Israelites go.
Now they had journeyed into
the wilderness.
and Jethro came to visit his
family.
What was it that Moses was
not doing right
that Jethro felt he had to
point out?
Moses was sitting in judgment
over the people
all by himself
all on his own.
Perhaps Jethro said to
himself some ancient version of
the phrase “Do I
hear…burnout?”
He knew that Moses probably
felt that if he held on to this task,
it would be done right.
But Jethro had another idea
for his son-in-law.
As Jethro saw Moses moving
towards certain exhaustion, he said,
“You will surely wear
yourself out, and these people as well.
Your task is too heavy for
you; you cannot do it alone.
Let me give you counsel:
You shall seek out from among
all the people capable individuals
who revere God – trustworthy
people who spurn
ill-gotten gain (and
therefore cannot be unduly influenced or swayed).
Have them bring every major
dispute to you,
but let them decide every
minor dispute themselves
If you do this, you will be
able to bear up.”
Jethro reminded Moses
that he didn’t have
designated elders for nothing,
chosen leaders of the people.
Moses could take on a new
approach
where he didn’t need to rely
only on himself.
And – he needed to let go of
the idea
that he was the only one who
could lead and do it right.
Moses needed to trust that
someone else might do a task
as well as he could.
Jethro assured him that he
wasn’t giving up
all of his responsibility
as a judge of his people,
reminding Moses
that he had set a good
example of living by values
that others could follow.
So – the leaders who had
personal fortitude and staying power
who revered God
who could be trusted
who would be impartial and
wise in their decisions
would be paying tribute to
Moses every time they judged between two people in a dispute and
were able to resolve it
fairly and peacefully.
This lesson in delegation
allowed Moses
to save some of his spirit
and energy
For the most important task
of all to which he was committed
taking the people forward
teaching them what it meant
to be free
demonstrating how all members
of the community
were now responsible for each
other.
They had won their right to
live free from the taskmasters of Egypt
by believing in God and in
Moses’ leadership.
Now their challenge was to be
worthy of the commandments
that they were about to
receive.
Those commandments would be
proclaimed to them in the singular
not the plural.
Every person was to feel that
God was talking directly to him or her
when each person would
eventually hear – I am the Eternal Your God – you shall not murder - you shall
not steal – you shall not covet.
In fact, Moses did have to
let go
to enable the people find
themselves as free individuals
and to grow into their
personal relationships with God and with each other.
Only that way would they own
their belief in God, their love for God, and their trust of one another.
And so, whenever we serve as
leaders,
May we remember that
leadership can mean letting go of individual tasks that still may be important
In order that we can create a
strong foundation
on which a community can move
forward
With hope and confidence
as it seeks to find its own
promised land.
No comments:
Post a Comment