So in-laws, in-laws are always fun. So as we come this morning, some of you, if you are married or have been married, you marry into a family beyond your own, which comes with parents of someone else.
And so usually it stirs up all sorts of emotions. Whether you like your in-laws, whether you have a contentious love-hate relationship with your in-laws, everyone kind of has their own different stories. Whether they are far away and you never talk to them, or you live with them for 40 plus years as our text today, you create a different relationship. So I have in-laws, I have a mother and father-in-law, and I love them, they're great. Joe is very handy, gives lots of great instruction, and is there to help me when I have no idea how to fix things, and he knows how to fix things.
So years of carpentry and experience is very helpful. Just learning some of these things and is always there and willing and able to give a hand. So it's great to be able to hear the wisdom of others, so I am blessed in that way. Many of you may have similar experiences, others of you may have the opposite experience. But all these are part of the dynamics that God gives us in working out family relationships. And as we come to our text today, we are going to see one of the probably most intimate portraits of Moses interacting with someone besides God.
Usually every occurrence that we have of Moses is he is in an authority role. He is usually leading. Today we will see one of the first times that he is not in many ways leading, or at least how we think of leadership. This is one of the times that we see him in a family role. It takes us all the way back to the beginning, back to Genesis 3 and 4, or 2, 3 and 4, where you have Moses fleeing Egypt, landing in Midian, and kind of being moved into this family of Jethro's, who will be his father-in-law, where he marries Zephora, he creates a family here, he becomes the shepherd overseeing his entire flock, Moses' new life that took place in Midian.
All comes back to today. And so again, we are reminded as we move into our text, we've seen Moses over the last 14 chapters since then, leading the people, growing with the people as he's instructed them in what the Lord has called him to do, leading them out of Egypt towards the promised land and all the events that have transpired along the way. Two weeks ago we saw the defeat of the Amalekites, we saw some amazing works of God over the last few months unpacking this text, and here we come back once again to the area of Midian, roughly the same area that it all began at.
Because as we come to the mount, Mount Sinai, the mountain of God, also referred to as Horeb, these all three are interchangeable terms for the area that he is approaching. This is the same place back in chapter 3 where God called him to go. So these are Moses' stomping grounds. This is not a new area to him. The Lord led him right back to where he sent him from. And it's to this land that we come, and it's to this that our story unfolds. So we have this very intimate portrait here of Moses with his father-in-law over a two-day period.
Okay, so it's going to cover two days' time roughly in our text, as we'll see the celebration of worship that will flow from them, and then we will see the wisdom and the humility to receive wisdom in our text. So it's the two parts of our text that is before us. So even just some basic context for us so that we can dive into some of the deeper meanings here. There was lots of controversy whether or not this text even belongs in this section. Okay, there's going to be some things that you'll see.
First of all, they're at Sinai. Well that's, we haven't, that starts in 19 they get to Sinai, so how are we at Sinai? Question one. So they're at Sinai. He's at the mountain of God already. Secondly, as we get further in the text, Moses' role is to give the people the instruction in law of the Lord, which Moses hasn't gotten the instruction in law of the Lord yet necessarily. We've got the Sabbath and we've got Passover, so we have some parts of what will become the full law. Okay, and so later he's told that that's his job, is to teach the people the law and statutes of the Lord.
Okay, so many people will question whether or not it belongs to God. directly in this part, or if it technically belongs later in the text, if it's chronology. Okay, one of the highlights goes is not everything is chronological. So this is a thematic purpose that's showing us, I would agree, is this transition that is seen in this experience. So as we work through the text, we'll see worship is the first half of the text. So the first half of the text with Jethro is worship. It is celebrating the salvific work of God.
The first half of the book of Exodus is celebrating the salvific work of God. The second half of the text is structure, organization, and purpose within wisdom. The second half of the book of Exodus, structure, purpose within the structure of wisdom. So how do we lead, grow, and follow God? Well, the law. What does the law flow from? Worship. So these things should be in conjunction together, and this is very much what we will see in our text together today with Jethro and Moses. And so the very first part we begin as we see these two things of law and gospel, if you will, is it begins with gospel and the worship and a boldness in worship in verses one through 12.
I. Boldness in Worship
And so the very beginning, again, begins with this long-awaited reunion in verses one through seven. So join me in the text as we read, Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, heard all that God had done for Moses and for Israel, his people. How the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. Now Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, had taken Zephora, Moses' wife, after he had sent her home, along with her two sons. The name of one was Gershom, for he said, I have been a sojourner in a foreign land, and the name of the other is Eleazar, for he said, the God of my father was my help and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh.
Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness, where he was encamped at the mountain of God. And when he sent word to Moses, I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and your two sons with her, Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. And they asked each other of their welfare and went into the tent. So in case you were not aware, Jethro is Moses' father-in-law. In case you are questioning that, the text is very clear who Jethro is.
So Jethro is Moses' father-in-law. So it begins to again, highlight their relationship. Okay, it echoes us back to chapter four. Okay, again, that early setup of who they are, their relationship, why is this someone Moses would listen to? Because he is his father-in-law. He has spent years, roughly 40 years. Okay, again, he fled Egypt at 40. Okay, and then he returned to Egypt at 80. That is 40 years he spent in the household of Jethro, a rule in the first text, as we saw it back in chapter two.
So he spent 40 years under Jethro. And also, as we look at the history of Jethro, in many ways, probably is the closest thing he had to a real father figure. Again, he was grown up in Pharaoh's household as a prince where Pharaoh's daughter adopted him out of a river. So there's a whole context there that he probably didn't have a good father figure that helped him grow, especially in a different world. He's no longer a prince. He's now a shepherd. Your entire world has shifted. You have a new role, a new responsibility.
Okay, it's very different living in the city to living in the country. You have to learn a whole new world. Okay, and this is very much what we saw with Moses. And so Jethro is an important aspect of his life. Again, especially in a herding nomadic culture, family is key. Family is essential. Okay, so we can see the highlights again and again, father-in-law, father-in-law, the role that Jethro has in his life, but also highlighting the respect Moses gives to that position. Okay, Jethro is one that he will listen to.
Even if you go back to chapter four, God gives Moses this command to go to set his people free, to lead the people out of Israel. And even before he goes, he asks permission of Jethro whether or not he can leave. He goes to his father-in-law, and he asks in 418, Moses went back to Jethro immediately afterward, his father-in-law, Clee, and said to him, please let me go back to my brothers in Egypt to see whether they are still alive. And Jethro said to Moses, go in peace. He releases him from his family to go back to lead the people out.
So again, even there, he submitted himself to the authority placed over him, asking permission to leave at which time he does. So we also see in our text is clearly Jethro is keeping tabs on what's going on. Jethro heard all that had happened to Moses, which again, that's someone who loves his family. You're probably a little like, well, you're gonna go back to Egypt to try to set your people free. Seems like a tall order. Okay, I'm gonna try to keep some tabs on what's going on through the. Nomadic grapevine, hit the news as it comes.
How are things going? Probably heard some rumors. Again, I'm sure some crazy stuff going down in Egypt. You're probably going to hear some rumors of what's going on. Hearing these things, we have this picture of Jethro keeping tabs on him, also taking care of Moses' wife and kids. So again, the last time we saw Zivora, okay, was the weird tent incident with cutting foreskins and throwing blood. We don't really know what happened after that. That's where it ended. So somewhere in that time frame, she and the sons went back to Midian.
Again, the assumption is clearly Moses entering Egypt. After all this goes, this is probably not the best situation for my family to be in. Okay, again, I'm going to stand up to Pharaoh. There's a lot that can come with this. It's probably better if she waits for me back home. Okay, so Zivora goes home with the boys and spends time in Midian with her father. Again, our exact timeline, there's lots of guesses. This could be anywhere from six months to a year, depending on how long the ten plagues took.
Lots of questions on how long those took and the gaps between them. But we're probably looking six months to a year between Moses leaving Midian and now returning to the mountain of God. Okay, and in this we see this love that they experience together. They greet one another with joy. Okay, as Jethro sends a messenger, that's an idea that he sent someone to tell him that he was coming, preparing the way for Jethro and the family to reunite with Moses. That I, it's not just some weird informer like, I am telling you I am coming as I'm talking to you.
He sent a messenger to proclaim his coming. He is coming to be with Moses again, to spend time together, to reflect on what is happening. I think to a degree to get a firsthand account. There's one thing to hear people talk about what's going on. It's different to go and see what has gone on. It's different to just get the exact word from the one who led. What exactly has transpired? And so we see this picture of the family reuniting as Moses, his family joins together here at Horeb. And Moses receives him with joy, bows down to him, kisses him, and is just experiencing that family relationship renewed in that moment of just humbling himself before his father-in-law.
And then they just talk about what is life. There's just that natural overflows like, how you doing? It just feels like a weird moment. And they just ask each other about each other's well-being. That's how the text goes. They just asked about your well-being. How are things? How's the family? How's the kids doing still? You took care of them? How's the wife? How's the sheep doing? Maybe ask about a sheep. What's his favorite sheep? How's he doing? Still doing good? So there's just this very family-oriented moment.
Which again, the height thing, you just came off a battle. You've got all this and it's just a natural day of family hanging out. We haven't seen each other for a while. What's going on? Just catching up. Catching up with all the affairs that are going on. And I think there's a wonderful picture again of Moses's humility that we get to see here. Again, when Moses left, he was just shepherding Jethro's sheep. That was his job. He had a family, had sheep. That's what he did. He went to Egypt. Now he comes back as the leader of 600,000 plus people.
He's got an army. They've defeated the Amalekites maybe not that long ago. He's risen very high very fast. And yet even in that, he has love and respect for his father-in-law. For the family that he is a part of. That he bows down and kisses him and welcomes him as family. Hearing him well and having just this moment, small talk, which then flows into this glorious moment of gospel proclamation. So from their beginning, so they have their small talk. They begin with their normal. How are things?
How is the family? What's going on? And then we see this transition from small talk to proclamation in 8 through 9. Then Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake. All the hardship that had come upon them in the way. And how the Lord had delivered them. And Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the Lord had done to Israel. In that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians. So immediately from this basic introduction of welfare, they come into the tent.
And Moses just utters out all the great things that the Lord has done. How the Lord has been with them. How the Lord did all the things that he said he would do. And he brought them back to the mountain. If you remember back in... Chapter 4 the proof that God was with him is that he would one day return to this mountain. The circle is complete He has returned the sign that God was faithful Even in those little signs he can now rejoice all the more of how God is good how God is Faithful and also the good and the bad they experienced on the way There were struggles Moses doesn't lead out leave out the struggles of the trip It says he expressed the good and the bad they experienced the hardships that came upon them It was not an easy road to get back to Sinai There were struggles there were hardships.
There were complaints. There were grumblings There was the mighty work of God each and every time But as the leader, we've seen Moses struggled often through the whole leading was not always easy But God was with them the whole time. It's the Lord who saved them out of slavery He is the one who brought them through the Red Sea when it looked like there was no hope at the water Gave manna when they had no food Water from a rock when they had no water to drink and as the Amalekites attacked them from the rear God gave victory over them Through the staff that God had given to him.
The Lord is the one who did it all Again even in that we see humility as Moses does not credit himself with having anything to do with getting here The Lord is the one who saw them through every hardship. I Didn't do it. The Lord did each and every one of these events So to in our own lives do we think about how often we tell people? The good news of what the Lord is doing in our lives Do we take the opportunity to express the gospel the good news of what the Lord has done this week this month? When you spend time with family, do you express what the Lord is doing?
Do you take that opportunity to proclaim as Moses does in this moment? The father all the good things the Lord has done in the past year Especially those who have maybe those family reunions. Those are still a thing. I'm told I've not been a part of one. Apparently my extended family does them one day. We may apparently do one We'll see but that picture of like the family reunion in those moments Do you express what God has done this year or since the last meeting opportunities? Again, those small moments to proclaim the good news of the gospel in your life.
This is what Moses doing He's expressing to Jethro everything that the Lord has done Highlighting time and time again the glorious work of God who has saved them He did not take them out of Egypt God Yahweh the Lord took them out of Egypt. The Lord took us out of Sin and death and the slavery that bound us It was not our doing it was his majestic work. And do we make enough of a deal about that? Or is it simply the thing that has passed and we've moved on to other things? This is an opportunity for us to remember even here Moses the great leader people gives all honor and glory to God Even in a family atmosphere with a priest of Midian Again, as we highlighted way back in the day, he would have had an understanding of who God was But he's a priest of Midian, which is a very polytheistic religion.
They worshipped many different gods And so he is proclaiming Boli the one true God who has saved them Saved them Yahweh has saved them. The Lord is the one at work And so he extols it to him and makes it plain to his father-in-law where their salvation has come from That it was the Lord This is not a secondhand account. This is Moses who walked through the water With his people who saw the Lord rain manna from heaven Who struck a rock and water flowed from it? Who simply raised his arms over a valley and victory came?
God is the one who did all these and so he proclaims this gospel with boldness to Jethro and from there we see an overflow then of a bold response in worship from Jethro So Jethro responds in verses 10 through 12 Blessed be the Lord again Yahweh not blessed be Yahweh who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians Out of the hand of Pharaoh and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians Now, I know that the Lord is greater than all gods because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people and Jethro Moses father-in-law brought a burnt offering and Sacrifices to God and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses father-in-law before God And so upon hearing the good news upon hearing the amazing story that Moses is told about the work of Yahweh Jethro just is overwhelmed and proclaims glory.
Blessed be the Lord. Blessed be Yahweh. May He be praised because He has delivered you. He's done all that He said He would do and far more. The gospel proclamation has transformed His perspective and so He praises God. He's delivered you out of the hands, out of the hand of Pharaoh, has delivered the people from under the hand of you. Now I know that the Lord is greater. These words are echoed in full in Psalm 135. The Hebrew is the exact same. So Jethro's phrasing here, I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, that phrase is directly 135.5.
The Hebrew is exactly the same which we've highlighted Psalm 135 several times because it does tell the story of the exodus. It tells God's work of leading the people out. The Hebrew here is the same Hebrew structure. So Jethro's words are echoed in that psalm. God is a God amongst all gods which has even a greater height here as we see once again the reality of him being a priest of Midian. He is a religious leader who has sacrificed too many gods and here in light of all that he's heard, all his testament, God is truly the only great God.
No god compares to him. Again, in a day and age where many gods were seen in view, God is supreme. They have nothing on Yahweh. And even as you read verse 11, it's a weird, the English cleans it up a lot. The Hebrew is a disjointed mess if you will. A lot of words here are added for clarification. Okay, as you read it, now the Lord is greater because in this affair he dealt arrogantly with the people. The actual Hebrew is because he dealt arrogantly. So lots of questions on who has dealt arrogantly, where.
The general construction again is the idea, is it the Egyptians who have dealt arrogantly? Is it the gods who have dealt arrogantly? Depending on how your, my Hebrew scholars probably can pull out their Bibles right now and come up with a whole breakdown of what they think it is. But it's a lot of questions. Again, as a priest, that idea of one who has a polytheistic view, the general assumption then is actually saying, because the gods of Egypt dealt arrogantly with you, the God of Israel destroyed them.
Kind of this picture. Because he's praising how great God is over their gods. So their gods were nothing. They thought they could destroy you. And yet each and every one we've seen up to this point, God showed was nothing compared to him. So again, we echo back how we went through the ten plagues, each of the plagues kind of targeting different deities in Egypt. This here then is Jethro echoing that same thing. Now we can clearly see that Yahweh is the only true God. These other gods acted arrogantly towards you and were of nothing.
That when come face to face with you, their power was of no ability. And so he highlights his strength above them. That the Lord is greater than all gods. There's nothing that can compare to him. And so after hearing this, he's just so overwhelmed by these truths. That he's worshiping God. He worships the Lord. He's convinced that the Lord alone is true and worthy. That this testimony has clarified in full all that he had thought. And so he brings the sacrifice. So again, the idea he already had a sacrifice in mind, but now there's a fullness to it.
It's a reflection on all that God has done. And so he prepares a sacrifice in worship of God for salvation. It's an offering of thanksgiving. And the whole leadership joins in. So you have Aaron joins with him. Aaron and the elders all come together for this feast. It's a feast to worship the work of the Lord. So they worship. In boldness, this pagan priest, the father-in-law of Moses, has seen and behold the glory of God. That none is compared to him. Offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving and worship.
And brings Moses and the family and his leaders together to worship God in light of all that has transpired. This is very key, especially as we're about to transition. The next time we really see any sacrifice worship with the people, it is not in a positive context. We're going to take a little bit of a hike for a bit and then we're going to get to the golden calf. The next sign of worship is not to worship the greatness of the salvation of God, but to create their own mini-God to represent God.
But here we have this wonderful moment of a family reunited celebrating the good gift that God was faithful. So from the mountain he left and from the mountain he has returned, God's sign is fulfilled. And then the worship. If you will take Midian as a nation, one of the nations will join in a worship of God. It's a beautiful transition of this moment in this camp of just celebrating God for his salvific work. And it's from that experience of the gospel, that bold worship of the gospel, that then will lead into the second half of the text as we begin to unpack this humility in wisdom.
II. Humility in Wisdom
Because we'll get to the next day. There's a high. There's a great mountain high here. We just celebrated what God had done. There's worship. There's a massive feast. This is a great day. But every great day is followed by a work day. So Moses is back to work. It was a great day. We had fun. Everyone enjoyed. Monday's still gonna be here tomorrow. So our text doesn't shy away from it. Here we go. We're back to work the next day. In verses 13 through 18, with a simple observation, we have the next day Moses sat to judge the people.
So we are back at it. And the people stood around Moses from morning till evening. When Moses' father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, what is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone and all the people stand around you from morning till evening? And Moses said to his father-in-law, 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 another and I make them known the statutes of God and his laws.
Moses' father-in-law said to him, why are you doing what you are doing is not good. You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. So as we have our text, we now move into the next part and it's the simple observation of a father-in-law watching how his son-in-law is leading. So how are you doing it? How are you leading the people? Massive celebration followed by simple observation. And from morning till evening, Moses judged the people.
Just daily settling disputes, time and time again working through issues. And so we see the fact that Moses had a very busy day. Okay, Moses wasn't just a leader who sat back in his tent and waited for God to call upon him. Okay, I feel like this is how most people think pastoral ministry is. We just sit in our offices with Bibles open and go ah for like 40 hours a week and then we preach a sermon and it's great. Like there's a lot of work. Like there's work, there's people, there's life, there's doing it together.
Moses wasn't just waiting at the house of God for the Lord to speak to him. He had work to do in leading and caring for the people from morning till evening. He cared for the people. 600,000 plus people and Moses by himself working. So stressful. As you can see why he was always so stressed up to this point. So he's doing it all alone, day in, day out. He's teaching, he's solving problems, he's managing. This is a very busy guy and he's in his 80s. There is a work of the Lord in here, clearly. But he is doing these things and wearing himself out and so his father-in-law is greatly concerned.
He says what you are doing is not good. Like this is not wise. It's the picture. Because it's not good for you and it's not good for them. Because can one man solve 600,000 problems in a day? No. That is a morning till evening. Like just constant people. Problem after problem after. Again clearly not all 600,000 people have problems but I'm sure there's quite a bit that's going on. That day in and day out all you're doing is problems and you don't get to all of them because there's more and there's more.
So everyone's waiting forever. Again welcome to a judicial system. So everyone's just waiting for an answer and you don't even have 12 courts you just got one. This is a long time to deal with things. And so Jethro is very wise in this moment, greatly concerned. And so in this though even Moses's response is simply ultimately like but this is what I do. This is what I do. Someone has to teach the people. So well that clearly is me. God has spoken to me. God's given me the... so my job is to teach the people.
Who else is going to intercede and work for them? Well I'm the one who speaks to God so I guess I'm the one who does it. How do we apply the law as it's been taught? Well again Moses falls in the trap that most leaders do which is it's easier to do it myself than to delegate to other people because I know what I'm doing so I will just do it. It's a very easy trap that leadership falls into. I just do it all myself. Honestly those who have been here long enough, this is what I fall into often. I'll just do it myself.
It is not wise or healthy clearly as scripture points out. We delegate authority, as we will see here, as God will instruct through Jethro. And so Moses just goes through the motion. I don't even think it's necessarily a pride issue. It's just that you get trapped in a cycle of just doing it because you're doing it. So you're going to keep doing it because you don't think of another way out. So you just keep going. And sometimes it takes a wise person to tell you to stop. This is not good for you and it's not good for them.
Because in many ways, you could see Moses thinking he's helping them. If I'm doing it, I don't have to burden other people. And ultimately, he's highlighting you are causing a greater burden than you even know. And so he doesn't seek help. What's interesting, I even find, is that Aaron's not even involved. Like, his brother's not even involved. It's just Moses. The guy who's supposed to be talking and being like a mediator with him is out to lunch somewhere, apparently. And it's just Moses. This is all I do.
The family itself isn't even helping. And so it very much is a good fatherly moment where Jethro pulls him aside and has an honest conversation. You will lose it and so will they. And we will see that happen in numbers. But there is that picture of, like, you will lose your mind if you do this continually. And the people will become even more frustrated. Because if you're number 800 in line, you're very frustrated that your issues aren't being solved. And you probably are very hatred of the 799 in front of you who have stupid problems that aren't as bad as your problem.
And if they could just get out of the way, it's like a traffic light. If you guys just move, I can solve my issues. Like, that becomes a picture. This is not good for the people. It's not good for the community. It's not good for Moses. This is not wise leadership. And so he will give him, in this moment, wisdom. What you are doing is not a good choice. You cannot bear the weight of the whole nation, nor is Moses meant to. That is not Moses' job to carry the people. So we've seen this is what God is doing.
God is the one who is in charge. God is the one who cares, ultimately, for each of the 600,000 plus souls in Israel. Moses is called to lead them. God is the one who ultimately will care for them and see them to the end, as he has already done. Moses is simply to lead, listen, and follow as he has been directed. And so we see the delegation begins to form in his father's mind. He's going to highlight how Moses can do this better for his own good and for the good of others. This is also why it's important that we don't have solo pastor ministries.
It's not a one-man show. Now, there are many churches that very much are all about the one man. It's like, you just do it all for us. You figure it out. We pay you. You make it work. You don't need help. You don't need assistance. You probably don't even need to get paid. It's fine. Just make it work. There is a whole movement that exists within American Christianity where that is an understanding. You can hop on a church forum for about 30 seconds and you find those people that are very angry that pastors have assistants and elders and other people.
That's what we pay you for. Solve our problems. That is this arrogance where it's one man cares for the weight of all. Jethro very much, as we will see here, highlights what we will see throughout Scripture is that it's not a one person show. The weight is carried by many. We carry it together for the purpose of the good of one another and the good of the whole community. Elders bear the weight together to love you well and so that you are loved well. So that you have a place to go with your burdens.
And so this begins the wisdom of a father. So verses 19 to 23, Jethro has already said this is not wise. So he doesn't just leave him with you're doing a bad thing. That's always a fun system. Everything you're doing is wrong. Okay. How do we fix it? Not my problem. Just this is bad. Anyone who has worked in a leadership setting, maybe in a corporate experience, harsh criticism, everything is bad. How do we fix it? Not my job. Okay. Well, thank you for your criticism. Jethro isn't just coming to throw fire at the whole thing to say that Moses is messed up and then leaves him.
Here is a better way. I'm not just going to tell you why you're doing it wrong. I'm going to tell you what a better way is. His years of experience have pointed him in this direction. Now obey my voice. I will give you advice and God be with you. So even at the beginning, calling Moses to listen to him, but also highlighting that this will be the work of God. God being with you. will cause these things to flourish is the understanding. I'll give you advice, but it's only successful if God is in it.
You shall represent the people before God. Bring their case to God, and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws. Make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy. Hate and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens, and let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves.
So it'll be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. If you do this, God will direct you. You will be able to endure, and all the people also will go to their place in peace. And so he calls Moses to listen, and he gives them wise advice. Here's how to do this better. Yes, your job is to lead the people. You are to speak to God on behalf of the people. You are to instruct the people. Again, you have the word from the Lord. Depending on where this is, you've gone to the mountain, or are gonna go to the mountain, and you're gonna get all the laws.
You're gonna spend a lot of time getting laws. You have an entire book called Deuteronomy, where we're gonna have three sermons on all the law. Moses is the man who knows the whole thing. He has the plan. Jethro doesn't deny that. That is your role, is to lead the people well in its teaching. So teach them, okay? Represent them before God. Bring the whole's complaint to God. As the whole has an issue, you bring the whole to God. Make their case to God, while also warning them how to live. So big picture, you are big picture.
And then from that big picture, appoint able men. What's interesting, so his wise counsel is very similar to what we have in the New Testament. There is one qualification for ability, and that's simply able. Again, New Testament, we have the desire to do these things, and able to teach, we see in the eldership. And the rest is character. It's all character-driven. Are these men of character that you trust, that can be trusted? So do they have the ability? First, you need to have the ability. But after that, do they fear God?
So you need to choose men who fear God, that they have a love for the Lord and fear Him. Then are they trustworthy? Do you trust their words? When you ask their advice, or when they give advice, do you trust what they're saying is of sound wisdom? They're not just making it up, that they're trustworthy. And then the fourth, that they're not swayed by money. They can't be bribed. These are men of perfect character, that they will not sway their judgment simply because you offer them money. These are the characteristics of a good leader in Israel.
These are the men Moses is to find. Find the ones with skill, but ultimately that they fear God, they're trustworthy, and they are not swayed by money. And the one not directly, and it's made up of all the people. This is not picking one tribe to do all the work either. This isn't just, well, we're gonna pick Judah. Judah's gonna do the work. Okay, we'll have the Levites do the priestly roles here later. But this is a work for judging all the people. So it's supposed to be made up of all the people.
So people even in there. Each tribe is represented in the work. Okay, each tribe is a part of the process. Okay, no tribe favored over the other. And once you break it down, this is a massive leadership structure. For someone who loves math, I bet you can spend 10 seconds, and this is not a small number of men. Okay, it went from Moses to now you have 600 people over 1,000. If you're just doing 600,000. Now again, there's more, but if you just wanna take that number. 600 men to be appointed over 1,000.
6,000 men would be appointed over hundreds if these break out, which is the question. 12,000 men over 50s. 60,000 men over 10s. This is a very big leadership structure. So that is a lot more people than one. It's a lot of delegation. And it says that he does it willfully, willingly here in a moment. But that's the picture. So there are lots now of points. So you have lots of places you can go to when you are having problems. In many ways, we see this as a judicial system. America's loosely based on this.
So it builds up the route. If the 10 can't figure it out, you go to the 50s. If the 50 can't figure it out, you go to the hundreds. You just can't figure out, work your way up to Moses, and then Moses is the final arbiter between God and them. Okay, so there's that picture that your case is heard. Okay, if you're having a struggle, and there's only 10 other people in this group, if you think of it, those who are aware of how we do shepherding groups, okay, we try to keep roughly somewhere between 15 to 20 family units in a shepherding group to one elder.
Okay, so if you have an issue, it's not that hard that your elder isn't tackling, like, well, I've got the whole church that I'm dealing with, I'll get to your, we have flexibility, because we have small numbers. The smaller number allows easier access. So again, 10 people, easy access. 50 people, still not bad access, and so on and so forth, point. So this allows them to be well-governed, also well-instructed. So again, as Moses teaches, understand that these leaders would be receiving the same instruction, they fear the Lord, they're hearing it, that's where they base their judgments on, the everyday occurrences, they are able to mitigate the problems.
This is their job. And so this is how they work, with God ultimately being the final arbiter. If God is with it, it will succeed, becomes pretty much Moses' point, or Jethro's point. God will be with you. If you do this, God will direct you, you will be able to endure, and all the people will be in peace. You'll have a place to go, they will be heard, they will be able to work through their problems together, and you will be able to spend time with the Lord. If the Lord is with it, it will be successful.
And so this becomes the picture. Now again, we'll see another layer of leadership added in numbers, again, once we get to numbers 12, where all of these things that we see at the beginning of Exodus that are positive begin to break down in numbers. Life happens, new generation, we have a breakdown. We'll have a leadership breakdown in 12, where God then will appoint 70 leaders through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and through prophetic work in that text. It's a different leadership group than this one.
Okay, so this is the first one. We'll have 70 specific elders as the Holy Spirit pours out in numbers. Okay, it's a different leadership, different grouping, for a different purpose, which will again, we'll see the judgment and curses that come with that. So if you read numbers, we've kind of highlighted all these parallels over the last like three weeks. They're all parallel events that happen in numbers that show them ultimately coming to the same problems and then curses that are poured out because we've already fixed this once.
God is sovereign. You aren't trusting God anymore by the time we get to numbers. So that begins the work there. And the beauty of our text is that Moses receives this well. Moses isn't arrogant. He does not ultimately see that he is the only one. He hears the voice of Jethro and listens. So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law. Jethro asked him to obey. Moses is obeying. He hears it, he is wise, it is good, and he did it. And did all that he said. Moses chose able men out of all of Israel and made them heads over the people, chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.
And they judged the people at all times. Any hard cases they brought to Moses, but any small matter they decided themselves. Then Moses let his father-in-law depart and he went away to his own country. So the final mark we see of Moses is of humbly listening and heeding the voice of Jethro, for it was a good word. Again, it's that final intimate picture of Moses that he is not, does not see himself as the final arbiter of all that is great. This man has led a nation out, and yet the voice of his father-in-law carries weight.
He is not arrogant, he is not prideful, he is not boastful. He does not need to carry the whole weight. And he hears it and receives it well. It's the, I will obey the voice of my father-in-law. He does not disregard the voice of an elder. Simply because he is old, he does not regard him as of little value, but of one worthy of listening. And again, Jethro's plan is sound. It is sound wisdom. And Moses weighs it well. To carry the weight on his own was not good. He probably felt it. It's only been like three months at this point of leading the people.
We've already seen some big issues. And so Moses, or Jethro's advice probably came as a refreshing drink of water. This is good. This is what I've been looking for. I just didn't know what I needed. Sometimes you don't know how to do it until someone tells you how to do it. Simple. Otherwise, you're just making it up. I'll just figure it out as I go. When there is great advice and wisdom from those who have been there before, again, the glory of the church, those who have walked the path before are there to help us walk the path today.
The echo of what, the introduction to 2 Corinthians. Why did Paul, in the Apostle's time, suffer, so that they may be a comfort to those in their suffering, to bestow the wisdom of what they've experienced. And so in being able to receive that wisdom well is a good mark of a healthy believer. And so Moses receives it well, implements it immediately, and we get the picture that they judged them all the day, and they did at all times. They went to work. They weren't begrudging about it either. The picture is the able men were excited to do the work, and they did it joyfully, continually.
They continually cared for the needs of the people, freeing Moses up to deal with the hard issues. Again, there's going to be hard issues. There's going to be things to work through. As you work through the whole law, there are things to discuss in how to go to God and how implementing it. Even today we have many people that question, how does this law work itself out? If you read the book of Leviticus, there's tons of questions, let alone being right there. Moses had the answer for them. Go to God and work through it.
That was the picture. And so a good leader will care for the people, but also will mind their own souls. This is a great mark of humility, seeing that they are not the end all, be all. Leading with humility and wisdom. A leader seeks good wisdom. We do not know how everything works. I don't have all the answers. I'm sorry. It's not going to happen. So we have the gospel and we have a team, and that is again the glory of a team of elders. We are blessed here at Sunrise, as Adam highlighted even with the Miseo Collective, that we have a group of men dedicated to loving you well and one another.
We also have the joy of other churches, other men and women who have worked through different life situations that can speak into our lives. This past summer, or this past spring, I spent eight weeks in a cohort learning on how to be an administrative and executive pastor. Helpful to learn from other guys who have done it for 20, 30 plus years. It's helpful to hear instruction that you don't learn normally. It's good to be under people teaching you, specifically if you know an issue you're working through.
Find someone to help you through that specific area. Moses clearly had a leadership structure problem. Jethro helped him see how to make it better. And so this whole thing, though, flows ultimately from the work that God has been doing the whole time in building Israel into who they are going to be. It's another step in God strengthening the people. So we have this picture of the gospel at work. It's why the text begins with, I think, the proclamation of the gospel. Jethro comes, hears, and rejoices at the gospel.
This truly is the Lord. Moses isn't afraid to proclaim the gospel. This is truly the work of the Lord. And in that proclamation, we then see God lead him to hear, Moses to hear well, then the recommendation of his father-in-law on how to organize the people well. That he can love them well. That he can highlight and teach them the gospel and the law well. Because he could not do it if he was by himself. It was setting him up to lead the people well in the word of the Lord. If you're going to dedicate yourself to the teaching and admonition of the word, you need the time to do it, so you need other men to do other things.
Also very much what we see in Acts 6. Why deacons exist is so that the apostles could focus on prayer and the teaching of the word. Other people can handle other problems. This is our job, to pray and to teach. That was Moses' job. So other men are tasked with the rest. So this is a great observation of the church. How the church functions. How we love one another well, even through structures. Structure isn't bad. Structure is there to help you. It shows you where to go when things go wrong. Who do I talk to?
Who is my elder? Hopefully, you all know who your elder is, who is called to shepherd you. If you are a member here and you do not know, come talk to me. I will tell you. And then we can talk to them together. We will see how that helps you grow. We grow together in the work of the Lord for your benefit and so the whole church can grow together.
