Moses' Team
Moses • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Intro
Intro
Well we have been in this series now all summer and there is still a lot more to go but we are looking at the book of Exodus in this series and we are looking at the character of Moses.
In many ways, Moses is a household name, we all know it. But the hope of this series is to mine it a little deeper, to get to know moses better and to ask the Lord how we might grow too...
Recap
Recap
So let me give a you a little recap since last week was camp awesome week.
God called Moses to lead His people out of Egypt.
There are these 10 plagues that God uses and Moses just has to be the faithful man to
Moses objects but eventually he actually does what God asks him to do
You know the story…There are 10 plagues…God leads his people out of Egypt...
He fights for his people as they go through the red sea
And then after all of the celebration is done and the cheering is done…The Israelites get hungry and thirsty and that leads to some complaining...
My Friend Pastor David Holcomb was here that day and he taught us “Grumble grumble grumble”
And God gave his people this mana from heaven, he gave them water from a rock and quail for meat…so that there can be no mistake that God is the provider of all things
Now Jethro, the priest of Midian and father-in-law of Moses, heard of everything God had done for Moses and for his people Israel, and how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt.
After Moses had sent away his wife Zipporah, his father-in-law Jethro received her and her two sons. One son was named Gershom, for Moses said, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land”; and the other was named Eliezer, for he said, “My father’s God was my helper; he saved me from the sword of Pharaoh.”
Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, together with Moses’ sons and wife, came to him in the wilderness, where he was camped near the mountain of God. Jethro had sent word to him, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons.”
So Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. They greeted each other and then went into the tent. Moses told his father-in-law about everything the Lord had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for Israel’s sake and about all the hardships they had met along the way and how the Lord had saved them.
Jethro was delighted to hear about all the good things the Lord had done for Israel in rescuing them from the hand of the Egyptians. He said, “Praise be to the Lord, who rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh, and who rescued the people from the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all other gods, for he did this to those who had treated Israel arrogantly.” Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and other sacrifices to God, and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat a meal with Moses’ father-in-law in the presence of God.
The next day Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening. When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, “What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge, while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?”
Moses answered him, “Because the people come to me to seek God’s will. Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God’s decrees and instructions.”
Moses’ father-in-law replied, “What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone. Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to him. Teach them his decrees and instructions, and show them the way they are to live and how they are to behave. But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied.”
Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said. He chose capable men from all Israel and made them leaders of the people, officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. They served as judges for the people at all times. The difficult cases they brought to Moses, but the simple ones they decided themselves.
Then Moses sent his father-in-law on his way, and Jethro returned to his own country.
So there are a number of points to draw out of this text but the first one is this:
So there are a number of points to draw out of this text but the first one is this:
Moses honored his in-laws (Exodus 18:7)
Moses honored his in-laws (Exodus 18:7)
So Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. They greeted each other and then went into the tent.
Now this might seem like an odd point for me to bring out of this text but I think it is an impotrant point.
See Moses’ wife and kids had apparently been with Jethro while Moses was leading…And Moses went from this obscure half Egyptian runaway to the leader of Israel...
A person who has fellowship with the Lord himself…A person who is very impotrant
And he modeled something for his kids and his wife and his whole community
See in a couple of weeks we are going to get to the 10 commandments and one of them that God has Moses tell the people is to honor your father and mother
“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
Honoring in-laws is a part of that.
See Moses’ kids were watching…How you honor your parents and in-laws is how your kids will honor you and their in-laws...
I have seen this time and time again…People get married and have difficult relationships with in-laws because they are difficult people…So they dis-honor...
Hey people have had difficult in-laws for generations …and if you have adult children that are married, maybe you are the difficult in-laws
And when you dis-honor you tell your kids that this is how you have a relationship with in-laws…and then you put a strain on their future marriage…
So I don’t care how difficult your in-laws are, honor them! it is all a part of honoring your father and mother.
You actually set your kids up for success in their marriages when you do this
So there is another point here that might be worth exploring. We don’t know if Jethro was a follower of Yahweh before all of this
We can’t know, there isn't a way to tell....
We know he is a Priest in Midian. We know that the Midianites are descendants of Abraham so there could have been priests of Yahweh there or they could have been Pagan…We just don’t know
But whether it was a conversion of Jethro or faithfulness to his God we see Jethro do the right thing.
Moses honors him…He hears about all the wonder that God has done and then he worships God...
When God does awesome stuff there is only one response that males sense and that is to give him all of our worship and praise
So the next day…Jethro sees all that Moses is doing and he is blown away and not in a good way...
It is Moses alone is listening to the people’s problems and helping them know what God’s will is...
and here is Jethro’s response to his son in-law
Moses’ father-in-law replied, “What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone.
So Jethro rightfully points out that this system will wear out Moses and the people wont get their needs met so it will wear all of them out too!
So Moses does something that is extremely rare in our world today
Moses listened to wise counsel and was correctable
Moses listened to wise counsel and was correctable
Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said.
I mean this is a valid question...How do you act when rebuked?
I feel like people in our world can’t be corrected any more. More and more people are so willing to go down with the ship of their own ideas and pre-conceived notions....WHY ARE WE LIKE THIS?
It seems like everyone in society assumes that they are right all the time…and when we do that we don’t need one another
See as christians we need to be like Moses…We need to be able to listen to wise counsel and be correctable
I have always loved this proverb
Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you;
rebuke the wise and they will love you.
People who are wise, love to be corrected. People who are wise want to do the right thing, so if you are a wise person you are always wanting to know a better and more efficient way of doing things…You are open to the idea that you might not be right all the time...
If you are wise, your ego isn’t so fragile that when someone has a correction for you that you fall apart…The wise people build their lives on correction, they seek it out, they think about it…They allow the correction of a Godly person to have real weight in their lives
But its the proverb that says…You can’t rebuke a mocker…they will hate you…What does it say about you if you can not be corrected?
If you can’t be corrected then you actually have a really fragile ego
If you can’t be corrected then you probably don’t honor and love others intrinsicaznly, you cant…all of your honor and love goes toward yourself
You have to have people in your life who can look you in the eye and say: you are wrong about this, you need to re-consider
In our individualistic American society I think one of the hardest things that we can do is to actually change our minds
So Moses gets corrected by his father-in law....he listens to him and does what he says…but what is the advice of Jethro?
Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to him. Teach them his decrees and instructions, and show them the way they are to live and how they are to behave. But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you.
So one of the impotrant notes about this text is that this right here sets up the system of Judges in Israel. So from this point until 1 Samuel, this is how Israel was governed…There is a main judge in the land and then a network of Judges all over israel that helped people to hear from God...
This system existed until the Elders of Israel came to Samuel and said give us a king like the other nations have…And that was replaced by king Saul and then eventually king David
So there are three things that Jethro calls moses to do…He gives Moses a new job description: And in many ways this is the work of a pastor ....BUT…I want to submit to you today that this is not just the work of a pastor alone…This is also the job description of a parent.
Jethro called moses to pray for his people (Exodus 18:19)
Jethro called moses to pray for his people (Exodus 18:19)
So when Jethro says, you must be the people’s representative and bring their disputes to Him
The bible calls this kind of person an intercessor…one who intercedes for others…They take the need of a person and make it a matter of prayer before God.
And this is what moses would do from here on out...
There are points where God wants to blot his people off the face of the earth and Moses goes up before God and says…No Lord then everyone will just say look at this Yahweh, he saved his people just to kill them…redeem them Lord!
Moses sets the stage as a person who is constantly going to God on behalf of the people he is leading.
and like I said, this is the job of every pastor but if you are here and you are a parent or a grandparent. This is your Job as well!
If you have kids guess what…You are their first pastor. You show them the reality of who God is
You show them with your life and actions what God is like
and you are called to pray for your kids, to intercede for them
And if you don’t have kids, thats fine! You are not off the hook by a long shot, you can pray for my kids, you can just look at all the 60-70 kids we have in our children’s department coming every week and pray over them
I’ve told this story before but as a youth pastor, one of the people who taught me this was a little old lady named Miriam Spink.
She would corner me at church and say things like…I need an updated list of all of your youth students…I pray for them every day and you need to give me a list.
So I’d give her lists of names and every time I had a new kid at church she would come up to me and say who is that and why are they not on my list???
So, I’d give the name and frankly I never knew the impact all that she was doing until she passed away...
I had told my kids that this woman who had been praying for them had died and when the funeral was…And My kids…who were late to everything…who barley showed up to church
They all showed up for Miriam Spink’s funeral…Mrs Spink when she got to knew a kid would corner them and ask them how she could pray specifically for each of them and she would faithfully do it…and it forever impacted these kids....Half of them spoke at her funeral service
I am confidant that for this time Miriam kept so many kids connected to Jesus, because she prayed for them and engaged with them...
Jethro called Moses to teach Israel God’s word (Exodus 18:20)
Jethro called Moses to teach Israel God’s word (Exodus 18:20)
Jethro’s second call to Moses was to help people understand God’s word
Teach them the decrees and show them how they will behave
Let’s look at Exodus 18:20
Teach them his decrees and instructions, and show them the way they are to live and how they are to behave.
There are two key words that if you are in your Bible right now you should underline or circle or hi light and that is
Teach & Show!
Again as a pastor this is what I need to do too…Teach you the word and then show you how to live it out!
Parents, this is what you are supposed to do too! Teach and show! You can tell them the word of God but then show them that it really matters
Knowing and understanding the scriptures is probably one of our greatest calls in life because with that we can literally face anything
When we know God’s word we know God’s plan
When we know God’s word we can do God’s will
When God’s word is written deeply in our hearts then then we will know how to please God
One of the stories that has always profoundly affected me is that of William Tyndale. He is a hero of the protestant reformation.
At the time late 1400’s early 1500’s the common man was not aloud to have a bible because it was thought that God’s word is too powerful for the commoner, it could only be in the hands of the clergy or the scholar.
In many instances Priests themselves wouldn’t even have a bible because they were hard to come by
Well the story goes that in a conversation between priests Tyndale was talking about the importance of God’s word and the priests said that they would take the authority of the pope over the bible any day...
This made Tyndale so upset that he uttered these famous words
Tyndale:
“I will cause the boy who drives a plow to know more of the scriptures than the pope” -William Tyndale
He went on to translating the bible into both German and English
His translation into English is what the king James translators would use
His work spurred on the protestant reformation and truly allowed billions of people to read the Bible and know God’s word...
Well in Moses’ day they didn't have the Bible so it was on Moses to teach there's not just the words of God but how to live it out
Ok Lately:
Jethro called Moses to produce leaders (Exodus 18:21-22)
Jethro called Moses to produce leaders (Exodus 18:21-22)
Anyone can be a leader but few can be leaders that are
Capable
Trustworthy
Hate dishonest gain
So moses had to find these leaders and build them up to be the type of leaders who can lead this way...
Now the church needs this more than ever
Especially if we are going to reproduce and make new churches we need people who are capable, trustworthy and hate dishonest gain!
Parents: You pastor your kids! Wouldn’t it be amazing if in when they had kids that they were capable, trustworthy and hated dishonest gain?
Wouldn’t it be great if at school your kids were the leaders and didn’t just blindly follow other kids?
They need to be taught this, it doesn't just happen!
Ok Lastly: We have to remember that this is all Jethro’s plan…Not God’s plan So what last bit of advice does Jethro give Moses?
If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied.”
Jethro gives advice and the recognizes that he is just a man…Take it to God in prayer and see if the Lord approves of this plan
and apparently God does approve of this plan because it will be used by Israel until the time of the Monarchy.
So why is this text impotrant for us to deal with? what do we take out of all of this:
first and foremost: You should never do leadership alone. I mean Jesus never did Leadership alone! Whether you are a pastor, a business leader or a single mom, you need the community of Christ to walk with you through life. Trying to take it all on is a recipe for disaster:
Maybe your here today and you have too much on your plate…Surrender that plate to the Lord today and ask for help! God is good he wants to help you…bring your need to him
Secondly: We have to place a Primacy to prayer and teaching of God’s word: What do you give primacy to?
Maybe your here and you can be a leader…You are capable, trustworthy and hate dishonest gain…If that is you and you love and follow Jesus …maybe you need to pray God USE me and see what he does!
The only way this system works is if everyone looks toward the Lord
Lastly: Parents: I want to strongly implore you
-Pray for your kids
-Teach them the word, the text and by example
-and raise kids who hate dishonest gain, who are capable and trustworthy....This is the way God’s kingdom goes into the future
Lets pray