Government Upon His Shoulders
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Government Upon His Shoulders
Government Upon His Shoulders
Exodus 18:13-27
So there is a really utilitarian way to view this passage. We could simply look at it as some really good biblical wisdom for leadership. I mean, there is some really practical stuff here that has been cited by even secular leadership experts through the years. The delegation we see in Jethro’s advice is good…that’s clear.
But, I think limiting it to leadership advice does the passage a disservice. There is more here for us to learn about God and about Jesus Christ. And I think where this passage sits…just before the giving of the law and the Mosaic covenant lends itself to that reality…there’s more here than practical wisdom.
The Necessity of Godly Leadership
The Necessity of Godly Leadership
Why do we need godly leadership?
I think to answer that question we need to step back further and ask.
Why does leadership exist?
Its an interesting question because in some sense we could come up with an acceptable answer pretty quickly, but in another sense I’m not sure its as easy as we may think.
As Christians we are oriented, and often rightly so, into viewing the world as imperfect and viewing questions like this in light of the fall of humanity and the presence of sin.
But, did leadership exist before the fall? Of course, so leadership at its core cannot be a response to sinful meandering of people.
In Genesis 1-2 we see God creating our of nothing everything that there is. In His wisdom he creates in such a way as to describe the process of bringing order from chaos.
Genesis 1:2
2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
We should not read that as if creation was chaotic and uncontrollable. I actually think a better way of describing it would be an uninhabitable wilderness. But there is brilliance in God creating in this way…it build a contrast between chaos and order, darkness and light.
God creates to display His glory.
Psalm 19:1-5
1 The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
2 Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.
3 There is no speech, nor are there words,
whose voice is not heard.
4 Their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.
In them he has set a tent for the sun,
5 which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,
and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.
At its core, leadership is orientation and action.
What I mean by that is leadership aligns to a cause and initiates action toward it.
Here’s an example how leadership in those terms works out in civil government. National leadership aligns the people around a cause (in our case the ideals of self-governance, liberty, etc.) and then initiates action toward it by enacting and enforcing laws.
On a much smaller scale think about a coaching staff of a sports team. The role of leadership is to align the team around what…winning games and then initiates action by training, correcting, building a roster, making in-game decisions, etc.
So zoom out all the way and see God as the supreme leader. He aligns all things toward His glory and initiates the act of creation to proclaim and spread the knowledge of His glory.
Now we’re not going to spend time doing it, but just know that Genesis 1-2 is absolutely full of kingly language. ANE readers would have immediately recognized that Genesis is painting a picture of God as King of all things.
Then enters Adam. And in
Genesis 1:26
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
So here we learn something very specific about Adam’s role. As an image bearer, he is to have dominion over the creation. In other words, kingship.
But, nowhere are we to understand Adam as being equal or above God…its very clear Adam’s role as king is subservient to the supreme King, God. In theology we call this vice-regency.
So, within our definition of leadership Adam is to align God’s cause to bring glory to His name by taking action in ruling over creating and being fruitful and multiplying.
Adam’s leadership role is to spread the glory of God throughout creation.
But of course then comes Genesis 3. And what we see in the fall is a transfer of dominion.
Adam’s disobedience leads to the transfer of dominion from he and his decedents to Satan…and we see in this not only Satan’s desire to attempt to disrupt God’s plans (which he could not do even though he believed he could) but also Satan’s desire for dominion.
And so, as we have seen, this cosmic battle comes into our realm…Satan is able to usurp power from Adam and take over as the king of this world.
But we can be assured none of this caught God by surprise…in fact it all worked according to His plan. Satan’s plans were for evil, God’s were for good.
So now we have a problem…Adam and all mankind were created in God’s image…designed to live in a world ruled according to God’s law, God’s ways.
But this leadership change not only left Adam and all mankind guilty and corrupt in and of themselves with a sin nature…but also in a world that was aligned against God and who’s leadership would initiate rebellion.
But God said in
Genesis 3:15
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
The Kingdom will be returned. One day according to God’s promise a human being would take the world back from Satan and deliver a disproportionately decisive and fatal blow.
So let’s go back to the original question I asked in this section…why do we need godly leadership?
Well, think of it this way…even though dominion has temporarily changed hands…this world and the entire universe is still supremely governed by God.
That never changed. Satan may be the “little g” god of this world…but he is not God…and now, on this side of the death and resurrection of Jesus, Satan’s power and dominion are even further beat down.
But this world…from our own sinful hearts to all the structures of society put in place are ultimately aligned with Satan.
So what we need is a realignment…and a reset of initiatives to reverse direction.
So God, building on the promise he made in Genesis 3:15 has laid the foundation for that realignment. God has graciously and mercifully provided for Godly leadership…and we see that worked out through the various covenants in the OT.
In those covenants God declares His supremacy and makes promises to His people about how he will govern them and provide a once-for-all solution in the end.
So through Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David as the 4 big OT receivers of promise we get a picture of God’s leadership over the world as a whole and over His people specifically.
So, in our passage this morning we see already that there is way more here than simply some wisdom in how to lead. It is built upon something much bigger…much more everlasting and important.
Moses found himself with a leadership problem. And as we have seen the problems come from these people living under two opposing dominions. Their own flesh and the world they lived in was under the influence of the Enemy Satan.
But, as the nation chosen by God…the recipient of the promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob…and about to be the recipients of the Torah…they were more appropriately under the sovereign authority and rule of God.
So Moses found himself smack in the middle of the problem…shepherding sinful people into the righteous rule of God.
The Role of Godly Leadership
The Role of Godly Leadership
Before we get into how Jethro’s advice fits into all this, let’s first seek to understand what Godly leadership does.
If leadership is meant to align people to a common cause and initiate action in bringing that cause to fruition…then
Godly leadership must be about aligning people toward God’s glory and initiating action to proclaim and live in light of that glory.
And what’s really great is in this passage Moses tells us exactly what that looks like.
So let’s look into the text and highlight
The 4 roles of Godly leadership we see in this text:
Now, I will note this is not an exhaustive list…its just what we see in this passage. There are other roles for Godly leaders seen in the Scriptures.
So, the first one is:
To teach people about God’s character and rule.
God had appointed Moses for this very special task to be His representative to the people and before Pharaoh. Moses had incredible access to God…more than any of his Israelite brethren. Moses had come to know the character of God and his rule over creation. God gave Moses that special revelation and he taught it to the people.
Throughout history, even today, Jews refer to Moses as Moshe Rabbeinu, Moses, our teacher, our greatest teacher.
The people in his day recognized that and would come to him as verse 15 says to inquire of God. Now, in Moses’ context here there is a connection to intercessory prayer that is important. Moses needed to seek God’s will for these things because there was no written Word of God yet.
Today, we teach people the character and rule of God directly from His word…because he has instructed us that is where to find it. Prayer continues to be important, as we’ll see soon here…but not in the same sense. Moses was going before God for first-hand revelation.
We don’t do that…there is no new revelation. Everything we need is written in Scripture. Our prayer is never for God to reveal something new…but instead to illuminate and apply that which was already written by the power of the Spirit.
So we see here one of the primary roles of Godly leadership is teaching people who God is.
The second one...
To warn people about sin.
Look at the first half of v. 20… The word there is warn or admonish. The idea is that based on the character of God and the sinfulness of man…human beings need to be told about God’s law and that violating it brings about consequences.
In these matters being brought to Moses the likelihood is that most of them are rooted in some type of violation of God’s law. I mean that’s sort of obvious. If it wasn’t for sin there would be no disagreement…nothing to dispute.
So, part of Moses role here is to admonish sin. In some cases that will be to warn the offending party…but as is the case in many circumstances…his warning would likely apply to both parties in the dispute.
Rejection of God’s law is as old as the world…after all questioning the truthfulness and sincerity of God’s commands was at the heart of Satan’s temptation of Adam and Eve.
Warning against and calling out sin is one of the most difficult things for Godly leaders to do, especially in our day. And I am not talking about calling out the sins of the world and culture…I’m speaking about inside the household of God.
While rebuking sin should be done in love…the defense attorney lodged in all our hearts wants to lash out and defend itself.
Face it, church people hate rebuke.
One of the biggest challenges we face in the church today is the abundance of options. See, the Israelites had nowhere else to go…they were a community…and you could not easily leave that community.
But in our church culture…if a spiritual leader rightly calls out your sin and you aren’t happy about it…you just take your ball and go home and go to another church.
I haven’t really even been in ministry that long and I’ve seen it so many times. The leadership gently and in love addresses a sin problem and the person flees for the hills.
Nevertheless it is an important area of leadership and it cannot go unattended.
The third role is related to the second...
To help and counsel people to live in light of God’s law.
The warning against sin is the “negative” side of the coin…this is the positive. Think of it like church discipline…there is corrective church discipline when there is unrepentant sin…and then there is formative discipline…that’s the teaching, counseling, discipling aspect.
The second half of verse 16 and the second half of v. 20 highlights this...
This is positive instruction on living according to the will of God.
Moses’ hand is going to cramp with all the written instructions he will do in the coming years. Everything from how to build the tabernacle, to the levitical laws, to the ten commandments, to everything in Torah…its all about what pleases God…but ultimately all those things connect with one of the fundamental questions we asked at the beginning of Exodus...
How can a sinful people bear the presence of a Holy God?
All of those instructions, laws, statutes…they all in some way begin to answer that question…and they all point to the ultimate answer found in Jesus.
And that’s a perfect segue to the last one...
To intercede for the people
This part cannot be overlooked. It ties them all together. Think about it…if we teach who God is…warn against violating His law…and teach people how to live according to His will what do we almost immediately realize?
They cant do it themselves. Right? We can teach, warn, counsel til we are blue in the face but nothing works unless God intervenes. Only God can change hearts…only God can bring life from death.
In verse 19 Jethro says...
Moses isn’t making decisions in a vacuum. As we said in the first one…there is no written Word yet…so Moses relies on the counsel of God through prayer to make these decisions.
Moses recognizes his authority is not absolute…his authority is under the supreme rule of God.
And while leaders today no longer seek revelation from God…we do seek His hands in shepherding His people.
And we see the result of doing this in verse 23...
Exodus 18:23
23 If you do this, God will direct you, you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace.”
We see very clearly…God is in charge…he directs…and submission to his direction leads to endurance and peace.
We saw rejection of God’s authority brings chaos and disharmony…submission to God’s authority brings order and peace.
And that leads to our third section this morning. We have looked at the necessity and role of Godly leadership…now let’s look at the framework…or the structure of Godly leadership.
The Framework of Godly Leadership
The Framework of Godly Leadership
Now is where we get into the content of Jethro’s advice. The main issue was Moses was being overburdened. He was a major risk for catastrophic burnout, which would have cascaded through the nation.
Some have concluded that Moses’ pride was the problem here. He wanted control…he felt entitled to lead. I don’t see that in the text. What I see is a man who had a genuine heart to serve the Lord by serving His people.
What he fell into is the trap that most leaders fall into at some point…doing too much at the expense of doing things well.
Jethro sees it…Moses is in over his head.
So in verses 21-22 we see his advice outlined. Basically find qualified godly men and create a hierarchical structure where no one man is responsible for any more than 10 others.
This creates a chain of command or a span of control…two common phrases today in these types of leadership structures.
As issues arose they could be handled at “lower” levels within the structure freeing Moses up to deal with the most complex and pressing issues.
It also creates a built-in structure of accountability. There is always someone overseeing someone else…all the way up to Moses who was receiving direct revelation from God.
Now at this point we could look at this Jethro principle of leadership and look at its wisdom and benefits from a practical standpoint. There are many. It is a really efficient way of leading a large group of people.
The generalities of this principle are taught in many leadership texts…many hierarchical leadership systems are built on this very concept.
But, I’m not giving a leadership TED talk…I’m here to proclaim to you the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
So…what can we take from this that does that? That shines light on the glory of Jesus?
Well, first let me say I don’t think this passage is prescriptive of all Godly leadership ever. In other words, I don’t think the Jethro principle is THE ONLY leadership style we see in Scripture.
In fact, when we come to the NT, we see the church ruled by a plurality of Elders…a group of men equal in authority. But we also see in the NT the concept of hierarchy and delegation.
In Acts 6:1-4
1 Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. 2 And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. 3 Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. 4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
In this passage we see similarities to Moses’ problem…and the solution is a hierarchical structure of delegation....but we don’t see a direct application of the Jethro principle from Exodus 18.
So if it is not prescriptive…if the Jethro principle isn’t the only way to lead…what is?
Well, what we see every time Godly leadership is demonstrated in the Scriptures is an upward orientation toward the supreme authority of God.
Think about it…it was Adam’s role…to have dominion under the authority of God.
We see it in Noah, in Abraham, in Moses, in Joshua…we see how things go wrong when we don’t in the book of Judges…then we see in Israel’s kings…especially the good ones…and especially in David that upward orientation of the leader understanding their role as subservient to the authority of God.
Godly leadership never sees itself as the final authority, it always appeals to God’s supreme authority.
And we see that in the Jethro principle…decisions made down lower in the structure were made based on what the leaders had been taught about God…what they knew. When they didn’t know, they did not just come up with their own answers, they shot it up the chain of command. If no one could rightfully say “thus says the Lord” the question went up to Moses who took it directly to the Lord.
We see Jesus following this same pattern in his wilderness temptation.
Luke 4:5-8
5 And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6 and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 And Jesus answered him, “It is written,
“ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God,
and him only shall you serve.’ ”
Ok, so now we come back full circle. Look at what Satan is doing. What is he basing this statement on? Remember, he took dominion…and there is a very real sense in which he had control over the kingdoms of the world.
And in this we see this sometimes difficult interplay between Jesus’ humanity and his divinity. Satan was offering Jesus dominion without the cross. He was offering the man Jesus back the dominion he took from Adam.
What’s Satan’s game here? Well, in his convoluted reasoning he sees an opportunity to dethrone God once and for all. He’s willing to give up the earth in exchange for heaven. If he can make God’s promise in Genesis 3:15 impossible…that makes God a liar…and he believes he brings God down to His level…and in defeat he can take the throne.
But Jesus responds by appealing to the greater authority…Jesus in His humanity appeals to the supremacy of the kingship of God.
And ultimately what Jesus does in the gospels is indeed take back that dominion from Satan…but he does it on God’s terms according to God’s plans and purposes.
And Jesus changes everything…he changes the paradigm. The necessity and role has not changed…but the framework has.
In the OT…before the full revelation in Jesus was brought…the people were still grasping at shadows…the picture wasn’t clear. There was enough there to trust by faith and find hope…but it was murky at times.
Godly leadership in some sense had to keep going back for further understanding…
But in Jesus the tables were turned…he was the fulfilment of all the prior revelation…the entire plan and purposes of God are revealed in Him.
And he ascended to heaven and sat at the right hand of the Father…executing a kingly role…he is King…he is supreme…he is all authority.
I wish I had more time to do this…but let me very quickly run through what the writer to the Hebrews does in the first few chapters.
He says in Hebrews 2:10
10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.
see that…Jesus for whom and by whom all things exist…that sounds pretty supreme to me...
Hebrews 2:14
14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,
So, Jesus fulfils Genesis 3:15…he crushes the head of the serpent…he takes back dominion…a human being is king again.
Hebrews 3:1-6
1 Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, 2 who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. 3 For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. 4 (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) 5 Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 6 but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.
Ok, very helpful…he gets compared to Moses. We see Jesus is the greater leader…the greater messenger, teacher, priest.
Moses was a servant…Jesus a son. In other words…Moses needed to appeal to a greater authority…Jesus IS that greater authority…He is God.
So while Moses played an incredibly important role in the narrative of redemption and an important role in the leadership of the people of Israel…he was not the Messiah…he was not the answer to the people’s greatest problem of sin.
So what does Hebrews say?
Hebrews 4:14-16
14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Look at that passage carefully…look what we see in it and how it relates to what we saw in Exodus 18...
Jesus is the great high priest…represents us before the Father…far greater than Moses’ capacity to do so.
Hold fast our confession…in other words…hold on to what you have been taught and believe…the role of teaching
We have a reminder about sin and the sinlessness of Christ. We see that Jesus is able to understand our problems and issues in a way even we can’t…because he sees them and was able to overcome them without sin. Jesus’ vision of your problems is far greater than yours.
Throne of grace…again…kingly language. Jesus sits on the throne…he has dominion…he is ruler…supreme and given all authority.
And then help in time of need. Isn’t what what precipitated Exodus 18? People wanted help.
Look, what I have endeavored to do this morning is broaden our horizon on this well-known passage.
Sure, there is some godly wisdom here with how to lead…but its far greater than that.
It teaches us about godly leadership and what it should look like. It teaches us there is a supreme authority…and that Jesus Christ is King.
It shows us godly leadership always appeals upward…finding answers and authority in God’s revelation.
So here’s the big idea…and we end on this...
Godly leadership orients believers to live for the glory of God and acts among us to teach, warn, counsel, and intercede under the authority of Jesus Christ.