Theological Commentary: Click Here
This chapter
really wants us to focus on the choices that we make regarding the ways that we
spend our time and the activities in which we involve ourselves. In this chapter we see Moses feeling like he
has to be the hero and spend his time being a judge over every argument and
dispute among the Hebrew people. Because
he is the leader, he feels responsible for the community getting it right.
Because of this, Moses spends his whole day being absorbed into the negative
aspects of the community. He risks being
burned out and becoming bitter in his leadership.
Jethro comes
in and suggests that Moses do some delegation.
He says that Moses need not handle all of the disputes, just the ones
that common wisdom cannot solve. Jethro
suggests that Moses train some reliable men to handle the simple cases. In this way, Moses can still hear the
difficult ones but also have time in the day to fill other more enjoyable roles
in the community. This will enable him
to avoid burnout.
I’ve had an
experience recently in my classroom with a similar situation. A few days back, my students were working on
a math project. They were translating,
reflecting, and rotating images all over the paper. At one point, one of my young men in the
class had finished their work and turned it in to be graded. A few minutes later, I hear the other
students in the class calling for his help on parts they didn’t
understand. The next thing I know, this
student is bouncing from student to student, much like I do every day,
providing help on various elements of the project.
As I sat
there reflecting on the incident, I realized that I had a choice to make. I could be embittered because my students were
no longer needing me. I could have made
it all about me and forced my way into the situation. Fortunately, that choice never once seemed
like a real option to choose.
Instead, I basked
in the joy of what I was seeing. Here
was a student largely imitating behavior that he had seen me do over and
over. I listened to his explanations and
they were spot on perfect. I reveled in knowing
that he had developed enough mastery in the material that he could not just
complete it himself but also guide other people through the process.
I sat back
and realized that this is the core of discipleship. Discipleship is modelling and then releasing
people to imitate and succeed.
Discipleship is about training other people to do what is necessary so
that you can focus on where you are truly needed. In that moment in the classroom, the place
that I was needed was sitting in the corner, observing this young student take
on the role of mathematics mentor while teaching other students what he had to
offer. It could have been about me the
teacher. But it wasn’t. It was about letting the student rise to
moment and shine.
As we return
to Jethro, this is really at the core of what he is suggesting. As Moses shares the burden, other people are
given the opportunity to rise up and shine.
Moses then has the opportunity to sit back and realize how well these
people have been trained. It frees him
of the burden of community and allows him to instead see the community for what
it has to offer.
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