The Wisdom of Jethro

And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to judge the people: and the people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening. Exodus 18:13 KJV

We are here introduced to the wisdom of Jethro, Moses’s father in-law. In Acts 7:23 we are told that Moses was forty years old before he began his journey of deliverance. He must have noticed the arrangements of the courts of Pharaoh. He probably listened to the depth of arguments in the courts. Here he was leading about three million people who have no experience of social or divine jurisprudence. Such assumptions perhaps would make a leader sit from morning till night judging cases. Jethro noticed that Moses had the anointing for leadership, but not wisdom in people management. Anointing and wisdom must go together to make great leaders. The Pulpit Commentary observes that: 1. A monopoly of of judicial function in this company was unwise, 2. It was unduly taxing the patience of the people, 3. It cramped the people’s ability in being useful to themselves. Tomorrow, we will address the qualifications of these leader judges as Jethro recommended. For today, the error of Moses’s monopoly had to be broken. It must be accepted that no matter what the errors of Moses might have been, there were no written references of jurisprudence that he would have given to the leaders. The law was still being written. Moses made the mistake of most untrained leaders: keeping all the tasks to himself. Expending energy on subordinate tasks, without delegation was unnecessary. Jesus began his ministry with call to the twelve. How are you doing yours?