“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?”
The task today was to purchase some trees for the front yard because the trees that were there when we bought the house had died which left the lawn rather bare. We settled on some red oak trees, a good choice for the central Texas heat and the snap freezes we get in winter. Before I we purchased them I asked the tree guy if they installed the trees for us and he said yes. Knowing that topsoil does not exist in Central Texas and we have 6 inches of dirt to deal with before you find rock, I gladly paid the price to have them install the trees.
Moses had just led an entire nation out of Egypt. They had seen miracle after miracle which compared to all the other gods at that time were overwhelming and enough to have Moses say later in Deuteronomy 10:17, “For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes.” Word travels fast and Jethro, Moses father in law comes to visit him in the desert. Right before Jethro arrives, the Lord provided water from a rock and the new nation of Israel had just defeated the Amalekites.
After sitting down to a good meal and a time of reflection, it was time to go back to work for Moses. In verse 13, it tells us that Moses took his seat as judge for the people the very next day. He sat there from morning until evening while the people came to him with quarrels and to seek God’s will. Jethro, the priest of the Midianites, tells Moses in verse 17, “What you are doing is not a good.” He instructs Moses to get capable men who fear God to be leaders over 1000’s, 100’s, 50’s, and 10’s and have them serve as judges for people at all times while the difficult cases are brought to Moses.
Moses was doing the right thing. He was in the right spot. He was being what the Lord told him to be, but something was not right. It took Jethro to notice it. Moses was going about the Lord’s will all by himself with no help. He alone was the judge and all the people would come to him to seek the Lord. You can be doing a bunch of right things, going to church, reading your Bible, praying to the Lord and all that is good but something is missing, fellowship with believers.
You remember those trees we purchased. I had a shovel and I could have dug the holes saving me 100’s of dollars. It would have taken me days to dig those holes. The same shovels in the hands of those guys who planted the trees can dig those holes in 30 minutes. What was the difference? Those shovels were sharp, they sharpened those shovels so they could cut through the ground while mine was dull and worn out. They also had multiple guys digging with those super sharp shovels. The end result was both trees planted in a matter of 1 hour. If I was doing that, those trees might still be sitting on my lawn while I hack at the ground with my dull shovel getting nowhere.
Moses learned a great lesson that day. We cannot do this Christian life alone. Jesus had twelve disciples and sent them out as pairs. Paul had Luke and Barnabas. Jesus wants us to not forsake the gathering of the believers or in todays language, small groups. Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” If you ask me why we should meet in small groups and go to church I will point you to that old dull shovel of mine. I had trees to plant, the shovel was the tool to use, if I was to do it alone it might have gotten done eventually, but the task using sharpened shovels and multiple guys only took one hour.
I don’t want to be doing the Christian life alone with my dull shovel hacking at the ground hopeing to dig the hole. If we meet together with other believers on a regular basis we can all be sharpened and use the tools that God gave us correctly and move mountains. Jethro told Moses if he did this then all the people would go home satisfied. That sure sounds great to me, satisfaction. If you are not connecting with other believers on a regular basis don’t be surprised when your shed is full of dull worn out tools. Sharpen the shovel with other believers and get to planting.
Let It Go 
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