“Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening. When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, ‘What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning till evening?’ And Moses said to his father-in-law, ‘Because the people come to me to inquire of God; when they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another, and I make them know the statutes of God and his laws.’ 17 Moses’ father-in-law said to him, ‘What you are doing is not good. You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. And let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. 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.’ ” (v13-18,21-23)
Perhaps I have too many “favorite passages”, because here is another one. (Can you have too many favorite scriptures?)
Moses, with the best of intentions, sits before Israel as a judge and helps settle disputes. This sounds like it wouldn’t be too bad, until you consider there are roughly 2.4 million people in Israel – even if only 1 out of 1000 people has a dispute, there would still be 2,400 cases Moses has to hear, which would take him months or even years – and by the time he heard them all, there’d be new disputes to settle and he’d start the process over again. That does sound like a recipe for burnout.
Moses’ father-in-law Jethro gives wise council – appoint additional judges over thousands/hundreds/fifties/tens who will oversee the disputes. Only the most challenging cases would then be brought to Moses’ attention. This is a hierarchical structure at its finest. Moses, God’s representative, still has ultimate authority (granted to him by God of course) but he gets to spread out the burden of leadership. The sociological model patterned here is used every day in business, government, and even church assemblies – it’s efficient and wise.
This is echoed in Acts in the early church as well. The apostles (the original 12, minus Judas, plus Matthias) have a massive mission – to go into all the world and preach the gospel. The mission is far larger than they realize at this point – how in the world (pardon the pun) can they accomplish this with so few people? A little practice called discipleship sounds like a possibility.
In Acts 2, the twelve are instantly multiplied into 3,000 when Peter preaches on the day of Pentecost. Now what? That’s a lot of people to disciple, but we can safely assume they split up the workload. It says this about the believers: “And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people.” (Ac 2:46-47a) So not only the apostles, but the larger community of believers, would attend temple together and meet in their homes. This sounds an awful lot like life groups (aka small groups).
Each discipleship group of people would have had an appointed “leader” who would have been discipled by someone (possibly one of the twelve apostles, or one of their disciples). Jesus put it this way: “A disciple is not greater than his teacher, but everyone when fully trained will be like his teacher.” (Lk 6:40) Jesus is basically saying that we are to pattern others after ourselves, just as we pattern ourselves after our teacher (Jesus). We will never be better than our teacher (Jesus Himself), but we can be similar enough to pass on what we have learned. Jesus’ final words before His ascension into heaven were the great commission – telling His followers to pass on what they have learned. In the movie Return of the Jedi, Yoda’s dying words to Luke were “pass on what you have learned” (referring to Luke’s Jedi training). Clearly teaching others is an important theme in both scripture and real life (and in fantasy fiction… have you seen Star Wars or Karate Kid?).
Moses, and later the 12 disciples, each had to learn laws/guidelines/lifestyle from someone, and then pass that knowledge on to someone else, effectively multiplying/extending God’s influence. To this day we still follow this pattern – there’s a conference that guides church leaders who guide assistant pastors who guide teams who guide life group leaders who guide life groups who guide 1-on-1 mentors… you get the idea. All of these people, if discipled properly by the Holy Spirit, can then disciple someone else by simply living out what they have learned. The cycle then repeats itself through the generations.
Note that discipleship is a tool – like any tool it can be used for good or evil, which is why we need to fully submit to the leading of the Holy Spirit when we are involved in both learning and leading. This world is more than eager to disciple us in all of the wrong ways (for example, pick up any fashion magazine, celebrity gossip tabloid, watch commercials/ads or join a public forum on politics if you don’t know what I mean). Thankfully, God has a much nobler example for us through Moses and Jesus.
Father God, we come before You today in awe of Your infinite wisdom and guidance. We ask that You would continue to disciple us in Your ways through scripture, our faith leaders, mentors, and Your indwelling Holy Spirit. We recognize that none of us have arrived, none of us know everything, and none of us are flawless, yet You still choose to work in and through us. Father, please impress upon our hearts any calling to leadership that You have in our lives. We realize that leadership is simply influence that we have on others – we are all leaders in at least one area of our lives, and You may wish to expand that influence. We ask that through Your Holy Spirit’s guidance You would show us if there is any person or group You would like us to invest in, for we know the importance of discipleship in our lives and how important it would be in someone else’s life as well. Father in addition to promptings please give us courage – not only the courage to take steps toward leadership but the courage to relinquish all control of the situation to You. I realize that if we’re not careful we can carry self-imposed burdens that You do not ask us to carry, so please gently remove those and help us to only take on Your burden for it is light. We praise You for bringing someone to mind in whom we can invest by sharing our experiences of You. One more thing we ask is to please help keep our pride in check and motivations pure as we proclaim Your gospel and Your name to those in our spheres of influence. We thank you for all that You model, and for all that You provide each and every day, as You prepare us to multiply Your influence through our lifestyle and leadership. To You alone be all glory, honor and praise. Amen.
~ Conqueror in Training