JETHRO PRINCIPLE!

And Moses’ father in law said unto him, the thing that thou doest is not good. That wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee: for this thing is too heavy for thee; thou are not able to perform it thyself alone. Hearken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee: Be thou for the people to God ward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto God. So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father in law, and did all that he had said (Exodus 18:17-19; 24).

Moses did many great things to ensure that the Israelites were delivered from the bondage of slavery in Egypt. Some of the things he did are that, he parted the Red sea into two for the Israelites to walk through to the promised land. Moses most of the time mediated between God and the people of Israel. He also provided Manna and Quail for his people and solved several other problems.

However, Moses was not doing very well in an important area of his ministry.  Moses was spending a lot of time (from morning till evening) to judge cases irrespective of the gravity of the cases. So when his father in law (Jethro) visited, he gave him a very good advise which is sometimes referred to as the ‘Jethro principle’. Jethro told him to get capable men who are honest to head thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. These leaders are supposed to judge cases and bring the hard cases to Moses to deal with. Leadership is a big task that requires a few people (not only one person) among the masses to function in. One leader cannot do it all alone! The Lord Almighty functions in us as leaders but we need to appoint others who qualify to assist us to function successfully.

Sometimes, a leader might want to do it all alone because of bad past experiences, however, we are at risk of wearing out ourselves when we do it all alone. When one is worn-out, efficiency greatly reduces and one is not able to achieve so much. Secondly, the people you are leading may lose trust in you because transparency becomes suspect. People will trust in you when you work with a team who may sometimes better explain issues to your followers. One leader cannot be the jack of all trade!   With the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we can get capable men and women to assist us.

The Almighty God has deposited different gifts in each of us. Each of us functions in unique ways therefore the need for leadership that is dynamic and made up of several or a few capable people depending on the needs of the people we lead and the objectives set by the group.