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The Harvester Podcast is brought to you by the Florida School of Preaching. Listen weekly to take a dive into biblical topics and thoughtful studies on things that matter to our eternal souls.
We'd like to welcome you to our Florida School of Preaching Harvester podcast.
We're calling this Bumper Sowed Number Two, and that is a second episode between our first
and second seasons.
And today we're going to talk about lessons on leadership from Moses, and I am Brian
Kenyon along with
Steven Ford.
and Forest Antemesaris usually here but he's unable to be here today but we're gonna talk
about this leadership theme as we did the last episode the bumper sowed i'm calling them
and uh...
last time we took a look closely at joshua and his leadership and so we want to back up
from joshua take a look at Moses
Moses is probably one of the most significant leaders in all of the Bible, not just the
Old Testament.
He's an amazing character that even appears in the New Testament there with the Lord.
And so I think those, his leadership kind of echoes through history for us.
And so I want to just look at Exodus chapter 18 and see if we can draw some things
relative to leadership, just kind of some...
high notes, I guess you might say highlights in Moses' life with leadership.
And we can just kind of discuss them as we pull them out here.
The first is right in verse number 17.
So well, if I could, I just want to maybe read a couple of verses just for some context.
And then we'll pick up some of the thoughts of verse 17.
So I want to start at verse 13.
This is Exodus 18, starting at verse 13.
And it came to pass on the morrow that Moses sat to judge the people.
And the people stood by Moses from morning unto evening.
And when Moses' father-in-law saw all that he did to the people, he said, What is this
thing that thou doest to the people?
Why sitest thou thyself alone?
And all the people stand by thee from morning to evening.
And Moses said unto his father-in-law, Because the people come unto me to inquire of God.
And when they have a matter, they come unto me, and I judge between one and another, and I
do make them know the statutes of God and his laws.
And Moses' father-in-law said to him, This thing that thou doest is not good.
Thou shalt surely wear away both thou and this people that is with thee, for this thing is
too heavy for thee.
Thou art not able to perform it thyself alone." So the first thing I'm looking at, Moses
is doing a great job.
I mean, he's doing what God asked him to do, starting all the way back there in Egypt.
Okay, he's a great leader, but
Leaders are not beyond learning.
No matter how effective you are as a leader, there's still something more to learn.
There's still a second level or another level of your development.
And so when I look at a guy like Moses, who has an amazing resume, even up to this point
in the book of Exodus, there's still something that he can learn.
And you might look and say, well, who is Jethro anyway?
I mean, you got Moses, one of the greatest historical figures, period, in Jethro.
But Moses still was able to learn from him.
Yeah, that's a very good point.
And sometimes it's a weakness in leaders to think that they know it all and that they're
all there is to it.
In fact, that's going to deter in their leadership.
And Moses, you know, to him be credit for being humble enough to heed the words of his
father-in-law.
Absolutely, I could wonder what that must have been like on the one hand, know Moses could
have received it negatively but on the other hand I bet Moses was relieved to get this
kind of advice because sometimes as a leader just as a person You can get tunnel vision
with the way that you do a thing Yeah, because you you I don't think any people rightly
thinking people anyway Do something knowing it's the wrong way to do it when you do
something you think well This is a good maybe even the best way to do it.
So you just do it
until you get other advice and it's like, man, I could be doing something different.
Yeah, exactly.
We had it the other day if you look in the concordance about many counselors in the book
of Proverbs there's three or four blessings that are given when it says you know in the
multitude of counselors there's strength in the multitude of counselors there's stability
and in the multitude of counselors there is wise planning and so a lot of things go on
when you have more people
to help with the situation that Moses didn't realize until Jethro said that.
And I guess even with that, the key word would be wise counselors.
know, and that word wisdom kind of carries with it an idea of being skillful in what
you're doing and knowing how to rightly divide God's word and apply God's word and apply
life principles anyway.
And so it's not good to necessarily just gather around a bunch of folks around us.
But, you know, as you mentioned, wise counsel, wise counselor, that does help.
So the second thing I noticed here in just moving up a verse into verse number 16,
Or it says, when they have a matter, come to me and I judge between one another and I do
make them to know the statutes of God and His laws.
The second thing I think for a biblical leader, I want to make sure that we kind of put
that caveat on there, a biblical leader must know the commandments of God.
You cannot lead people in the ways of godliness if you don't know it.
And you know, looking at this leadership of Moses, he would sit there all day long
And it wasn't like he was just, you know, sharing wisdom of his own, you know, sharing the
recipes with the people.
He's telling people, here's how to handle your grievances or your issues with the word of
God.
So the word of God does give us solutions for everyday practical issues of life.
It's not just how to get to heaven only, but it's, know, we have all things that pertain
unto life and
godliness through the knowledge of him is called us in the glory and virtue so we need we
need God's word to give us counsel for all of life
Yes, and that's very good.
And last week we talked about Joshua, and of course he was told, you know, in Joshua 1
verse 7, to observe all the law that Moses had commanded you.
And then he was to meditate in it day and night, Joshua 1 verse 8, that he may observe to
do all according to that which is written.
And so there's no way we can be a successful leader in the sight of God without
knowing his will without doing his will.
And even in 2 Timothy 3, 17, you know, all things profitable for doctrine, the inspired
words profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness that the man of God may be perfect or complete, thoroughly furnished unto
every good work.
And that has to come from God's word.
I just, when you were saying that, just reminded me also Psalm 119, also one of my
favorite chapters.
I wish we could maybe find some time or way to kind of go through all those verses, but in
particular, verse 24, you mentioned about wise counselors earlier.
Psalm 119 verse 24 says, thy testimonies also are my delight and my counselors.
And so the word of God should also be a source to which we appeal for wisdom, for advice,
I guess you might say, for how to handle various life situations.
It's kind of like all wisdom involves knowing God's Word.
True wisdom involves knowing God's Word, but not all knowing God's Word results in wisdom.
because it has to be deliberately applied.
There's a lot of, know, atheists and stuff may know God's word, especially back in 1800s,
they used to, you know, have to memorize the Bible like everybody else did in school.
And so there are atheists that can know the word of God, but that doesn't mean they apply
it.
the demons believe and tremble.
Well, there were people who quoted scripture in the Lord's day, but they didn't yield to
it.
Even the devil quoted scripture, absolutely.
And so there's some great things to kind of just...
Consider with with respect to knowing God's Word as a leader, but the next thing is in
verse number 18 where Jethro says I will show surely wear away both you and the people
with you for this thing is too heavy for you thou are not able to perform it thyself alone
and one of things that think Moses overlooked didn't notice didn't pay attention to
Leaders must know their limitations.
Yeah, there's only certain things that you and I can do in a day
Right.
And that's, yeah, it's hard to realize sometimes, especially when you think you're the
only one that is doing the work, like Moses was thinking at the time.
But yes, we have limitations, physical limitations, emotional limitations, spiritual
limitations sometimes, and that's something good to know.
That is, I think that's, there's also some humility necessary with that to know that you
just can't do everything.
You know, there are certain personality traits, one in particular called being a people
pleaser.
I think there's a real fancy name for it, but it's core name you could just say people
pleaser.
It's difficult to know your own limitations because you will just say yes to various
things because you want to make people happy.
And it seems that Moses didn't want to please God.
He did want to be a help to the people.
But the best way to help the people isn't always doing everything yourself.
You've got to know, I can't do this particular thing.
and there's usually a local congregation and whether it's usually people there that can do
some things better anyway and they have more time and so it's good to delegate to them if
they'll do it
And the other side is you have to trust people, which leads us into our next thing.
So here's the next thing about Moses falling right on verse number 18, okay?
So you gotta know your limitations, absolutely.
But in verses 20 and 21, you have, thou shalt teach them, so okay, so he says in verse 19,
hearken to my voice, I'm gonna give you some counsel.
There's that word counsel again.
You mentioned wise counsel.
He I'm gonna give you some counsel.
And God shall be with you," which is kind of an interesting thing that Jethro says there.
There's this, you know, wisdom, I guess, or confidence that he has in what he's gonna say.
But he says, God's gonna be with you.
Be thou for the people to Godward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto God.
And thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and thou shalt show them the way wherein
they must walk, and that they work, excuse me, and the work they must do.
Moreover, you shall provide out of all the people, able men,
Such as fear God men of truth hating covetousness and place such over them to be rulers
over thousands and rules over hundreds and rules over 50s and rulers over tens and so in
knowing our limitations we also must be the next thing is willing and able to duplicate
ourselves and to create this system I guess of Mentoring or being mentored in that case
because Moses is actually
both right here.
He's being mentored by Jethro and then Jethro's telling him you need to mentor, you need
to train other people to do what you're doing.
Yeah, and I think we saw that with Moses and Joshua later on in Moses's life.
He mentored Joshua, gave him small responsibilities and then larger responsibilities, and
then all of sudden God is using him to lead the people to conquer the land.
And so that's a very good point there.
I was reading recently about leadership that leaders...
A lot of times why leaders fail, they don't have the right attitude.
They think they're going to be in charge the whole time.
And they train people, but they don't train them.
In other words, the author was getting to the point that we should train others not to be
like us, but to even be better than us based upon learning God's Word, putting it to
practice.
And if each generation of leaders would train the others to be better than them,
more godly leaders, more effective leaders, just think of how much the church would grow
over the generations rather than sometimes it diminishes.
Just like when we saw at the end of Joshua's life, know, his generation obeyed God, the
generation that outlived him obeyed God, but that third generation didn't.
And so that second generation from Joshua either failed or didn't deliberately, you know,
whatever, they did not
make sure that that same leadership would continue for generations.
Also seems that maybe it's implied that part of the leadership which was exemplified and
part of the leadership lesson I guess we can maybe learn from Moses here is that when
you're delegating you can't just instruct.
You have to let people
put it in action, put it in their hands.
So if I'm teach you how to play golf, let's say, which I don't know how to play golf, but
if I were to teach you at some point, I gotta give you the clubs.
I can't just sit in the classroom and tell you about the different clubs and different
irons and the grass and the temperature and the holes.
At one point, you've gotta put club to the ball and you've gotta get out there yourself.
And I think some leadership lacks in that area.
We may inform and instruct, but we don't give people an opportunity to do it.
Like with preaching, I was learning to preach.
back in 2004, our local preacher was helping me, but part of that was instruction, but
part of it was like, brother, you gotta get up in the pulpit, you gotta preach.
And I was nervous and I was insecure at some point, and I messed up some things and said
some things in a different way than I should have, but it was like, you gotta get that
out.
You gotta practice it.
Yep, and that's the only way you can learn is to be given responsibility.
And a lot of times when leaders give others responsibility, they micromanage everything.
Right.
But you can't do that.
You gotta let the person have ownership of it, if you will.
And yeah, mistakes are gonna happen, and that's just absolutely fine, because we learn
from those mistakes.
In fact, you know, to apply the principle from James 1, 2 through 4, know, count all joy
when you fall into various trials, knowing that the triangle of faith work as patience.
so patience is a virtue that...
you sometimes it has to be earned.
I guess it always has to be earned but you know those times become opportunities if we
have the right outlook on it become opportunities to really grow in patience.
And I guess you can also see that progression here.
I I wonder if later on Moses is teaching and grooming, preparing Joshua, and if Jethro can
say, hey, look, I taught him that.
I showed him how to delegate and get this guy prepared for leadership.
But you mentioned a great point that leaders still mess up, and you have to mess up.
So a great leader like Moses, he still disobeys, he strikes the rock.
Moses, you can't go into the promised land, all right, but you still have this next guy
prepared.
Joshua doesn't do that same thing, so perhaps he looking back at Moses is able to say,
hey, I'm gonna take what I got from Moses and apply that stuff because I got to see his
mistakes, because I got to see his ups and downs, ebbets and flows and all that kind of
stuff.
That helped Joshua in his leadership.
Yeah, and I think that's just a basic thing in life is mistakes.
Whether we see them in others or we commit them ourselves, as long as we have the right
attitude and we want to serve God, mistakes can help us learn things.
I was just thinking about my home life growing up.
My parents were divorced and all that.
you know when i started dating girls and stuff it's like well about him he had a rough
family life and all that you know but i was look back on that thinking that well sometimes
learning what not to do how not to treat a spouse sometimes that's is important and is
valuable knowledge of what to do and so same thing with leadership sometime that
You know, making mistakes is okay as long as we learn from those mistakes and grow from
those mistakes.
And if we don't allow people that we are mentoring to make those mistakes, then how are
they going to grow?
Sometimes knowing what not to do can be a more effective teacher.
I guess maybe depending on our personalities, but it can be a more effective teacher than
what to do.
You know, what to avoid, you know, in those things.
I guess that leaves only that which is you should do.
So that's elimination, that's it.
But in that same verse there, verse 21, there's another thing about leadership.
I just want to reread it.
says, moreover, thou shall provide out of all the people, able men, such as fear God.
men of truth, hating covetousness, and place such over them to be rulers of thousands and
rulers of hundreds and rulers of fifties and rulers of tens.
Leadership also must demonstrate abilities that are consistent with strength, godliness,
wisdom, in order to be an effective leader.
And so earlier off camera, off mic here, you and I were discussing that term, able.
And.
Interestingly, in the original language, that word is translated more often as war and
the, no, excuse me, army, army in most cases, but it's also translated, I think the second
most, as valiant.
And so you're thinking about to be able, you're supposed to be, you know, strong, valiant,
brave, like a soldier would be is what the idea, I guess, carries.
And so if you're going to be a leader, the first thing you need to be is strong and
valiant and brave.
That is kind of a core characteristic.
But secondarily, where it might look like this is just fleshing out Abel, he's saying in
addition to that, there needs to be some other thing.
You need to fear God.
There needs to be a healthy respect and reverence and awe in the presence of Jehovah.
You need to be a man of truth.
As you say, you speak the truth, you know the truth, you respect the truth, you expect it
out of other people, and
The King James renders his hating covetousness.
know some other versions, like I think it's ESV has like hate, bribes, something like
that.
And so the idea is this is going to be an upright and honest person.
So if you're going to be a leader, biblically speaking, you have to be a person of
integrity and a person of courage.
This, and, and again, you find this principle from beginning to end in the Bible.
You cannot be, you should not be wimpy.
And you know, what did they used to say back in the day?
know, like a weak spine and hand packed and all those different terms, you know, you've
got to be strong, you know, and brave.
And Paul would say, as we mentioned earlier, you know, quit, you like men, behave like a
man is supposed to behave.
Be brave and strong.
Yeah, and I think that applies not just with men who are going to be elders, but with
really all Christians in whatever realm that they influence and motivate others to serve
God.
Because, I mean, it takes courage, able-bodiedness to be a Christian.
The world is against us.
There's all kinds of ways that the world tries to keep us.
to make us to stumble.
know, the devil walks about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
And so we're constantly under pressure to live right.
And the world doesn't want us to do that.
It wants to take us away when the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of
life.
But we can't do that.
We have to resist.
And again, 2 Timothy 1, 7, God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of a
sound mind.
So we have to continue to live for Him and to study His Word and to stand up for what is
true.
And another thing I really like about this verse is I think it kind of flies in the face
of the worldly standard.
You know, now the leader is the guy who is, you know, on the one hand either loud and
boisterous or he's, you know, rude or, you know, crazy or just maybe he is brave in that
sense.
You know, he's a military guy, but he doesn't harness that with godliness.
That's not going to be an effective leader.
So I think having both those qualities present, I really love that the Holy Spirit
inspired those words to be written, that these are able men, but there's also something
else.
These are people of interior.
They're not gonna be bribed to curry favor with other people.
They're gonna be men who respect the truth of God's word, and they'll be people that fear
Jehovah, which means they'll fear Jehovah and not the people.
So if there's a revolt, like Saul did,
I better go along with the people and know do you know it's gonna be I'm gonna do what God
said because that's what God wanted.
Yeah
And as I'm reading that verse 21, there's all kinds of good nuggets in there, but as I was
thinking, those exact same principles, even though this is Old Testament, you could plug
that into the New Testament, to the elders and stuff.
mean, because these are like general things.
Able, men who fear God, men of truth, hate covetousness or a bribe.
I mean, that's top notch qualities that you could almost...
Surround those qualification of elders you could make those fear God men of truth hate
covetousness that could be a Three main headings and you could put those qualifications
Under those, you know, I was like so like these are like the principles behind any
qualification of any leader anywhere
which shows that that's not necessarily a New Testament unique thing.
That is something that's always been in the standard of God relative to leadership.
Yeah, and that's a good point.
If you go all the way back and you think about Cain versus Abel, know, or you go back Noah
versus the world, Enoch versus his world, and you see these same qualities here.
Yeah, these are, those are, guess we might just say, like universal leadership principles.
So the next one I'm looking at begins in verse 21.
I won't reread that one about being rulers and able and those sorts of things, but he says
in verses 22 and 23 also, says, let them, these people who are able, love God and they
says, and let them judge the people at all seasons.
And it shall be that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter
they shall judge.
so shall it be easier for thyself and they shall bear the burden with you verse 23 and if
thou shalt do this thing and God command thee so then thou shalt be able to endure and all
these people shall also go to their place in peace
Leadership doesn't just focus on I'm a leader.
Leadership keeps focus on the people and the overall goal in hand.
So if you're a leader, you're looking at people development all the time and you're
looking at the main thing, which is for the believer, glorifying and honoring our Lord
Jesus Christ.
And so for the leader here, it's like, okay, you need to govern the people, rule the
people, judge the people, yes.
But the idea is help develop this next group of people.
Moses, it's not all about you.
We know you're a fantastic leader, but the leadership isn't about just being a leader.
It's about doing what leaders do.
And so for Moses, it's like, look, think about the people, Moses.
You got these people waiting out here all day, and their complaints probably may not be
heard.
So now if the people have people over tens and fifties and hundreds and then thousands,
everybody can be heard.
The people won't be exhausted and exasperated.
He says that then you and the people are going to be able to endure and these people
should go into their place in peace.
So they shall go off into either what could be the remote into eternity or the immediate
into Canaan, whatever they can go to their place in peace.
Now having their grievances settle, having their
of voices heard and all those sorts of things.
Yeah, and I also like the way he talks about this in verse 22, that when you let the
people help you, then it will be that every great matter they shall bring to you, Moses,
but every small matter they themselves shall judge.
so, and that goes to what we said earlier about, you know, giving others responsibility
and letting them have that responsibility, ownership, accountability, because
that they can do and then it eases the leader's burden, Moses' burden, so that he doesn't
have all that stuff, but the major things still come to him.
But if you have like 30 things in a day and two of them are major and you have 28 of them
divided up between these other guys that they can handle, then that's going to make Moses'
job a lot easier and a lot less stressful.
and also trains them up a little bit at a time.
It kind of reminds me of the parable there about giving two, the parable of talents, one,
two, five.
Give you what you can handle.
So he's giving these guys incremental leadership training so they can be what they need to
be.
And also it reminds me of that old analogy, I guess it is, that if you have a big jar,
and you put in all the sand first, there's no room for the big stuff, but you put in the
big rocks and then the pebbles and then the sand, it can all fit in the jar.
And so this is kind of that same sort of principle, I guess.
Another thing that I noticed here in verses 24 through 26, it says, so Moses harkened to
the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he said.
And Moses chose able men out of all of Israel and made them heads over the people, rules
over the thousands, rules over the hundreds, rules over the fifties, rules over the tens.
And they judged the people at all seasons, the hard causes they brought to Moses, but
every smaller matter they judged themselves.
So when you look at verses, you know, 15 through the 23, this is not action taking place.
This is all instruction.
when we, as we were talking about it, we were kind of talking about it in action, but it's
not happening yet.
this is only instruction in those first verses.
But starting at verse number 24, Moses hearkened.
So now Moses hears it and he's gonna do it.
the last thing I'm noticing is leaders actually listen.
Leaders listen.
And so Moses didn't just hear Jethro and say, yeah, yeah, yeah, I got you.
All right, everybody line up, I'm gonna judge you.
Moses heard wise counsel as Jethro made a plane.
This is wisdom talking here.
Moses took this instruction and he actually did something with
So if you're going to be an effective leader, if there's something good, use it.
Yes.
And I think to a point you said earlier, it takes humility to do that.
And Moses was, you know, well, of course, he's just gaining his momentum here as a leader,
but he was a leader.
And it takes humility to take that from somebody, even though it is your father-in-law.
And we see that with leaders today.
I mean, no matter where the source comes from, if it's wise counsel, if it's good in
accordance with God's Word, it needs to be taken into consideration.
Our main goal, as you mentioned earlier as well, is to glorify God and what we do.
And there's no way to glorify Him except through the proper application of His Word.
And sometimes when somebody brings up stuff that we haven't been doing that's wise, again,
then it glorifies God for us to put that into practice.
Absolutely, you know, you have to keep the main thing the main thing, you know, there are
leaders within our Lord's church.
Absolutely, God has placed it that way.
But the head of the church is Christ.
Absolutely.
And so we can't put ourselves and take our own leadership so seriously that it's like, you
know, it's the buck stops with me because it doesn't.
There's only one head in the church, period.
And that is Jesus Christ.
And so every other person is, according to Paul, a part of the body.
But there's only one head and so if we can't accept that we will be humble Recognizing
that we are all different unique parts all have an important role to play some may be the
as Paul would call it the comely or the uncomely parts, you know Seeming that one is more
favored than another in terms of the way we may look at it But every person is important.
I'm glad that Moses was able to accept this instruction from from Paul or see me from his
father-in-law Jethro
And it really underscores what we read in Numbers 12-3 with Moses being meek above all
men.
And he demonstrates it right here.
So true leadership also models meekness and isn't always about the force of strength, but
it's also modeling humility and meekness.
That's a very good point because in numbers it's the pressure from outside that he says
he's the meekest and here it's the pressure inside all these you know him and his
leadership and so but either way You have to stay focused on God and trust in him and
that's the meekness comes in.
So that's a very good point
And that's one of the hardships of leadership.
It's going to be internal and external.
There'll be stuff in you personally.
There'll be stuff in the congregation of the people.
There'll be stuff from the world.
And Moses had to deal with all of it.
And you see Moses kind of getting to the edge of his level of patience at some points.
You see Moses also begging and pleading for the people with God.
know, Lord, please don't destroy the people.
so true leadership has ebbs and flows.
And true leadership is not gonna be perfect, but it does model itself after the biblical
principle and does its best to do.
guess verse 21 might just kind of cover at all.
And not just for Moses, but for the people and any of us.
True leadership is gonna follow those principles with and without our shortcomings.
And when we follow God's way, we'll always be successful when we put it into practice.
All right, we thank you for this second bumper-soad, I'm calling it, episode between our
first and second season.
Stay tuned next week.
Our second season will begin, and we will be addressing some of the cultural issues that
we are facing, and we will look at them from a biblical perspective.
And so I hope you can join us for the entirety.
of our second season.
But until then, we appreciate your being with us and we invite you to listen and share it
with your friends.