Good Advice from Jethro

Exodus 18:17 And Moses' father in law said unto him, The thing that thou doest is not good.

When I think of the name Jethro, I don't think of intelligence! I blame it on the Beverly Hillbillies, but the Jethro that we meet here in the book of Exodus was a very wise man. The advice that he gave to Moses probably added many years to Moses' life and saved his sanity at the same time! Moses was wearing many hats, one of which was judge. Every day, Moses was playing People's Court for Israel, and from sun up to sun down he was settling disputes that varied greatly in significance. I can imagine that he ruled on cases that ranged from "my neighbor set our tent on fire" to "my wife hid the remote control"! Okay, I'm exaggerating, but you get the point. Jethro took one look at this and told Moses that if he didn't make some changes, he would soon wear down, burn out and lose his mind! Jethro's plan to set up leaders that would rule over different portions of the nation was brilliant, and Moses wouldn't have to handle any more of the "remote control" cases, just the serious ones. When you think about it, it's really the first good illustration of the church, the body of Christ. That multitude of people wandering in the desert needed everyone to contribute if they were to succeed in their journey, and to free up Moses to do what he did best, to hear God's voice and lead. We can actually learn a lot from a man named Jethro.