In this Torah Portion, we open with the return of Moses’ father-in-law returning wife and his two sons. But there is far more involved than that. In chapter 18 we see Jethro observing the situation of Israel and Moses and how they interacted. Jethro reported to Moses what he saw, and he presented a solution. Moses then relates this to the people, and they accepted the idea Moses then trained the leaders on what to do. What can we learn from this story?
Even though YHVH appointed Moses and Aaron as the leaders of Israel did not mean that they were to do it all themselves. Rather we can delegate some authority, but the responsibility remains ours.
(Exo 18:13-27 EHV)
The next day Moses sat down to serve as a judge for the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening.
When Moses’ father-in-law saw everything that he did for the people, he said, “What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge with all the people standing around you from morning till evening?” Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God. Whenever there is a dispute between them, they come to me, and I judge between the two sides, and I reveal the regulations of God and his laws.” Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good.
You will certainly wear out both yourself and these people who are with you, for the work is too much for you. You are not able to handle this alone. Listen to me now. I will give you advice, and may God be with you.
Represent the people before God, and bring their disputes to God. Instruct them about the regulations and laws, and show them the way they are to live and the things that they are to do. But you should select capable men from among all the people, God-fearing, trustworthy men, who hate dishonest gain.
Then place them over the people as officials over groups of a thousand, a hundred, fifty, or ten. Have them judge all the disputes of the people at the first level. They can refer any difficult case to you, but every easy case they can judge themselves. Make your load lighter; they can carry it with you. If you will do this, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all these people will also return home satisfied.”
Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything that he had said. Moses chose capable men from all of Israel and made them leaders over the people: officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. They judged all the cases of the people initially. They brought the difficult cases to Moses, but every easy case they judged themselves. Then Moses sent his father-in-law on his way, and he returned to his own land.
(Deu 1:12-18 EHV)
But how can I manage by myself to carry the burden that you have become and the load that you are—especially your disputes? Provide for yourselves, tribe by tribe, men who are wise and perceptive and with known ability, and I will appoint them as your leaders.”
Then you answered me, “What you propose to do is good.” So I took the heads of your tribes, men who were wise and of known ability, and I appointed them as heads over you, commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds and commanders of fifties and commanders of tens, as well as officers for your tribes. I gave these orders to your judges at that time: “Listen to disputes among your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother Israelite, as well as with the alien who resides with him. Do not show partiality in judgment. Provide a hearing for the small and the great alike.
Do not be motivated by fear of any person, because judgment belongs to God. Any case that is too difficult for you, bring it before me and I will hear it.” So I gave you orders at that time about everything that you should do. Even though the load was easier to bare the burden that YHVH had for the people was still fully on Moses.
This is where we need to ask YHVH to help us to be able to bare it. If it means that others will be brought in to share the burden then that is what He will do. We need to be willing to step up and come alongside those whom YHVH has placed in leadership and not mock or complain against them. I am not saying that they are always right, this is where people like Jethro need to step up and suggest a solution as to what to do next. We are not told in Exodus nor in Numbers who these men were. What we do know is YHVH used them.
(Num 11:16-27 EHV)
So the LORD said to Moses, “Gather seventy men from the elders of Israel for me, men whom you know to be elders and officers for the people. Take them to the Tent of Meeting and make them stand there with you. I will come down and talk with you there. I will take from the Spirit that is on you and will put it on them. They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it by yourself. “Say to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves to be ready for tomorrow. You will eat meat because you have wept and the LORD has heard you say,
“Who will give us meat to eat? Yes, things were good for us in Egypt.”
Therefore the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat. You will eat not just for one day, for two days, for five days, for ten days, not even just for twenty days, but for a whole month, until meat comes out of your nostrils, and you begin to loathe it. This will happen because you have rejected the LORD, who is among you, and you have wept in his presence, saying, “Why did we come out of Egypt?” ’ ” Moses said, “I am in the middle of a people with six hundred thousand foot soldiers, and now you say, ‘I will give them meat, and they will eat for a whole month.’
If flocks and herds were slaughtered for them, would that be enough for them? If all the fish of the sea were caught for them, would that be enough for them?” The LORD said to Moses, “Is the arm of the LORD too short? Now you will see whether what I have said to you will happen or not.” Moses went out and told the people the LORD’s words.
He gathered seventy men from the elders of the people and had them stand all around the tent. The LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to him. He took from the Spirit that was on Moses and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but they did not do it again. Two men, however, remained in the camp. The name of one was Eldad, and the name of the other was Medad. They were listed among the elders, but they had not gone out to the tent. The Spirit rested on them, and they prophesied back in the camp. A young man ran and reported this to Moses. He said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp!”
In Chapters 19-20 we have the preparation of the bride for the King. First, we have the proposal and the acceptance. Second, we have the terms of the contract.
(Est 2:12-17 EHV) Esther
Every young woman received a turn to go to King Xerxes after she had received the prescribed twelve months of beauty treatments.
For six months they used oil of myrrh; for six months perfumes and other beauty treatments for women. Then the young woman went to the king. Everything she desired was given to her when she went from the harem to the king’s palace. She went to the king in the evening. In the morning she returned to the second harem, under the supervision of Sha’ashgaz, the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the concubines.
She did not return to the king unless he was delighted with her and she was summoned by name. Esther was the daughter of Abihail, Mordecai’s uncle. Mordecai had adopted her. When her turn came to go to the king, she did not ask for anything except what Hegai, the king’s eunuch in charge of the harem, had advised.
Esther won the approval of everyone watching her. Esther was taken to King Xerxes at the royal palace in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, during the seventh year of his reign. The king loved Esther more than he loved all the other women.
She won his favor and approval more than all the other virgins did. He placed the crown of the kingdom on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. You do not approach the King unless He calls you.
(Mat 25:1-10 EHV) Kingdom of heaven the ten virgins
“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.
When the foolish ones took their lamps, they did not take any oil with them; but the wise took oil in their containers with their lamps.
While the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep. But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’
Then all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil because our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, ‘No, there may not be enough for us and for you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ But while they were away buying oil, the bridegroom came. Those who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet, and the door was shut. Many are called but some refuse to prepare themselves for the King.
They think they have plenty of time and when the call goes out will you be found lacking. The time to prepare is now and not at the last moment.
The question is, what are you waiting for? Why are you not making ready for the coming King? It is not food and clothing rather it is our hearts that need to be circumcised and made ready for His coming. In the wilderness and Esther, their needs were provided for. Yes, we need to have a supply for the winter months. Many who are “Preppers” are relying on themselves to save them.
To save their lives. Is it wrong to make provisions for yourselves and your family? No, we are to take care of those whom we have charge over. Consider those who fled before Pharaoh, they did not have the time to allow their dough to rise. They took what they could carry and that was it. Yes, they took their flocks and herds. The rest they left behind. Our mission is to prepare ourselves for the coming King and if we are not then we will be lost.
Consider Noah, there were only eight of them and the animals of the Earth. All of the rest of the world died. Were there righteous along with the wicked that perished? Yes. We must be about our Father’s business and reaching all that we can for the Kingdom. We must go out to the highways and the bi-ways and bring them in.
(Mat 10:34-39 EHV)
“Do not think that I came to bring peace to the earth.
I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.
“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. We must be willing to leave it all behind for the Kingdom. If we are not willing to leave all the rest behind then we may be faced with no road to the Kingdom.
No one is being forced into the Kingdom rather it is on an individual basis. Yet, when we come into the Kingdom we are to function as one unit.
(Mat 5:29-30 EHV)
If your right eye causes you to fall into sin, pluck it out and throw it away from you. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. If your right hand causes you to fall into sin, cut it off and throw it away from you. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
(Mat 6:19-34 EHV)
“Do not store up treasures for yourselves on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
(20) But store up treasures for yourselves in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
(21) Because where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
(22) “The eye is the lamp of the body. So then if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. (23) But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
(24) “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon.
(25) “For this reason I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
(26) Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?
(27) “Which of you can add a single moment to his lifespan by worrying?
(28) Why do you worry about clothing? Consider how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin,
(29) but I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was dressed like one of these.
(30) If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will he not clothe you even more, you of little faith?
(31) “So do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’
(32) For the unbelievers chase after all these things. Certainly, your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
(33) But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
(34) So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
(Rev 19:7-9 EHV)
Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory, because the wedding of the Lamb has come. His bride has made herself ready,
(8) and she was given bright, clean, fine linen to wear. (In fact, the fine linen is the “not guilty” verdicts pronounced on the saints.)
(9) The angel said to me, “Write: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb.” He also said to me, “These are the true words of God.”
We must be ready as the Bride of the King. No one is going to do this for us, we have the strength of Messiah in us so we can do this. If we do not then who will?
(Jos 24:15-21 TS2009)
“And if it seems evil in your eyes to serve יהוה, choose for yourselves this day whom you are going to serve, whether the mighty ones which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the mighty ones of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But I and my house, we serve
יהוה.” (16) And the people answered and said, “Far be it from us to forsake יהוה, to serve other mighty ones,
(17) for יהוה our Elohim is He who has brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Mitsrayim, from the house of bondage, who did those great signs before our eyes, and has guarded us in all the way that we went and among all the people through whom we passed.
(18) “And יהוה drove out from before us all the people, even the Amorites who dwelt in the land. We too serve יהוה, for He is our Elohim.”
(19) Then Yehoshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve יהוה, for He is a set-apart Elohim, a jealous Ěl is He. He does not bear with your transgression and with your sins, (20) if you forsake יהוה and shall serve mighty ones of a stranger. Then He shall turn back and do you evil and consume you, after He has been good to you.”
(21) And the people said to Yehoshua, “No, but we do serve יהוה!”
The proposal is still there; What will be your answer? Be careful how you answer. Think about it for if you answer, yes, then it is time to make preparations for the time is short. May YHVH grant you and your families a great and exciting week. Be blessed!
To see more teachings please visit these other sites.