DELEGATE RESPONSIBILITY
Delegating responsibility is a hallmark of leadership. Yet, the greatest leader among the Israelites and perhaps universally of all time, needed to be taught that lesson.
While it was the norm for Israelites to marry among their own, Moses was in a way, forced to marry a Midianite woman as God wanted him to spend forty years of his mid-life wandering and preparing in the desert for the exodus to follow. However, he was blessed with a father-in-law who served as a father figure to Moses. While it has become increasingly common for people to disregard families when marrying, this is a good example of how a good marriage involves not just a person but caring families as well. Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law took care of Moses’ wife and his children when he heeded God’s call to go back to Egypt and lead the Israelites out. He was delighted to hear what God accomplished through Moses and also declares his faith and regard for The Yahweh God that Moses served. But he also did not hold back criticism for Moses’ practice as judge for the people.
When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, “What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge, while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?”………….Moses’ father-in-law replied, “What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone. (Exodus 18:15-18)
Being called by God, endowed with wisdom and burdened with love for his people, Moses would tire himself out day after day listening to the burdens of the Israelites and judging for them. While he undoubtedly did a good job, it was too heavy a burden for him to bear. And he did not know it. Often when we are caught up with life and the needs around us, we take up much more than we can chew. This might be in the form of work, family responsibilities or ministry. And this takes a toll on our well-being and health. Not only does this tire us, but over a period of time as Jethro points out, it also tires out the people, those who are dependent on us. It is no good if because of exhaustion we fail to do what we are meant to do. And so it is important to recognize the need for breaks, vacations and times for refreshing in our lives, even if it means some services might suffer temporarily because of it.
And Jethro points Moses toward an important aspect of leadership- one of delegating responsibility to others.
You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to him. …………But select capable men from all the people…and appoint them as officials ……have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied.” Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said. (Exodus 18:19-24)
If we are open to the possibility of others stepping up, we can identify the right people, train them as leaders and entrust responsibility to them. And we would be surprised how well they are able to do what we thought they could not. As Jethro points out, God’s will must be sought in the process of delegating responsibility. The process of delegating must take into consideration the level of complexity of the work involved. People would be happier as their problems are taken care of in a timely fashion. Most importantly, it frees up time for us, so that we don’t get exhausted and remain available for God’s work that we specifically need to do.
Delegating responsibility is not irresponsible behavior, rather a sign of mature leadership.
