Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “The thing that you do is not good. You will surely wear away, both you, and this people that is with you; for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to perform it yourself alone. Listen now to my voice. I will give you counsel, and God be with you. You represent the people before God, and bring the causes to God. You shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and shall show them the way in which they must walk, and the work that they must do. Moreover you shall provide out of all the people able men which fear God: men of truth, hating unjust gain; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. Let them judge the people at all times. It shall be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they shall judge themselves. So shall it be easier for you, and they shall share the load with you. If you will do this thing, and God commands you so, then you will be able to endure, and all these people also will go to their place in peace.”
Show the surrounding paragraph
Exodus 18:17-23 sits inside this longer paragraph.
Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God. When they have a matter, they come to me, and I judge between a man and his neighbor, and I make them know the statutes of God, and his laws.” Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “The thing that you do is not good. You will surely wear away, both you, and this people that is with you; for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to perform it yourself alone. Listen now to my voice. I will give you counsel, and God be with you. You represent the people before God, and bring the causes to God. You shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and shall show them the way in which they must walk, and the work that they must do. Moreover you shall provide out of all the people able men which fear God: men of truth, hating unjust gain; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. Let them judge the people at all times. It shall be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they shall judge themselves. So shall it be easier for you, and they shall share the load with you. If you will do this thing, and God commands you so, then you will be able to endure, and all these people also will go to their place in peace.”
Parallel Translations
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Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “The thing that you do is not good.
You will surely wear away, both you, and this people that is with you; for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to perform it yourself alone.
Listen now to my voice. I will give you counsel, and God be with you. You represent the people before God, and bring the causes to God.
You shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and shall show them the way in which they must walk, and the work that they must do.
Moreover you shall provide out of all the people able men which fear God: men of truth, hating unjust gain; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.
Let them judge the people at all times. It shall be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they shall judge themselves. So shall it be easier for you, and they shall share the load with you.
If you will do this thing, and God commands you so, then you will be able to endure, and all these people also will go to their place in peace.”
-
And Moses’ father in law said unto him, The thing that thou doest is not good.
Thou wilt 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.
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:
And thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt shew them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do.
Moreover thou shalt 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, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens:
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 thee.
If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so, then thou shalt be able to endure, and all this people shall also go to their place in peace.
Show all 3 translations
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And Moses' father-in-law said unto him: 'The thing that thou doest is not good.
Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee; for the thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone.
Hearken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel, and God be with thee: be thou for the people before God, and bring thou the causes unto God.
And thou shalt teach them the statutes and the laws, and shalt show them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do.
Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating unjust gain; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.
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 themselves; so shall they make it easier for thee and bear the burden with thee.
If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so, then thou shalt be able to endure, and all this people also shall go to their place in peace.'
Cross-references (96)
- Acts 6:3 (v21) Therefore select from among you, brothers, seven men of good report, full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint over this…
- Deuteronomy 1:13-17 (v21) Take wise men of understanding who are respected among your tribes, and I will make them heads over you.” You answered me, and said, “The…
- Deuteronomy 5:1 (v20) Moses called to all Israel, and said to them, “Hear, Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I speak in your ears today, that you may…
- Deuteronomy 16:18-19 (v21) You shall make judges and officers in all your gates, which Yahweh your God gives you, according to your tribes; and they shall judge the…
- 2 Chronicles 19:5-10 (v21) He set judges in the land throughout all the fortified cities of Judah, city by city, and said to the judges, “Consider what you do, for…
Show all 94 cross-references
- Numbers 11:14-17 (v18) I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. If you treat me this way, please kill me right now, if I have…
- Numbers 27:5 (v19) Moses brought their cause before Yahweh.
- Psalms 143:8 (v20) Cause me to hear your loving kindness in the morning, for I trust in you. Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my…
- Numbers 11:17 (v22) I will come down and talk with you there. I will take of the Spirit which is on you, and will put it on them; and they shall bear the…
- Deuteronomy 1:18 (v20) I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do.
- Acts 6:1-4 (v18) Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, a complaint arose from the Hellenists against the Hebrews, because…
- Genesis 39:2 (v19) Yahweh was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man. He was in the house of his master the Egyptian.
- Exodus 3:12 (v19) He said, “Certainly I will be with you. This will be the token to you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt,…
- Exodus 20:19 (v19) They said to Moses, “Speak with us yourself, and we will listen; but don’t let God speak with us, lest we die.”
- Deuteronomy 4:1 (v20) Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and to the ordinances which I teach you, to do them; that you may live, and go in and possess the land…
- Deuteronomy 4:5 (v20) Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, even as Yahweh my God commanded me, that you should do so in the middle of the land…
- Deuteronomy 5:5 (v19) (I stood between Yahweh and you at that time, to show you Yahweh’s word; for you were afraid because of the fire, and didn’t go up onto the…
- 2 Samuel 23:3 (v21) The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke to me, ‘One who rules over men righteously, who rules in the fear of God,
- Psalms 32:8 (v20) I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go. I will counsel you with my eye on you.
- Exodus 18:18 (vv22–23) You will surely wear away, both you, and this people that is with you; for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to perform it…
- Matthew 28:20 (vv19–20) teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
- Genesis 22:12 (v21) He said, “Don’t lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son,…
- Exodus 4:12 (v19) Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth, and teach you what you shall speak.”
- Exodus 4:16 (v19) He will be your spokesman to the people. It will happen that he will be to you a mouth, and you will be to him as God.
- Exodus 18:15 (v19) Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God.
- Exodus 18:16 (v20) When they have a matter, they come to me, and I judge between a man and his neighbor, and I make them know the statutes of God, and his…
- Exodus 18:24 (v19) So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law, and did all that he had said.
- Exodus 18:25 (v21) Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties,…
- Exodus 18:26 (v22) They judged the people at all times. They brought the hard cases to Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.
- Exodus 23:2-9 (v21) “You shall not follow a crowd to do evil. You shall not testify in court to side with a multitude to pervert justice. You shall not favor a…
- Leviticus 24:11 (v22) The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name, and cursed; and they brought him to Moses. His mother’s name was Shelomith, the…
- Numbers 15:33 (v22) Those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the congregation.
- Numbers 27:2 (v22) They stood before Moses, before Eleazar the priest, and before the princes and all the congregation, at the door of the Tent of Meeting,…
- Numbers 36:1 (v22) The heads of the fathers’ households of the family of the children of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of…
- Deuteronomy 1:17-18 (v22) You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be afraid of the face of man, for…
- Deuteronomy 20:1 (v19) When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see horses, chariots, and a people more numerous than you, you shall not be afraid of…
- Joshua 1:9 (v19) Haven’t I commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be dismayed, for Yahweh your God is with you wherever you go.”
- 1 Samuel 8:3 (v21) His sons didn’t walk in his ways, but turned away after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice.
- 1 Samuel 8:6-7 (v23) But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” Samuel prayed to Yahweh. Yahweh said to Samuel, “Listen to…
- 2 Samuel 14:17 (v19) Then your servant said, ‘Please let the word of my lord the king bring rest; for as an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good…
- Nehemiah 5:9 (v21) Also I said, “The thing that you do is not good. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God, because of the reproach of the nations our…
- Nehemiah 7:2 (v21) I put my brother Hanani, and Hananiah the governor of the fortress, in charge of Jerusalem; for he was a faithful man, and feared God above…
- Job 29:16 (v21) I was a father to the needy. I researched the cause of him who I didn’t know.
- Job 31:13 (v21) “If I have despised the cause of my male servant or of my female servant, when they contended with me,
- Psalms 15:5 (v21) he who doesn’t lend out his money for usury, nor take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be shaken.
- Psalms 26:9-10 (v21) Don’t gather my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloodthirsty men; in whose hands is wickedness, their right hand is full of bribes.
- Proverbs 9:9 (v19) Instruct a wise person, and he will be still wiser. Teach a righteous person, and he will increase in learning.
- Proverbs 28:2 (v21) In rebellion, a land has many rulers, but order is maintained by a man of understanding and knowledge.
- Ecclesiastes 12:13 (v21) This is the end of the matter. All has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.
- Isaiah 59:14-15 (v21) Justice is turned away backward, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has fallen in the street, and uprightness can’t enter. Yes,…
- Jeremiah 5:1 (v21) “Run back and forth through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in its wide places, if you can find a man, if there…
- Ezekiel 18:8 (v21) he who hasn’t lent to them with interest, hasn’t taken any increase from them, who has withdrawn his hand from iniquity, has executed true…
- Ezekiel 22:12 (v21) In you have they taken bribes to shed blood. You have taken interest and increase, and you have greedily gained of your neighbors by…
- Zechariah 7:9 (v21) “Thus has Yahweh of Armies spoken, saying, ‘Execute true judgment, and show kindness and compassion every man to his brother.
- Zechariah 8:16 (v21) These are the things that you shall do: speak every man the truth with his neighbor. Execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates,
- 2 Corinthians 12:15 (v18) I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more abundantly, am I loved the less?
- Philippians 2:30 (v18) because for the work of Christ he came near to death, risking his life to supply that which was lacking in your service toward me.
- 1 Timothy 3:3 (v21) not a drinker, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous;
- 2 Peter 2:14-15 (v21) having eyes full of adultery, and who can’t cease from sin; enticing unsettled souls; having a heart trained in greed; children of cursing;…
- Genesis 42:18 (v21) Joseph said to them the third day, “Do this, and live, for I fear God.
- Deuteronomy 1:9-12 (v18) I spoke to you at that time, saying, “I am not able to bear you myself alone. Yahweh your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today…
- Deuteronomy 6:1-2 (v20) Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Yahweh your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in…
- Deuteronomy 7:11 (v20) You shall therefore keep the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances which I command you today, to do them.
- Deuteronomy 17:8-9 (v22) If there arises a matter too hard for you in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being…
- 1 Samuel 8:22 (v23) Yahweh said to Samuel, “Listen to their voice, and make them a king.” Samuel said to the men of Israel, “Everyone go to your own city.”
- 1 Samuel 12:3-4 (v21) Here I am. Witness against me before Yahweh, and before his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I…
- 1 Samuel 12:23 (v20) Moreover as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against Yahweh in ceasing to pray for you: but I will instruct you in the good and…
- 1 Kings 3:9-12 (v21) Give your servant therefore an understanding heart to judge your people, that I may discern between good and evil; for who is able to judge…
- Nehemiah 9:13-14 (v20) “You also came down on Mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right ordinances and true laws, good statutes and…
- Isaiah 30:21 (v20) and when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way. Walk…
- Isaiah 33:15 (v21) He who walks righteously and speaks blamelessly, he who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing to take a…
- Isaiah 59:4 (v21) No one sues in righteousness, and no one pleads in truth. They trust in vanity, and speak lies. They conceive mischief, and give birth to…
- Jeremiah 6:16 (v20) Yahweh says, “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, ‘Where is the good way?’ and walk in it, and you will find rest for…
- Jeremiah 42:3 (v20) that Yahweh your God may show us the way in which we should walk, and the things that we should do.”
- Ezekiel 3:17 (v20) “Son of man, I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel. Therefore hear the word from my mouth, and warn them from me.
- Micah 4:2 (v20) Many nations will go and say, “Come! Let’s go up to the mountain of Yahweh, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of…
- Acts 20:33 (v21) I coveted no one’s silver, gold, or clothing.
- Romans 13:6 (v22) For this reason you also pay taxes, for they are servants of God’s service, continually doing this very thing.
- 1 Thessalonians 2:8-9 (v18) Even so, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you, not the Good News of God only, but also our own souls,…
- 1 Thessalonians 4:1 (v20) Finally then, brothers, we beg and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, that…
- 1 Timothy 6:9-11 (v21) But those who are determined to be rich fall into a temptation, a snare, and many foolish and harmful lusts, such as drown men in ruin and…
- Genesis 18:33 (v23) Yahweh went his way, as soon as he had finished communing with Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.
- Genesis 21:10-12 (v23) Therefore she said to Abraham, “Cast out this servant and her son! For the son of this servant will not be heir with my son, Isaac.” The…
- Numbers 10:4 (v21) If they blow just one, then the princes, the heads of the thousands of Israel, shall gather themselves to you.
- Joshua 22:14 (v21) With him were ten princes, one prince of a fathers’ house for each of the tribes of Israel; and they were each head of their fathers’…
- 1 Samuel 8:12 (v21) He will appoint them to him for captains of thousands, and captains of fifties; and he will assign some to plow his ground, and to reap his…
- 2 Samuel 18:3 (v23) But the people said, “You shall not go out; for if we flee away, they will not care for us; neither if half of us die, will they care for…
- 1 Kings 18:3 (v21) Ahab called Obadiah, who was over the household. (Now Obadiah feared Yahweh greatly;
- 1 Kings 18:12 (v21) It will happen, as soon as I leave you, that Yahweh’s Spirit will carry you I don’t know where; and so when I come and tell Ahab, and he…
- Isaiah 16:5 (v21) A throne will be established in loving kindness. One will sit on it in truth, in the tent of David, judging, seeking justice, and swift to…
- Mark 13:34 (v20) “It is like a man, traveling to another country, having left his house, and given authority to his servants, and to each one his work, and…
- Luke 18:2 (v21) saying, “There was a judge in a certain city who didn’t fear God, and didn’t respect man.
- Luke 18:4 (v21) He wouldn’t for a while, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God, nor respect man,
- 2 Thessalonians 3:6-12 (v20) Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother who walks in rebellion,…
94 distinct cross-references across this passage (96 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (19 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv18, 19, 21 Hebrew, thou wilt faint and fall.
Hebrew, thou wilt faint and fall.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv17–23 Exo 18:17 And Moses’ father in law said unto…
Exo 18:17 And Moses’ father in law said unto him, The thing that thou doest [is] not good.
Ver. 17. Is not good.] We commonly say, He that receives a courtesy, sells his liberty. But so did not Jethro.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23 Not convenient either for thyself or for the people.
Not convenient either for thyself or for the people.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv17–23 Thou wilt surely wear away,.... His natural strength and…
Thou wilt surely wear away,.... His natural strength and animal spirits, and so his flesh; he feared his constant application and attendance to business would impair his health, break his constitution, and bring him into a consumption. Moses was naturally of a strong and vigorous constitution; for, forty years after this, even to the time of his death, his natural force was not abated; or "fading thou wilt fade", or, "falling thou wilt fall" (r); in allusion to the leaves of trees in autumn, which fade, and wither, and fall:
both thou and this people that is with thee; it was tiresome to the people, as well as fatiguing to Moses, who, because of the multitude of cases, were obliged to wait a long time, some of them from morning to night, and yet could not get their suit to come and so were obliged to attend next day, and perhaps day after day. The Targum of Jonathan is,"even thou also, Aaron and his sons, and the elders that are with them;''and so Jarchi; but these do not seem to have been assisting to him at all, as appears by what follows:
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for this thing is too heavy for thee: it was too great a burden upon his shoulders, what his strength was not equal to; for though his internal abilities were exceeding great, and he had a good will to the work, to serve God and his people, yet it was more, humanly speaking, than his bodily strength would admit of, or any mortal man could go through:
thou art not able to perform it thyself alone; and this Moses was sensible of himself afterwards, and says the same thing, Deu 1:9.
(r) "marcescendo marcesses", Montanus; so Ainsworth; "cadendo cades", Pagninus.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv17, 19 Not good - Not convenient either for thee or…
Not good - Not convenient either for thee or them.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv18, 19, 20, 21, 23 Verse 18. Thou wilt surely wear away] נבל תבל…
Verse 18. Thou wilt surely wear away] נבל תבל nabol tibbol, in wearing way, thou wilt wear away - by being thus continually employed, thou wilt soon become finally exhausted. And this people that is with thee; as if he had said, "Many of them are obliged to wait so long for the determination of their suit that their patience must be soon necessarily worn out, as there is no one to hear every cause but thyself."
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v19 Exo 18:19-23. Be thou for them to God-ward —…
Exo 18:19-23. Be thou for them to God-ward — That was an honour in which it was not fit any other should share with him. Also whatever concerned the whole congregation must pass through his hand, Exo 18:20. But he appointed judges in the several tribes and families, which should try causes between man and man, and determine them, which would be done with less noise and more despatch than in the general assembly. Those whose gifts and stations are most eminent may yet be greatly furthered in their work by the assistance of those that are every way their inferiors. This is Jethro’s advice; but he adds two qualifications to his counsel. First, That great care should be taken in the choice of the persons who should be admitted into this trust; it was requisite that they should be men of the best character. 1st, For judgment and resolution, able men — Men of good sense, that understood business; and bold men, that would not be daunted by frowns or clamours. 2d, For piety, such as fear God — Who believe there is a God above them, that his eye is upon them, and that they are accountable to him, and who therefore stand in awe of his judgment. Conscientious men, that will not do a wrong thing, though they could do it never so secretly and securely. 3d, For honesty, men of truth — Whose word one may take, and whose fidelity one may rely upon. 4th, For a generous contempt of worldly wealth; hating covetousness — Not only not seeking bribes, or aiming to enrich themselves, but abhorring the thought of it. Secondly, That he should attend to God’s direction in the case, verse
23. If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so — Jethro knew that Moses had a better counsellor than he was, and to his counsel he refers him.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv18, 19, 20, 21, 23 Thou wilt surely wear away - From decay and…
Thou wilt surely wear away - From decay and exhaustion.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv17, 18, 20, 21, 23 Good, or convenient, either for yourself, or for the…
Good, or convenient, either for yourself, or for the people. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv17, 23 Moses' father-in-law said unto him, The thing . .…
Moses' father-in-law said unto him, The thing . . . is not good--not good either for Moses himself, for the maintenance of justice, or for the satisfaction and interests of the people. Jethro gave a prudent counsel as to the division of labor [Exo 18:21-22], and universal experience in the Church and State has attested the soundness and advantages of the principle.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv18–23 18. Wear away — Hebrews, fading thou wilt fade.…
18. Wear away — Hebrews, fading thou wilt fade. That is, as a leaf that withers and decays. Excessive labour and anxiety will send the strongest and holiest man into decline.
And this people — The people as well as the judge would necessarily become weary and restless by long waiting and delay of judgment, and some, perhaps, would be tempted to go away and take the judgment into their own hands.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv18, 19, 21, 22, 23 18. wear away] The word usually means to fall…
18. wear away] The word usually means to fall and fade as a leaf (Psa_1:3); in Psa_18:45 rendered fade away (fig. of foes failing in strength and courage).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv17, 19, 21, 22, 23 (17) The thing that thou doest is not good.—Weighty…
(17) The thing that thou doest is not good.—Weighty as the arguments were, they failed to convince Jethro. He brought forward counter-arguments. By continuing to act as hitherto, Moses would, in the first place, exhaust his own strength, and, secondly exhaust the patience of the people. His practice was un advisable, both on his own account and on theirs. To keep suitors waiting all day, and perhaps finally dismiss then without their turn having come, was not fair upon them.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv17–23 Vers. 17-27. The Economy of Force.
Vers. 17-27. The Economy of Force.
thing that thou doest is not good," etc. Exo_18:17, Exo_18:18. In the error of Moses, and the amendment suggested by Jethro, are to be discovered most valuable lessons. This day in the life of Moses was a microcosm of all his days. His whole life was service. So with all true life. But in such a life mistakes are possible. We inquire then what are the Divine conditions of a life of true ministry?
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I CHARACTER. The elements were laid down by Jethro as qualifications of the new judges. Certain that Moses possessed them. So must all who aim at usefulness (ver. 21).
1. Ability. Strange that ability comes first; but so it must be. Piety without ability can adorn only obscurity. Service and responsibility demand the man of power. Ability may be natural; but is also to be acquired. Hence duty of hard work, especially in morning of life.
2. Piety. Ability is the engine of the soul, the fear of God the helm. Richard Cobden was wont to say: have no security for a man who has no religious principle." Said his colonel to Hedley Vicars, offering him in 1852 the adjutancy of his regiment: you are the man I can best trust with responsibility.
3. Truth.
4. Disinterestedness.
II ECONOMY, i.e. , of force and of resource (vers. 17, 18). Remark:
1. That the most earnest are likely to neglect it. It is not the hack but the thoroughbred that needs to be held in. The energy of Moses led him into error. So earnestness kills itself with excess of work.
2. That there is necessity for economy. As with money, one must not spend 25s. a week, if one has only 20s.; so there is a limitation as to strength (of every kind), time, and opportunity.
3. That the economy is easy. The Christian worker should not attempt that which is above, beside, or beneath his power or vocation. Nor all that is on the level of his ability.
4. That the consequences will be abundant and rich. The result of division of labour in a factory; so with spiritual enterprise, the effects will be the enrichment of the Church, and the largest service for the world.
III CONCENTRATION. The more we withdraw effort from that which is not within our own province, the more must we accumulate and concentrate energy upon that which is. R.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v17 Thou wilt surely wear away.
Exo_18:17-22
Thou wilt surely wear away.
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Undue application to laborious duties
Various lessons may be gathered from the fact that Moses was wearing himself away by undue application to the duties of his office, and that by adopting Jethros suggestion and dividing the labour he was able to spare himself and nevertheless equally secure the administration of justice.
I. We see the goodness of God in His dealings with our race in the fact that labour may be so divided that mans strength shall not be overpassed, but cannot be so divided that mans strength shall be dispensed with.
II. It is a principle sufficiently evident in the infirmity of man that he cannot give himself incessantly to labour, whether bodily or mental, but must have seasons of repose. We shrink from the thought and the mention of suicide, but there are other modes of self-destruction than that of laying hands on ones own person. There is the suicide of intemperance; there is also the suicide of overlabour. It is as much our duty to relax when we feel our strength overpassed, as to persevere while that strength is sufficient.
III. God has, with tender consideration, provided intervals of repose, and so made it mans own fault if he sink beneath excessive labour. What a beautiful ordinance is that of day and night! What a gracious appointment is that of Sunday! When the Sabbath is spent in the duties that belong to it, its influence gives fresh edge to the blunted human powers.
IV. Each one of us is apt to be engrossed with worldly things. It is well that some Jethro, some rough man from the wilderness, perhaps some startling calamity, should approach us with the message, The thing that thou doest is not good; thou wilt surely wear away.
V. At last we must all wear away, but our comfort is that, though the outer man perish, the inner man shall be renewed day by day. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Jethros advice to Moses; or, a word to ministers of the gospel
I. The power which ministers of the gospel should have. Be thou for the people to God-ward.
II. The work which ministers of the gospel should do.
1. Conduct Divine worship and establish suitable rules for the government of their people.
2. Give the right impetus to the moral and religious life of their people.
3. Explain to their people the duties devolving upon them.
III. The helps which ministers of the gospel have (Exo_18:21-22).
IV. The qualifications which ministers of the gospel should possess.
1. Devout piety.
2. Truthfulness.
3. Disinterestedness.
4. Freedom. (W. Edwards.)
Lessons
1. God may use men of mean, calling, and endowments to help for prudentials, for government in His Church.
2. The most morally good government may not be good in natural or civil respects (Exo_18:17).
3. Imprudential over-acting in doing judgment may consume rulers and people.
4. Good and righteous work may be too heavy for the best and strongest shoulders.
5. Solitariness in dealing judgment may carry great weakness in it.
6. It is good prudence to undertake burdens proportionable for strength and no more (Exo_18:18). (G. Hughes, B. D.)
Lessons
1. Supreme governors had need of subordinate to carry on the burden of government.
2. Men entrusted with government should be eminently qualified with wisdom, knowledge, courage, etc. Each endowment may give a special observation.
3. Variety of bounds for power are requisite to the various capacities of rulers (Exo_18:21).
4. Men so designed to rule ought all times reasonably to attend on judgment.
5. Matters of greatest moment have a just way of appeal from lesser to superior judges.
6. Smaller matters are reasonably to be concluded by lesser hands.
7. Such distribution of work in government maketh the burden more easy (Exo_18:22).
8. Supreme rulers managing their affairs by others according to Gods command, walk safely.
9. Prosperity to prince and people may be well expected by keeping Gods commands (Exo_18:23). (G. Hughes, B. D.)
The folly of solitary rulership
I. It causes an undue strain upon the solitary individual. Wicked men sometimes kill themselves by excess of pleasure. Good men should not kill themselves by excess of work even in the service of God. Many great lives are lost to the Church through excessive toils. The Divine Judge can never grow weary in His administration of the universe.
II. It interferes with the execution of the higher part of the judicial office. How often are ministers engaged with the technical and local when they might be engaged in the spiritual and universal. Justice needs more than administrative power; it needs spiritual discernment and those qualities of moral character which are the outcome of moral nearness to God; hence it requires men to be for the people God ward. Jesus Christ is now for the people God-ward, the one Mediator between God and man.
III. It leaves unutilized a vast number of able men quite equal to the ordinary requirements of justice. Ministers should not do all the work of the Church; they should call out latent talent for it. Society has many unrecognized judges.
IV. That this folly is evident to wise old men who see solitary judgeships in operation. Others can form a more correct estimate of our work than we can. We are too near it to take the perspective of it. We are too much interested in it to form unprejudiced judgments concerning it. Let us be open to the voice of wise old men who often speak to young men as in the fear of God. Lessons:--
1. That positions of trust should not be monopolized by the few.
2. That the common crowds of men have unsuspected abilities.
3. That good men should not be prodigal of their physical and mental energy to the shortening of their lives. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
Lessons on Exo_18:17
I. Others view our acts.
II. Others can often see faults where we cannot.
III. Others reproving us may lead to a better course of action.
Or--
I. Men should interest themselves in the acts of their relatives.
II. Men should be faithful in giving reproof and advice.
Or--
I. The wisest have some defects in their conduct.
II. The wisest may be benefited by the advice of others. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
Jethros justice of peace
Here is the archetype or first draught of magistracy. Scripture is the best man of counsel for the greatest statesman in the world.
1. It first gives order for the care and circumspection in the choice. Provide.
2. Secondly, it directs the choice by four essential characters of magistrates:--
(1) Men of ability.
(2) Fearing God.
(3) Men of truth.
(4) Hating covetousness.
3. Thirdly, it applies these four to magistrates of all degrees, in aa exact distribution of them, by way of gradation, descending step by step, from the highest to the lowest. And place such over them to be rulers--
(1) Of thousands;
(2) of hundreds;
(3) of fifties;
(4) of tens.
4. Fourthly, it prescribes to the magistrates, thus qualified and chosen, their offices, viz., to judge the people in the smaller causes, etc., and their assiduity and industry therein. And let them judge the people at all seasons, etc. And it shall be that they shall bring every great matter to thee, but every small matter they shall judge.
5. Lastly, it propounds the blessed fruit and emolument that will necessarily ensue thereupon.
(1) To Moses himself, So shall it be easier for thyself, and they shall bear the burden with thee, and thou shalt be able to endure.
(2) To the people, And all this people shall go to their place in peace. (T. Brooks.)
Need of a heroic spirit in judges
What heroical spirit had he need have, that must encounter the Hydra of sin, oppose the current of the times, and the torrent of vice, that must turn the wheel over the wicked; especially such roaring monsters, and rebellious Korahs, such lawless sons of Belial, wherewith our times swarm, who stick not to oppose with crest and breast, whosoever stand in the way of their burnouts and lusts! Surely if Jethro called for courage in those modest primitive times, and among a people newly tamed with Egyptian yokes, what do our audacious and fore-headless swaggerers require? Our lees and dregs of time, not unlike to those wherein God was fain to raise up extraordinary judges to smite hip and thigh, etc. What Atlas shall support the state of the ruinous and tottering world, in these perilous ends of time? For all these fore-named purposes, how unapt is a man of soft, timorous, and flexible nature I for whom it is as possible to steer a right course, without swerving to the left hand or right, for fear or favour, as it is for a cock-boat to keep head against wind and tide, without help of oars or sails: experience ever making this good, that cowards are slaves to their superiors, fellow-fools to their equals, tyrants to their inferiors, and windmills to popular breath, not being able to any of these to say so much as No! (T. Brooks.)
Divine ordinances of labour
How valuable is a little common-sense--and how scarce! Here was Moses, a man trained in kings palaces, deeply skilled in all the wisdom of Egypt, and yet he has to wait till Jethro comes--a mere man of the desert, before to a self-evident evil he can apply a self-evident remedy. Labour is good; but if we labour unwisely, so as to overtask and enervate our faculties, the labour which in itself is good becomes, through our perversity, an evil.
I. Labour is an ordinance of God. There is work for all, and need for every mans work, of whatever sort it may be--from thinking the thoughts or pursuing the scientific discoveries which clear the road along which the world is to advance, down to working a loom or digging a field; from managing a large estate so as to develop all its manifold capabilities of service, down to trimming its hedges or hauling its coal.
II. The division of labour is an ordinance of God. It is the wise division and distribution of labour to which we owe all the services and comforts of civilized life; and the wiser the distribution, the higher the civilization. It is this division of labour which multiplies the products of labour, and not only sets men free to invent improved methods of labour, but also puts them in the way of inventing them. If, for instance, one man could make a tent in ten days, ten men, each of whom was trained to make his separate part, would turn out not ten, but fifty or a hundred tents in the same time; and each of the ten, always handling the same tools and working on the same substance--canvas, or wood for poles and pegs, or palm fibre or hemp for ropes--would naturally improve his tools to save his pains, and discover qualities and capabilities in the substance which only long familiarity could detect. From such simple beginnings as these has risen that division of the whole civilized community into separate trades and professions, and these trades and professions again into many component elements and specialities, which multiplies its productive power to an almost infinite extent, and keeps the discovery of our means and appliances of labour up to the level of our growing numbers and wants.
III. The intromission of labour is an ordinance of God. Not only has He given us an inward monitor which warns us when mental or vital powers are overtasked, to seek out holiday mirth and recreative sports, to change the air we breathe and the scenes on which we look if perchance we may thus change the wearing current of our thoughts; He has also fixed the bounds to our labour beyond which we cannot or ought not to pass. Seven times a week the day draws to to an end, and the night comes on in which most of us, at least, are compelled to rest. Once every week, too, there returns the Day of Rest, on which we cease from our toils, and withdraw our minds from the noisy labours and corroding anxieties of traffic. And when we are over eager in our labours for present good, or what we think good, God sends some rugged Jethro--some warning sickness or calamitous loss, some sorrow that, passing through all our defences, smites and cleaves our very heart. Not because He grudges our prosperity, or would abate our happiness, but because He would have us rise to that sacred rest and satisfying peace which even adversity cannot take away, He often sends a chastening whose message, if we will hear it, is, The thing thou doest is not good. Thou wilt surely wear thyself away, and wastefully expend thy life on things which perish as you handle them. Turn ye at My reproof; for why should ye die? (S. Cox, D. D.)
Jethros advice
I. The giver of this advice. Jethro.
1. An old man. The father-in-law of Moses, who was now fully eighty years of age. Age has had experience of life. Time for observation. Old men have seen and noted causes of success and failure. Less likely than the young to give bad advice. Are less moved by passion. Taught by memory. Are near to eternity.
2. Thoughtful. His advice shows his thoughtfulness. Thought founded on observation. He saw the labour of Moses and the extent of the camp.
3. Affectionate. He was a relative of Moses. Looked kindly also on this great host of fugitives. Near relatives, amongst those who are most anxious for our welfare.
4. Disinterested. He had nothing to gain personally by giving it, save the satisfaction of his own mind and conscience.
5. Pious. Priest of Midian. Had a respect for the God of Israel. Rejoiced for all the goodness which the Lord had done to Israel (Act_11:22-24). The advice of men that fear God, who are men of prayer, and love the Bible, not to be slighted; it will be agreeable to the mind of God.
II. The receiver of this advice. Moses. He did not slight Jethros advice, although--
1. He was in direct communication with God. And we should respect the words of good men, although we have also the Word of God. We have need to be reminded of words, precepts, and promises, that we may overlook; or of laws, etc., that we may not understand.
2. He had been eminently successful. Such a man, if not humble, might have been very self-reliant; and have spurned the advice of another. Success makes some unmanageable and proud.
3. He was himself an aged man. Might have thought himself too old to be taught. As competent to give advice as Jethro. Inexperienced youth often puffed up by a little knowledge. The more one really knows the more one feels his ignorance.
4. He doubtless laid the advice he received before the Lord. Jethro made this a condition (Exo_18:23). Are we willing that the advice we give should be tested by the Word of God? Do we so test the advice we receive?
5. He acted upon it, and benefited by doing so. Much good advice is lost in this world. Evaded, though good, because of trouble, or indifference, or pride. The character of the adviser, or his opinion on other matters, made an excuse for neglecting his words. Will God excuse the neglecter?
Learn--
1. To do good by word and deed, as we have opportunity, unto all men.
2. To get good, from all men, as opportunity offers. (J. C. Gray.)
Exhausting labour
Dr. Holland, after Mr. Bowless death, wrote as follows: As I think of my old associate and the earnest, exhausting work he was doing when I was with him, he seems to me like a great golden vessel, rich in colour and roughly embossed, filled with the elixir of life, which he poured out without the slightest stint for the consumption of this people. We did not know when we tasted it, and found it so charged with zest, that we were tasting hearts blood, but that was the priceless element that commended it to our appetites. A pale man, weary and nervous, crept home at midnight, or at one, two, or three oclock in the morning, and while all nature was fresh and the birds were singing, and the eyes of thousands were bending eagerly over the results of his nights labour, he was tossing and trying to sleep. Yet this work, so terrible in its exactions and its consequences, was the joy of this mans life--it was his life. (H. O. Mackey.)
A proposal for the public good
After Marcus Valerius had gained two great victories over the Sabines, in one of which he did not lose a single soldier, he was rewarded with a triumph, and a house was built for him upon Mount Palatine. The doors of the Roman houses generally opened inwards, but this was built to open outwards, to show that he who dwelt there was ready to listen to any proposal made to him for the public good.
God-fearing men for responsible positions
One of Stonewall Jacksons peculiarities was to select for his chief of staff, not a military man, but a Presbyterian clergyman, a professor in a theological seminary, and to clothe him with the power of carrying out his mysterious orders when he was temporarily absent. In this he acted as did the greatest of all English commanders--Oliver Cromwell; who always surrounded himself with men of prayer. ( H. O. Mackey.)
Setting others to work
One of the best qualifications of a minister is the ability to set the membership at work. It is said that Mr. Spurgeon asks every person seeking admission to membership in his church. Well, if you are received, what individual work are you going to take up and carry on for the Lord? As a result, he has now enrolled in his church register, 5,756 communicants, who represent just so many willing workers under his leadership. He saves his own strength by doing nothing that his hearers can do equally well. And every minister who tries can carry the same rule into practice with a membership of one hundred as well as five thousand. Many ministers fritter away valuable time in doing what the laity might do as well, and sometimes better, for them. (Christian Age.)
Justice to be done in small matters
In one of the police courts up town in New York, one morning not long since, a very small boy in knickerbockers appeared. He had a dilapidated cap in one hand, and a green cotton bag in the other. Behind him came a big policeman, with a grin on his face. Please, sir, are you the judge? he asked in a voice that had a queer little quiver in it. I am, my boy. What can I do for you? asked the justice, as he looked wonderingly down at the mite before him. If you please, sir, Im Johnny Moore. Im seven years old, and I live in One Hundred and Twenty-third street, near the avenue; and the only good place to play miggles on is in the front of a lot near our house, where the ground is smooth. But a butcher on the corner, that hasnt any more right to the place than we have, keeps his waggon standing there; and this morning we were playing at miggles there, and he drove us away, and took six of mine, and threw them away off over the fence into the lot. And I went to the police-station; and they laughed at me and told me to come here and tell you about it. The big policeman and the spectators began to laugh, and the complainant at the bar trembled so violently with mingled indignation and fright that the marbles in his little green bag rattled together. The justice, however, rapped sharply on the desk, and quickly brought everybody to dead silence. You did perfectly right, my boy, said he, gravely, to come here and tell me about it. You have as much right to your six marbles as the richest man in this city has to his bank account. If every American citizen had as much regard for his rights as you show, there would be far less crime. And you, sir, he added, turning to the big policeman, you go with this little man to that butcher and make him pay for those marbles, or else arrest him and bring him here. You see this boy knew that his rights had been interfered with, and he went to the one having authority to redress his wrongs. He did not throw stones or say naughty words, but in a manly, dignified way demanded his rights. (S. S. Chronicle.)
Freedom of resort
It is an honourable memorial that James the Fifth, King of Scots, hath left behind him, that he was called the poor mans king; and it is said of Radolphus Hapsburgius, that seeing some of his guard repulsing divers poor persons that made towards him for relief, was very much displeased, and charged them to suffer the poorest to have access unto him, saying, that he was called to the empire not to be shut up in a chest, as reserved for some few, but to be where all might have freedom of resort unto him. (J. Spencer.)
Spiritual vocation the highest
Jethro counselled Moses to be for the people God-ward, that he might bring the causes unto God. The highest of all vocations is the spiritual. It is greater to pray than to rule. Moses was to set himself at the highest end of the individual, political, and religious life of Israel, and to occupy the position of intercessor. He was to be the living link between the people and their God. Is not this the proper calling of the preacher? He is not to be a mere politician in the Church, he is not to enter into the detail of organization with the scrupulous care of a conscientious hireling: he is deeply and lovingly to study the truth as it is in Jesus, that he may be prepared to enrich the minds and stimulate the graces of those who hear him. He is to live so closely with God, that his voice shall be to them as the voice of no other man, a voice from the better world, calling the heart to worship, to trust, and to hope, and through the medium of devotion to prepare men for all the engagements of common life. The preacher is to live apart from the people, in order that he may in spiritual sympathy live the more truly with them. He is not to stand afar off as an unsympathetic priest, but to live in the secret places of the Most High, that he may from time to time most correctly repronounce the will of God to all who wait upon his ministry. When preachers live thus, the pulpit will reclaim its ancient power, and fill all rivalry with confusion and shame. Let the people themselves manage all subordinate affairs; call up all the business talent that is in the Church, and honour all its successful and well-meant experiments; give every man to feel that he has an obligation to answer. When you have done this, go yourself, O man of God, to the temple of the Living One, and acquaint yourself deeply with the wisdom and grace of God, that you may be as an angel from heaven when you come to speak the word of life to men who are worn by the anxieties and weakened by the temptations of a cruel world. Many a man inquires, half in petulance and half in self-justification, What more can I possibly do than I am already doing? Let the case of Moses be the answer. The question in his case was not whether he was doing enough, but whether he was not doing too much in one special direction. Some of the talent that is given to business might be more profitably given to devotion, Rule less, and pray more. Spare time from the business meeting that you may have leisure for communion with God. (J. Parker, D. D.)
How to receive counsel
He might have thought: what presumption in this Midianite to dictate to the ambassador of Jehovah! But Moses was a man of a very different spirit. In Montreal, some years ago, a certain English nobleman who had been recently converted, and was preaching the gospel to large multitudes who gathered to hear him, unfortunately had his heart lifted up within him, and began to speak bitterly and scornfully of the Churches of Christ in the city. An excellent and revered Presbyterian elder approached the young nobleman in the kindest way, spoke with great appreciation of the value of his work in preaching the gospel, but suggested that it would be better for the cause if he would cease abusing Christians and Christian Churches, and confine himself to the preaching of Christ. In reply he curled his lip in scorn, and said, I take my counsel from the Lord! What a contrast between the grand nobleman of the olden time, and the small one of yesterday. Moses might with some reason have claimed a monopoly of Divine counsel. God had chosen him out from all other men to make known His will to him; but when Jethro, though an outsider, and one who had only good common sense on his side, makes his suggestion, Moses does not scorn to listen to his advice, and take it too. And the event showed that the Lord fully approved His servants course. (J. M. Gibson, D. D.)
Division of labour
We recognize the value of the principle of division of labour in manufactures, because there it cheapens the manufactured article, but we fail to see its importance in our own work, because there, in the first instance, it involves additional outlay. We cannot get a man competent to be the head of a department without paying him a handsome salary; for responsibility means character, and character always commands its price. So, to divide our work into so many departments, and to put over each a thoroughly capable man whom we will hold to a rigid account, requires the immediate expenditure of a large amount of money, and we say we cannot afford it. But all this is a shortsighted policy, for, in the long run, the greater amount of business done will more than reimburse the original outlay; and, in addition, you can go home, not to fret and worry over trifles, but to be the companion of your wife and the guide and director of your children. Moreover, instead of breaking down hopelessly under the strain of carrying everything on your own shoulders, and requiring to go abroad for years, or, it may be, to leave business altogether, your strength remains unimpaired--nay, perhaps it even increases; and you have the satisfaction of seeing your home happy, and your children growing up to follow in your footsteps, and to declare that their God is dearer to them because He is the God of their father.. . . One said to me, when I began my ministry, Never do yourself what you can get another to do for you as well as you can do it yourself; and though I confess that I have not acted on the maxim as much as I ought to have done, I see the wisdom of it more clearly, the longer I live. Divide et impera, was the maxim of the old Roman general--divide and conquer; and by dividing our labour into many sections, and holding some one responsible for each, we shall do more, we shall do it better, and we shall work longer than would be otherwise possible. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v21
Exodus
THE IDEAL STATESMAN 1
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Exo 18:21.
You will have anticipated my purpose in selecting this text. I should be doing violence to your feelings and mine if I made no reference to the event which has united the Empire and the world in one sentiment. The great tree has fallen, and the crash has for the moment silenced all the sounds of the forest. Wars abroad and controversies at home are hushed. All men, of all schools of opinion, creeds, and parties, see now, in the calm face of the dead, ‘the likeness to the great of old’; and it says something, with all our faults, for the soundness of the heart of English opinion, that all sorts and conditions of men have brought their sad wreaths to lay them on that coffin.
But, whilst much has been said, far more eloquently and authoritatively than I can say it, about the many aspects of that many-sided life, surely it becomes us, as Christian people, to look at it from the distinctively Christian point of view, and to gather some of the lessons which, so regarded, it teaches us.
My text is part of the sagacious advice which Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, gave him about the sort of men that he should pick out to be his lieutenants in civic government. Its old-fashioned, simple phraseology may hide from some of us the elevation and comprehensiveness of the ideal that it sets forth. But it is a grand ideal; and amongst the great names of Englishmen who have guided the destinies of this land, none have approached more nearly to it than he whose death has taken away the most striking personality from our public life.
So let me ask you to look with me, first, at the ideal of a politician that is set forth here.
The free life of the desert, far away from the oppressions of surrounding military despotisms, that remarkable and antique constitution of the clan, with all its beautiful loyalty, had given this Arab sheikh a far loftier conception of what a ruler of men was than he could have found exemplified at Pharaoh’s court; or than, alas! has been common in many so-called Christian countries. The field upon which he intended that these great qualities should be exercised was a very limited one, to manage the little affairs of a handful of fugitives in the desert. But the scale on which we work has nothing to do with the principles by which we work, and the laws of perspective and colouring are the same, whether you paint the minutest miniature or a gigantic fresco. So what was needed for managing the little concerns of Moses’ wanderers in the wilderness is the ideal of what is needed for the men who direct the public affairs of world-wide empires.
Let me run over the details. They must be ‘able men,’ or, as the original has it, ‘men of strength.’ There is the intellectual basis, and especially the basis of firm, brave, strongly-set will which will grasp convictions, and, whatever comes, will follow them to their conclusions. The statesman is not one that puts his ear down to the ground to hear the tramp of some advancing host, and then makes up his mind to follow in their paths; he is not sensitive to the varying winds of public opinion, nor does he trim his sails to suit them, but he comes to his convictions by first-hand approach to, and meditation on, the great principles that are to guide, and then holds to them with a strength that nothing can weaken, and a courage that nothing can daunt. ‘Men of strength’ is what democracies like ours do most need in their leaders; a ‘strong man, in a blatant land,’ who knows his own mind, and is faithful to it for ever. That is a great demand.
‘Such as fear God’-there is the secret of strength, not merely in reference to the intellectual powers which are not dependent for their origin, though they may be for the health and vigour of their work, upon any religious sentiment, but in regard to all true power. He that would govern others must first be lord of himself, and he only is lord of himself who is consciously and habitually the servant of God. So that whatever natural endowment we start with, it must be heightened, purified, deepened, enlarged, by the presence in our lives of a deep and vital religious conviction. That is true about all men, leaders and led, large and small. That is the bottom-heat in the greenhouse, as it were, that will make riper and sweeter all the fruits which are the natural result of natural capacities. That is the amulet and the charm which will keep a man from the temptations incident to his position and the weaknesses incident to his character. The fear of God underlies the noblest lives. That is not to-day’s theory. We are familiar with the fact, and familiar with the doctrine formulated out of it, that there may be men of strong and noble lives and great leaders in many a department of human activity without any reference to the Unseen. Yes, there may be, but they are all fragments, and the complete man comes only when the fear of the Lord is guide, leader, impulse, polestar, regulator, corrector, and inspirer of all that he is and all that he does.
‘Men of truth’-that, of course, glances at the crooked ways which belong not only to Eastern statesmanship, but it does more than that. He that is to lead men must himself be led by an eager haste to follow after, and to apprehend, the very truth of things. And there must be in him clear transparent willingness to render his utmost allegiance, at any sacrifice, to the dawning convictions that may grow upon him. It is only fools that do not change. Freshness of enthusiasm, and fidelity to new convictions opening upon a man, to the end of his life, are not the least important of the requirements in him who would persuade and guide individuals or a nation.
‘Hating covetousness’; or, as it might be rendered, ‘unjust gain.’ That reference to the ‘oiling of the palms’ of Eastern judges may be taken in a loftier signification. If a man is to stand forth as the leader of a people, he must be clear, as old Samuel said that he was, from all suspicion of having been following out his career for any form of personal advantage. ‘Clean hands,’ and that not only from the vulgar filth of wealth, but from the more subtle advantages which may accrue from a lofty position, are demanded of the leader of men.
Such is the ideal. The requirements are stern and high, and they exclude the vermin that infest ‘politics,’ as they are called, and cause them to stink in many nostrils. The self-seeking schemer, the one-eyed partisan, the cynic who disbelieves in ideals of any sort, the charlatan who assumes virtues that he does not possess, and mouths noble sentiments that go no deeper than his teeth, are all shut out by them. The doctrine that a man may do in his public capacity things which would be disgraceful in private life, and yet retain his personal honour untarnished, is blown to atoms by this ideal. It is much to be regretted, and in some senses to be censured, that so many of our wisest, best, and most influential men stand apart from public life. Much of that is due to personal bias, much more of it is due to the pressure of more congenial duties, and not a little of it is due to the disregard of Jethro’s ideal, and to the degradation of public life which has ensued thereby. But there have been great men in our history whose lives have helped to lift up the ideal of a statesman, who have made such a sketch as Jethro outlined, though they may not have used his words, their polestar; and amongst the highest of these has been the man whose loss we to-day lament.
Let me try to vindicate that expression of opinion in a word or two. I cannot hope to vie in literary grace, or in completeness, with the eulogies that have been abundantly poured out; and I should not have thought it right to divert this hour of worship from its ordinary themes, if I had had no more to say than has been far better said a thousand times in these last days. But I cannot help noticing that, though there has been a consensus of admiration of, and a practically unanimous pointing to, character as after all the secret of the spell which Mr. Gladstone has exercised for two generations, there has not been, as it seems to me, equal and due prominence given to what was, and what he himself would have said was, the real root of his character and the productive cause of his achievements.
And so I venture now to say a word or two about the religion of the man that to his own consciousness underlay all the rest of him. It is not for me to speak, and there is no need to speak, about the marvellous natural endowments and the equally marvellous, many-sided equipment of attainment which enriched the rich, natural soil. Intermeddling as he did with all knowledge, he must necessarily have been but an amateur in many of the subjects into which he rushed with such generous eagerness. But none the less is the example of all but omnivorous acquisitiveness of everything that was to be known, a protest, very needful in these days, against the possible evils of an excessive specialising which the very progress of knowledge in all departments seems to make inevitable. I do not need to speak, either, of the flow, and sometimes the torrent, of eloquence ever at his command, nor of the lithe and sinewy force of his extraordinarily nimble, as well as massive, mind; nor need I say more than one word about the remarkable combination of qualities so generally held and seen to be incompatible, which put into one personality a genius for dry arithmetical figures and a genius for enthusiasm and sympathy with all the oppressed. All these things have been said far better than I can say them, and I do not repeat them.
But I desire to hammer this one conviction into your hearts and my own, that the inmost secret of that noble life, of all that wealth of capacity, all that load of learning, which he bore lightly like a flower, was the fact that the man was, to the very depths of his nature, a devout Christian. He would have been as capable, as eloquent, and all the rest of it, if he had been an unbeliever. But he would never have been nor done what he was and did, and he would never have left the dint of an impressive and lofty personality upon a whole nation and a world, if beneath the intellect there had not been character, and beneath character Christianity.
He was far removed, in ecclesiastical connections, from us Nonconformists, and he held opinions in regard to some very important ecclesiastical questions which cut straight across some of our deepest convictions. We never had to look for much favour from his hands, because his intellectual atmosphere removed him far from sympathy with many of the truths which are dearest to the members of the Free Evangelical Churches. But none the less we recognise in him a brother in Jesus Christ, and rejoice that there, on the high places of a careless and sceptical generation, there stood a Christian man.
In this connection I cannot but, though I have no right to do so, express how profoundly thankful I, for one, was to the present Prime Minister of England that in his brief eulogium on, I was going to say, his great rival, he ended all by the emphatic declaration that Mr. Gladstone was, first and foremost, a great Christian man. Yes; and there was the secret, as I have already said, not of his merely political eminence, but of the universal reverence which a nation expresses to-day. All detraction is silenced, and all calumnies have dropped away, as filth from the white wings of a swan as it soars, and with one voice the Empire and the world confess that he was a great and a good man.
I need not dwell in detail on the thoughts of how, by reason of this deep underlying fear of God, the other qualifications which are sketched in our ideal found their realisation in him; how those who, all through his career, smiled most at the successive enthusiasms which monopolised his mind, and sometimes at the contrasts between these, are now ready to admit that, whether the enthusiasms were right or wrong, there is something noble in the spectacle of a man ever keeping his mind, even when its windows were beginning to be dimmed by the frosts of age, open to the beams of new truth. And the greatest, as some people think, of his political blunders, as we are beginning, all of us, to recognise, now that party strife is hushed, was the direct consequence of that ever fresh and youthful enthusiasm for new thoughts and new lines of action. Innovators aged eighty are not too numerous.
Nor need I say more than one word about the other part of the ideal, ‘hating covetousness.’ The giver of peerages by the bushel died a commoner. The man that had everything at his command made no money, nor anything else, out of his long years of office, except the satisfaction of having been permitted to render what he believed to be the highest of service to the nation that he loved so well. Like our whilom neighbour, the other great commoner, John Bright, he lived among his own people; and like Samuel, of whom I have already spoken, he could stretch out his old hands and say, ‘They are clean.’ One scarcely feels as if, to such a life, a State funeral in Westminster Abbey was congruous. One had rather have seen him laid among the humble villagers who were his friends and companions, and in the quiet churchyard which his steps had so often traversed. But at all events the ideal was realised, and we all know what it was.
Might I say one word more? As this great figure passes out of men’s sight to nobler work, be sure, on widened horizons corresponding to his tutored and exercised powers, does he leave no lessons behind for us? He leaves one very plain, homely one, and that is, ‘Work while it is called to-day.’ No opulence of endowment tempted this man to indolence, and no poverty of endowment will excuse us for sloth. Work is the law of our lives; and the more highly we are gifted, the more are we bound to serve.
He leaves us another lesson. Follow convictions as they open before you, and never think that you have done growing, or have reached your final stage.
He leaves another lesson. Do not suppose that the Gospel of Jesus Christ cannot satisfy the keenest intellect, nor dominate the strongest will. It has come to be a mark of narrowness and fossilhood to be a devout believer in Christ and His Cross. Some of you young men make an easy reputation for cleverness and advanced thought by the short and simple process of disbelieving what your mother taught you. Here is a man, probably as great as you are, with as keen an intellect, and he clung to the Cross of Christ, and had for his favourite hymn-
‘Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.’
He leaves another lesson. If you desire to make your characters all that it is in them to be made, you must, like him, go to Jesus Christ, and get your teaching and your inspiration from that great Lord. We cannot all be great men. Never mind. It is character that tells; we can all be good men, and we can all be Christian men. And whether we build cottages or palaces, if we build on one foundation, and only if we do, they will stand.
Moses leaves another lesson, as he glides into the past. ‘This man, having served his generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was gathered to his fathers, and saw corruption’; but He ‘whom God hath raised up saw no corruption.’ The lamps are quenched, the sun shines. Moses dies, ‘The prophets, do they live for ever?’ but when Moses and Elias faded from the Mount of Transfiguration ‘the apostles saw no man any more, save Jesus only,’ and the voice said, ‘This is My beloved Son; hear ye Him.’
1 Preached on occasion of Mr. Gladstone’s death.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv19, 21 Hearken now unto my voice
Hearken now unto my voice
(Cf) Num 11:14-17. Jehovah entirely ignored this worldly-wise organization, substituting His own order.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv17, 21 You will surely wear yourselves out
You will surely wear yourselves out
"you will surely make yourselves very tired"
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This burden is too heavy for you
Jethro speaks of the hard work that Moses is doing as if it were a physical burden that Moses was carrying. AT: "This work is too much for you" (See: Metaphor)
you advice
"you guidance" or "you instruction"
God will be with you
Jethro speaks of God helping Moses as if God would be with Moses. AT: "God will help you" or "God will give you wisdom" (See: Metaphor)
you bring their disputes to him
Jethro speaks of Moses telling God about their disputes as if Moses were bringing their disputes to God. AT: "you tell God about their disputes" or "you tell God what they are arguing about" (See: Metaphor)
You must show them the way to walk
Jethro speaks of living or behaving like walking. AT: "You must show them how to live" or "You must show them how to behave" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
burden
law, laws
walk
works
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv17, 19 18:17-18 Such a leader-centered approach is not good for…
18:17-18 Such a leader-centered approach is not good for either the leader or the people (see also 18:23).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.