What is God's way to manage people? Another way of asking that question would be: “Is there a biblical management strategy that God gives us?”
God entrusts you, perhaps among your friends, to manage an event. Or in a family, as a parent, to manage your children, and your household affairs. How do you manage that group of people? What are God 's principles, in managing people maybe within a cell group, or a small group, or a church? How do you manage groups of people? What does God expect for us?
Always when God asks us to do something, He teaches us in his word, and in the first books of the Bible there are so many key principles. I want us to continue in our series in the book of Exodus. In Exodus 18 we learn from the life of Moses about management principles. We learn what God taught Moses after Jethro, his father-in-law, came and they were reconciled as a family? Jethro seems to have put his faith in the living God, and now Jethro stays on.
In Exodus 18:13, it says: “The next day Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening. 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 and why do you alone sit as judge, while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?’ Moses answered him, “Because the people come to me to seek God’s will. Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God’s decrees and laws.” 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. Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, may God be with you. You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to him. Teach them the decrees and laws, and show them the way to live and the duties they are to perform. But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with 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. He chose capable men from all Israel and made them leaders of the people, officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. They served as judges for the people at all times. The difficult cases they brought to Moses, but the simple ones they decided themselves. Then Moses sent his father-in-law on his way, and Jethro returned to his own country.
Before becoming a Christian I studied for a commerce degree at Wits university. Some of my majors in my last years were economics and business economics, as they were (and remain) an interest to me at the time. Then, when I became a Christian, I always kept a look-out. I still read the economic news and the business times. I’m continually thinking about solutions for the economy, my community and for God 's church, looking with the eyes of faith at what God is doing. I remember an early lesson I learned as a pastor. When I was a young pastor in Pretoria, some of the members of the church invited me and Marianne to go and do a tour of the Samancor car factory in Pretoria East, and I found it very impressive. It was interesting to see the assembly line where the car started off, with just one little part, and each section of the assembly line added something more. And at the end of the assembly line these beautiful shiny new cars left the factory. There were even robots they were using in those days. There were hundreds and hundreds of people working on that assembly line. The public relations officer explained to us, as a little tour party, something of the philosophy of Samancor - which was a Japanese company and still is to this day. The philosophy they were using at the time was a philosophy called “kaizen”. “Kaizen” meant that the workforce was broken up into teams. Each team competed against the other teams to do their section of the work on the production line in the most effective way. If they were the team that put the door handles on the door of the car they were to do it faster and better than any other team, and speed up their section. They told the story that the teams were rewarded. The team that won in the year that we went for the tour, was the team that took the accelerator cables and the clutch cables and mounted them into place under the car. The interesting thing was, they discovered that each cable for each different make of car had a different length and a different fitting. When they hung them up on a rotating stand they could immediately see which cable was which. They grabbed the cable, fitted it in underneath the car and the car moved on to the next station. That particular accelerator cable station, in a sense, was the secret. It was the station that won the prize to travel to Japan, a free all-expenses-paid trip as a reward for that team. The purpose of the exercise was of course to improve productivity, and they won simply by being part of a team, working together and doing what “kaizen” was teaching them to do.
I went home after that experience and thought about how impressive “kaizen” was and thought about all the economic advantages of it. But then I was reading my Bible and this passage came up in my readings with God, and I noticed that 3500 years before “kaizen” was even an idea out of Japan, here God was giving a very similar principle. This was not a Japanese idea - this was God's idea.
For God gives us and all these people everywhere a management strategy for society, a management strategy for any group of people and a management strategy for us, as His church, the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. What are these aspects of the strategy?
Well, the first thing that we see from how Jethro taught Moses was: there was an aspect of observation and evaluation. Here God records in His word that Jethro, the high priest of Midian, whom as we saw last week, had now become a believer in the one, true, triune God. He saw all that Moses was doing and it records there in verse 14 that he asked some very important questions.
We must remember for a moment that this was a three-month-old nation. They were a baby nation. They had no government. They had no police, no more slave drivers beating them, no more magistrates there managing things, no more judicial system. They had only Moses who was leading them through the desert with God, as they followed, that pillar of cloud. And so how do you govern approximately two and a half million people?
So what does Jethro do? He asks some questions: ‘What are you doing?’ and ‘Why are you doing this?’ Those are two very important questions to ask. ‘What are you doing?’ and ‘Why are you doing this?’ We, as Christians, need to do the same thing. We need to look at our circumstances and ask: What are we doing? We need to look at society and ask: What are we doing? And look at our church and ask: What are we doing? And then secondly, ‘Why?’ ‘Why are we doing what we're doing?’ And have good biblical answers for what we do.
When we look at society, we saw during the Covid crisis there was a decline in prostitution. But now again it seems to be coming back. We see crime increasing - the thefts in our area are growing again. We see immorality increasing. We see there's more corruption again and we see reports coming out of that. So the question is, ‘What is happening?’ ‘Why is it happening?’ and what is God's will for those situations? How can you play a part where God has put you? Perhaps to be a whistle-blower, to expose corruption? And how does God want to protect you when he calls you to that difficult job?
Observation and evaluation are the first steps in a management strategy but the second step is then identifying the problem. Problem identification is here spelled out for us. Jethro sees and says in verse 17 Moses’ way of doing things, is not good. The fruit of poor management is that Moses and the people are weary. Moses was involved in very draining work where his mind was tested, his emotions were stretched, his strength was sapped. He was over 80 years old and now we even later on read in Numbers 11:11-12, that he eventually cracks under certain circumstances.
Maybe you can picture for a moment Moses’ office. Maybe Moses was one of those people that had a big plaque in his office that said: ‘If you want to do a job right, do it yourself.’ The only problem with that motto for life is it wipes you out and it wipes all the people out around you. It exhausts the people.
Society would collapse because of structural failure if Moses did not change his management style. Now Moses was God's man to represent the people, and the problem that he had was he had to keep representing the people's problems before God and get God's answers and present them back to the people and teach the people God's ways. Prayer, spending time with God, was a high priority and that was being chewed up by listening to these problems. Perhaps the tent pegs were tripping up their neighbours, and this issue was causing conflict. So-and-so was borrowing a baking pan and not returning it on time. You can just imagine the many little niggles among two and a half million people.
It's a bit like Martin Luther, who himself had to learn that lesson, as God led him to be part of the Reformation and reforming the church in his day and bringing health back to a sick church. Martin Luther tells us that he had to devote up to three hours a day just praying and seeking spiritual and political solutions to the issues that were raised by him asking questions, observing and evaluating in his day. In the same way Moses was to be a signpost, like Martin Luther, many centuries later he would be pointing people to the way to live.
That is the first and most important role of any pastor or elder - to pray, seek God's will and point people, teach God's way, to the people. Just as Jesus Christ is now interceding for you and me at the right hand of the Father. Jesus is talking to the Father about your needs and mine. He is speaking to the Father about the issues that we are bringing to Him in prayer. In the same way we mirror and copy what Jesus has done, and we are to be open and accessible, and speak to God without wearing ourselves out with the many little things that take place. That's why the prayer life of a leader is critical.
Our relationship with God is of primary importance and so the question is, if you are to lead, I need to ask you: Are you, firstly, praying? Praying maybe just in your family, if you're a mother or a father, are you praying daily, specifically and in a directed way for those under your care? Praying for those little or big children God entrusted to you? Praying for those people in your workplace, those people in society around you, your neighbours, those people in the church, in your cell group - are you praying? Are you praying, for instance, for me as a pastor, for the other pastors? Are you praying for the elders and the deacons? Are you praying for the missionaries on the field? Are you just doing what you can through prayer? Or maybe, are you just leaving it to them out there on the battlefield, in a sense, without somebody holding up their hands as Aaron and Hur did for Moses when they fought the Amalekites?
That's one of the first places where we learn that we need to identify the problem. As you talk to God, know exactly what is wrong. As you observe and evaluate, as you identify the problem, thirdly, you need to then delegate responsibility. Delegate responsibility and delegate authority to do what you see needs to be done now. People with responsibility in this passage were over 10 or 50 or 100 or a 1000 people here, and they were to be voted in and appointed by the majority. There they were to judge cases on their degree of difficulty and to refer only difficult cases to Moses, as the Supreme Court, in a sense, under God. Then God would direct Moses. There was then a clear formal structure that God was putting into place, within the society. That structure to be set up would have a chain of command, which people were to follow - going first to the one that was over them as 10, then over the 50, then over the 100, over the 1000, and then ultimately, to Moses and God. They were to report back.
We see the same thing in our society when we have a problem. We maybe call the responsible official in our area, we then maybe speak to our community leaders. We perhaps speak to the city council. We then refer that to the mayor and to the provincial council and then to the government, and ultimately to the State President. Or, if it's a legal matter, to the Supreme Court - whatever the case might be. But we have structures within society that God has called us to have, and the same applies to the church. If society is doing it, we need to learn from those structures for a growing church. If it's growing, we need structures to care for one another.
In Acts 6 we see how the apostles appointed a benevolence committee. How they cared for the widows equally and set up structures so that those that the apostles, elders and pastors within the church have enough time to study God's word, to teach it and to pray. Of course they were still there to help out practically where necessary. But it's not wise for Elders and Pastors to be spending all their time doing the maintenance, for instance, and not spending time in prayer. That would defeat the very purpose of the body of Christ. We need to know God's way organising His local Body. To often, people perish for lack of knowledge. Church leaders are to teach the full counsel of God’s Word faithfully. There is a need to delegate responsibility and authority as we do the hard spiritual work. We have pastors, elders, deacons, our cell group leaders, departmental leaders, small group leaders, and even in Sunday school classes you have teachers there. Over and over we have a chain of command, in a sense, a chain of responsibility and care that goes up and down. There is a delegation of responsibility and authority.
Notice something - that everybody in all of those steps or stages are to be quality people. The fourth thing we see is the personnel criteria. You can't just have a good structure where everybody is corrupt, all the way up the chain. We've seen that in our own country, how corruption has corroded and destroyed so much in our country. In the same way verse 21 gives us three personnel criteria. Firstly, they are to be God-fearing people. They are to be people who do not want to offend God, but love God enough to fear Him and stand in awe of Him as the living God. Secondly, it's truth-loving. Jesus is the Truth. He has given us the Bible as His truth, which the Holy Spirit applies to our lives. I’ve seen that when somebody's doing something wrong, the first sign of problems, is they start to tell little lies, then big lies. “No, I’ll do this” and they don't do it. They need to love truth and speak the truth and live it out. Thirdly, they need to hate dishonest gain. They must have nothing to do with corruption or compromise, in any way. There needs to be a moral integrity about them.
It is of primary importance that we trust God with our lives. We need to put our faith in Jesus Christ. Then as a believer, get the very best education this world can offer. We need to do all of that spiritual and intellectual work, but always remember that more important than the best education, is our moral character. Integrity is of greater importance than our intellectual qualities. I’ve met some very clever people mentally, but without integrity they become clever crooks, deceiving more and more people rather than making a difference for good. They've lied even to their wives and their children. The problem with moral failure is that somebody is always suspicious, and somebody knows. Realize that your moral character is what God calls you to work on.
There is a sense in which moral character will get you further in this life, and in the life to come. Only those of faith and integrity will share with Jesus in the new heaven and the new earth, and that's why we need to seek these characteristics. In the same way, if you're looking for a Godly wife, as a young man today, these are the characteristics you ought to look for in a wife. As it tells us in Proverbs 31, Godly women need to fear God, they need to love truth and hate dishonest gain. The same personnel criteria apply in the New Testament for church leaders in 1 Timothy 3. Deacons and Elders all need to fear God, love truth and hate dishonest gain. In Acts 6 it is the same personnel criteria for the finances and benevolence committee.
The question is to ask yourself: Do I firstly know Jesus Christ? Is He my Lord and Saviour? Am I born again and am I letting Him mould my character, my moral character, so that I fear Him? You never want to offend God. You love truth, you work at that, you work at speaking the truth carefully and with clarity. You flee corruption and you hate dishonest gain? You don't take a bribe, you won't compromise, you won't cut corners, you will do what is right each and every time? That's the test. Then you will be the right personnel for the body of Christ, to serve Him in progressively better ways over time.
There is a fifth management strategy that is implied here in this passage, and that is transparency and sharing the load. The fruit of a biblical management structures will be leaders who can stand the strain. Leaders who can go for longer than a year, or two, or five, but lead for twenty or thirty years. Moses went for forty years. Only once he blew it in forty years. There in verse 23, you see people who go home satisfied by the leadership style. As verse 23 puts it, the leaders can stand the strain and the people are built up. Wise leaders listen to counsel. Wise leaders learn from the Jethro’s in their lives.
I remember as a young pastor thinking, “Oh I’ve learned so much at college, do I really need to go to another seminar? What can a seminar teach me?” However, when I went to seminars and realized that in every seminar there's something more that I can add to my toolkit, I realized that just like doctors need to go to continuous education courses, and accountants need to go and get advanced taxation insights, and lawyers need to know what the latest law is all about. Likewise, pastors also need to sharpen their tools, to understand the times and know what's happening, so that they continue to grow in these days. I’ve learned that we all need our Jethro’s - those who are perhaps a few steps along, further on the path, that Jesus has called us to follow Him on.
Just as the apostles needed more time for prayer and for preaching, rather than waiting on the tables, so it is in our church that there is a time that we all get stuck in and do the maintenance, but there is a time when that maintenance is done by those who are better equipped. Those who are faithful in the little things, Jesus entrusts with a little bit more, and a little bit more. We need to learn some important lessons here. God is the one that gives you a management strategy for where He has placed you, within your family, within society, within the church.
If it's in society, for instance, then you need to observe and evaluate, you need to identify the problem, you need to delegate responsibility and authority, you need to get the right personnel that are God-fearing, love the truth and hate dishonest gain, and then you need to be transparent and share the load. That of course prevents corruption, which we see eating away at society when the wrong people have been put into the wrong places. The Biblical management strategy will cut down on crime, as people turn to God. It'll deal with the social ills that we see all around us. Those who can, must act within society.
Maybe God has put you there to deal with the street lights in your street, to deal with the potholes in your road that you report. May you take the time, the five minutes or whatever, to get on your app and report that problem to the authorities.
Most of us, of course, are within the body of Christ, in the church, and it's also in the church that God gives management strategies. We have the planning meeting, we have structures, we have areas where you can serve, where you are to be faithful. Maybe applying these management strategies in the small group. We've got those e-group questions to use in your home, after you hear message each Sunday and apply them in your life and your small group of influence. Then as you are faithful in the little things God entrusts you with bigger things, all the time growing you to maturity.
My question to you is this: “What does God want you to do? Are you equipping yourself to do what He is calling you to do? Are you practicing everywhere to be a good manager? Do you wisely manage what God has given you authority over? Are you a good steward of those people for whom you are responsible?”
The Bible gives us wonderful examples of the division of labour. So I need to ask you: “What job can you do? And what job can you share with others that you're already doing?” Train up others, always going out two by two, and involving others, perhaps lightening the load of someone else. I know that sometimes in my little spot the load is heavy, and we all need one another. If we all pull together, God can do great things in us, and through us. Ultimately He is preparing you to do eternal things in a new heaven and a new earth. A perfect world that is going to need many managers and mayors and state presidents in this new heaven and a new earth.
Have you ever thought that your faithfulness now on earth will have eternal consequences? Will God be able to use you in a new Jerusalem, or a new Johannesburg, or a new Cape Town, or wherever God has put you? May God bless you as you are faithful.
Let's pray together: “O Lord Jesus, thank you for these management principles that You give us in Your word. Thank you that long before industrial society came along, and the Japanese came up with ‘kaizen’, or anybody else thought of these things in some management school, You in Your Word have recorded for us management principles. Help us to apply them in our lives personally and our families. Help us to apply them in our church, in our society, in our country, in this continent that is so diverse, and across the world. May we be the lights of society in a dark world. May we be the Daniels in the Babylon’s of this world, shining for You, doing what You have called us to do. We pray for Your grace. Please, Lord Jesus, change us and make us more and more like You with every passing day. For this we ask in the all-powerful name of our LORD Jesus Christ, Amen.
Well, may God bless you. If you have a prayer need please indicate in the comments below. If I can help, you can email me at pastordrbc80@gmail.com but may God bless you. May you live your life every day, growing more and more in integrity and godliness, to the glory of God. And so then to Him be all the honour, and the praise, now and forevermore, Amen.