Blessed and Holy: Understanding Them Better Through Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4 (Teach - Part 5 of 5)

INTRODUCTION

I just got off an exciting conversation with two guys, who I consider to be among the best friends that I have. They meet together with a group of guys once per month to discuss some of the more difficult and more valuable pieces of Christian writing, so I had a chance to have a phone conversation with both of them after their meeting this morning (4/19/14).  They are both pretty smart.  They gave me some sound advice.
Moses was pretty smart as well, but his father-in-law gave him some valuable smart advice: divide up this work load that you are carrying and handle only the intellectually more difficult cases yourself.  He was advising Moses to limit his personal scope.  This is certainly good advice.  But it is easy to overlook what had to come first.  Before you limit your scope, as I was advised this morning, you have to make sure the whole scope is seen and covered!  It is through seeing the whole scope and seeing our own limitations that we can best follow Jethro's advice.

Christian education as well as public education are at a dismal place right now.  Despite greater and greater dollars going into the system and some individual highlights, there is no program in education right now that is lighting up the score board except on a more local basis.  It appears too that these sometimes great efforts are also reaching a fatigue state.  Changing the curriculum every 5 years is not cutting it.  What can we do about this?

I think we need to follow Jethro's advice in a 21st century way.   So let's first figure out the B.C. advice he gave to Moses before converting it to A.D. advice to us.  First, to bridge from one to the other, you need to buttress each end of the bridge.   Let's start then with Exodus 18:

¹³ And so it was, on the next day, that Moses sat to judge the people; and the people stood before Moses from morning until evening. ¹⁴ So when Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he did for the people, he said, “What is this thing that you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit, and all the people stand before you from morning until evening?”¹⁵ And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God. ¹⁶ When they have a difficulty, they come to me, and I judge between one and another; and I make known the statutes of God and His laws.”

¹⁷ So Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “The thing that you do is not good. ¹⁸ Both you and these people who are with you will surely wear yourselves out. For this thing is too much for you; you are not able to perform it by yourself. ¹⁹ Listen now to my voice; I will give you counsel, and God will be with you: Stand before God for the people, so that you may bring the difficulties to God. ²⁰ And you shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and show them the way in which they must walk and the work they must do. ²¹ Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. ²² And let them judge the people at all times. Then it will be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they themselves shall judge. So it will be easier for you, for they will bear the burden with you. ²³ If you do this thing, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all this people will also go to their place in peace.”
²⁴ So Moses heeded the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said. ²⁵ And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people: rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. ²⁶ So they judged the people at all times; the hard cases they brought to Moses, but they judged every small case themselves.
²⁷ Then Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went his way to his own land.

There are some critical statements in these instructions:

[I solved a major problem today through this post.  The work I did only has to wait today due to my other job and due to my needing to do some technological stuff to get my materials displayed in a more professional manner.  But this will end up being one of my best posts in terms of the common sense level.]

In Christ, 

Jon