How
organized are you? Can you find a receipt for a purchase you made last Christmas in five minutes, or is that impossible? It’s interesting how some people seem to be born with a skill to manage their lives neatly and orderly, while others have a horrible time simply remembering where they put their keys or the date of their anniversary.
Good leadership comes from good management, and good management from good organizational skills. If you ever have the opportunity to spend a day with a CEO of a leading company, you will notice someone whose dress, work area, daily schedule, and attention to detail is impeccable. Good management is an organizational skill that includes planning a wise course of action, organizing a way to accomplish it, leading others to execute it well, and controlling the outcome.
Good management was as useful in Bible times as it is today. One person we seldom consider as having organizational and management skills is Moses, a man who was placed quickly into a management position of unbelievable proportions. After the angel of death passed over the dwellings of the Israelites, the people stormed from their homes and headed out of Egypt straight for the Promised Land. This was far more people than a few families walking off into the sunrise. Although the Bible does not give us a reliable count of the number of people who left Egypt, it does tell us that all the Israelites twenty years or older who were able to serve in Israel’s army were counted according to their families. That number came to 603,550. Adding women, children, and the elderly, we might conclude that the total number was likely about two and a half million people. Today that would be as if the entire city of Houston began marching north out of town on I-45.
It is difficult to imagine the tremendous amount of management it took to govern and lead all those people. Before long, Moses was overwhelmed with leadership headaches. But God sent a valuable man into Moses’ life, his father-in-law, Jethro, also known as Reuel. He was an Arab sheik and a priest of Midian, and as such, it is likely he learned how to make good use of time and life management. It was his organizational suggestions that finally made life bearable for Moses. “The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone. Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to him. . . . 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” (Exodus 18:18-23).
What tremendous advice! Jethro observed the situation, recognized the problem, recommended a solution, advised how to implement it, and explained the benefits. His timeless suggestions are still followed today. And what was Moses’ response? “Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said” (18:24). No doubt that advice served Moses well for the next 40 years.
Our God is a God of orderliness, not disorder. That’s why he implores us to see that all things (not just some parts of our lives) are to be handled in a fitting and orderly way. Thankfully, God has promised to work good in all things in the lives of his people, and he wants our lives to reflect his organization and orderliness because he knows that is best for his children.
Personal goal: Think of some ways you can better organize your life.
(From the book “Real People: Meditations on 101 People of the Bible” by Reynold R. Kremer)
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