Dave's Diary

Daily Reading: Exodus 18

¹⁸ 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… ²¹ … 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. 

This week our focus shifts to God’s desire that His people should not live life in isolation, but should be part of a true community of genuine, sincere, loving relationships of mutual support, care and fellowship. This call to connection will be the focus of our devotions for the week.

Moses was God’s appointed and annointed leader of His vast people, the Israelites, and at the time of his father-in-law Jethro’s visit he was handling all matters of leadership and justice by himself. At least … he was trying to, but sadly he was failing. It was obvious to the wise, older man, Jethro, that this enormous community of people could not be organised around a single leader, or both he and they would suffer. So, led by God, Jethro advised his son-in-law that he needed to delegate. Centuries later, the apostles would come to a similar realization in Acts 6:24, when they accepted that they needed to delegate tasks to deacons so that they would not leave the word of God to serve tables.

Today, churches are seldom as enormous as this vast people of God in Exodus, but the principle remains. One spiritual leader cannot have a meaningful ministry of leading and pastoring a large number of people without delegating tasks to a structure of trustworthy and trained leaders. Similarly, local church members cannot properly receive the instruction and care they need without being organised into smaller groups, the way God’s people were in the wilderness.

For them, being allocated to a group of ten and a network of other groups of ten (for added oversight and an ‘appeal structure’) was a matter of acquiring justice and solving disputes. For us today, the need will be for meaningful relationships of mutual support, encouragement, instruction, accountability and care within the local church. Deep spiritual friendship and discipleship relationships are essential for spiritually healthy churches, and these can only be formed with a limited number of people.

Who are these people for you? Are you in a small group of local church members with a mutual commitment to love and care for one another meaningfully? If you are, take some time to pray for your fellow members, and then pray for yourself to be a faithful and effective companion to them on the spiritual journey. If not, ask the Lord to direct your path as you seek to become part of such a group in the very near future, and reach out to your local church to get the help you need in finding the right group for you.

Heavenly Father, I love being part of Your family and I long to go deeper in living as part of it. Help me to give myself this year to developing and strengthening a true community of genuine, sincere, loving relationships of mutual support, care and fellowship. In Jesus’ Name I pray. Amen.