Exodus 16-19
You Can Only Do So Much

Moses had a big problem: he was wearing himself thin. He was carrying the weight of more than a million people on his shoulders. Exodus 18 details how he stood as judge over all the cases of the people-often all day long (v. 13). Remember, Moses was not a young man at this point; he was more than 80 years old. Yet, he likely felt that as the leader of the people this was his responsibility- and he would take it on regardless of the cost to himself. If this is the case, it is certainly a noble attitude. We are also told he took this as an opportunity to teach (v. 16)-also noble.

But Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, noticed a problem. Maybe he saw that Moses was not spending enough time with his wife and children. Regardless, he told Moses he needed to share the load with others. "For this thing is too much for you; you are not able to perform it by yourself."

He then suggested a plan in which Moses would seek help from wise men who could judge while Moses lead. Moses saw the wisdom in this, God's hand in this (v. 23), and men were appointed. He still saw the hard cases-but not every case.

There is a lot of needed wisdom in this story for conscientious Christians, deacons, elders, preachers, teachers, husbands, wives, fathers and mothers. We should want to be responsible. We should want to do what is expected from us of God. We should not want to burden others with our task. But... there is only so much we can do before our service to God suffers, our relationship with our family suffers, our relationship with our church suffers, or our health (physical or mental) begins to suffer.

Of course, the problem most have is not doing too much, but not doing enough! In our entertainment-oriented society, there are plenty of things that easily take us away from godly service. We need to be pushed to make certain we are using our talents as God has blessed us. If the parable of the one talent man tells us anything, it is there are serious repercussions for failing to be what God made us to be.

But, at the same time, as this text shows us, there are those who can do too much. There are times when the help of others is needed. Scripture affirms this message. Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, "Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For, if they fall, one will lift up his companion, but woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up. Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; but how can one be warm alone? Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him, and a threefold cord is not quickly broken." Jesus had 12 disciples who helped Him-the Son of God no less!-to do what needed to be done. He sent his disciples out two by two to teach (Luke 10). The apostles told the church to appoint men to see to the Hellenistic widows, so they could concentrate on that for which they were uniquely suited for (Acts 6). The apostle Paul always had some traveling companion as he journeyed. Elders in scriptures are always elders-never just a lone elder who shepherds a local church of the Lord (Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5). Even churches are GROUPS of people who rely on one another (Ephesians 4:11-16).

Do all you can, but be honest enough with yourself to know when you can't do anymore. When we deplete ourselves doing too much we take away our strength from doing what God does want us to do. When we are doing all we can do, there is no shame in acknowledging we can't more alone.