The church had launched a Bible reading program called the Bible Project (available online) and I had been following the chapter reading quite consistently. One morning while reading about Jethro's visit to Moses, I saw some amazing things which are so practical and which can be applied in my workplace.
Jethro had heard of all that God had done so he decided to visit Moses. He brought his daughter, Zipporah and Moses two sons, Gershom and Eliezer with him along for the visit. Even though Moses was encamped in the wilderness at the mountain of God, Jethro braved the journey to meet him in the wilderness.
Moses showed his father-in-law the utmost respect in his manner of greeting in Ex 18:7 "So Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, bowed down, and kissed him. And they asked each other about their well-being, and they went into the tent."
Then in Ex 18:8 "And Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, all the hardship that had come upon them on the way and how the Lord had delivered them."
It seems to me that Moses was witnessing to Jethro! This is the first lesson I learnt reading this story:
1. Do not miss out opportunities to share the Gospel
Now Jethro himself was a Midianite priest. He must have been holding some high position among the Midianites. Yet he was willing to hear the wonderful things about God of Israel from Moses. In fact he sought out Moses for this purpose.
Who are the Midianites? They were descendants of Midian, Abraham's son through Keturah.
Gen 25:2
"Then again Abraham took a wife and her name was Keturah. And she bore him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak and Shuah"
What did they worship? The Midianites had a political and social connection with the Moabites and they worshiped a multitude of gods which include Baal-peor and the Queen of Heaven, Astheroth.
Thus Jethro was an unbeliever to begin with. However due to his openness to learn about the miracles that God performed through Moses, he became a believer.
Ex 18:8
"And Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, all the hardship that had come upon them on the way, and how the Lord had delivered them"
Ex 18:9
"And Jethro rejoiced for all the good which the Lord had done to Israel, whom He had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians"
Ex 18:10
"And Jethro said, "Blessed be the Lord, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh, and who has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians"
From the words of his mouth and his own confession, Jethro blessed God and in doing so acknowledged Him as God in his own life.
After accepting God into his life, Jethro willingly followed Moses instructions in offering a burnt offering and other sacrifices to God to seal his faith. Not only that he also sat down to eat bread with the Aaron and the elders of Israel thus signifying that he was given the right hand of fellowship!
Ex18:12
"Then Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took a burnt offering and other sacrifices to offer to God. And Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law before God."
What did I learn from this?
Moses was such a busy person. He was busy judging his people from morning till late night. Yet, the amazing thing was he still had the time to sit down to share his testimonies with Jethro and to fellowship with his father-in-law!
Prayer
"LORD JESUS - Give me the grace not to miss out opportunities to share the gospel in my workplace no matter how busy I am. In Jesus Name. Amen"
No matter what rank or position they may hold in my company - all of them need to hear the gospel.
2. Do not worry about the proud
Not only was Jethro perceptive but he was also very smart. In just one verse, he summed out the reason why Pharaoh was judged so severely and the reason for his downfall.
Ex 18:11
"Now I know that the Lord is greater than all the gods; for in the very thing in which they behaved proudly, He was above them"
Pride brought Pharaoh down. Jethro concluded all that had happened in one sentence! Even though Jethro was not there when the destruction of Egypt happened, he was perceptive and sharp enough to know why Pharaoh was judged so severely.
What is the lesson to be learnt from this? Do not worry about the proud. God will surely bring down the proud as He is above them.
I have seen the proud being humbled in my workplace without me lifting a hand. Colleagues and bosses who had made nasty comments or complained to my boss about me was soon asked to leave. One clerical staff who was totally against me had expressed her unhappiness with me by throwing things about, complaining to the Union about me and refusing to do work assigned to her suddenly went missing in action one day (thus terminating herself) and in the process ended months of suffering for me.
Last year my good friend suffered severe injustice at the hand of her boss. We prayed fervently together for deliverance as she was getting a poor rating (no bonus for the year) through no fault of her own. She had worked so hard during the year but her work was not recognized. She was victimised by a boss who was junior to her. At one time, I just could not bear to see her torment that I felt like walking out of the company to register to all and sundry my utter dislike on the treatment meted out to her.
However we decided to pray against this injustice in order to reverse the evil treatment dished out to her.
It later became known throughout the bank that her boss was called 'proud' by many people. When he spoke or gave training, he sounded as though he was boasting and this became obvious to the young people he trained.
I comforted her with the word of God on this matter. We should not fret because of evildoers nor be envious of workers of iniquity.
Ps 12:3
"May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaks proud things."
Those who are boastful will be dealt with by the Lord. We need not be stressed out or oppressed by them.
Do not worry about the proud wherever we go. Just commit our situation and circumstances to God and He will bring them down. God will humble them as pride goes before a fall.
After many months of praying, the boss who lost his title as Head of Department and became an ordinary manager instead! As it turned out the title was not his in the first place but he just accorded it to himself.
A higher boss was appointed to be over him thus making both of them equal in rank and position in the department.
The good news is - he became very likeable and friendly after the humbling episode! Today we remain good friends at work helping each other out. Humility does change a person for the better!
3. Do not be envious of others, your time of promotion will come.
Jethro was not envious of Moses. In Ex 18:9 we were told that Jethro rejoiced for all the good which the Lord had done for Israel. He was not jealous of Moses although he was someone very important in Midian, a Midianite high priest.
Due to his graciousness and his confession that he was happy to see Moses blessed, God saw the integrity and magnanimity of Jethro's heart and gave him an opportunity to be promoted and remembered among the children of Israel for his godly advice which probably lengthened Moses's life.
Stress and overwork does kill people. I have seen a young man who worked till late almost every day suffered a heart attack in his sleep.
A recent news report of a young lady in Indonesia who collapsed and died after working 36 hours non-stop at her desk really shocked us!
If Moses had carried on working like he did, he might not have lived to the ripe old age of 120 years old.
4. Do not think you are indispensable, raise others up
This was how God promoted Jethro. Jethro had the opportunity to give good advice to Moses on the need to delegate responsibility.
The next morning he saw Moses in action judging the people from morning until evening. He immediately saw that this was physically demanding and tiring for Moses.
Ex 18:17-18, Jethro told Moses that "The thing you do is not good. 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"
Jethro was as practical as he was wise. He gave good advice to Moses on how to pace himself for the long haul.
He immediately advised Moses to do the following:
- teach the people the statutes and laws
- show them the way in which they must walk
- show them the work which they must do
He also advised Moses to select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness and to place them over the people in groups of thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.
The men selected are to judge the small matters whereas Moses are to judge the great matters.
I decided to apply this in my workplace, calling a meeting and assigning the small tasks to my managers leaving the bigger tasks to myself.
I realized that this principle is really true. No one is indispensable.
When my friend who is a CEO died, the problems that she was trying to solve for us got solved by itself without her being around.
When she was alive, she was known as someone wanting to hold on to everything, to do everything and to be in control. It was so hard for her to let go and assign work to others. This work control freak is really a perfectionist.
But I realized that it's actually ok not to be in control.
This is because problems have the habit of sorting itself out over time. Just pray over it, God will untangle all the knots for us before we even know it. Better still get someone to agree with you as you pray - something I often do in the morning during my journey to work.
Prayer
"LORD JESUS give me a heart like Jethro not being envious of others but to be happy for those who succeed and to rejoice with them. Help me not to be a control freak but to be willing to let go and train others up to do my work. In Jesus Name. Amen"
Some scholars compare Jethro to Melchizedek:
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