So, this is Exodus 18:10–27; and I think the best title for this passage is, “Oh, By the Way, You Have Limits!”
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 has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods, because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people. And Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and sacrifices to God; and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law before God.
The next day Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening. When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning till evening?” And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God; when they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another, and I make them know the statutes of God and his laws.” Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good. You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. Now obey my voice; I will give you advice, and God be with you! You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God, and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. And let them judge the people at all times.
Well, this passage in Exodus not only gives us the ongoing history of how God would organize the leadership of his people, but it sits in Exodus as a warning to us. It's a warning that is very easy to skip over and miss. Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, confronts Moses with something that is humbling, but vital to understand. Like us, Moses has limits. He has limits of time. He'll never get 40 hours in a day. He'll never get 10 days in a week. He'll never get 40 days in a month. He'll never get 400 days in a year. The more duties you load on your shoulders, the more something else in your life has to give way. Moses has limits of energy and strength!
Every night when we go to sleep, we are reminded that we are not God because we don't have unlimited energy. Exhaustion is a universal human experience. Not only our limits of time, not our limits of energy and strength, but we have limits of wisdom. All of us need to learn and grow. All of us need the wise counsel of God and others. We need to hear, you and I today, the counsel of Jethro, “What you are doing is not good. You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone.”
Listen, many of us need a Jethro in our lives to warn us not to live and work beyond our God-designed limits, to warn us not to live and work beyond our God-designed limits. And what does Moses then do? He then appoints chiefs to be judges over the people, so he didn't have to deal with everything and everyone on his own. There is only one Messiah, and it's not you, and it's not me!
Our limits have been designed by God for our good. Those limits were set at creation. To ignore or deny them will never take you anywhere good. God calls us to live within our limits and then trust him to provide what is needed for the places where we are unable!
Questions for Personal Reflection or Group Discussion
1. How do you typically view your limitations as a human being? What limitations are in your life that regularly annoy or frustrate you? In what ways have you seen your limitations stand in the way of your aspirations or goals?
2. Why do you think God places limitations on us as human beings, whether that be with time, energy, health, etc.? In what ways have you seen your specific limitations be a blessing in your life?
3. What areas are you tempted to work beyond your God-designed limits each day? How has working beyond your limits directly impacted you and the closest relationships you have?
4. What do you think it would look like to live each day in contentment as you do life within the limits that God has laid out for you? What specific prayer or prayers would you want to lift up to God, knowing that your limitations prevent your daily life from being as efficient as you’d like it to be?
For Younger Children:
1. What do you think the word “limitations” means? Are limitations a good thing or a bad thing or both? Why?
2. How have you seen limits help to prevent pain and bring joy into our lives? Why do you think God might want to set limitations for us?
3. If we don’t have enough time or energy or money (etc.), what do you think God wants us to do?
For Older Children:
1. Why do you think boundaries and limitations are important to all human beings? Why are they important to you and I specifically?
2. Why do you think we are so tempted to believe that limitations are always a bad thing? Can you give me an example of how limits can be a good thing?
3. How can limitations bring joy into our lives? Why do you think God sets limitations for us? How can we keep each other accountable when we’re tempted to push past the limits God has placed on our lives?
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