Those with responsibilities shouldn’t be seeking more followers but developing more servants.
When the Israelites encamp at the base of Mount Sinai, Moses has a reunion with his family. While he was jeoparding his life with Pharaoh and enduring the hair-trigger tongues of his people, his wife, Zipporah, and their two sons, Gershom and Eliezer, have been living with her father, Jethro. Jethro brings the family to the camp, and Moses recounts the remarkable events that had transpired since they parted. “Then Jethro rejoiced for all the good which the Lord had done for Israel, whom He had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians.” He responded, “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’” (Ex 18:9-11). Then Jethro made “a burnt offering and other sacrifices” (v 12) to God. The next day, he was amazed at all the people lined up, waiting to talk to Moses. “Why do you alone sit, and all the people stand before you from morning until evening?” (v 14) he asked. Moses explained that people with disputes would ask him to arbitrate and apply the rules the Lord had given. You understand all the possible quarrels with no boundary lines between tents, and livestock milling about. Jethro opined, “You will surely wear yourselves out” (v 18). He had a suggestion. Delegate! Share the load with other wise heads. “So Moses heeded the voice of his father-in-law” and “chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people…So they judged the people” (vv 24-26). Difficult cases were still brought to Moses. Ah, that’s better! Jethro then happily returned to the land of Midian. The moral of the story? If you want to be a channel of blessing, you can’t be a bottleneck. Whether in family, business, or church life, we must share the vision and the load.